Grand Theft Auto: The biggest tops and flops of 25 years

Grand Theft Auto has never been a game for the faint-hearted: the crooks series, which started in 1997, attracted attention right from the start due to the depiction of adult content and violence. But as great as the controversy surrounding the open-world spectacle was, the games themselves were just as convincing. GTA paved the way for open worlds in computer and video games, blossomed into social satire over the course of the series’ history and thus gained notoriety through the gaming world. community. Grand Theft Auto is now a piece of pop culture, but it also looks back on a 25-year history that hasn’t always been all sunshine and roses.

Top: A quarter of a century cult

It is impossible to pin down the success of the GTA series to individual features. After all, we’re talking about a period of 25 years and thus the evolution from pixelated top-down action game to high-resolution open-world epic. Within this development, Rockstar Games put its own stamp on each part, which made it unmistakable. GTA: Vice City (2002), with its crude characters, cool music and flashy neon look, was a pastiche of the gangster movies of the 70s and 80s.

Grand Theft Auto was released in 1997 under the flag of DMA Design. The Scottish studio became Rockstar North in 2002 and was thus integrated into Rockstar Games.

Source: Moby Games

In GTA 4 (2008), on the other hand, the creators targeted the “American Dream”, which is almost becoming a nightmare for immigrant Niko Bellic. In GTA 5 (2013), Rockstar presented three playable characters with Trevor, Michael and Franklin for the first time and staged the story differently.

So Grand Theft Auto was always more than just a simple open-world playground, but told exciting, weird and sometimes touching fates with the help of constantly developing playful possibilities.

Flop: The GTA Trilogy

It could all have been so beautiful: GTA 3, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas revamped for PC, Playstation 4/5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X! But unfortunately nothing came of it in winter 2021. The remasters developed by Grove Street Games were a disaster: Tons of technical glitches and other problems plagued the games at launch.

Grand Theft Auto – The Trilogy: Definitive Edition should have brought the classics GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas to 2021. However, the sloppy implementation dampened the nostalgia noticeably.

Source: Rockstar Games

The polarizing new graphic style was really the least of the problems with these sloppy implementations. The classics didn’t deserve such junk. Rockstar intervened as a result of the first outcry and promised improvement. Since then, the developers have been constantly tinkering with the ailing product and delivering patches. But the reputation of GTA: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition is ruined for now.

Top: The music makes it!

There’s more to a perfect open world than high-rise canyons, gunfights, and a few passers-by on the streets. The developers at DMA Design (later Rockstar North) realized early on that a soundtrack is just as important for a game like Grand Theft Auto. Music creates emotions, and memories are often created in connection with music.

And even if licensed soundtracks only became possible through the success of GTA 3, the diverse radio stations are just as much a trademark of the series as the cynical-biting undertone.

Be honest: Who hasn’t just sped through the streets in GTA: Vice City and listened to something like “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson or “Raining Blood” by Slayer? The mixture of different styles and interpreters not only made sure that you happily switched through the channels at the beginning of the game.

Almost everyone has done it before: get into any car in GTA: Vice City, turn on the radio and then jet through the streets at night.

Source: Moby Games

As the game progressed, clear song favorites or maybe even new discoveries emerged. The moderators, talk show guests and commercials were at least as important as the music. If you listen carefully here, the GTA series has been serving up a number of laughs since the third part – and by the way.