Rockstar is synonymous with open-world games. In fact, the developer essentially drew the blueprint for the modern take on the concept, setting a standard that is still followed today. Since Grand Theft Auto 3 blew up, Rockstar has largely focused on open-worlds that push consoles to their limits, with nearly every release reaching a higher peak than its predecessor. Nowadays, new Rockstar games take a long time to materialize, as everyone waiting for GTA 6 knows too well, so you will probably have to revisit their past playgrounds to pass the years. Fortunately, so many of these classics are incredibly replayable.
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Simply put, Rockstar’s projects have some of the most iconic and beloved worlds in gaming, ones that continue to welcome new citizens daily. We are, obviously, talking about GTA and Red Dead Redemption, but Rockstar has produced other brilliant sandboxes as well. Therefore, let’s take a walk through history and highlight the great worlds in Rockstar games.
9
Grand Theft Auto 3
Revolutionized Open-World Game Design
It’s hard to overstate just how revolutionary Grand Theft Auto 3 was when it was released in 2001. Open-world games were nothing new, but nothing quite like GTA 3 had ever been released before. At the time, Liberty City felt like a living, breathing city full of the kinds of little details that gamers hadn’t seen before in an open-world game.
Unfortunately, the passage of time hasn’t been kind to GTA 3 and its map. It’s one of the shortest games by Rockstar, and that’s reflected in the open-world. Liberty City seemed massive in 2001, but by today’s standards, it’s almost comically small. Rockstar did a great job of making the map feel bigger than it was, but there’s no ignoring how quickly one can get from one end to the other. There’s also nowhere near as much to do as in later Rockstar Games, outside of missions and a handful of side activities. Finally, thanks to technical limitations, the world lacks both detail and activity and is a relative ghost town compared to the likes of Grand Theft Auto 5. Ignore nostalgia, and, sadly, GTA 3 has to go in last place.
8
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
The Best Open-World In A Midnight Club Game
If this were a list discussing the greatest Rockstar games, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition would EASILY earn a spot over Los Angeles, which is not generally regarded as one of the series’ high points. As the last Midnight Club game (probably ever, considering Rockstar has shown little interest in reviving it), Los Angeles has not only the biggest open-world, but also one that actually feels like a real city rather than just a hub for racing. Now, that is not necessarily a positive change, as some of the earlier entries are more fun to play, but it is more impressive on a simple technological basis.
Similar to GTA and Red Dead, Rockstar painstakingly put together a sprawling sandbox that values realism; unlike those two franchises, this game is directly adapting a modern city, and this version of Los Angeles is shockingly similar to the real deal. In some ways, Los Angeles seems like the midpoint between NFS Underground 2 and Forza Horizon, all the while capturing elements synonymous with Rockstar’s other major IPs. You have police chases, various event types, free-roaming, and splashes of absurdity. Although it has its shortcomings, Midnight Club: Los Angeles is still a great racing game.
7
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Welcome To The 80s
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is just as impressive as Grand Theft Auto 3, but for a different reason. It only took Rockstar a year to release Vice City after GTA 3; pretty impressive considering we’ve been waiting 10 years for GTA 6. Despite the quick turnaround, Vice City never felt like a rush job and featured some major improvements over GTA 3.
For a start, its open-world map is much better-looking. The actual graphical fidelity isn’t that much higher, but Vice City’s open-world is much more colorful compared to Liberty City’s muddy browns and dull grays. The 80s Miami-themed map also has way more character and a real sense of place, whereas Liberty City was always a bit more generic. There was also more to do on the slightly bigger map. Vice City was more interactive, with businesses, safe houses that the player could buy, and a lot more side activities to undertake. Tommy Vercetti is one of Rockstar’s most iconic characters, and his city is just as iconic. Vice City has aged slightly better than GTA 3, but technical limitations still land it near the bottom of this list.
6
Bully
Small But Densely Packed
Bully
- Released
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October 17, 2006
For a while now, major studios have taken a quantity-over-quality approach when designing their open-worlds. Bully’s open-world is the opposite of this design philosophy. By today’s standards, its map is downright tiny, but thanks to excellent design decisions, it appears much bigger. The game’s open-world is split between Bullworth Academy and the surrounding town.
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Both areas are small but vibrant and packed with the kinds of small details we expect from Rockstar Games. Bullworth feels like a real, living town with a sense of community. Jimmy can enter a surprising number of buildings, and people will actually approach him with tasks. Being a child, Jimmy doesn’t have the kind of freedom an adult does, but his limited transport options help make Bullworth appear bigger than it is. Despite being a PS2 game, Bully’s open-world had a lot of detail, with each area of the town and school being distinct. One of the reasons Bully’s ending is one of Rockstar’s best is because the game’s open-world had done such a good job of immersing the player, making them invested in Jimmy’s story and the fate of Bullworth and its residents.
5
Grand Theft Auto 4
Detail At The Cost Of Size
Grand Theft Auto 4 is the black sheep of the Rockstar family. A lot of gamers have fond memories of playing it, but at the time, a fair few people felt it was a step backward for the franchise. Once again set in Liberty City, its map was twice as big as Grand Theft Auto 3’s but felt limited in scope compared to what Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas had offered. The game was a soft reboot of the franchise, and its open-world marked a change in Rockstar’s design philosophy.
The game had a much greater focus on its characters and telling a compelling story than earlier GTA games, and its world design was much more concerned with realism. GTA 4’s Liberty City was far more densely packed than Rockstar’s earlier open-worlds, and a much closer representation of its inspiration, New York City. Pedestrians acted and reacted in believable ways, while the step-up in hardware allowed for full HD and more detailed graphics. Rockstar’s dedication to realism came at a cost, however. The game’s open-world feels smaller in scope, and some players just didn’t find it as fun as previous entries. Compared to San Andreas, it also just didn’t feel like there was as much to do. On the bright side, at least the game has one of Rockstar’s best playable characters, Niko Bellic.
4
Red Dead Redemption
Brought The Wild West To Life
GTA 4 might have been a little controversial, but it also solidified Rockstar as the masters of city-based open-world games. With their next major release, they changed gears completely and opted for a setting that was nearly all nature with a few small towns and villages thrown in. Red Dead Redemption’s vast map could have felt barren and boring, but instead, it made for one of Rockstar’s most immersive games yet.
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Its map was massive, but it was made up of regions that felt distinct, while a lack of fast travel and options made every journey feel like an adventure. The open-world also had a ton of stuff to do. Not only were there story missions, but there were lots of sidequests and fun activities to take part in. If players wanted, they could spend hours just hunting or horse wrangling. Red Dead Redemption was also easily Rockstar’s prettiest game at the time, and really brought the beauty of America’s Wild West to life.
3
Grand Theft Auto 5
A Balance Between Size, Realism, And Detail
Grand Theft Auto 5 is the game that just won’t die. After Minecraft, it’s the second-highest-grossing game ever released and has persisted for a whopping three console generations. Part of this massive success is, of course, down to its utterly brilliant open-world. The city of Los Santos and the surrounding countryside strike a balance between the enormous feeling of San Andreas and the realism of GTA 4′s open-world. For the most part, it worked.
Let’s not beat around the bush; GTA 5’s map is pretty huge. At 76 square kilometers (47 miles), it encompasses both Los Santos and a good chunk of the surrounding countryside. Despite its size, the map is full of attention to detail, with Los Santos arguably being the most realistic-feeling city ever in a video game. Outside of story missions, the map also features a fair amount to do, including side missions and some entertaining random encounters. Yet there’s a downside. As impressive as the open-world is to look at, much of it is wasted. The main story and most of the side activities ignore a large portion of the map, and there’s really not much reason outside of curiosity to visit most of it. That sense of emptiness was somewhat solved with GTA Online’s constant release of content, but the open-world can still feel a mile wide and an inch deep in places.
2
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Smaller Than You Remember, But Still Just As Good
What Rockstar Games accomplished with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will never stop being impressive. Not only does its open-world span three distinct cities, but it also includes a chunk of mountainous countryside and an entire desert. That’s insanely impressive, especially considering it’s all crammed into a map half the size of Grand Theft Auto 5’s.
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San Andreas is a reminder that it’s not about how big the map is that is important, but it’s about how big it feels. San Andreas seems so big in large part thanks to technical trickery, like a severely limited draw distance. In most games, a short draw distance is annoying, but in San Andreas, it added to the game’s sense of scope (one of the many reasons the remaster was such a disaster). The open-world is also densely packed. There’s something new to do around every corner, whether it be flight school, territory takeovers, or street races. Whereas GTA 5 has a highly-detailed world that can feel empty, San Andreas is less detailed but seems full to the brim with things to do. Today, the game’s scope isn’t quite as impressive as it was twenty years ago, but the fact that the game features three of Grand Theft Auto’s best cities deserves some respect.
1
Red Dead Redemption 2
Rockstar’s Best Open-World, For Now
Red Dead Redemptions 2 isn’t a perfect game, not by a long shot, but its open-world gets pretty dang close. When creating Red Dead Redemption 2’s world, Rockstar clearly took everything it had learned over the last 20 years and distilled it into one game. The open-world is stunningly beautiful, amazingly detailed, and has an almost endless number of things to do.
It’s easy to get lost in Red Dead Redemption 2’s stunning vistas. It’s the kind of game that encourages the player to take a break once in a while and just take in the scenery, whether it be arid desert, snow-capped mountains, or crocodile-infested swampland. More importantly, Red Dead Redemption 2’s world is alive. In many ways, Red Dead Redemption 2 is more of a simulation than a traditional game. Its wildlife behaves realistically and requires more than aiming and shooting to hunt. Rather than lifeless husks, the thousands of NPCs are also distinct, with their own personalities and even routines. It’s an open-world begging to be explored. Rockstar filled this open-world with collectibles to hunt down and secrets to find (some of which players are still stumbling across). Put simply, Red Dead Redemption 2′s open-world is easily one of the most impressive ever created, and it’ll likely take a while until another game beats it.
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