10 Best GTA Games That Aren't GTA Games

7. Just Cause Series

Sleeping Dogs
Avalanche

Just Cause is stupid in the best way possible.

Excluding the series' first entry, which delivered a more muted experience, Avalanche Studios made the genius decision to distance subsequent sequels from Rockstar's flagship franchise by doing away with any concept of realism and going all-in on absurdity. Released just two years after Grand Theft Auto IV, Just Cause 2 capitalized on criticisms of 'too much realism' levied at the former, becoming a bombastic alternative. A reputation that Avalanche has successfully nurtured ever since. 

Protagonist Rico Rodriguez isn't so much a secret agent as he is a bonafide superhero, able to pull off feats far beyond anything 007 could boast, and it's largely all thanks to a simple grappling hook. Traversal or, more accurately, discovery of the myriad ways Rico can get around whatever island he happens to be liberating, is the core of Just Cause's entertainment factor. This is, after all, a series that lets players surf passenger planes and pay homage to Dr. Strangelove by riding literal missiles as if they were Kong himself.

Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.