Before GTA V: Ranking Best To Worst Grand Theft Auto Games

Best...

1. Grand Theft Auto

The very first. The original. The best. If it was not for this 1997 ground-breaking release, we would not have been blessed with the phenomenal series that we so often take for granted. Rockstar North (DMA Design at the time) released this game with Take-Two Interactive, and caused more controversy than perhaps any other Grand Theft Auto game. It gave players the freedom to do virtually anything, and rewarded them for the more heinous crimes they committed. Nothing offered more points, however, than completing missions for local crime syndicates. The game did exactly what it was supposed to do - depict a crime-ridden "America" parody. And if you look at what was actually included in the original Grand Theft Auto, you can understand why Rockstar sticks so close to certain settings. The original Grand Theft Auto was set in three different cities - Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas. To proceed through the story and cities, the player had to earn a set amount of points (money). To do this, they had to commit crimes - in and outside of missions. There were two expansion packs released for the game in April and June of 1999, which were London, 1961 and London, 1969 respectively. Grand Theft Auto set the scene for all the following GTA games. It brought the video game industry a never-before-seen style of game that, to this day, is unparalleled.
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Contributor

Sam took a four-year hiatus from writing for What Culture, but has returned ready to go. Sam created, produced, wrote, directed, and starred in the video game show Press Start during his years at university and continues to contribute material. He has self-published several books, and has written for other online magazines. Sam can be contacted via email at sam.tuchin@gmail.com, followed on Instagram @casthimnew or Twitter @antellopenguin