Game studio
Rockstar Games
Open worlds with a point of view, from top-down Grand Theft Auto to Red Dead Redemption 2.
Rockstar built the open-world crime game, then kept making it bigger and more cinematic until Red Dead Redemption 2 made the rest of the genre look underdressed. The whole run is graded here, next to the missions and the leads that carried it.
The missions
The set pieces people replay, ranked.
- The Paleto ScoreGrand Theft Auto V, 2013
- Three Leaf CloverGrand Theft Auto IV, 2008
- American VenomRed Dead Redemption 2, 2018
- Remember My FamilyRed Dead Redemption, 2010
- End of the LineGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas, 2004
- Keep Your Friends CloseGrand Theft Auto: Vice City, 2002
- Blitz PlayGrand Theft Auto V, 2013
- The Big ScoreGrand Theft Auto V, 2013
The leads
The people you spend sixty hours as.
- Red Dead Redemption 2, 2018Arthur MorganAn outlaw working out, too late, what he was for.
- Red Dead Redemption, 2010John MarstonA reformed man the past would not leave alone.
- Grand Theft Auto IV, 2008Niko BellicAn immigrant story told from inside a crime game.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, 2004Carl JohnsonGrove Street first, and then a whole state.
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, 2002Tommy VercettiAmbition in a pastel shirt.
- Grand Theft Auto V, 2013Trevor PhilipsChaos, written with uncomfortable conviction.
- Max Payne 3, 2012Max PayneGrief and bullet time, a long way from New York.
- Bully, 2006Jimmy HopkinsA school story told from the troublemaker's side.