Summary

  • GTA games encourage law-breaking and prioritize players' interests.
  • Players can commit vehicular theft and enjoy mass murder in open worlds.
  • Robberies, kidnapping, arson, and gang violence are common in GTA games.

The Grand Theft Auto games encourage players to break the law and prioritize their own interests over everything else. The main and side content of these games lets players commit a litany of crimes to fill their own pockets.

Grand Theft Auto The Fates Of Every Mainline Antagonist
Grand Theft Auto: The Fates Of Every Mainline Antagonist

GTA's most brutal villains from San Andreas, Vice City, and GTA5, meet fitting ends after betrayal, power plays, and underestimating the wrong people.

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This is bound to attract police attention from time to time, which is why players are encouraged to evade the cops and let the heat die down before repeating the process. Better yet, players should be a bit subtle with their criminal endeavors and not commit felonies while the police are aware of their presence.

Grand Theft Auto

Pretty Obvious, Given This Series' Name

Vehicular theft is second-nature for players in Grand Theft Auto, which is perhaps why the series was named after this particular crime. Players can explore the open worlds of these games and grab a car if it catches their fancy.

Nothing stops them from pulling a civilian out of their car and manning it for themselves. It's one of the most common crimes in the game that players will carry out hundreds of times in each GTA game.

Mass Murder

Players Can Go On A Rampage Whenever They Wish In These Open Worlds

It goes without saying that people will fire their guns a lot in any Grand Theft Auto game. Missions involve players having to take down enemies by any means necessary, which usually means that players will be using a vast collection of firearms to decimate their foes.

If players are feeling especially violent, they can acquire a bunch of creative, powerful weapons from Ammu-Nation and go wild in the sandbox. Sure, this will attract the attention of the police, but players can't expect to go postal in the GTA games without raising their Wanted Level.

Robbery

A Lot Of Missions And Side Activities Involve Robberies With Deadly Weapons

Given the crime-fueled life that players will lead in Grand Theft Auto, it's easy to see why conducting robberies is as commonplace as they come. Most main missions early on in each respective GTA game involve small-scale robberies that eventually balloon in scope.

7-Darkest-Endings-In-The-Grand-Theft-Auto-Games,-Ranked
8 Darkest Endings In The Grand Theft Auto Games, Ranked

The best Grand Theft Auto games involve plenty of crime and violence, so it's no wonder that some of their endings are truly dark.

Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best example of the same, with players planning various elaborate heists to line their pockets at numerous points in the story. These elaborate robberies see people tackle everything from jewelry stores to secure banks and everything in between, ensuring that players will be able to make a ton of cash in no time.

Kidnapping

Players Kidnap Characters All The Time Across The GTA Games

Trevor and Patricia in Grand Theft Auto 5

Some main missions in the GTA games involve players kidnapping characters and ransoming them for a hefty sum. The most notable example of this crime is in the fifth mainline entry, when Trevor kidnaps Martin Madrazo's wife without informing Michael, forcing the duo to go into hiding as they avoid the ire of the crime boss.

The hilarious part is that Patricia, the kidnapee, and Trevor develop feelings for each other in one of the funniest depictions of Stockholm syndrome in the series. While this kidnapping is ultimately unfruitful for Trevor's financial aspirations, other GTA games play it cut & dry with this crime and ensure that the protagonist receives a decent payout for letting their prisoner go.

Breaking & Entering

Characters Break Into Places They Have No Business Being In All The Time

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas had a great side gig where players could drive a van to a desolate house at night and conduct a robbery without alerting the residents. Players were encouraged to be quiet as they loaded their van with stolen goods for a sizeable payout.

Making too much noise attracts unwanted heat and forces CJ to run away from pursuing cops. It was a fun side gig that features breaking and entering in a prominent capacity, and other Grand Theft Auto games have also shown characters breaking into properties they have no business being in.

Arson

It's Not The Player's Fault That Burning Things Down In The Game Is So Much Fun

Setting things on fire is very cathartic in the Grand Theft Auto series. Once players get their hands on weapons like the Flamethrower and Molotov Cocktails, it's hard not to set things ablaze with their destructive implements.

Best Open-World Games That Play Like GTA
7 Best Open-World Games That Play Like GTA

Grand Theft Auto is a game franchise that did a lot to promote the adoption of open-world maps, which these other titles used as inspiration.

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San Andreas features a notable mission where CJ burns down a drug den owned by the Vagos, only to hear Denise shouting for help. They must enter the vicinity and brave the smoke as they save this innocent woman, who can later become their romantic interest.

Gang Violence

Some Games Let Players Aid Gangs In Street Fights Against Each Other That Can Become Very Deadly

Given the focus on crime in the Grand Theft Auto games, it's easy to see why gang violence plays such a major role in these titles. Nowhere is this more prominent than in San Andreas, with Los Santos turning into a playground for players as they take over territories and establish dominance over the Ballas and Vagos.

Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5 also have moments where players have to take out gang members in violent firefights, although it doesn't reach the scale of San Andreas. Seeing the hated Ballas fall by the dozens as CJ and his threadbare gang take out gangsters with military-grade firepower never ceases to be engaging.

Vehicular Manslaughter

Running Over People With Cars Is Very Commonplace In The GTA Universe

Grand Theft Auto players are lying if they say that they've never run over a pedestrian or two (or a hundred) during their playthroughs. Driving around without any limits makes it so that players will enjoy a sadistic sense of glee as they knock over any pedestrian stupid enough to be standing in the way of their high-speed dealer of death.

Players should be wary while driving dangerously, since too many incidents of vehicular manslaughter will lead to them attracting unwanted police attention in no time. It's a vicious loop players find themselves stuck in numerous times since it's so easy to let loose and drive at breakneck speeds without a care in the world.

Grand-Theft-Auto-Ages-Of-The-Main-Characters-In-The-Games
Grand Theft Auto: Ages Of The Main Characters In The Games

The Grand Theft Auto series is home to an array of unique main characters. Here is how old they are in their respective games.

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