GTA is the franchise that crushes it every time it releases. Since the third game, it has been a juggernaut of unreal proportions.
Even though the releases take some time in between, the specter of GTA looms. Why, just in 2025 alone, games left and right panicked and ran to 2026 just to avoid the overwhelming force that will be GTA 6. Unfortunately for them, GTA 6 is coming out in 2026, but that name has power in gaming unlike any other.
Because of that, so many games have tried to become the next GTA. The next ‘open-world city traversal game’ with ‘crime elements’ and enough side activities to make your head spin. But so many have failed, and it’s one of those genres that is just GTA and everything else. There are a bunch of series that have been respectable in their efforts, though, and we’ll be checking them out today.
10 Sleeping Dogs
Big Trouble in Hong Kong
Sleeping Dogs is just an awesome game, full of intrigue, incredible combat, great voice acting, and also Emma Stone! So, why did this not become Square Enix’s next flagship franchise?
That’s a question I’ll never know the answer to. It’s a much more focused take on GTA that honestly has a better story than any of the games in that series. I think it’s because this game is taken 100 percent seriously. There is no parody in it; it’s just a straight-up, hard-boiled, undercover cop story that is told expertly.
It also has the best combat any open world game has ever seen. It’s the Arkham-style combat system, but it’s mixed with murderous brutality, environmental kills, stuff like throwing people into trunks, bashing them off the side of car doors, and mid-driving carjacking that just feels like an incredible evolution that nobody ever picked up on.
Despite that, it’s the only game in the series. It never caught on. We got a remaster, but nothing more, and it’s a damn tragedy as Wei Shen’s journey is one well worth experiencing.
9 The Getaway
Guy Ritchie Would Be Proud
I feel like there are a ton of awesome, British gangster movies that don’t catch on in North America, despite having everything you’d imagine that would catch on there. That’s kind of how The Getaway feels as a game. It’s incredibly serious, mature, and sharply written, but for whatever reason, the GTA crowd would not take.
I think that’s because, at its heart, GTA is a parody of the world, and when you’re not creating that same kind of fun, tongue-in-cheek tone, the players will not be as compelled.
Its failure as a GTA copy doesn’t mean The Getaway isn’t great, because it really is. It’s a game that controls better than most of its contemporaries, has a ton of charm, and some awesome voice acting as well. The third-person shooting is done well, as are the chase scenes, and the depiction of London is pretty accurate.
Maybe this was never going to be a big franchise, but considering Sony was behind it, I seriously doubt that. It just didn’t hit like GTA and didn’t find that secret recipe to become a phenom in 2003, when the gaming boom was in full swing.
8 State of Emergency
Absolute Stupid Insanity
What if you took the parts of GTA where you’re just shooting everybody and blowing up cop cards and generally just being a world-class terrorist and made an entire game about that?
That’s the pitch for State of Emergency, and wow, is it bad. It’s like GTA lost all its nuance, writing ability, and great characters and just went, “screw it, blood and guns.”
If that’s all you’re looking for, have a blast, because you have combos for mass murder and explosions, and you’ll have a ridiculous arsenal to play with, but it’s just a mediocre third-person shooter at its core.
It’s like GTA if it were written by Spike TV; it’s just a loud, obnoxious, gratuitously violent experience that somehow got a sequel, but never managed to take the flag and run with it when it comes to Grand Theft Auto.
7 Watch Dogs
A Victim of Controversy
Watch Dogs had all the hype in the world when it was released, from the incredible trailer shown to the gameplay and stellar Ubisoft reputation that actually was a thing at the time.
The game is pitched as an open city, crime hacker sim, and it’s a damn great one. The hacking is fun, the story is tightly written with great characters, and the mission design is brilliant, with some incredible moments.
However, it was a victim of downscaling its graphics and really the first example of that situation I can think of. Fans were furious, demanding refunds because the graphics weren’t as good as the trailer led us to believe.
It could’ve been the next big open city game in the vein of GTA, but instead, Ubisoft completely undid the vibe and tone of the first game with the next 2 and while Watch Dogs 2 was a success, Legion more or less tanked the franchise, and it’s unlikely we see anything further Watch Dogs related outside of the movie being made, which will undoubtedly be terrible.
6 Scarface: The World Is Yours
Say Hello To My Decent Friend
Scarface: The World is Yours is such a cool concept. What if Tony Montana didn’t die in the final scene of Scarface, but managed to fight his way out of the iconic mansion? That’s the idea here, and you play as the iconic druglord as he tries to seek revenge and rebuild his empire.
A true sequel to the movie, you get to play a brand-new story here as Tony basically starts from scratch to get back to his legendary status. There are a ton of shootouts, drug-fueled rampages, and some really cool systems at play, like the heat system, which has heat for cops and heat for gangs, and when either one goes too high, you’ll be hunted down by both.
You can also switch to other characters that you recruit throughout the game with a nice touch, and there is a real sense of progression as you build your empire.
It also does not let you kill innocents, which is a big change from GTA, but it stays true to the Tony Montana character. While it didn’t really make a huge dent in the sales department or spark a cultural phenomenon, it did pretty well review-wise and was a more than capable stand-in for GTA in 2006.
5 Driver 3
The Wheelman Takes to the Streets
Driver 3 was supposed to be an evolution for the franchise, and a full-on competitor to the GTA crown in 2004. 2004 was a bad year to try and do something new as titans in the industry dropped left and right, but Driver 3 was there to try and make its mark.
The big selling point? The Driver was getting out of the car and shooting people now. I feel like missing the point is an understatement when it comes to describing this game. The series fully jumped the shark in order to fit in with the GTA fanbase and lost its soul in the process.
A game that used to be about high-speed chases and crazy car maneuvers now just felt like another third-person shooter, and the controls for this one just felt awful, as did the gunplay.
This game would essentially bury what was once a promising series just because it tried to be like everyone else. If it just stuck to its proverbial guns and didn’t try to pick one up and shoot it, who knows, we might still be seeing Driver games today.
4 Saints Row
Parody of a Parody
Saints Row is probably the game series that gets closest to the GTA formula, at least, that’s what the first game got right. It’s about gang wars and taking over territory and while there is some levity to it, it’s played mostly straight.
And that’s a good thing, because, other than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, we don’t really see games like this. It was a satisfying attempt at creating the type of havoc that GTA can cause, but it did so in a more restrained fashion and didn’t go too far off the rails like State of Emergency did.
That still didn’t do enough to make Deep Silver’s creation a breakout sensation like GTA. It reviewed well, sold well enough to spawn a ton of sequels, but the series didn’t hit the big time until the 3rd game. Some argue that the third game is better than Grand Theft Auto IV, but it would not become a cultural sensation.
Saints Row slowly lost momentum after the third game, then the reboot put the franchise in the ground for good, so who knows if we’ll see this name on a game again.
3 Mafia
Old School Crime
Coming just a year after the release of Grand Theft Auto 3, it was crystal clear what Mafia was meant to be. While GTA is probably the equivalent of a Scorsese flick in the gaming world, Mafia, on the other hand, was something more along the lines of A Bronx Tale. It was smaller, more intimate, and it took place at the beginning of the New York gangster scene in the 1930s.
Mafia is atmospheric, gritty and performed brilliantly by the voice cast, on top of having some pretty good gunplay for the time as well. The selling point is the story, which isn’t anything too new as far as Mafia stories go, but it’s done exceptionally well and makes you feel for all of the characters involved.
The game was a relative success, and the year after Grand Theft Auto 3 came out, that space was wide open for the taking, and Mafia did a great job as a stopgap. That was pretty much it for Mafia until the very end of the decade. It didn’t sell nearly well enough to become a consistent franchise like GTA was.
Although the series is still active today, thanks to the recently released Mafia: The Old Country, it never caught fire the way GTA did.
2 Cyberpunk 2077
A City Without Freedom
-
- Released
- December 10, 2020
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Engine
- REDengine 4
- Cross-Platform Play
- ps, xbox, pc
- Cross Save
- yes
- Franchise
- Cyberpunk
- Number of Players
- Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- yes
- PC Release Date
- December 10, 2020
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- February 15, 2022
- PS5 Release Date
- February 15, 2022
- Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date
- June 5, 2025
- How Long To Beat
- 25 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- Metascore
- 75
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
Cyberpunk 2077 asks what if the depth of The Witcher 3 was combined with the open city exploration of Grand Theft Auto. While we can argue whether or not the depth was there, the open city exploration was just not nearly on par. With GTA, if you’re driving around, there is always something new to see or find and engage with.
With Cyberpunk, the exploration of the city was flat. Citizens barely reacted to you; the police were boring and did basically nothing if you decided to rampage, and all that intrigue that a near-future city might have was boiled down to quest markers that you had to go find.
The launch was a famous disaster at this point, and although the game is in a much better state these days, there is no denying that Cyberpunk 2077 promised it could fill the GTA hole the past decade left, and it failed to deliver.
1 The Godfather
A Big Name with Big Promise
The Godfather had a great chance to become the next GTA. It had the big name of The Godfather, incredible voice acting by the cast of the movie, including Marlon Brando, whose actual last acting job would be in this game, and an awesome system where if you drove up too much heat, creating trouble with other gangs, a literal gang war would break out.
It was so cool and interesting to see a game organically react to you in this way, and it’s something that GTA never really achieved. The story is also clever, and it stars you as a new gangster who gets recruited into the Corleone family. The story of The Godfather plays out very similarly from there.
The Godfather game is well-written, has some great missions, and is a pretty good time overall. While it would spawn a sequel, the game was ultimately not successful critically and commercially, and it only stemmed the tide as the gaming world feverishly awaited Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
