10 Best GTA Games That Aren't GTA Games

Los Santos, Liberty City and Vice City promise some of the best open world gaming experiences

that money can buy, but they're hardly unparalleled in scope or even ambition

And dare it be said, are even surpassed in some realms by other better alternatives

Because I'm Sy for WhatCulture.com and here are the 10 best GTA games that aren't GTA games

10. The Watch Dogs Series Ubisoft's Watch Dogs sits in a weird middle ground when it comes to assessing what the

world of GTA-alikes has to offer. The series, three games strong at this point, has never enjoyed

outward critical acclaim on the scale of some of the games present on this list, but conversely

the trilogy isn't perched below the baseline of what's considered average either. That being the

case, Watch Dogs doesn't have as much universal appeal Ubisoft games rarely do as its contemporaries

If you adore open world action-adventure, that's not to guarantee you'll instantly love Ubisoft's

to combine the genre with stealth-oriented trappings. Metal gets solid this ain't, but Watch Dogs offers novelty in spades as far as sandboxes go

thanks to its sleuthing antics complemented by various gameplay systems based around hacking

afforded to it by its quasi-futuristic setting. Yes, it can be finicky, and not a single entry in the trilogy has a particularly memorable plot

but if you're in the market for an open-ended experience that dares to do something different

other than directly Ape GTA, then there's a lot to love here, especially for the tech savvy

Number 9, Red Faction Guerrilla. Combine Graham Greene's short story The Destructors with an extraterrestrial setting

and you've pretty much got the basic framework of what Red Faction Guerrilla is all about

While the series' third entry does away with the terrain destruction and alteration present in its predecessors

Volition made said sacrifice to refocus their efforts on delivering structural annihilation on a scale previously unseen

As Alex Mason, players can methodically or explosively dismantle essentially any man-made structure they're presented with

Give in to your inner anarchist and just devolve into wanton destruction without actually assisting the titular red faction in overthrowing an oppressive regime if you so desire

But you'd be doing yourself a disservice in ignoring Guerrilla's main course as its GeoMod 2.0 engine opens up a wealth of possibilities on how to approach mandatory and optional missions

In lesser games, you'd have to don a disguise to get through an enemy checkpoint unnoticed and infiltrate their stronghold

In Guerrilla, you can destroy said checkpoint and headquarters with little more than hardy construction tools and explosives worth more than the GDP of an entire country

The reward? Witnessing silly human buildings becoming a hail of debris before your fairy eyes

Number 8, Sleeping Dogs. At least during a time when gamers were growing bored of visiting the same handful of North American cities time and time again

Sleeping dogs like Ubisoft Assassin Creed championed an altogether different culture and setting to let players loose in Indeed protagonist Wei Shen trials and tribulations as an undercover cop in the former

largely take a backseat to the world around him, itself presented in painstakingly realistic detail

Modern-day Hong Kong represented something of an alien playground for long-time action-adventure fans

just as Assassin's Creed 1's Holy Land had before it. This is a not insignificant achievement for United Front Games

who had only had the obscure Mod Nation races under their belt before joining up with Square Enix to deliver Sleeping Dogs

That's not to say that Shen's story is throwaway by any means. Sleeping Dogs was quite rightly lauded for its authentic voice acting and characterization

but it's the setting, together with thoroughly enjoyable combat and progression systems

that make it one of the 2010's biggest surprise hits, which is worth revisiting time and time again

Number 7, The Just Cause series. Just Cause is stupid in the best way possible

Excluding the series' first entry, that is, 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 4, Just Cause 2 capitalised 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 feet far beyond anything James Bond could boast, and it's all largely 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 Doctor Strangelove

by riding literal missiles as if they were Kong himself. Number 6, L.A. Noire

Barring it at the time groundbreaking facial recognition tech, everything else in L.A. Noire feels a little stiff and clinical

It's a quirk of the game that's hard to qualify beyond that, but suffice it to say that it often feels like Team Bondi

had to make concessions elsewhere in the game to ensure its key gameplay hook stuck the landing

Whatever sacrifices, if any, had to be made, Cole Phelps' believable rise from patrol officer to detective

in 1940s Los Angeles is deftly handled. delivering a story that's arguably far better than anything Grand Theft Auto has ever produced

The accompanying open world components, on the other hand, are bare bones by comparison

but Phelps can explore downtown LA during his downtime between cases, and is rewarded for doing so with chance encounters with NPCs and shiny new cars to show off to his colleagues

In a perfect world where Bondi had infinite time and resources, stumbling upon optional criminal cases not tied to the campaign while out and about

would have substantially extended LA Noire longevity but what here is still worth the visit Number 5 Mad Max Taking a timeout from Just Calls in 2015

Avalanche managed to secure the lucrative gig of creating a Mad Max tie-in

to capitalise on Fury Road's release in the same year. Despite their proximity, however, the two share little in terms of narrative

Avalanche's adaptation largely uses the IP to tell a standalone story about everyone's favourite post-apocalyptic anti-hero

One would think that using said setting as the foundation for an open-ended title would prove dreary and empty

But Avalanche sidesteps that trap, centering its world progression around Max's dearly beloved Magnum Opus

The car can undergo a dizzying number of upgrades via materials scavenged in numerous ways

namely by hijacking the right of scavengers and using their parts to improve the Magnum's performance

Outside that, Mad Max borrows heavily from Ubisoft's Far Cry series by utilizing a territorial threat system

Complete enough objectives in one zone and you'll ultimately set up an encounter with its leader

vanquish them to gain control of their stronghold and a raft of gameplay benefits

That, combined with survival light systems such as limited ammo and fuel for the Magnum

make Mad Max a markedly different experience compared to its contemporaries. 4. Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 pushed the boundaries of everything thought possible, not just in its native genre, but the medium as a whole

The temptation to wax lyrical over everything great about Arthur Morgan's heart-wrenching story is oh so difficult to resist

Chances are you already know, directly or otherwise, the level of utmost care and attention afforded to every facet of Rockstar's tribute to the Old West, but it came at a cost

Reports of crunch culture needed to make Rockstar's dream a reality flew thick and fast following the sequel's release

calling into question if a game of such quality was justified if it meant putting the physical and mental health of employees at risk to do so

It's a debate that still, and in fact should, rage today. Despite the backdrop of Red Dead Redemption 2

earning its label as one of the greatest games of all time, even if it does indulge a little too much in realism for the sake of immersion

Had its online component followed closer in GTA Online's footsteps and placed greater emphasis on heists and the building of a criminal empire

it would have GTA 5 beaten in every respect. Number three, The Saboteur

Another win for non-American settings, The Saboteur is likely the most unfamiliar entry here, but certainly through no fault of its own

Yes, the game's modest budget is often too blatant to ignore, but dig deeper than the wobbly visual fidelity and questionable voice acting

and you'll find a novel, rare exploration of civilian life at the height of World War II

in a format not glamorised a la Call of Duty. Unwittingly drawn into the French Resistance following the murder of his best friend at the hands of an SS officer

Irish immigrants and former race car driver Sean Devlin becomes an instrumental figure in helping to liberate Paris from German occupation By disrupting the regime operations through various means Sean can sequentially liberate portions of France

capital, driving out its unwelcome visitors. Think Far Cry's outpost liberation system

but better and with more variation. A fantastic visual representation of this oppression-turned

liberation is Pandemic's decision to have Paris initially presented in only black and white

As Sean liberates sections of the city, colour seats back in, restoring the city of love to

its former glory piece by piece. Sadly, pandemic closed its doors for good following the release

of The Saboteur, so it unlikely will ever see a sequel. Number two, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt

It took CD Projekt Red three games to get there, but everything it learned about open world action

RPGs finally culminated with The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt in 2015. Bursting with superbly written dialogue

unparallied characterization of the narrative's major players, and commendable if slightly lacking

combat, every major component of the third outing mixed perfectly to deliver a concoction smoother

than butter itself. Strictly speaking, Wild Hunt is an outlier here as its setting doesn't exactly

exhibit overt similarities to GTA, though both titles prioritise player freedom outside of their

respective campaigns. You're free to go and do whatever you please when not actively searching

for series whereabouts, and thanks to the added gameplay depth that RPG systems allow, can curate

Geralt's attire, powers and moral compass to your liking. If your adoration of GTA is born

specifically from its setting and satirist nature, Wild Hunt might not be your cup of tea. On the

other hand, if a well-realized fictional world reinforced with exploration and industry-best

writing is your bread and butter, then The Witcher 3 is here to suit your every need

Number 1. The Saints Row series. Grand Theft Auto isn't exactly renowned for taking itself

too seriously. The series has always had a love affair with parodying American culture after all

but compared to Saints Row, Rockstar's, billion dollar franchise's, highbrow academia. Just like

Avalanche with Just Cause, Volition took a look at GTA's DNA under the microscope and decided it

could do with some alterations, namely dialing the absurdity way beyond healthy levels. For over a

decade, Volition has been throwing caution to the wind with increasingly outlandish premises with

every new installment. Thanks to dated gameplay and performance woes, the 2022 reboot sadly failed to reach

the high of its predecessors, with the mid-2010s offering Saints Row 4 and its

standalone expansion GAT out of hell still considered to be the pinnacle of zany

the IP has become primarily known for. Time travel, computer simulations and even off-world shenanigans

there's no trope the series developer will hesitate to commandeer in the name of

entertainment because, not to digress, it just doesn't care about being serious

Saints Row delights in billing itself as the ultimate digital playground, and Rockstar could stand to learn a thing or two from GTA's closest relative