by Are you looking for games like GTA to play while waiting for GTA 6? Join the club. While Rockstar Games has finally announced that Grand Theft Auto 6 is actually in development, it will likely be years before it’s released.
Sure, we still have GTA 5 and GTA Online updated for PS5 and Xbox Series X in the meantime, but if you find they’re a bit dated, you might want to branch out – and that’s where we come in.
There’s no game that does what GTA does as well as GTA does, if there were we wouldn’t be so impatient for a sequel. So instead we’ve curated our selection of games that capture some of what makes the GTA series so good, while offering something different. Whether you love wreaking adrenaline-pumping mayhem, planning an elaborate heist, or exploring a richly detailed world, our roundup will have a game for you.
Ready to leave Los Santos behind? Here are six games like GTA that you can play while waiting for GTA 6.
Games like GTA
Let’s get the most obvious thing out of the way first. Both Red Dead Redemption 2 and Saints Row tend to stand out when it comes to GTA alternatives, but given that the Saints Row reboot is releasing later this year, it’s worth revisiting .
The first Saint’s Row was to Similar to Grand Theft Auto, it puts players in the role of a gang member engaged in criminal activity, free to roam the open world of Stilwater to wreak havoc in his spare time. The city wasn’t drawn as well as GTA’s, the characters weren’t as colorful, the action wasn’t as fun, it was a bad con man. We weren’t expecting much from its sequel, but Volition tapped into something no one was expecting in Saints Row 2: absurdist humor.
Do you want to spank someone with an inflatable doll? No problem. How about shooting someone with a pimp barrel shotgun? Go right ahead. There’s even a mission where you drive through a neighborhood and spray raw sewage over properties to lower their value. Realism has gone out the window with Saints Row 2 and that makes it perfect for chaotic GTA fans. Plus, if you like this one, there are quite a few to work through.
Ok, that’s a little left field, but bear with us. Something Rockstar does better than any other open-world game developer is detail. As you drive through Los Santos and Liberty City or ride a horse through the streets of Saint Denis from Red Dead Redemption 2, you’ll see stories unfold before you. NPCs talk, fight, go about their day. It feels like you are a visitor in a living virtual world.
Hitman isn’t an open world game like GTA or Red Dead, but rather a series of levels, each of which is an open sandbox for you to explore. However, since developer IO Interactive didn’t need to build a sprawling open world, each of these sandboxes is crammed with detailed interactions between characters. These levels can be explored for hours, with secrets to be found around every corner. Like GTA and Red Dead, they feel like inhabited and living places.
Also like GTA, there’s nothing quite like bringing chaos to a living virtual world.
If you spend afternoons in GTA blowing things up to see how the world reacts and escalates, there’s a lot of fun to be had in Hitman. Load up with throwing knives, assault rifles, maybe an explosive rubber ducky or two, and you can turn a quiet Italian square into a war zone
While Hitman 3 is by far the best entry in the rebooted series, you’ll probably be a bit confused once you’ve started there. We therefore recommend playing through the entire trilogy in order, starting with this one.
Jumping into the Yakuza series can feel a bit daunting at first considering how many entries there are, but if you want to play the games in order, we recommend starting with Yakuza 0.
Yakuza 0, the prequel to the original game, is perfect for those who enjoy GTA’s immersive missions and rich, open world. And like GTA, Yakuza 0 features a variety of side quests and activities to take part in outside of the main story, including karaoke and gambling. You can spend hours exploring his world and wreaking havoc without even having to advance the main narrative. There is a lot to do in Yakuza 0 and you will easily spend hours in it.
If you’re looking for a middle ground between the mayhem of Saints Row 2 and the often serious nature of GTA, then you can’t go wrong with the quirky Yakuza 0. Be sure to check out our guide on how to play the Yakuza games are okay too because we’re sure that once you’ve played one you’ll want to jump into the rest, plus pretty much all games are GTA like.
Are you the type of GTA fan who just wants to double down on the mindless destruction without caring for any sort of narrative? Then Just Cause 3 is for you. It might not be the latest Just Cause game (that’s Just Cause 4), but Just Cause 3 is our favorite in the series.
In Just Cause 3 you play as Rico Rodriguez on a mission to bring down a dictator who controls a stunning island paradise. In all honesty, Just Cause 3’s story falls by the wayside, with the main appeal here being sheer creative and explosive mayhem.
As Rico, you can use grapples, parachutes and wingsuits to fight your way across the massive island and blow things up thanks to the explosive weapons and vehicles at your disposal. In addition, you can even experiment with your mess. There’s just nothing like clipping two enemies together and then pulling back on the grapple to make them bang heads – it’s like an action comedy movie you make yourself. Just Cause 3 totally deserves its place on this list of games like GTA.
What would GTA look like if it was set in the 1930s? Well, think no more, because Mafia Definitive Edition pretty much answers that: damn good.
Mafia Definitive Edition, an expanded remake of 2002’s Mafia, follows gangster Tommy Angelo as he climbs the ranks of the Salieri crime family. While we’ve seen the rags-to-riches gangster story time and time again in GTA, the writing in Mafia is exceptionally good, and over a decade-long campaign you get to know all of the family members and see how their criminal life affects them. Plus, it’s magical to watch the town of Lost Heaven grow and change over the years.
The Mafia Definitive Edition is bursting with character, offering the rich open world and gripping missions of GTA in an unforgettable setting. This is definitely one of the best games like GTA.
Right, it actually is pretty much left field, but give us a chance to explain. Some of the best missions in GTA history are the heist levels. Nothing makes us feel like a smooth criminal like GTA 4’s Three Leaf Clover mission, where you disguise yourself and break into the Bank of Liberty and walk away with $1 million. Rockstar leaned into them in GTA 5 and delivered multiple heists, with the added twist of hopping between the different protagonists. And the developer took this even further in GTA Online by making these heists cooperative with other players. Turns out crime is more fun with friends.
That’s why we recommend Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine. This top-down co-op heist game challenges you and your friends to break into the bank vaults of increasingly well-defended casinos. Each robber has a special ability, such as the mole, which can burrow through almost any wall in the game, or the pickpocket, whose pet monkey steals cash for you.
If crime is your thing, there are fewer better ways to spend a night out with friends. And make the wait for GTA 6 all the shorter.
