GTA 6 is still looming over an ever-shifting horizon, and we all know people are losing their minds over it. The good news is there are plenty of cool alternatives with different flavors you can try to either quench your thirst or further feed your hype.
The Saboteur
Recent developments have proven that you can, indeed, make a great Japanese RPG in France, so why not a GTA-like? The Saboteur invites players to occupied WW2 Paris and replace crime with the exact same thing, but done against Nazis, meaning it’s even more fun. The Saboteur has a very unique look and is filled with fresh mechanics and original missions that make it stand out against any other game of its kind and time.
The Saboteur likely failed to sell as much as it deserved due to weak marketing, or because the concept of sabotaging sounds less fun than shooting your enemies dead, or straight-up blowing stuff up. Still, the good news is you can actually do both of those things here, and so much else. Sadly, this one didn’t get more popular back when it came out, but it remains a treasure seriously worth digging up.
Mad Max
Video game movie tie-ins tend to suck, but that’s absolutely not the case with the Mad Max video game. Mad Max allows players to indulge in all the pleasures you can imagine in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, which are mostly all about racing, killing gangs, or doing both at the same time. Even when you’re not doing any of that, Mad Max is the rare game where you can chill by enjoying a nice or speedy drive through the wasteland, and definitely a big-IP-based property that deserved more reach than it got.
Rockstar Games fans are usually divided between their feelings towards the more modern setting of GTA and Red Dead Redemption’s vast outback. Mad Max feels like the world of Red Dead with the spirit of GTA if someone were to set it all on fire.
The Getaway
As the GTA series was beginning its global domination with GTA 3, Sony tried to do even better with The Getaway. At the time of its release, in the faraway year of 2002, The Getaway was the most expensive and most ambitious video game of all time.
Instead of creating an original landscape, The Getaway’s devs painstakingly replicated a surprisingly large area of London, completed with some top-of-the-line graphics for its buildings, vehicles, and people. The Getaway is a more realistic, grittier, and much more English take on the genre, one so different, in fact, that it sometimes feels like it belongs in a completely different genre than the game that had inspired it.
Driver and Driver 2
To get to go out in do crimes in Driver, where we play as a cop infiltrated in a gang to work as getaway driver for all sorts of illegal activities, players first need to perform a tutorial that amounts to getting a criminal driver’s license. To make matters more bizarre, this test is one of the most difficult in the history of gaming, but those who’re brave and skilled enough to go through with it will be unlocking the doors to one of the best gaming worlds from the original PlayStation. Both Driver titles ooze style and feature tremendous driving and collision physics that serve as the lifeblood of this game about Hollywood-worthy car chases.
Naturally, neither of the Driver games reached the depth of GTA 3, due to the hardware limitations of the original PS1. Still, this was the first crime driving game in 3D where you could get out of the car and walk around in some segments. So, even if you ignore all of its incredibly fun and cinematic driving, the first two Driver titles serve as great lessons in video game history-making.
The Simpsons: Hit & Run
The Simpsons: Hit & Run isn’t underrated in the sense that it got bad reviews or that it sold well. It’s underrated in the eyes of adults who easily filter this great crime simulator because of its cute looks and source material.
For the longest time, I thought that finding Hit & Run on so many personal PlayStation 2 best-of lists was the result of a meme in league with Cory in the House’s new attempt to become the highest user-rated title on Metacritic. I was wrong.
Though it could’ve been a cheap cash grab incapable of holding a candle to the series, The Simpsons Hit and Run manages to provide laughs worthy of some of its best episodes, and, courtesy of its writing and highly-stylized graphics, easily remains the best Simpsons-related work outside of its best 5 or so seasons.
Oh, and it also doubles as a GTA-like title that people of all ages can enjoy without feeling guilt or remorse, whether for the fact that they’re playing a game seemingly made for kids, or for the crimes. Just kidding. Despite the name, it’s actually never that serious, so don’t sleep on this one like the author of this piece did.
Just Cause 3
Just Cause 3 is easily the most original take on the genre I’ve ever experienced. Instead of having your regular means of transportation, you have a rope, a rope that you’ll then attach to said regular means of transportation—or anything that you want, really, and see how the game’s excellent physics will respond to it.
Making a GTA-like where players don’t get to drive vehicles as the main transportation seems like the most unhinged way to guarantee your game will be a surefire failure. Sure, Just Cause 3 players can make use of cars, planes, helicopters, and perhaps even airborne cows as a means of transportation, just likely never in the way that they’d expect, and it’s arguably the most fun anyone has ever gotten out of the genre.
