Overview
Grand Theft Auto begins by looking at the city from above. The first two entries already establish several principles that will remain at the heart of the series: moving freely through the streets, stealing vehicles, working for different criminal organizations and creating situations that the game does not always try to control.
With Grand Theft Auto III, the move to a fully 3D world profoundly changes the scale of that freedom. Vice City develops an identity strongly shaped by its era and atmosphere, while San Andreas expands the playground even further by connecting several cities, rural areas and deserts within a single world. The city is no longer simply the backdrop for missions: it gradually becomes one of the main characters of each entry.
Grand Theft Auto IV adopts a denser and darker portrayal of Liberty City before Grand Theft Auto V pushes the formula toward a larger territory, three protagonists and a growing variety of activities around Los Santos. Across these different generations, GTA above all shows how the open world evolved from a space where players could disobey into a complex environment designed to make it feel as though countless stories might emerge simply by taking a different street.
