Rockstar is one of the most well-known developers and publishers in the video game industry. They have created monumental series that have engrained themselves in the hearts and minds of gamers for years to come. Among so many successes, Rockstar has had its share of missteps and outright disgraces that they'd rather not have the gaming world remember.
However, we're here to break it all down: the life changing, the mediocre, and the completely awful. From table tennis and clunky driving games to top heavy tanks and portly Russian cousins that just want to go bowling, Rockstar has a seriously thick portfolio when it comes to gaming. Some of them have changed the gaming world for the best, challenging gamers and developers beliefs as to what makes video games tick. Others have drifted away into obscurity due to time, being overshadowed by huge success, or being forcibly swept under the rug by the developers themselves.
A few rules: expansions aren't included and portable games (for the most part), have been excluded from the list in the interest of allowing our writers to eat, and perhaps sleep a few hours before they're once again put under the infinitely scrutinizing eye of the Internet. Here we're looking at the mindshare of games that Rockstar themselves acknowledge as their creations (even those that aren't strictly developed in-house). So grab your ping pong paddle, tell Timbaland you're going to be late, and steal a few cars while plugging random civilians, this is Ranking Every Rockstar Game From Worst To Best.
30 Beaterator Is Barely A Video Game
It’s hard to really classify this one as a game, as in it has no objective but to make beats using a set of pre-programmed samples and effects. Once you make a beat that you find satisfactory you can save it and listen to it later. Yep, that’s about the sum of Beaterator; you make beats, and judging by the trailer, go to Timbaland’s house, where you’ll sit on his couch while he spits generic freestyle verses over it. Did we just describe the current music industry in its entirety? Yes, yes we did.
Seriously, the time you can really spend “playing” Beaterator is limited in comparison to something that would actually classify as a video game with a plot or gameplay. On the opposite polarity, Beaterator serves as a reminder that video games aren’t limited to a certain style, scope, or objective. Video games can literally be anything, and in the case of Beaterator, they happen to be the worst game that Rockstar has ever put their name on.
29 The Italian Job Punishes You For Playing It
A pretty abysmal example of a licensed game, The Italian Job is a rough driving game for the original PlayStation. With missions based on the events of the film of the same name, there was potential for the game to be a lot better than it is. It had insane amounts of pop-in (a huge red flag when driving at top speeds is concerned), shoddy controls, and uninspired missions — The Italian Job is easily one of Rockstar’s worst titles to date.
Even fans of the film will find little to really enjoy, as the lackluster visuals and clunky driving are really the most noticeable qualities of the game, which isn’t something to be proud of. The voice overs and story are ok, but they really don’t justify the otherwise shoddy experience delivered by the repetitive gameplay and barf worthy aesthetic.
28 Wild Metal Wants You On Your Back
A game about the most flippable tanks ever created, Wild Metal was a Dreamcast and PC game that has one of the most bizarre controls schemes ever mapped to a tank game. Players control both treads of their tank separately, meaning that to go forward, both treads have to be accelerating forward. You can guess then that turning becomes a bit of a challenge in tight situations when you’re under fire, at least for the first few levels.
The worlds are actually decently big for an older game, but they're mostly barren aside from a handful of enemies and bare bones structures. The game is slow paced and can be quite cumbersome to play; aiming, driving, and pretty much anything is a bit more complicated than it needs to be. Fun for the odd half hour or so, most gamers won’t make it that far due to the controls, gameplay, and muddy graphics.
27 Grand Theft Auto Will Make You Nauseous
As blasphemous as it may seem, the first Grand Theft Auto does not hold up today, at all. The overhead viewpoint is limiting to a point that propels the game to the verge of being unplayable; vehicles move too fast to control accurately as the camera struggles to keep up with them. The camera also suffers from a nauseatingly constructed zoom system, causing the camera to zoom in and out erratically, like a toddler who unwittingly presses the buttons atop a camcorder at random.
The story is rather limited as well, with most missions coming from pay phones with little to no context as to why the player is struggling to control their vehicle from one side of town to the other. Gunplay is awful, with most skirmishes becoming a matter of luck more than anything else. Although most of the game's problems are most likely due to its age, it’s hard to really recommend anyone play it, aside from those who want to glance one of the most successful video game franchises in history’s humble beginnings.
26 Max Payne 2 Is A Disgusting Boil On A Great Series
Easily the worst in the series, Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne is an aberration in a series that does an otherwise phenomenal job of dealing with gunplay and gritty noir cop drama. Although the game received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, gamers who actually played the game seemed to collectively have a completely different opinion of the game.
Several of the ported versions had graphical issues with textures and artifacts, as well as suffering from poor controls and gameplay. Compared to the other two entries in the series, Max Payne 2 falls way short of the precedent set by the first one, and doesn’t hold any type of flame to the brilliance that is Max Payne 3. If gamers are looking to get into the series, or Rockstar games in general, it’s best to skip this one. It doesn’t hold up against the rest of Rockstar’s catalogue as hard as it may try.
25 Smuggler's Run 2 Really Wants You To Hate Yourself
Basically sprucing up the original in every way that it needed, Smuggler’s Run 2: Hostile Territory features more vehicles, plot, and ways to evade pursuers. The game is fun but incredibly frustrating — the difficulty has been significantly ramped up in comparison to the first installment.
Time limits are even stricter, meaning that the smallest mistake requires restarting the entire smuggling operation. Mistakes will happen too; the AI is intelligent, faster, and vastly outnumbers the player, meaning that a lot of missions and runs will take a whole lot longer than they really should. Although the roster of vehicles and plot have been expanded, the ridiculously hard difficulty means that gamers who want to smuggle should probably stick with the forgiving first installment.
24 Why Not Just Learn To Skateboard?
Thrasher Presents Skate and Destroy is a bit of an odd duck when it comes to skate games. Coming out around the same time as the wildly successful Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, Thrasher took a more realistic approach to skateboarding, as opposed to Tony Hawk’s cartoony and easy to play but hard to master formula that made it such a success.
With the game taking a more realistic approach, some critics and gamers praised the more in depth controls and trick system. Compared to a game like Skate, which features more realistic mechanics, Thrasher is a mess. The control scheme is incredibly odd, making the game on the verge of unplayable for gamers not willing to invest some time learning the oddball controls and mechanics. Best to skip this one if you’re shuffling through Rockstar’s library.
23 Grand Theft Auto 2 Isn't Much Better Than The Original
Not much better than the first, Grand Theft Auto 2 suffers from a lot of the same shortcomings that handicapped its predecessor. The overhead view again doesn’t allow for 'very adequate' control of faster vehicles, while the combat is a game of luck and spraying as much of your ammunition as you can.
The missions are a bit more fleshed out this time around, there are more weapons to dispose of your foes with, and vehicles are a bit more varied than the original (although they did away with motorcycles for some reason). Overall, the game is still pretty shoddy for today’s gamers, but was still pretty decent for back in the day, hence why they made more than one Grand Theft Auto. It also seems that they fixed the zoom problem, making the game a bit less stomach churning to maneuver in.
22 Smuggler's Run Is Fun, If Wooden
A game that consists of driving off road vehicles around, picking up packages, and out running other off road opponents and officers, Smuggler’s Run is pretty dang fun for an early PS2 game. Sure, the environments and gameplay are pretty lacking, but the game suffices to be pretty enjoyable nonetheless.
With that said, the game hardly holds up by today’s standards — as mentioned, the gameplay is really repetitive, with only a few game modes making up the structure of the campaign. Speaking of the campaign, there is really no story to speak of, just simple “there’s a drop off here, go get it and return it before so and so does in this amount of time”. Not that the game needs a story, but the otherwise pointless gameplay may have benefited from it.
21 Oni Failed To Deliver On Most Of Its Promises
A third-person action game that follows a pissed off, purple haired heroine capable of shooting and kicking the poop out of pretty much everyone on her quest to expose the truth about the Orwellian government that is running the world in a dystopian future. While the game features a satisfactorily deep melee combat system and a variety of weapons to use, Oni is mostly a mediocre third-person action game.
The game was originally promised to feature LAN multiplayer and a host of other features that never made it to the final copy, making most expectant gamers quite upset. Due to the missing features, half-baked story, and boxy controls, not even a deep combat system can save Oni from the pull of mediocrity.
20 The Seedy Underworld Of Pro Ping Pong
What else can really be said about this, besides that it’s, you know, table tennis. Featuring eleven characters to choose from and some pretty convincing motion capture on the part of the players, this is as close as gamers will get to playing table tennis without actually playing table tennis.
You can play against the A.I., or in online or local multiplayer, which raises the question; if you have someone there to play virtual table tennis with you, why not just play real table tennis instead of throwing a Wiimote around? The answer is most likely that real table tennis requires skill to an extent; professional players are able to utilize a different number of shots, spins, etc. to best their opponents. Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis just requires a Wiimote and a genuine interest in the cutthroat world of professional table tennis. In all fairness, the game is pretty fun, if a bit niche.
19 Don't Talk About Midnight Club
The one that started the excellent street racing franchise that revs the engine of every racing gamer, Midnight Club: Street Racing was about as good as a racing game at a system launch can get. Pretty basic when compared with the industry’s current offerings of sleek street racing games, when the game was originally released it was pretty dang awesome.
As with most originals, it really doesn’t hold a flame to the later installments in the series. With no customization, cramped cities and shortcuts, and a limited selection of cars, the game feels super dated. Although it started a great franchise, it doesn’t do much when compared to the rest of Rockstar’s catalogue, meaning it scores lower on the list.
18 State Of Repetitive Gameplay
State of Emergency is as close that the gaming world will ever get to actually partaking in an extremely violent, over the top riot (hopefully, in these days nothing is for sure). The gameplay centers around maneuvering your character through the throes of a massive riot while completing side quests and participating in the mayhem.
The game boasts an impressive amount of NPCs on screen at once — seldom will gamers find themselves alone as rioting citizens scatter to and fro, fighting riot police, looting stores, and contributing to the on-screen action. The game becomes fairly repetitive after the second or third level, as side quests usually focus on the same handful of objectives. If you’re looking to cause mayhem and bloodshed in a literal sea of rioters, look no further than State of Emergency, and its gory pandemonium fueled gameplay.
17 Max Payne Still Holds Up
The one that made bullet time cool, the original Max Payne is a gritty noir tale of a New Jersey cop shooting his way to revenge for his murdered wife and child. Having personally played the original Max Payne at a younger age, the dark story was shocking, to say the least.
The story is told through expertly illustrated comic panels and the gameplay is fun, if a little stiff — most likely a product of the times as opposed to a design flaw. The game is still a blast to play today and the story holds up surprisingly well for what, at first glance at least, appears as a typical crime story. It helped put Rockstar on the map, but as stated before, it does feel a tad dated compared to the third installment, although it is superior to Max Payne 2, steaming pile of poop that that game is.
16 Red Dead Revolver Is Red Dead Redemption In An Arcade Cabinet
The origin of the series that gave the gaming world Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Revolver is a more arcade feeling PS2 game that is pretty dang fun. The game follows the same type of dark tale that players familiar with Red Dead Redemption would expect, with a looser and cartoonish nature to gunplay.
The game features a linear system as compared to Red Dead Redemption's massive open world; although levels are decently sized within Red Dead Revolver, there are only so many ways you can approach the same ghost town filled with bandits in a fixed area. There are no opportunities to really mix up gameplay either; the name of the game is shoot everything and everyone until it’s dead. The game is still pretty fun today, enough to warrant a PS4 rerelease with upgraded visuals.
15 Too Much To Do
Taking what Vice City did for the 80s and expertly applying it to the 90s, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is a fan favorite for a lot of gamers. The game has a massive selection of vehicles, weapons, and things to do that make the game overwhelmingly huge. Actually, huge is an understatement; the game is incredibly massive, from the cramped streets of Los Santos to the expansive wild lands that lie beyond.
However, San Andreas’s main pull, its sheer scope, is also its biggest downfall. There comes a point in the game where having to restart a mission becomes daunting once you realize that to get back to the starting area you’re going to have to drive thirty real time minutes to trigger it. Sure, its scope is impressive, but it begins to become a bother when your objective, or an area you want to cause mayhem in, is all the way across the map.
14 Midnight Club II Is Better, But Still Flawed
A pretty standard sequel to the first Midnight Club, Midnight Club II takes the formula that made the first one fun and builds on it in every conceivable way. More cars, more game modes, rivals with more personality, Midnight Club II is pretty fun for any gamer that wants to live out their dreams of piloting a tuner through traffic laden streets. Bonus points for being the first to feature motorcycles in the series, a feature that would really find its footing in the next installment.
Aside from the general aging of the second entry in the franchise, the controls can be a bit touchy, even when switching between cars that claim to have different stats. It isn’t unusual to over or under compensate a sharp turn or shortcut that can result in losing precious inches on a competitor which becomes a huge problem, especially in the game’s later races.
13 Better Violence, More Mediocre Than The Original
The fittingly brutal sequel to the original snuff movie sim, Manhunt 2 took everything that made the first one stomach churningly awesome and ran with it into the horizon. With a bit more variety, including more in depth gunplay, and executions so sinister that Rockstar had to add static to the scenes as a form of censorship before release, Manhunt 2 is good.
The story is a bit more fleshed out, following an amnesiac scientist escaped from a mental health facility and pursued by bounty hunters and his old employers with the help of a friend, who actually turns out to be a split personality instilled by one of his old projects. Gameplay primarily consists of sneaking through the shadows and executions, but as mentioned before, guns play a larger role. A good game, and an improvement over the original gameplay wise, the story falls into the realm of video game mediocrity as opposed to the dark, violent world of the first one.
12 If I Wanted To Interrogate People, I'd Become A Cop
Featuring a truly engaging noir detective story, fun interactive interrogation sequences, and some of the best facial animations seen in a video game to date, L.A. Noire is as close as any gamer will come to being an old school detective. The game follows an ex-Marine turned LAPD detective who has to solve several intermittent cases that feed into a larger case dealing with other Marines and a morphine smuggling ring.
The game does perform leaps and bounds story wise in front of most other games, but in comparison, the gameplay that accompanies all the excellent story and interrogation scenes often feels flat and underwhelming. Not that it’s bad by any means, the shooting and driving tends to feel like a mediocre chore that has to be completed before the next desirable stretch of gameplay can be reached.
11 Grand Theft Auto III Recreated The Industry
The Grand Theft Auto game that gave birth to one of the most popular franchises in gaming as gamers know it today, Grand Theft Auto III was groundbreaking in terms of open world gameplay. Featuring a leather jacket wearing protagonist that never talks and an array of colorful characters that pay him to do ridiculous things, it’s a winning formula that helped establish an entire genre, and essentially the gaming world today.
Aside from motorcycles being mysteriously absent from the vehicle lineup, the vehicles present in Grand Theft Auto III are some of the best in the series. The soundtrack is also top notch, contributing to one of the most satisfying stories in gaming. While the gunplay can feel a bit clunky compared to the later series installments, there is no denying the legendary series’ third installment’s effect on the industry.