The Grand Theft Auto franchise is one of the most popular and beloved series in the world, having delivered a number of great entries over the last two decades that proved to be truly excellent games, with several entries listed among the best games of all time by many publications.
While the driving mechanics and storylines are hugely important to the success of a Grand Theft Auto game, in addition to the characters and mission variety, one of the aspects that is often overlooked is the combat. While GTA games aren’t strictly about combat, fighting is always an aspect, particularly as the games go on, and more violence is usually a result of the various crimes committed and betrayals enacted. For this reason, truly brutal combat can be a big help in making a GTA game particularly great and helped Grand Theft Auto become one of the highest-selling franchises of all time.
6 Grand Theft Auto 3
The release of Grand Theft Auto 3 was a massive moment in the history of the franchise. The entire idea of what a GTA game could be, and what the idea of the Grand Theft Auto franchise has become in the eyes of fans, stems from the open-world nature and split focus across driving and adventuring, which was hugely experimental at the time.
The adventure, beginning with protagonist Claude being betrayed by his girlfriend Catalina, stretches across a variety of missions, but for the first time, there was a real focus placed on combat in the game. This resulted in some difficulty adjusting, as Rockstar tried to get combat right for the franchise, but despite the difficulty with shooting, players still loved the unique nature of the game's combat system. It was so influential that it has, in fact, made its way onto the Mount Rushmore of open-world games.
5 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Vice City Stories is a bit of an odd duck as far as Grand Theft Auto games go; this prequel to Vice City featured Vic Vance attempting to build a criminal empire alongside his brother. The game was simple in some ways, but the combat system was one that really managed to excel in ways that Grand Theft Auto players might not have expected, given what they had seen of GTA's combat up to that point.
Instead of having truly great shooting and gun mechanics, which most Grand Theft Auto players will admit is a problem the franchise has struggled with over the years, Vice City Stories decided to take a different approach to combat and focused on making a truly great grappling and hand-to-hand combat system. Unfortunately, this aspect didn’t survive in this format through any other games in the franchise, but it inspired later entries to improve upon previous hand-to-hand combat systems.
4 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Vice City is a game in the Grand Theft Auto franchise remembered more for the narrative aspects than most of the gameplay, and indeed, it is one of the longest Rockstar games. The story of Tommy Vercetti, as he rises to the top of the criminal world within Vice City, was a huge step up for the franchise in character and story work, and the world-building around the game and its story made for excellent additions to the franchise.
However, one of the major aspects was still the combat system, which was executed brilliantly. Coming out just a year after Grand Theft Auto 3, there wasn’t a lot of time to improve on the systems of that game, but Vice City definitely did, with both melee and gunplay being a lot better this time around. This propelled Rockstar to even greater heights.
3 Grand Theft Auto 5
The most recent entry in the franchise, despite being relatively aged in gaming terms, is still Grand Theft Auto 5. The ambition and size of this entry have been praised many times over, and though there are a few minor difficulties with the combat system at times, it is still generally beloved by fans for a number of reasons.
One of the great things about the combat of GTA 5 is the simple variety of weaponry, both guns and melee weapons, which players can make use of against enemies. The gunplay is definitely a lot better than in many of the earlier entries, and the game still feels like it comes with a solid level of difficulty in spite of being comparatively easier than some previous editions.
2 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
San Andreas offers what is arguably one of the best Grand Theft Auto experiences to date. It delivered on the promise of GTA 3 and GTA: Vice City, putting everything together to come up with a great story and world in addition to the fantastic mechanics and combat systems that the franchise had been missing out on up to that point.
Putting together all the great ideas with a much smoother polish gave San Andreas a great combat system, with gunplay and aiming being much more advanced, the fighting mechanics and enemy AI being much better, and the melee system offering different forms of martial arts. Gun skills were also more prominent than in any other entry since; the player character became more deadly and was able to reload faster the more they practiced and learned. Hopefully, future entries in the franchise take notes from San Andreas and its combat system.
1 Grand Theft Auto 4
Grand Theft Auto 4 was one of the most grounded, gritty, realistic entries the franchise has ever seen, and it did many things better than the sequel. So it makes sense that much of the combat set out to feel that way as well. While the combat in San Andreas resembled more of an RPG game between the customization and high skill ceiling, the combat in GTA 4 felt quite brutal comparatively.
Weapons were more powerful, gun mechanics, in terms of locking on to enemies, were fluid and responsive, the fight scenes were gruesome and satisfying for players, and the melee systems were well-executed and smoother than other entries. Players also had more health, which made for a slightly easier time in tricky combat situations, making GTA 4 the best overall Grand Theft Auto experience for combat.