| Part of a series on |
| Action games |
|---|
 |
AGrand Theft Auto clone (often shortened toGTA clone) belongs to asubgenre ofopen worldaction-adventurevideo games, characterized by their likeness to theGrand Theft Auto series in either gameplay, or overall design. In these types of open world games, players may find and use a variety of vehicles and weapons while roaming freely in an open world setting. The objective ofGrand Theft Auto clones is to complete a sequence of core missions involving driving and shooting, but often side-missions andminigames are added to improvereplay value. The storylines of games in this subgenre typically have strong themes of crime, violence and other controversial elements such as drugs and sexually explicit content.
The subgenre has its origins in open world action adventure games popularized inEurope (and particularly theUnited Kingdom) throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The release ofGrand Theft Auto (1997) marked a major commercial success for open-ended game design inNorth America, and featured a more marketable crime theme, but it was the popularity of its 3D sequelGrand Theft Auto III in 2001 that led to the widespread propagation of a more specific set of gameplay conventions consistent with a subgenre. The subgenre now includes many games from different developers all over the world where the player can control wide ranges of vehicles and weapons. The subgenre has evolved with greater levels of environmental detail and more realistic behaviors.
As usage of the term "clone" often has a negative connotation and can be seen as controversial, reviewers have come up with other names for the subgenre. Similar terminology for other genres, such as "Donkey Kong-type" and "Doom clone", has given way to more neutral language. Names such as "sandbox game", however, are applied to a wider range of games that do not share key features of theGrand Theft Auto series.
AGrand Theft Auto clone is avideo game that falls within thegenre popularized by the 2001 titleGrand Theft Auto III,[1] where players are given the ability to drive any vehicle or fire any weapon as they explore anopen world.[2] These games are sometimes treated as a3Daction-adventure game,[3] orthird-person shooter.[4] They are noted for frequently bearing strong violent or criminal themes,[5] though exceptions likeThe Simpsons: Hit & Run andAmerican McGee Presents: Scrapland have copied its gameplay and structure with aTeen rating.[6] The gameLego City Undercover was released the same year asGTA V and drew similar comparisons, albeit generally positive, and was given an E10+ rating by the ESRB.[7]
Calling a game a "Grand Theft Auto clone" is sometimes considered unfair or insulting.[8] This is because reviewers sometimes use this term to suggest that the "clone" is a mere imitation, whichcommonly occurs in the video game industry, designed for the sole purpose of capitalizing on the success of theGrand Theft Auto series.[9] However, this term can also be used as a neutral description of a game,[10] which can range from good to bad.[11] Reviewers have used "Grand Theft Auto clone" to describe games that rest on their own merits,[12] and do not necessarily dismiss the entire class of games as mere imitators.[13]
Games of this type are sometimes defined under the broader terminology "open world games" or "sandbox games",[2] but many games that predateGrand Theft Auto III, such asMetroid from 1986, are also called open world games.[14] Conflictingly, games such asGrand Theft Auto III andBody Harvest are credited with inventing this genre more than a decade later.[15][16] Furthermore, reviewers have stated that this genre does not include every game with a freely explorable world and that this genre is much more specific, thus excluding the free-roaming titlesSpider-Man 2 andThe Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction from this class of games.[5] The terminology is inconsistent, sometimes including any game with open level design,[14] while other times focusing on a specific genre created at the turn of the century.[17]
Without clear classifications to describe the genre popularized byGrand Theft Auto, reviewers have created a number of alternate names for this genre. Some reviewers have focused on the pervasive criminal themes and mature content in the genre, using terminology such as "crime games", "crime-based action games",[18] and whatCNN called the "gangsta genre".[19] Other journalists have emphasized gameplay by describing the genre as "free roaming action adventure games",[20] "driving-and-shooting games",[21] and "driving action hybrids".[22]
Grand Theft Auto clones offer players the ability to steal and drive a number of vehicles.[23][24] Games have included all kinds of vehicles, such as cars, motorcycles, helicopters, boats, fixed-wing aircraft, and military vehicles.[5] Reviewers have compared these games based on the number of vehicles they offer, with greater choice resulting in better reviews.[5] Players can also use vehicles as weapons, either by driving into enemies, or by damaging the vehicle until it explodes.[17] Some games allow vehicles to perform stunts.[5] Games in the genre thus incorporate elements ofdriving simulation games.[25] Some games even allow players to customize their vehicles.[26]
Players can engage in combat using a range of weapons depending on the game setting, such asfirearms,explosives, close-range melee weapons, or even exaggerated fictional weapons (e.g.laser weapons or a hand-heldminigun).[5] As such, several reviewers have stated that games in this genre are partiallythird-person shooters.[4] Players can find weapons scattered throughout the game world, and may buy weapons in shops or take them from dead enemies.[2] Virtually anyone in the game world can be attacked by the player. In many games, excessive violent behavior will provoke a reaction by police authorities, who the player may then choose to fight or evade.[27] Players must also keep track of their health and ammunition in order to succeed in combat.[17]
These games have employed a variety of aiming mechanisms, such asfree look aiming or a "lock-on" button.[28] Several games have been criticized for difficult or burdensome controls when it comes to shooting,[23][28] and thusvideo game designers have tried to refine the aiming and shooting controls in these games.[5]
Grand Theft Auto clones allow players to freely explore the game world,[5] which is typically on the scale of an entire city. Some games base theirlevel design on real world cities, such asLondon,New York City, andLos Angeles.[5] Players are usually able to navigate by vehicle or on foot.[29][30] Some games put greater emphasis on leaping, climbing,[5] and even swimming.[31] Exploring the world is not just necessary to complete objectives, but also to gain valuable items, weapons, and vehicles. Different parts of the game world may be controlled by different enemy factions, who will attempt to stop the player in a variety of ways.[17] More recent games in this genre allow players to acquire their own territory.[8][32] The freedom of navigating a huge game world may be overwhelming or confusing for new players.[17] Game designers have come up with a variety of navigational aids to solve this problem. Amini-map feature is common,[33] whileSaints Row andGrand Theft Auto IV go so far as to offer aGPS service.[25] Games without these navigation tools are sometimes criticized as confusing.[5]
The player's freedom to explore may be limited until they complete certain objectives and advance the game plot.[17] Players must visit specific locations and complete specific missions in order to win the game,[34] such as racing, tailing, couriering, robbing,[30] stealing,[23] shooting, assassinating, and driving to specific checkpoints.[35] There may be multiple ways to complete these missions as the game environment is designed to facilitate shortcuts, experimentation, and creative ways to kill enemies.[17] Completing a core mission will unlock further missions and advance the storyline,[8] and if the player fails a mission they will be able to resume the game from before the mission began.[23] In addition, these games usually offer optional side missions, which allow players to gain other rewards. These side missions improve the game'sreplay value.[17] These games are also known for incorporating numerousminigames into the game world,[36] such as circuit races.[26] Ultimately, this allows the player to follow or ignore the game's storyline as they see fit.[24]
Open world, 3D action-adventure games existed for years prior to the release of any similar game from theScottishdeveloperDMA Design.[37]Mercenary (1985) has been described as a major ancestor to theGrand Theft Auto series, because it featured an open world which the player could explore freely.[14]Turbo Esprit, the first free-roaming driving game,[38] featured an explorable city with traffic, pedestrians and working traffic lights and has been cited as a major influence on theGrand Theft Auto series.[39][40][41]The Terminator, released in 1991, was a free-form, open world game that set its action in a modern-day city that extended for miles, and included the ability to fire at civilians and steal cars. This game was also among the first American-developed games to feature these elements.[42]
Hunter (1991) has been described as the first sandbox game featuring full 3D, third-person graphics, thus making it an important precursor to theGrand Theft Auto series.[43] The game consisted of a large, open world in which there were numerous possibilities to complete different missions.[43] The character could travel on foot, or steal different vehicles such as cars, tanks, or even bicycles, boats, helicopters and hovercraft.[43] Moreover,Hunter also had many unique features such as day and night lighting, fuel modelling, a log book, aerial observation units, tank traps, land mines and computer-controlled rocket batteries and tracer guns.[44] It was also possible to ride a bicycle, swim, windsurf or even make a parachute jump from a helicopter.[43][44]
DMA Design began pursuing open world game design with the firstGrand Theft Auto,[15] which allowed players to commandeer various automobiles and shoot various weapons within a mission-based structure.[45] Unlike later games in the series, and indeed many earlier influences, the first twoGTA games were 2D, using atop-down perspective. In 1998, DMA moved many of these design concepts into a 3D world, withBody Harvest, aNintendo 64 game developed byDMA Design.[15] This title featured an open world with nonlinear missions and side-quests, as well as the ability to commandeer and drive a variety of vehicles.[15] As such, it has been retroactively called "GTA in space" (despite the fact that most of the game takes place in various settings on Earth),[15] and is credited with makingGrand Theft Auto III possible.[46]Dan Houser has also cited the 3DMario andZelda games on the Nintendo 64 as major influences.[47]
In 1999,Midtown Madness was released byAngel Studios. This driving game was 3D and featured an open world in an urban environment likeGrand Theft Auto. It was however not a sandbox game, as the player could only choose one of the pre-defined gameplay modes. Travelling on foot or switching cars during gameplay was not possible. Rockstar Games approached Angel Studios with a long-term partnership in 1999, which resulted in the creation of video game seriesMidnight Club (another open world 3D race game) andSmuggler's Run. In November 2000, almost a year beforeGrand Theft Auto III,Driver 2 byReflections came out. Set in a 3D open world in an urban environment with the ability to traverse on foot and commandeer other vehicles,Driver 2 featured many aspects of what would later become known as aGrand Theft Auto clone, though violence was restricted to cutscenes.
Grand Theft Auto III took the gameplay foundation of the first twoGrand Theft Auto games and expanded it into a3D world,[48] and offered an unprecedented variety ofminigames and side-missions.[36] The title was a much greater commercial success than its direct precursors,[15] and its influence was profound.[48] As such,Grand Theft Auto III is credited with popularizing this genre,[15] let alone inventing it.[16] Its release is sometimes treated as a revolutionary event in thehistory of video games, much like the release ofDoom nearly adecade earlier.[49]GamePro called it the most important game of all time, and claimed that every genre was influenced to rethink their conventionallevel design.[50]IGN similarly praised it as one of the top ten most influential games of all time.[36] Subsequent games that follow this formula of driving and shooting in a free-roaming level have been calledGrand Theft Auto clones.[51]
Other critics, however, likenedGrand Theft Auto III toThe Legend of Zelda andMetroid,[14] as well asShenmue in particular,[52][53][54][55] and noted howGTA III had combined elements from previous games and fused them together into a new immersive experience. For instance, radio stations had been implemented earlier in games such as Sega'sOut Run (1986)[56] andMaxis'SimCopter (1996), open-ended missions based on operating a taxi cab in a sandbox environment were the basis for Sega'sCrazy Taxi (1999),[57] the ability to killnon-player characters dated back toaction role-playing games likeHydlide II (1985),[58] andFinal Fantasy Adventure (1991),[59] and the way in which players run over pedestrians and get chased by police has been compared toPac-Man (1980).[60]
One of the first games to be compared toGrand Theft Auto's foray into the 3D video game landscape wasMafia. Its development during the same time and release a year later in 2002 had a fewreview websites draw comparisons, notably comparing the open world city and driving.[61] These comparisons were mostly positive, withGame Informer writing "This is a lot likeGTA III. Awesome!" and "There's no shame in taking a proven gameplay formula and changing it a little bit" in its review.[62]
Rockstar North finished development ofGrand Theft Auto: Vice City later that year, which expanded on the open world concept by letting players explore the interior of more than sixty buildings.[32] The game featured an expanded soundtrack and the voice talent of severalHollywood actors, includingRay Liotta. This set a new standard for the genre, making studio talent a pre-requisite for success.[63] Other game developers entered the field that year, with releases such asThe Getaway.[5]The Simpsons: Hit & Run in 2003 applied the concept to a cartoon world,[5] whileTrue Crime: Streets of LA reversed theGrand Theft Auto formula by putting the player in the role of a police officer.[64] Some reviewers began warning parents of the growing number of games in this genre, due to the violent themes intended for mature audiences.[63] TheDriver series, which itself was an influence onGrand Theft Auto III,[65][66] also borrowed elements from theGrand Theft Auto series thereafter such as gun combat, leading toDriver 3 in 2004 andDriver: Parallel Lines in 2006 also having been referred to as GTA clones.[67]
Ultimately, rival developers were unable to match the reception of theGrand Theft Auto series.[5] Rockstar North releasedGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2004, which featured an open world on the scale of three distinct cities.[32] The game also allowed players to customize the player-character and vehicles, as well as compete for turf by fighting with rival gangs.[32] The continued success of theGrand Theft Auto series led to successful spin-offs, includingGrand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories in 2005,Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories in 2006, and the2DGrand Theft Auto Advance for theGame Boy Advancehandheld game console.[32] A market analysis in early 2006 found that new games in this genre would have more difficulty than newfirst-person shooters orracing games, and noted that overall revenue for this genre declines during periods without a newGrand Theft Auto game.[18] By 2006, developers were producing fewer games in this space, estimated at half the number seen in 2005.[19]Grand Theft Auto clones for mobile phones were also released by a number of developers, most notably those fromGameloft'sGangstar series, the first beingGangstar: Crime City in 2006.[68][69]
With the arrival of theseventh generation of video game consoles, the first "next-gen"Grand Theft Auto clones were released in 2006. Beginning withSaints Row from 2006 andCrackdown from 2007 both introduced online multiplayer to the genre, a feature that had been requested by many fans.[5]Crackdown attracted attention for being created byDavid Jones, the developer of the originalGrand Theft Auto,[19][70] and featured the ability to develop the player character's superpowers in a semi-futuristic setting.[5] Meanwhile,The Godfather: The Game andScarface: The World Is Yours entered the market in 2006, and attempted to apply theGrand Theft Auto formula to popularfilm franchises.[32] Still, reviewers continued to measure these games against the standard set by theGrand Theft Auto series.[5]Grand Theft Auto IV was released in April 2008 and featured a large, detailed environment, redefining gameplay[71] and even adopted the GPS navigation system seen inSaints Row.[25] The game broke numerous sales records, including the record for the fastest selling game in its first 24 hours.[72] Since its inception, this genre has evolved to include larger settings, more missions, and a wider range of vehicles.[15] In 2010,Rockstar Games publishedRed Dead Redemption, an open worldWestern themed game.[73] Later that year, the second entry in theMafia series,Mafia II, was released by2K Games and met with a few comparisons toGrand Theft Auto as well.[74] On the day ofGrand Theft Auto V's release on September 17, 2013, Volition released a freedownloadable content pack forSaints Row IV titled "GATV", purposely playing the similarity in the abbreviated titles to promote their game due to the confusion raised on various social networks.[75] TheAssassin's Creed media franchise, while centred aroundhistoricalconspiracy fiction based on a heavily fictionalised centuries-old rivalry between theOrder of Assassins and theKnights Templar, also saw comparisons toGrand Theft Auto with the 2015 sequelAssassin's Creed Syndicate, whose turf-based gang warfare mechanic was likened to a similar gameplay feature inSan Andreas.[76]
Variations of theGrand Theft Auto formula have also been applied to games aimed at children and younger audiences, most notably withLego City Undercover, first released in 2013 for theWii U with a remastered version forMicrosoft Windows,Nintendo Switch,PlayStation 4 andXbox One released in 2017.[77] As is with theTrue Crime and laterSleeping Dogs games, the game is role-reversed with the player taking on the role of a police officer enforcing the law, rather than of a criminal, although the player is required to commit criminal acts on some occasions in order to infiltrate criminal gangs.[78][79] Another lesser-known example is the 2011Wii open world sports gameGo Vacation, described by IGN reviewer Audrey Drake asWii Sports Resort meetsGrand Theft Auto, in which players can freely roam four different resorts in a variety of vehicles.[80]
Arriving without much prerelease hype,Mafia is a highly engaging combination of the driving and living-city elements ofGrand Theft Auto III and the story-driven third-person shooting action ofMax Payne.
When I started playing this game, I thought, "Okay, this is kind of likeGTA III". Then I started getting into it, and I thought, "Holy crap! This is a lot likeGTA III. Awesome!" There's no shame in taking a proven gameplay formula and changing it a little bit to fit a scheme of your own.
This one problem aside,Mafia 2 has the makings of a blockbuster release, and is a potential must-have for your late summer shopping lists. Who knows, by the timeGrand Theft Auto 5 comes out, the comparisons may be the other way around.
| Main games | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other games | |||||||
| Other media | |||||||
| People | |||||||
| Related | |||||||
| Action |
|  | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Action-adventure | |||||||||||
| Adventure | |||||||||||
| Digital tabletop | |||||||||||
| Puzzle | |||||||||||
| Role-playing | |||||||||||
| Simulation |
| ||||||||||
| Strategy | |||||||||||
| Other genres | |||||||||||
| Related concepts |
| ||||||||||
