Summary

Rockstar Gamesis a video game developer best associated with its tremendous achievements in developingopen-world crime video gamesand the crime genre in general. Its two most recognized and best-selling series are Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, with GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 easily being its greatest of all time, and GTA 6 following suit.

However, GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are also the studio’s last two launches that are still more played and discussed than some of the studio’s classic titles on older-gen consoles, making them all terribly underrated. Here are some of the Rockstar gems you should know about!

Though it’s far less famous than Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2, 2004’s Red Dead Revolver is the game that started it all. What exactly is this game? Well, it’s actually the first official entry in the Red Dead series that’s often left forgotten in the dust due to it largely being overshadowed by the acclaim of the 2010 game.

Though it does have a much smaller gameplay scope and no open-world traversal, Revolver is still definitely worth experiencing. The game is set in the 1880s US, the Dead Eye system is available to you, and your main objectives are getting into non-stop shootouts across levels and collecting bounties on challenging bossesas vengeful protagonist Red Harlow.

July 25, 2025 (first game), Jul 07, 2025 (sequel)

Genre(s)

Action, Racing, Driving, Delivery

Yes, the inspiration for the GTA Online 2017 update ‘Smuggler’s Run’ had to come from somewhere.It’s actually an Easter egg homageto Rockstar’s 2000 game Smuggler’s Run, which also received a sequel, Hostile Territory, the following year, and this is a vehicle delivery series you’ve probably never even heard of.

As the name suggests, you will be making runs as a smuggler in a variety of vehicles while evading various forms of law enforcement, like local police, Border Patrol, and even the army and CIA. Don’t expect as much story content as you would normally get in a Rockstar game, but there are plenty of main missions, a Joyride mode, a Turf War mode, and non-stop vehicle mayhem and chases.

Ping-pong, or more traditionally, table tennis, is one of themost underrepresented sports in gaming, especially in the Triple-A scene. But did you know that Rockstar Games of all developers did something about that? In 2006, it launched Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis exclusively for the Wii and 360, which remains an undefeated high-quality ping pong video game.

If you’re a pro at table tennis in the real world or struggle with the sport, this game will prove equally challenging because it tries to simulate the physics as closely as possible. You won’t find a game of its kind with as much attention to detail, and it also utilizes actual player character and opponent models over just having the paddles.

GTA games have racing incorporated into themand racing games are generally plenty, with almost every studio and publisher trying to get its foot in the genre, most famously PlayStation’s Gran Turismo and Xbox’s Forza. But then there are series like Burnout, The Crew, Need for Speed, and, of course, let’s not forget Rockstar’s real-life Japanese street racing team-inspired Midnight Club.

The series started in 2000 with Midnight Club: Street Racing, and it picked up from there with three additional sequels, the final entry being Midnight Club: LA. It’s notable for offering an interesting mix of a style that leans more open world while remaining largely influenced by arcade racing games. The vehicle systems and features, as well as the simulated urban street racing environments, are an underdog in the genre.

For the third Max Payne installment,the development switched over to Rockstar, and it really shows. Max Payne 3 focuses more on perfecting the intense and brutal gunplay action rather than expanding the rich graphic novel storytelling of the first two from Remedy. However, it still keeps that noir narration during 3D cutscenes and is an underappreciated gem of a third-person shooter.

The signature bullet time and shootdodging mechanics are as satisfying as ever to use in combat, and now there’s an added cover system. It’s a very gritty crime game and more visually stylistic than other Rockstar offerings, taking you to Brazil nine years after the events of The Fall of Max Payne. Max gets a new look and a new job, but the same iconic gameplay style.

Typically, when Rockstar sets out to design a crime game, your protagonist is on the wrong side of the law. L.A. Noire flips the script and has you become police officer Cole Phelps, who works his way up the chain of command from a rookie street copto a seasoned homicide detectivein post-war 1940s Los Angeles.

This game immerses you in its noir atmosphere and makes you feel like you’re an actual detective, with its clever suspect questioning and interrogation system and the way you discover clues around crime scenes to piece together evidence. There are cases inspired by true crime from that era, most infamously the Black Dahlia case, and the open world is just as beautifully realized.

Bully is even less talked about than L.A. Noire, yet it bears the most similarities with the mainline Grand Theft Auto series. Just imagine if a GTA protagonist was aged down to a teenager and turned to a life of mischief and criminal actsin an affluent boarding school community. That would precisely describe Rockstar’s Bully.

Your Lamborghini and motorcycle now become a skateboard and bicycle, and your weapon of choice isn’t a pistol, rocket launcher, or semi-automatic rifle, but a slingshot and firecrackers. As Jimmy, you wreak havoc and pull pranks in GTA-style missions across Bullworth Academy, while dealing with classroom minigames, bullies, and your main arch nemesis – principal Crabblesnitch.

While Red Dead Redemption 2 has its unintentionally creepy moments, did you expect Rockstar to launch a full-on stealth horror game that’s somewhat akin to a singleplayer predecessor to Dead by Daylight? Probably not on your Rockstar bingo card, but it is a severely underrated horror game that’s one of the darkest and most violent you’re able to play.

The whole premise of the story is that you’re a death row inmate who survives lethal injection in the fictional Carcer City and is pitted against other vile criminals in a Running Man-style fight to the death, hosted by a figure known as The Director (who’s also voiced by Succession’s Brian Cox)and playing out over CCTV footage. Manhunt also shares many connections to the GTA series!

Chinatown Wars isone of the best GTA games in the seriesthat doesn’t get anywhere near enough credit as GTA 5 and San Andreas do. While the top-down style might put many players off, and it’s not the same gameplay as you see in the mainline series, it’s a highly underestimated entry and tells just as great of a story with a Triad protagonist and characters you find compelling.

The missions follow the classic structure, as well as the map design, and the cutscenes and art direction have a visual novel aesthetic, using the same illustration style as you see in traditional GTA game cover art. The physics of driving cars, seeing them get banged up when you crash, and the general mechanics are just as satisfying. It’s like a perfect pocket mobile GTA game.

The Warriors is a 1979 movie about New York street gangs that’s itself underrated, and it was developed into a 2005 video game adaptation by Rockstar,which then also became a forgotten gem. Thematically, you’re able to see why this film was chosen by Rockstar to become a video game, and it’s up there with The Thing and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as far as games based on movies go.

The storyline follows the eponymous street gang from the film as they attempt to make it safely back to their Coney Island territory after standing falsely accused of murdering a rival gang leader. It’s a harrowing and suspenseful plot that involves lots of enemies, and this naturally translates into the game with a beat ‘em-up combat encounter style.