Summary
Rockstar Games is one of the most famous game developer studios around for good reason. Their games constantly push boundaries, particularly when it comes to the all-important graphics that make their open worlds come alive.
Whether it be the jump to 3D or heightening those 3D graphics to unparalleled levels of realism, Rockstar has released plenty of games with incredible graphics for their era.
Some of these games haven’t held up well by modern standards, but that’s okay. These are the games that were the best for their time. The list will also take into account games that Rockstar published.
In terms of graphical leaps, the jump from the PS2/Xbox generation to the PS3/Xbox 360 generation was massive, making large-scale open worlds not just possible (as would be seen in the influx of games in that genre), but also making those worlds feel ever more real.
Grand Theft Auto 4did it first, and quite possibly did it bestwith tons of hidden details and secrets to be found. Though the game has a somewhat divisive reputation owing to its admittedly drab vision of Liberty City, it was unprecedented in the realism it offered, with it holding up very well to this day. Rockstar proved just how powerful their open worlds could be by taking advantage of every ounce of power they had in the consoles they had to work with.
As the 2010s progressed, it became increasingly clear that Rockstar’s output in terms of games was decreasing, meaning that every new entry in whatever franchise they were targeting next would likely be a big jump, which was very true forRed Dead Redemption 2.
The first game Rockstar made for the PS4/Xbox One generation (if excluding remasters of older games),Red Dead Redemption 2put all of Rockstar’s efforts towards unparalleled realism, crafting a vision of the West that looked like it was straight out of Romantic paintings,full of hidden and rare encounters, with even more brilliant attention to detail. It is quite possible the best the Wild West has ever looked in video games, and it’s not likely to be surpassed soon.
While Rockstar’s productions are known to be slow these days, back in the early/mid-2000s, they were pumping out games very quickly, including the now-famous trilogy of Grand Theft Auto games released just a couple of years from each other: 3, Vice City, and San Andreas.
While each has its fans,Grand Theft Auto: San Andreaswas the pinnacle of Rockstar’s efforts for its time, crafting not only loving homages to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas but also filling it up with a never-before explored countryside in Grand Theft Auto games. It looks dated these days, but for its time, it was a stunning achievement, particularly as it had to somehow render that entire open world on PS2/Xbox hardware.
In Rockstar’s long and storied history, it’s probably fair to say thatGrand Theft Auto 5was the most important game they ever made, forever shifting the way their business model and quality standards operated, bringing together what seems to be the definitive vision of what the fictional state of San Andreas looks likechoc-full of breathtaking locations.
It remains a marvel to this day how on earthGrand Theft Auto 5ran on PS3/Xbox 360 hardware, especially considering it wasn’t too long afterGrand Theft Auto 4. Yet, the machines handled it, and the game became a smash hit with incredible graphics for the time that only got better with subsequent remasters for newer consoles.
AlthoughMax Paynedoesn’t look like much these days, it’s important to remember that came out in 2001, not long after the PS2/Xbox generation began, not only inspiring a whole suite of third-person shooters to come but also setting the standard for graphical fidelity andaging delightfully well in the process.
This is perhaps best seen in the model of protagonist Max himself. Famously, Remedy used a facial scan of now gaming-darling Sam Lake to depict the character, which, while a little goofy by today’s standards, was an incredible leap forward in character models for the time.
If any game in the Rockstar catalog deserved a better end, it was Team Bondi’s work onL.A. Noire, a detective game set shortly after WW2 in Los Angeles, where players take control of Cole Phelps solving a whole litany of cases in the city of sin.
What really set it apart was its revolutionary facial scan technology for the time. This was essential in crafting the game’s deduction segments where players had to figure out whether interviewed suspects and witnesses were lying or telling the truth. While it’s true that some of those scans seem a little silly by today’s standards, it was a tangible and influential leap forward that clearly had a massive impact onthe best motion capture performances in all of gaming history.
ThoughGrand Theft Auto 3is rarely mentioned these days when it comes to a favorite of the franchise, it’s incredibly important to give this entry its well-deserved flowers for transposing the world of 2D into 3D and launching the franchise into the commercial juggernaut that it is today.
BeforeGrand Theft Auto 3,the games were top-down car-based mayhem simulators that were fun arcade experiences but had nowhere near the depth the franchise would come to have.Grand Theft Auto 3somehow turned the page and single-handedly revolutionized the entire open-world genre, pulling off a technical masterclass in rendering an open world in 3D on underpowered hardware, all while setting the foundations for all of Rockstar’s success that would soon follow.
