Even people who have never played a video game in their entire lives would surely know that the Grand Theft Auto series is not about doing the right thing. Yes, it is about crime, and - when the players decide to run amok in the city - said crime might end up taking the lives of innocents.
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When it comes to its missions, even the GTA series generally does the right thing, which is to allow players to act in criminal ways but against equally evil folk. Still, sometimes the series goes places even the most hardcore of gamers could consider too far. Let's look at the darkest missions in Grand Theft Auto, which certainly stirred up controversy.
9 Friend Request (Grand Theft Auto 5)
If It's On TV, Then It's Probably Fake, Right?
Grand Theft Auto 5
- Released
- September 17, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action
- Probably a bit too much
- Though still pretty funny
GTA 5 has more of a comedic tone than GTA 4 did, but that often results in players laughing at pretty grim stuff. In this surprisingly interesting mission, Michael rigs a mobile device that ends up blowing up on the face of someone on live TV. The controversy of Friend Request comes from its real-life satire, as Michael needs to infiltrate Lifeinvader (Facebook) to give the CEO, Jay Norris (Mark Zuckerberg), a mobile phone that will explode and kill him when used. The idea of assassinating a real-life figure in a game is sure to stir up controversy.
8 Flatliner (Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars)
Pretty Heartless
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
- Released
- March 17, 2009
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar North
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Engine
- RenderWare
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
- A normal mission that culminates with a rather dark twist
In Flatliner from Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, players are tasked with rescuing and extracting an ill man. After driving and shooting through an army of armed targets, players would think that they'd finally saved this man's life, but that's not the case. In an incredibly grisly twist, the player learns that he'd merely taken this man to his execution spot. Even worse, he dies by literally having his heart pulled out right there and then. It's barbaric, cruel, but noted for the classic dark GTA humor.
7 Dead Meat (Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories)
Careful Where You Eat
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
- Released
- October 25, 2005
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar North
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Engine
- RenderWare
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Sandbox
- Directly inspired by The Sopranos
One would think the GTA 3 spinoffs originally released for the Sony PSP would be tamer in an attempt to appease a wider audience, but that would be wrong. These games have some of the darkest content in the series. In this mission, for example, the main character not only kills a guy, but also butchers him, then processes his body to turn him into meat to be sold by his own family's restaurant without the knowledge of his family. This is probably modern GTA at its most visually gruesome, as it encourages cannibalism, even if unknowingly.
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6 Helping Eddie Low (Grand Theft Auto 4)
Selling Your Soul To The Devil
Grand Theft Auto 4
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 95 /100 Critics Rec: 100%
- Released
- April 29, 2008
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
WHERE TO PLAY
- This is not animal meat
- Niko shouldn't be dealing with *this* type of criminal
Players spend the entirety of their GTA playthroughs working for people they know to be evil, but evil towards other people who are also in the crime game. That's not what's up with Eddie, a shady man Niko Bellik occasionally does business with. His missions are rather simple; this man just wants to get rid of some baggage. Sadly, this baggage is filled with human body parts, which seems to indicate that Eddie - a man with no other apparent connections to the crime world - is a serial killer, and Niko is his willing accomplice, furthering his immorality as players seem all-too-keen to help a serial killer get away with it.
5 Have A Heart (Grand Theft Auto 4)
Niko's Darkest Moment
- This is more in line with what Trevor would do
- And even he would probably not like it
At the start of GTA 4, Niko Bellic doesn't hide the fact that he'd partaken in human trafficking before coming to Liberty City. In one mission, however, he seems to dig even deeper, as he begins to deal with an organ trafficker who buys frozen bodies off of Niko. It's a mission with an incredibly loathsome premise from the get-go, but it somehow gets even worse by the end of it, as, unlike with the Eddie Low missions in which Niko understands what he's doing is wrong, this time he seems to have no problem with it.
4 Bringing The House Down (Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories)
Nothing To Read Into This One...
- All in the name of capitalism
In this mission in Liberty City Stories, the player is tasked with straight-up rigging and blowing up an entire city block. The plan is rather complex, so it could have very well included a step where the player sounded an alarm to get all the people out of their homes before blowing them up, but nope. This is just an absolutely foul thing to do, especially since we're not blowing up a block in crime city, but rather a whole block full of civilians just so a rich mogul can have his way. It's a supportive act of terrorism that makes Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's No Russian look like child's play.
3 Hot Dog Homicide! (Grand Theft Auto 2)
Hot Coffee > Hot Dog
Grand Theft Auto 2
- Released
- February 13, 1999
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar North, Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Engine
- RenderWare
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure, Shooter
- By far, the most gruesome moment in the entire series
What's worse than killing a guy to sell his remains as meat? Doing that to a bunch of people. In this mission, the main character is tasked with loading up a bus with civilians, then taking them to a processing plant where they get butchered and turned into hot dog meat. The PlayStation version of the game doesn't feature civilian buses, so at least in that version, the player is only turning bad people into hot dogs, but even still, it's a gruesome fate. This mission would immediately go to the #1 on this list if not for the fact that this game was made in a different time, one where this kind of edgy content in a game wasn't as frowned upon as it is nowadays.
2 Hot Coffee (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas)
A Mission So Controversial, It Was Actually Cut
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Released
- October 26, 2004
WHERE TO PLAY
- The holy grail of GTA controversies
Though "Hot Coffee" is only part of a cut activity in GTA San Andreas, it just needs to be mentioned due to it being by far the most controversial moment in the history of the game. This is the first and only time the series could have shown players an actual graphic sex scene. There's, however, no violence in it, so Hot Coffee is actually pretty tame in comparison to many things the developers did before and after the release of San Andreas.
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1 By The Book (Grand Theft Auto 5)
By What Book?
- The Geneva Convention would not approve
- Neither should players
By the time this mission comes, players are already aware that Trevor Phillips has no limits to what he'll do. Still, players wouldn't expect the game to have players have him straight-up torturing one man. They'd be wrong, as Trevor sure does engage in vile acts of torture, making use of a different set of items like jumper cables and even waterboarding. The poor guy who gets tortured doesn't even die by the end of it, but this is just too much for a game that came out in the 2010s. Trevor is one of the funniest characters in the entire series because of his lack of limits, but this is where things go too far, even for him.
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