What a society criminalises, and what that says about it.
Payday: The Heist is a 2011 cooperative FPS by Overkill Software. It establishes the core loop of theft-driven co-op play, hostage-based revival, and civilian protection. Its randomisation adds replayability without altering mechanics. It lacks progression, narrative, or solo support. It runs on PlayStation 3 and Windows.
Payday 2 is a cooperative heist shooter released in 2013 by Overkill Software, developed with funding from Starbreeze Studios after their 2012 acquisition, and led in design by David Goldfarb.
Grand Theft Auto III is a foundational open-world action-adventure game that redefined spatial possibility in games—but its systems remain rigid, its controls unrefined, and its world more atmospheric than alive.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is an action-adventure game published by Rockstar Games in 2004. Players control Carl 'CJ' Johnson in a third-person open world representing a fictionalised California and Nevada. The world comprises three cities—Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas—connected by rural and desert areas. Cities unlock progressively through the story; airports allow fast travel between them. Players complete linear story missions with fixed objectives, and may freely explore and undertake optional side missions. Navigation includes running, swimming, and vehicle use; combat includes melee, firearms, explosives, dual-wielding, and drive-by shootings. Weapons are acquired via purchase, looting corpses, or finding them scattered across the world. Safehouses—purchasable locations—are used to save progress and store vehicles. The game introduces role-playing elements such as character customisation, skill progression, gang territory control, and relationship management.
Grand Theft Auto V is an action-adventure game released in 2013 by Rockstar Games. It features an open-world setting modelled on Southern California and Los Angeles, navigable on foot or by vehicle from third- or first-person perspectives. Players control three protagonists—Michael, Franklin, and Trevor—and switch between them during and outside linear story missions centred on heists. Gameplay includes shooting, driving, melee combat, explosives, and a 'wanted' system that escalates law enforcement response to crimes. The world is fully explorable after the prologue and supports context-specific activities, property purchases, stock trading, and character-specific skills. Combat uses auto-aim and cover systems; health regenerates to halfway, with respawns at hospitals upon death. Heists involve AI accomplices with unique skills and support multiple strategies. The game runs on the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) and is part of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, originally published by BMG Interactive.
Vice City is a meticulously directed crime fantasy—not an open world, but a staged one.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a meticulously simulated Western world built on procedural consequence — not player authorship.