What to Play While Waiting for GTA 6

The best game to play before GTA 6 depends on whether you want Rockstar’s mission design, dense open-world detail, crime stories, or a Miami-like atmosphere. None is required preparation, so choose the experience that sounds enjoyable now.

Best overall choice: Grand Theft Auto V

GTA V is the closest released comparison because it is the previous numbered GTA and uses Rockstar’s modern open-world structure. Its campaign follows Michael, Franklin, and Trevor across Los Santos and Blaine County, combining directed missions with driving, exploration, side activities, and character switching.

Play it to understand the series’ rhythm: story missions unlock opportunities, travel makes the setting familiar, and radio and advertising turn the world into part of the satire. Do not play it expecting GTA 6 to copy every feature. Leonida, Lucia Caminos, and Jason Duval create a different geographic and narrative setup.

If time is short, follow the main story rather than clearing every optional activity. The GTA 6 versus GTA 5 guide explains the confirmed differences.

Best for Rockstar world-building: Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2, released in 2018, is not a modern crime game. It is valuable here because it shows Rockstar building an environment whose wildlife, towns, travel, side encounters, and character routines support a slower, highly observed world.

Choose it if your interest in GTA 6 centers on environmental detail rather than cars and contemporary satire. Its deliberate pace is a feature, but it makes RDR2 a poor substitute for someone who only wants quick urban driving. It also offers no factual preview of GTA 6 mechanics; it is evidence of a developer’s earlier craft, not a specification sheet for its next game.

Best historical companion: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

The 2002 Vice City is the most directly relevant older location. Set in 1986 and starring Tommy Vercetti, it turns an 1980s Miami-inspired city into the core of its crime story. Music, neon, coastal scenery, and period excess give it a distinct identity.

Play it to see what “Vice City” meant in the 3D era, then compare that with the present-day city shown in GTA 6 Trailer 1. Expect older controls, checkpoints, and mission conventions. GTA 6 is a new Leonida story, not a remake, so nostalgia is context rather than required lore.

Other GTA stories worth choosing

Different older entries emphasize different strengths:

These games do not reveal GTA 6’s plot. They simply demonstrate how flexible the GTA format has been across protagonists and settings.

Open-world crime beyond GTA

Several non-Rockstar games are useful palate cleansers because they solve the open-world crime format differently.

Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs combines an urban crime story with driving and a strong emphasis on hand-to-hand combat. Its Hong Kong setting and undercover-police perspective make it distinct from GTA rather than an imitation. Pick it for a compact city with a clear cultural identity.

Mafia: Definitive Edition

Mafia: Definitive Edition is a more linear, period-focused crime drama set in a city that supports the story rather than an enormous checklist. It fits players who want organized-crime atmosphere and authored missions without needing unlimited open-ended activity.

Watch Dogs 2

Watch Dogs 2 offers a bright contemporary city, vehicles, and systemic approaches built around hacking. Its tone and mechanics differ from GTA, making it useful if you enjoy causing creative chain reactions in an urban sandbox.

Saints Row: The Third

Saints Row: The Third pushes open-world crime toward overt absurdity and arcade spectacle. It suits players who want immediate chaos and comedy, not a close prediction of Rockstar’s style.

Florida and Miami-flavored alternatives

Few major games provide the same combination GTA 6 promises from fictional Florida, but some capture individual parts of the flavor.

These are mood matches, not research tools. The confirmed Leonida setting guide is the better source for GTA 6 geography.

Pick by the time you have

You do not need to complete a hundred-hour checklist before November 19, 2026.

• One long game: Choose GTA V or Red Dead Redemption 2.
• One historical GTA: Choose Vice City.
• A focused crime campaign: Choose Mafia: Definitive Edition or Sleeping Dogs.
• Short, intense sessions: Choose Hotline Miami.
• Driving first: Choose Need for Speed Heat.

Avoid turning other games into supposed proof of unannounced GTA 6 features. The two official trailers and the confirmed-facts page define what is known. Everything on this list is here because it shares a design interest, location flavor, or genre—not because playing it unlocks missing context.

The strongest two-game pairing is GTA V for the modern series structure and Vice City for the location’s history. Add RDR2 if you want to appreciate Rockstar’s later environmental storytelling. Then stop when the wait starts feeling like work; GTA 6 is designed to stand on its own.