History Videogame / GrandTheftAuto

*** The protagonist's sister, Kendl, is portrayed as the "brains" of the Johnson family and is constantly frustrated by her brothers' attempts at gangbanging and criminal activities (although she has no qualms about using the ill-gotten gains). Further, her brothers [[MySisterIsOffLimits show constant concern about her virtue]], at first staunchly disapproving that she is dating the Latino gangster, Caesar. The main antagonist, Officer Tenpenny, even constantly tries to intimidate and anger Carl by threatening Kendl with harm and rape, stating at one point that Carl should be glad that she currently "only sucking one greaseball's dick".

* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: The biker gangs in ''Vice City'' and ''Vice City Stories'', and the Lost Brotherhood and the Angels of Death in ''IV''.

* BareYourMidriff: Quite a few female characters throughout the series, including prostitutes and female pedestrians. Of course, you can also do this yourself in ''V''[='=]s online mode if you choose to play as a female character.

* WeAllLiveInAmerica: United Kingdom variant. The games are filled with references to British (particularly Scottish) places, and British slang is sometimes heard coming from the mouths of the American characters.
** ''III'' and ''LCS'' have TheYardies existing in the New York pastiche of Liberty City, despite being a primarily British criminal trope.
** The games have signs reading "Maximum headroom X meters", while the American phrasing would be "Maximum clearance".
** In ''V'', the pop music station Non Stop Pop FM features tracks by Music/MisTeeq, Music/NJoi, Music/{{Modjo}}, and Music/AllSaints, all of whom were successful in the UK but fairly unknown in the US, despite the station being based in a pastiche of Los Angeles.
** The first UpdatedRerelease for ''V'' updated the traffic to include cars from the first year of ''Online'' updates. This includes the Pigalle, which is based on the Citroën SM which was mostly sold outside America, has a Europe-styled plate, and yet is extremely common to find on the streets of Los Santos.

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: See CardboardPrison, but replace "arrested" with "killed", and "police station" with "hospital". Oh, and in ''IV'', you don't even lose your weapons when you get killed.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' and ''GrandTheftAutoV/{{Grand Theft Auto Online|tropes}}'' (2013; [[UpdatedRerelease Updated Rereleases]] in 2014 [UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne], 2015 [PC], and 2022 [UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS])

* EveryCarIsAPinto: Before ''IV'', cars that took enough damage would star flaming and explode within a few seconds. In ''Vice City'' and ''San Andreas'', this could even happen if you ''stomped on the roof'' long enough. Somewhat averted in ''IV'', where, after enough damage, the car's engine will die. They'll still explode given enough extra rounds though.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' and ''Grand Theft Auto Online'' (2013; [[UpdatedRerelease Updated Rereleases]] in 2014 [UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne], 2015 [PC], and 2022 [UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS])

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' and ''Grand Theft Auto Online'' (2013; [[UpdatedRerelease Updated Rereleases]] in 2014 [UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne], 2015 [PC], and 2021 [UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS])

* CaptainCrash: It's surprising how many cab rides in IV end up knocking a light pole over as they drop you off.

** ''IV'' has the lollipop girl. While she doesn't appear in-game, she does get a name, Lola Del Rio, that can be looked up in the LSPD database.

Now has [[Characters/GrandTheftAuto a character sheet]]. You can vote for your favorite game [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/BestEpisode/GrandTheftAuto here]].

-->-- Lyrics from [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoClassic the first game's]] SignatureSong, "'''Grand Theft Auto'''" ([[RefrainFromAssuming also known as]] "'''Joyride'''") by Craig Conner

* IconicLogo: The series initially started with widely varying logos for each game, but ''[=III=]'' gave the series an identifying Pricedown-styled logo[[note]]The logo's typeface can also be traced to [[http://priceisright.wikia.com/wiki/The_Price_is_Right_Logos another iconic logo]] of [[Series/ThePriceIsRight an even older source material]].[[/note]] that stuck with every game since.

''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' was an entirely different ball game. It's probably not a coincidence that DMA were now working on a new console and attached to a new publisher: the wealthy Rockstar Games division of Take Two Interactive. First and foremost, the overhead view was done away with, bringing the game into three dimensions instead and allowing for a LOT more gore. An overhead camera could be selected for those who liked the old way, but only in that particular game. ''Vice City'' and onwards did away with the option fully.

** ''The Lost and Damned'' has an anonymous BikerBabe situated to the right of Johnny.

* PoliceAreUseless: [[UpToEleven Are they ever]]! [[VillainProtagonist But you're certainly lucky they are.]] Gets hilarious if they manage to cause more destruction than you during chases. However, this is averted in V in the fact that they are very accurate, in addition to the fact that people have tested the police cruiser and found it faster than most ''supercars''.

* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: The series has gone up and down like a yo-yo. The first several games were pretty silly, ''GTA III'' crept a little towards the serious, ''Vice City'' was big silly fun, ''San Andreas'' mixed both to great effect and ''GTA IV'' was very serious and dark. ''The Lost and Damned'' became [[UpToEleven even darker and more depressing,]] while ''The Ballad of Gay Tony'' was more lighthearted. ''GTA V'' is centered on the economy and is a lighter shade of seriousness than ''IV''.

* UpToEleven: The ''GTA'' universe is basically RealLife America taken UpToEleven. The laziness, greed, selfishness, superficiality, prejudice, politicization, drug use, and obsession with sex, violence, brand names, status symbols, celebrities, pop culture, money, and fame are amplified for the sake of satire and social commentary.

* CrapsaccharineWorld[=/=]CrapsackWorld: In all the cities where the franchise takes place, organized crime and corruption is rampant. It's not very different from the reality of some of the most corrupt cities in the world though.

%%* {{Confessional}}

%%* HotPursuit

%%* TheTaxi

%%* YouAllLookFamiliar

* BallisticDiscount
* BangBangBANG
* BankRobbery: Occurs in every game since III. The prologue of ''III'' is set up by a bank robbery gone bad, and you act as a getaway driver for the Mafia after one in a mission. Vice City has a major one, as the culmination of a lengthy questline. ''San Andreas'' has CJ committing a string of robberies with Catalina, one of which is in a bank, as well as robbing a casino in a ShoutOut to ''Film/OceansEleven''.

* GenreBusting

* HotPursuit

* YouAllLookFamiliar

* AllCrimesAreEqual: Go on a killing spree? Police will shoot, fair enough. Steal a bunch of cars with police nearby? Police will shoot, still kind of fair. Pushing past someone or lightly tapping a cop car? Police will shoot.

* TimedMission: Featured in many flavors througout the series, from more mundane cases where you have to assassinate a target before they're out of range or help someone who is critically injured, to more asinine situations like "Shakedown" in ''Vice City'', where you given five minutes to smash several storefronts in North Point Mall just because Tommy said he's be back in five.

* DisposableSexWorker: And how.
* TheDon: Salvatore Leone from III is the best example.

* RoadBlock: This can be found in some games, mainly ''Vice City'' (where the roads are blocked due to an hurricane threat) and ''San Andreas'' (where the roads are blocked due to an earthquake some time prior to the game events that has destroyed most bridges). In the former, it serves as an effective BrokenBridge, but in the latter, since your character can swim, there's also a BorderPatrol in the shape of a wanted level whenever you leaved the unlocked area.

%%* ThirdIs3D
* TimedMission

After eight years of silence, with Rockstar focusing almost exclusively on ''GTA Online''; October 8, 2021 marks the day that Rockstar finally gave the green light to the {{Remaster}} ''Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition'', a compilation of the [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII first]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity three]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas games]] of the 3D era, complete with graphical enhancements via Unreal Engine 4. It was released on November 11, 2021 for the PC, [=PS4=], X-Box One and Switch. With a mobile version expected in 2022. To say that reactions to this "definitive edition" have been polarizing would be a massive understatement...

After fourth months of the release of the controversial {{Remaster}}, Rockstar announced the development of the next ''Grand Theft Auto'' game is "well underway".