The 11 best Rockstar games that aren’t GTA – from Lemmings to Red Dead

What’s your favourite Rockstar game that’s not GTA? (DMA Design/Rockstar/Metro) Before GTA 6 arrives and dominates everyone’s lives, GameCentral looks back at Rockstar’s past work to highlight the company’s non-GTA past. Unless something radically changes, Rockstar Games will always be defined by Grand Theft Auto. Not just because the games are really good, but because it’s one of the most successful video game properties ever, with GTA 6 set to be a cultural touchstone for all entertainment, and not just gaming. We doubt Rockstar minds that reputation, considering how much money GTA makes (especially GTA Online), but it is a shame that, for a lot of people, that, and maybe Red Dead Redemption, is all the studio is known for. So, with GTA 6 set to take the world by storm later this month, we want to acknowledge Rockstar’s best games that aren’t GTA, covering the company’s entire history – including when it was called DMA Design. Just to clarify, we’re including anything that Rockstar’s various studios have had a significant hand in developing, as well as games by DMA Design, which later became Rockstar North – the Edinburgh based studio responsible for the GTA games. Want GTA 6 news? Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week. Lemmings (1991) Long time readers will know we’ll take any opportunity to bat for Lemmings, which was DMA Design’s first big hit, long before GTA was ever a thing. It was a very successful series, primarily on the Amiga and Atari ST, but because it worked best with a mouse was never as successful on consoles. DMA Design made three mainline entries and several expansion packs, but they all worked in the same general way, as you guided a tribe of Lemmings through a variety of puzzle-based levels. Being Lemmings they would simply walk from left to right across the screen, completely ignoring deadly falls and traps. So you had to utilise a limited number of special skills and equipment to get the majority of them to the exit. Lemmings was published by WipEout creator Psygnosis, which means that Sony owns the franchise now. They do make the occasional half-hearted effort to revive it but no attempt, so far, has proven successful. Body Harvest (1998) While 90s Nintendo fans missed out on the original GTA, DMA Design followed it up with what is essentially a prototype for GTA 3 on the Nintendo 64. Called Body Harvest, it cast you as a time-traveling super soldier fending off an alien invasion. It’s horribly unpolished, and not very fun, but its 3D open world environments and non-linear progression clearly set the groundwork for the 3D GTA games. Inspired by the previous year’s Starship Troopers movie, it was violent enough for Nintendo to pull out of publishing it – even though DMA Design was initially promoted as one of their ‘dream team’ of third party developers. Despite its historical significance, the game’s been largely forgotten today, but it did see a re-release only last year for something called the Polymega – a console made for supporting retro games. Space Station Silicon Valley (1998) We wouldn’t blame you not knowing what Space Station Silicon Valley is. Even when it was new, people had barely heard of it and it was a sales flop. That’s a real shame as it’s something of a hidden gem on the Nintendo 64 and, on a technical level, another important stepping stone towards GTA 3. As a damaged robot reduced to only a microchip, you explore environments and solve puzzles by taking control of various robotic animals, each with their own unique skill sets and attacks. It’s an enjoyably creative platformer, like a more puzzle-orientated counterpart to the old Paradroid games. Sadly, it’s yet to see any sort of modern re-release, so we can only hope Nintendo and/or publisher Take-Two Interactive eventually bring it to the Nintendo Switch Online retro library. Is DMA Design the same as Rockstar North? Well yes, but actually no. It’s a little complicated. DMA Design was founded in 1988 in Dundee, Scotland and made the first three mainline GTA games, with the second and third ones published by Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two founded in 1998 by Dan Houser, lead writer on the 3D GTA games, and his brother Sam Houser. Technically, DMA Design was shut down in 2000 and the staff moved from the original Dundee offices to form Rockstar North in Edinburgh. However, a lot of the original DMA Design team left halfway through the development of GTA 3. So while DMA Design and Rockstar North are generally considered the same studio very few of the original staff made it as far as GTA: Vice City in 2002, which was the first game to use the Rockstar North name. In Manhunt 1, you’re tasked with murdering vile criminals (Rockstar) Manhunt 1 and 2 (2003/2007) The infamous Hot Coffee minigame is far from the only controversy Rockstar has courted. Both of its Manhunt games drew praise and outrage for their extreme depictions of violence, particularly the second one, which Rockstar had to censor so it could be sold in the UK. Sporting a much darker tone than the GTA games, Manhunt is a stealth series but one that doesn’t reward pacifism, as you are graded on how brutally you dispatch your targets. The first game’s plot revolves around its protagonist being forced to participate in making snuff films, so the idea is that you’re always being watched. While never as popular as GTA, Manhunt remains a cult classic amongst those with a stomach for its violence. The first game is still available on PC via Steam, although the sequel’s PC version only ever launched in the US and Rockstar likely doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of re-releasing either game for modern consoles today. The Warriors (2005) By the mid 2000s Rockstar Games was Take-Two’s golden goose and they were allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted. So while the film The Warriors was already 20 years old by 2005 they made an adaptation of it anyway, just because it was a favourite amongst the developers. Handled by Rockstar Toronto, it’s actually a pretty great scrolling beat ’em-up, and one of the best modern(-ish) attempts to update the arcade formula with more depth and better storytelling. If you have seen the movie, the game is fantastically authentic in its visuals and soundtrack, with several actors reprising their roles. The game is available digitally on the PlayStation 4 for just £11.99, although some of the licensed music has unfortunately been removed. Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (2006) If The Warriors was already an indulgence on Rockstar’s part, their table tennis game was even more so. Actual table tennis was very popular amongst Rockstar developers and execs and so they decided to put their experience of the game to use with a video game version. What’s particularly weird about the game is that’s a very sterile affair, with absolutely no sign it’s anything to do with Rockstar, in terms of humour or violence. It’s a very good simulation of the sport, but that’s all it is. The game also served as a testing ground for Rockstar’s new RAGE graphics engine, which has been used for all their subsequent titles, including GTA 6. If you’re at all curious, the original Xbox 360 version is available digitally for £11.99 and is backwards compatible with current Xbox hardware. Bully (2006) Like most Rockstar games there was plenty of controversy surrounding Bully when it was first released; enough to see it renamed as Canis Canem Edit (dog eat dog in Latin) in the UK, because MPs though it was encouraging bullying – when in actual fact your character is usually the one on the receiving end. While it does share some DNA with GTA, it’d be reductive to describe it as a simple clone, as developer Rockstar Vancouver takes full advantage of its school setting. Your weapons are slingshots and itching powder, while passing classes unlocks new abilities to better explore the environment, and its stereotypes of school cliques are delightfully over the top. A sequel was planned but ultimately cancelled, although Rockstar hasn’t completely ignored the original since then. The Scholarship Edition remaster is easily available for just £11.99 on PlayStation 4, Xbox, and PC, and it’s also included with Rockstar’s GTA+ subscription service. L.A. Noire (2011) This game was primarily handled by the now defunct Australian studio Team Bondi, but several Rockstar studios assisted in its development and it was published by Rockstar Games so we’re counting it for this list. L.A. Noire’s open world city may be disappointingly sparse, and lacking in true film noir atmosphere, but this remains one of the best detective games out there thanks to not just the puzzle solving and Ace Attorney style interrogations, but the still impressive facial animation. The 2017 remaster for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC comes highly recommended and we hope the chatter about a sequel bears fruit someday. Especially since Team Bondi’s successor, Video Games Deluxe – which made L.A. Noire’s VR reimagining – is now a Rockstar subsidiary, under the name Rockstar Australia. (Why is Rockstar North the only developer that doesn’t have the name of its city or country in its name?) Max Payne 3 (2012) After publishing the first two Max Payne games, Rockstar took over development duties itself for Max Payne 3. And while it wasn’t a commercial hit, and even branded a failure by its writer, Dan Houser, it’s still a very polished and enjoyable third person shooter. Its presentation, physics, and gunplay are all top notch, and the bullet time gimmick remains effective despite how common it had become in other shooters by 2012. It’s just a shame the gunplay never evolves past the tutorial, and the story lacks the tongue-in-cheek humour of the previous games. Nowadays, you can get the game for less than £20 on Steam or the Xbox store via backwards compatibility. We don’t know if there’ll ever be a Max Payne 4, but there is a chance, since Rockstar is getting original creator Remedy to remake the first two games. Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) When it came out, Red Dead Redemption 2 was Rockstar’s most ambitious game; a stunning technical achievement in terms of graphics, presentation, immersion, and the ways you can interact with the world around you. It’s much closer to GTA than any of these other games and a direct evolution of the original 2010 title. However, that was not the start of the franchise. The first entry was something called Red Dead Revolver, which started out as a reboot of Capcom’s old arcade game Gun.Smoke. It didn’t work out though and developer Angel Studios (another part of the N64 dream team) was sold to Take-Two and became Rockstar San Diego. Development continued, as Read Dead Revolver, but when it was released in 2004 it was only a minor hit. Red Dead Revolver had multiple characters and no open world, so it really had little in common with the Redemption games, beyond the setting, and even Rockstar seems to have forgotten about it today. It is still available on the PlayStation and Xbox Stores for £11.99 but there was never a PC version. Red Dead Revolver – did you know Redemption wasn’t the first one? (Rockstar Games) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. Arrow MORE: Zelda: Ocarina Of Time is now Metacritic’s highest-rated game of 2026 Arrow MORE: Rockstar will take down videos with GTA 6 story spoilers even after launch Arrow MORE: Ubisoft looking to buy Deathloop’s Arkane Lyon from Xbox claims report GameCentral Get the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week.