In the Grand Theft Auto series, its main characters are often more interesting than villains. You can attribute that to the fact that they are, sometimes, as ruthless as your average video game villain and not always sticking to the good guy versus bad guy dichotomy.
Making a scummy asshole more endearing isn’t the easiest task, so let’s give Rockstar some credit and break down who’s the best among the protagonists in the GTA series.
12. Toni Cipriani (GTA Liberty City Stories)
Toni is the main character in Liberty City Stories, a prequel to GTA 3, originally for the Sony PSP. He’s the basic mobster type, with a sprinkle of honor and love for his blood and crime families. All of that is fine enough, but he’s a regular goon in GTA 3, making his appearance in Liberty City Stories feel a bit derivative. Sorry, Toni — you’re at the bottom of this hit list.
11. Huang Lee (GTA Chinatown Wars)
Huang is GTA Chinatown Wars’ main character, and instead of a crimelord’s crown or wealth, he’s after revenge. His robust set of martial arts moves automatically makes him cooler, but we don’t get to use those in any meaningful capacity while journeying through Chinatown Wars. It’s a major bummer, and if his gameplay had the chance to shine, he’d surely move a few spaces up, at least.
10. Johnny Klebitz (GTA IV: The Lost and Damned)
It’s a surprise that it took Rockstar all the way until ’09 to put players at the helm of a biker gang. They did so in GTA IV‘s DLC, The Lost and Damned, where we get to play as Johnny Klebitz. He’s a badass, sure, but a pretty cookie-cutter one.
I’m betting that someone higher-up at Rockstar was equally unimpressed by Klebitz, considering how he just shows up in one scene in GTA V to get killed off by Trevor.
9. Victor Vance (GTA Vice City Stories)
In any other game, Vitor would’ve been the hero. In the world of GTA, however, his brave and noble actions leave him in a position where he has no other option but to turn to a life of crime. He knows the game is rigged, so he tries to fight back in a system built against him and help his family.
Poor Victor is easily the least vile main character ever to grace the series, which ultimately ends up costing him his life in GTA Vice City.
8. Luis Lopez (GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony)
Luis isn’t just in it to win it. He just wants to protect his boss, the titular Tony, and to earn the favor of his mother. In GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony, the mobster struggles with identifying who he can count on versus those out for blood, and while that may be a given in this setting, his interpersonal struggles make Luis far more interesting than others in the GTA gang.
Some might find him uninteresting, but I like seeing a character in this series who’s not out to take over the world.
7. Claude Speed (GTA 2, GTA 3)
I considered leaving this entry blank as a jokey reference to everyone’s favorite silent criminal, but that would be doing GTA 3’s Claude a disservice.
Claude doesn’t talk because he knows better — maybe a life lesson for more of us to learn. He’s a shower, not a teller. He demonstrates that trusting others can be your downfall right at the start of the game, so that might be why he keeps communication to a minimum.
Claude has a simple mission requiring no explanation, and he ends up getting the job done. Also, what kind of shady employer wouldn’t prefer this guy over a dumb loudmouth?
6. Trevor Philips (GTA V)
Trevor is one of the most popular, and definitely the funniest character in the series. Still, he’s a little too over-the-top for me, and not just in the sense I’m reviled by his actions in GTA V.
Trevor is a damn effective killer and a surprisingly loyal teammate. Outside of that, however, he’s a collection of all personality flaws known to man. There’s no way anyone would either want Trevor around or survive his company long enough to find out about his prowess in crime.
Up until the inception of Trevor, Rockstar used to do a great job of creating funky bad guys that still managed to feel grounded. Trevor doesn’t feel like a person. Trevor is more like GTA fanfiction that Rockstar drunkenly made canon.
5. Franklin Clinton (GTA V)
Franklin is easily the best placeholder for the player in the entire series. Unlike the other protagonists, who are already seasoned criminals, Franklin is a young dude who’s just learning the ropes of the criminal world.
Still, his main charm comes from his wits and temperament. There’s not a single funny bone in his body, but he exhibits far better judgment skills than even master criminals Trevor and Michael do throughout the game. Also, he seems like the rare character in this series that you’d like to hang out with.
4. Tommy Vercetti (GTA Vice City)
GTA Vice City replaced GTA 3‘s silent Claude with Tommy Vercetti, voiced by Ray Liotta. Vercetti is the rare man who wanted the world — and who got it.
Vice City took many cues from Scarface, but Tommy Vercetti is his own man, not a cheap Tony Montana clone. The good writing, paired with the stellar performance by Liotta, shone a light on games as a narrative powerhouse and made sure that the series would never go back to silent protagonists.
3. CJ (GTA San Andreas)
Carl Johnson doesn’t simply top the list because of his personality and fountain of memes, but because he’s the most customizable character in the series.
Sure, GTA V and GTA Online have more clothes and haircuts, but San Andreas allowed players to build CJ’s physique as they wanted, all the way down to his fighting style. CJ’s story in San Andreas gets extra powerful when you find out that there’s a surprising amount of poignancy with his run-ins with GTA San Andreas’ vile police force.
2. Michael De Santa (GTA V)
Michael rocks because he’s bizarro Max Payne. Think about it. Max Payne lost his family to crime, so he spends night and day trying to bring those criminals to justice. Michael still has a family — which he cannot stand — so he spends day and night as a criminal to avoid his obligations.
Okay, that’s where my superior headcanon ends.
Michael is a master bank robber who cannot put his past behind him, no matter how hard he tries. He’s an asshole, but not one undeserving of redemption. He finds it somewhat by teaching the tools of the trade to Franklin, which is probably as heartwarming a turn as you’ll ever see in this series.
Fun fact: Rockstar made Max Payne 3 right before making GTA V. GTA V also features bullet-time segments. Coincidence much? I don’t think so.
1. Niko Bellic (GTA IV)
GTA IV‘s massive push towards realism didn’t just come about via the game’s amazing graphics and mechanics. The best exhibit of GTA attempting to abandon its edgy teen phase is Niko Bellic. He’s an alien in a town that doesn’t like him, but he’s also easily the most likable character in the series.
Niko has done some bad stuff in the past and is probably still doing it in the present, but he’s far from a monster. He wants revenge, but he’s conflicted and might, at the end of the day, show mercy even to those he spent his life trying to hunt down.
Niko remains an awfully tortured man along the way, but his actions reflect what’s in the player’s heart, and the game never fails to provide players with an appropriate narrative response. In a different world, Niko could’ve ruled the world of competitive bowling. In this one, he’s just as good of a cousin as he can be.
