Grand Theft Auto: The 25 Best Missions

Although it's one of the best sandbox games around, letting you do whatever you want, when you want, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series has plenty of specific goals you need to achieve, and although it's tempting and enjoyable to simply go on a rampage, it's the missions the series features that drive us forward.

Over the course of the series, GTA has tasked us with a myriad of criminal challenges, and we've seen some truly excellent missions that have made the most of the sandbox world. So, we thought we'd look at the our favorite GTA missions from the series. These are missions that impressed us in various ways, and stuck with us as particularly memorable levels.

Of course, as we're talking about specific missions and their content here, it goes without saying that there are plenty of spoilers ahead. You have been warned.

25. Risk Assessment – GTA V

We kick off with a bit of a surreal Strangers and Freaks mission for Franklin in GTA V. Minding his own business wandering through Vinewood Hills, Franklin encounters a dog. For some reason, Franklin seems to understand the dog, a nod to classic kids show, Lassie, and trails the pooch to a stranded extreme sports nut, Dom, all while exploring the relations between man and his best friend.

The whole mission here is great, with Franklin being pressured into going for an impromptu skydive from a helicopter above Mount Chiliad, and then a high speed bike race down the mountain itself. It's a terrific introduction to "The Dominator," and keeps you on your toes with a face-paced race. It's a great example of how GTA's mission structures have evolved and grown more flexible. However, it's the opening that stuck in my memory.

The crazy conversation with the lone dog, which Dom claims doesn't even exist, leaves us wondering just what did Franklin see, and did he simply partake in a little too much herbal recreation beforehand? Who knows?

24. Saint Mark's Bistro – GTA San Andreas

This mission is a stroll down memory lane for long-time GTA fans, and sends CJ back to the Liberty City from GTA III. Specifically, this mission revolves around Saint Mark's Bistro, a Mafia concern that featured in Grand Theft Auto III.

The mission itself isn't all that amazing in terms of mechanics, and is more of a shoot out. The main draw here is the chance to fly out of the already massive San Andreas, and visit a totally different city, one we've become very fond of. It's a great experience, and one that doesn't only strengthen ties between the events of the Grand Theft Auto III trilogy of games, but also gave us hopes at the time, that future games would do the same thing. Grand Theft Auto V, in particular, has done this, with its trip to North Yankton.

23. Dropping In – GTA IV Ballad

Rockstar is capable of making some excellent mission sequences that take us on a thrill ride in the course of a single task, and the mission Dropping In from GTA IV's expansion, The Ballad of Gay Tony, is a prime example.

The mission is simple – kill your target. It's a straightforward goal that Grand Theft Auto has featured many, many times. However, here you go about things differently. You begin by parachuting on top of the building your mark is in, and you then have to fight your way down to the floor he's hiding on. After killing him, which you can do by throwing him out of the window, you then make your getaway in true Hollywood action star style, by jumping out of the window and parachuting down onto a moving getaway vehicle. Brilliant stuff.

What makes this mission all the more enjoyable is the change in tone Ballad of Gay Tony brings to GTA IV. Both the main game and the other expansion, Lost and Damned, are very low key compared to previous games in the series, but Ballad brings back much of the crazy tomfoolery we've come to love in GTA San Andreas, and when it first released, we were glad to see it return.

22. The Job – Grand Theft Auto Vice City

GTA V is all about making money by stealing it, introducing heists in both the story and the online component. However, GTA V didn't start this, far from it. One of the earliest examples of Rockstar quenching its thirst for good old fashioned bank heists is The Job from Vice City.

The Job is just the culmination of a series of related missions where Tommy has to recruit his team and plan the bank heist. It's the foundation of what would become so prominent in GTA V, and at the time, it was a mission that demonstrated Rockstar's ability to do more than simplistic 'go here, kill him' missions.

21. Green Goo – GTA San Andreas

This as a memorable mission for a couple of reasons. First, it makes use of one of the best items in San Andreas: the jetpack, which CJ uses to attack and land on a moving train to steal secrets from the US government, under the guidance of The Truth, played by Peter Fonda.

It's one of the most over the top missions in terms of plot and setting, but this is one of the main reasons GTA: San Andreas is so good. It manages to blend serious action with absurd asides, and it does so without upsetting either. There are many reasons why many still consider San Andreas to be the best GTA, and this is just one.

20. Father / Son – GTA V

GTA V, with the benefit of modern technology behind it, features some of the most complex and detailed missions in the series, and it has a wide range of tasks, keeping the story interesting and unique throughout. One of the early stand-out missions has to be Father / Son. Here Michael and Franklin have to race to save Michael's son, Jimmy, from some boat thieves. This involves a high speed chase through heavy traffic, as Franklin has to climb from Michael's car to the boat in order to save Jimmy.

It's a brilliantly paced and executed chase, complete with the expected hanging from a swinging mast avoiding oncoming traffic, and it's accompanied by the banter between all three characters. It's made all the more thrilling playing from first person in the current gen re-release.

19. Stowaway – GTA San Andreas

This is another perfect example of GTA: San Andreas' fondness of going all-out, and sees CJ using a motorbike to board a cargo plane as it takes off from the runway. Avoiding gun fire and objects falling from the back of the plane, CJ makes his way into the belly of the cargo carrier before it takes to the skies. He then fights his way through the plane to the cockpit, where he plants a bomb and jumps from the rear of the plane before it blows, parachuting to safety.

The GTA series is heavily influenced by Hollywood, both in style and mission content, and this kind of mission clearly pays homage to the classic 80s action movies, making for some of the best, most memorable missions.

18. Landing Strip – GTA Online

Many would pick one of the excellent heist missions from GTA Online as the best and most memorable, but for me the Lester mission, Landing Strip, clinches it. It's one of the first larger scale missions you get to take part in, and it's also one of the first where my friends and I came up with a definite strategy for completing a task.

The goal of stealing a plane and then flying it to the Sandy Shores landing strip is simple enough, but the surprise of foes on the landing strip as you approach can make landing difficult. That is, if you don't plan ahead. We split our team in two and sent one team to steal the plane, and the other to secure the airfield. It was simple enough, but taking on separate objectives way across the map, and communicating our imminent landing to the ground team made for a great bit of online action, and this would carry on to several other missions in Grand Theft Auto V's excellent online component.

17. Publicity Tour – GTA Vice City

Fans of the movie Speed will appreciate this 80s comedy spoof. In GTA: Vice City, Tommy Vercetti meets 80s rock band, Love Fist, and in this mission he's stuck in their limo, which has had a bomb fitted to it. If Tommy takes his foot off the accelerator, the bomb will explode. This leads to plenty of frantic driving at high speed while the band fumble their way around, trying to defuse the bomb – not something you'd usually task a drug-addled, alcohol-soaked Scottish rock band with.

It's a tricky mission, as you can't let up off the gas whilst avoiding heavy traffic, and you're relying on the bomb disposal skills of some of the most ridiculous musicians you'll ever see. Great stuff.

16. Two-faced Tanner – GTA III

Grand Theft Auto has a ton of spoofs and parodies of movies and pop culture, but it's also taken shots at other games several times, including one if its main rivals. In GTA III, the mission Two-Faced Tanner is given by the Yakuza, who discover an informant is actually an undercover cop. Protagonist, Claude, is asked to chase Tanner down and kill him.

The mission is pretty straightforward, and is a simple car chase leading to a messy end for Tanner. However, the whole mission is actually a dig at the Driver series, which was GTA's main rival at the time. Tanner is clearly a reference to Driver's protagonist, and the Yakuza job-giver, Asuka Kasen, even mocks Tanner for being useless out of a car, referencing Driver's lack of any on-foot gameplay. Touche, Rockstar. Touche.

15. Friend Request – GTA V

GTA's level of social satire is something that's been more and more prevalent as the series has evolved, and GTA V is, perhaps, the most successful yet in this regard. The game mocks pretty much every aspect of popular culture, including social media, and the likes of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg.

The mission, Friend Request, is a no-holds barred dig at the social media company and its famously relaxed and casual work ethic, as well as its goal of permeating every aspect of people's lives.

Michael is given a job by Lester to modify a new prototype phone being developed by Life Invader (the game's take on Facebook), so he has to pose as a new tech support guy to infiltrate the office and modify the device. On his way through the office, which is full of casual employees more focused on playing air guitar and kicking around bean bags than actually coding, Michael has to erase a virus from an employee's PC, and he then heads to the prototype room to modify the phone.

He leaves the office and heads home to watch a live presentation by company CEO, Jay Norris (an analog for Mark Zuckerberg). Lester asked Michael to call the phone during the presentation, which he does. Unaware of what he was actually doing to the device, Michael is shocked to see the phone explode, taking Jay Norris' head with it.

The mission serves to outline just how dangerous, and unstable Lester Crest is, and that this is one nerd you really don't want to get on the wrong side of. It also set the stage for a Lester series of hitman missions, which he gives to Franklin.

14. Black Project – GTA San Andreas

Arguably the most off-the-wall mission in San Andreas, Black Project is another mission given by The Truth, and this is where CJ actually locates and first uses the jetpack. Where does he find it? In GTA: SA's version of Area 51, of course. Called Area 69 in the game (Oh, Rockstar, you scamps!), this military base is a high security facility, and CJ has the option of attacking it with force, or to sneak in covertly. Whichever way you you choose, CJ eventually finds the lab where the jetpack is being stored and uses it to make his escape.

GTA has always been seen as the more gritty, realistic sandboxer, more so after Saints Row decided to go totally crazy, but missions like this show that Rockstar knows how to court the absurd, making the game even more enjoyable while it's at it.