Different protagonists are featured in the instalments and are often patterned after and voiced by celebrities such as Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Hopper, Samuel L. They are open world games set in sandbox environments that allow players to explore the place on foot or in a variety of vehicles (mostly stolen).
The games are mostly set in fictional American cities, modelled after real cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Miami. In each game, the player takes on the role of a criminal that must rise through the ranks of organized crime. Rockstar North serves as the game series developer, with Rockstar Games as its publisher.
The series was created by David Jones and Mike Dailly with brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies, and Aaron Garbut working on the later titles. The crime adventure series Grand Theft Auto (GTA) first launched in 1997, and after five iterations (and several spin-offs) has become one of the biggest video games of all time.
