Grand Theft Auto has long been synonymous with freedom in the virtual world: an open city, cars, crime stories, and the ability to choose for hours what to do on your own. However, running modern installments of the series on a modest computer is often impossible. Styler's editorial team has gathered a selection of games that are close in spirit to GTA but require significantly fewer hardware resources. The list includes crime dramas, racing games, truck driving simulators, and sabotage adventures where open space and vehicles remain the main protagonists.
Mafia II: Criminal America of the 1940s–1950s
If GTA attracts you with its big city atmosphere, cars, and crime stories, Mafia II definitely deserves your attention first. The action takes place in the fictional American city of Empire Bay, inspired by New York, Chicago, and San Francisco of the post-war decades. The player controls Vito Scaletta, who returns from the war and gradually plunges into the criminal underworld to earn money and find his place in life. You can drive era-appropriate cars around the city, listen to the radio, visit shops, change clothes, and simply explore the streets. The game focuses on the plot more heavily than GTA, so there is less total freedom here, but the feeling of life in a large criminal city is very close to Rockstar's series—even a routine drive to the next mission turns into a separate pleasure.
Euro Truck Simulator 2: Journey Instead of Shootouts
Adventures do not necessarily have to be accompanied by chases and shootouts. In Euro Truck Simulator 2, you can simply get behind the wheel of a truck and set out to conquer European roads. At first, the player works as a driver, transporting cargo between cities and earning money, and later develops their own transport company: buying trucks, hiring drivers, and expanding the fleet. The most captivating part of the game is precisely the opportunity to travel—choosing routes yourself, driving through cities, small settlements, autobahns, and scenic roads, stopping at gas stations, and resting. The game shares an open environment, vehicles, and freedom of movement with GTA, although long-haul trips await you here instead of criminal adventures. This is a suitable option when you want to open the game after a hard day and just drive somewhere without rushing or proving anything to anyone.
Driver: Parallel Lines: New York of Two Eras
Those who enjoy the driving component in GTA should pay attention to Driver: Parallel Lines. The events take place in New York, and the main protagonist, TK Jason, dreams of becoming a famous street racer but ends up behind bars due to criminal cases. After a long imprisonment, he returns to settle accounts with the people who ruined his life. The unique feature of the story is spanning two eras: the 1970s and 2006. At the player's disposal is an entire city, dozens of cars, street races, chases, and various tasks: you can steal cars, run from the police, explore New York neighborhoods, and simply cruise the streets. Conceptually, the game is very close to GTA—it also features a criminal plot, an open urban space, and plenty of opportunities to get distracted from the main story, and it is especially interesting to watch how the city changes along with the era.
Test Drive Unlimited: A Hawaiian Island Without Crime
Test Drive Unlimited will appeal to those whose favorite part of GTA was simply getting into a car and driving wherever the eyes take them. Instead of a regular city, there is an entire Hawaiian island, Oahu, featuring beaches, mountain roads, small settlements, and major highways. The player begins a motoring career, participates in races, earns money, buys new cars, and gradually unlocks more and more opportunities. You can freely drive around the island, find new roads, visit car dealerships, buy real estate, and collect your own car collection. There is no criminal story or familiar GTA shootouts here, but there is a vast space for automotive escapades. Sometimes the best activity in the game is to pick a nice car, find a road along the ocean, and set off on a journey without any plan.
The Saboteur: Sabotage in Occupied Paris
The Saboteur offers an adventure in World War II Paris, where part of the city is under occupation, and the player can not only explore the streets but also organize sabotage operations against the enemy. The main protagonist, Sean Devlin, is an Irish mechanic and racing driver who gets dragged into the fight against the Nazis after a personal tragedy. His goal is to seek revenge and help the French resistance movement. Just like other games in the selection, it combines an open urban space, vehicles, and freedom of movement, but in a historical and dramatic key far removed from the familiar criminal setting of GTA.
Thus, if you want freedom of movement, interesting stories, and the ability to choose your own activities in a virtual world, GTA is far from the only option. The listed titles allow you to spend hours exploring cities, traveling, getting behind the wheel of various vehicles, and finding adventures far beyond the main story, all while running smoothly even on a weak computer.
