What are the best GTA clones?

[SuperBiasedMan]

I guess what I meant with "GTA clone" is 3rd person open world/sandbox game with lots of driving and probably some amount of combat.

Soo...

 

?

[Justin Leego]

I don't know whom that was in response to, but I love Far Cry 2...

 

I'm so sorry! I'm going to update my spreadsheet right now.

[Trip Hazard]

Delighted to see so many people recommending SR3 and Just Cause 2. Personally, I'd strongly recommend playing JC2 on easy mode. The reason I say this is that enemies respawn infinitely, but on easy mode they won't do as much damage. This is great, because you get the feeling of being really powerful, and when you tire of laying waste and want to bug out of a fight you will likely be able to. Some of the best moments come from swooping away, mocking the innumerable (but pitiful) soldiers, feeling like a badass. Getting killed is just not much fun at all. 

 

Also, get a mod which lets you obtain any item you like, any time you want. It seems silly that you have to play through story missions - most of which are pretty forgettable - to unlock things. 

[Erkki]

I finished Sleeping Dogs (Definitive Edition) just in time as I got well enough to go back to work tomorrow, and it was awesome. More thoughts in the Sleeping Dogs thread. Maybe I'll get to playing Saints Row III or Just Cause 2 soon as well.

[Spenny]

I can echo a recommendation for Sleeping Dogs. I've kind of had to make the concession with the game's narrative & mechanic-narrative that the amount of dudes my character kills on screen should not be taken as a literal body count. I really liked how the severity of the combat ramped up over the length of the game.

 

A different GTA clone recommendation I've been playing recently is State of Decay. It's a zombie game with an interpretation of setting similar to The Walking Dead, set in a mechanically open world, and with an indie dev quality comparable to Chivalry or Insurgency. Probably a bit of a stretch in terms of how "cloney" it is, but I feel like there's definitely something there that this forum crowd could bite into.