Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

When it comes to open-world sandboxes, nothing does it like GTA. Although it's dated, GTA SA holds up incredibly well, and still competes with modern GTA games such as 4 and 5. Although GTA 4, 5, and SA all beat one another at certain aspects while losing at others, when it comes to open-world freeroaming, without a doubt, GTA SA is the best GTA game. Sure, the missions feel incredibly dated, and if you're playing like a true retro gamer, you have to restart a mission entirely whenever you die; there are no checkpoints. The shooting is not good either, and the handling isn't the best. But the world map in GTA SA is its best feature. To this day, it is still extremely impressive. It says a lot that, despite the entirety of GTA SA's map being the size of the Los Santos city area in GTA 5, the map feels significantly larger. Unlike GTA 5, the map is filled to the brim with content, and There's plenty of reason to leave the city as there are 3 whole cities to explore and drive between, as well as various towns and hidden areas everywhere with their own properties you can buy, enterable restaurants, and more. The narrative isn't mind boggling, but it's fun. I especially enjoyed certain missions towards the end of the game just when the plot is about to conclude, and the voice acting is also surprisingly good. Officer Tenpenny is voiced by Samuel L. Jackson which was an awesome surprise. This game is a classic, and still holds up well to this day. If you find the gameplay a little too old school, the definitive edition may be the play, as it's been updated and (mostly) fixed since it's dreadful launch.