GTA: Best Final Boss Encounters, Ranked

Highlights

• GTA games often end with a memorable final boss encounter, like the exciting helicopter chase in GTA 3’s final mission.
• GTA 5 offers a unique twist with multiple final mission options, allowing players to choose how the story concludes.
• Emotional stakes and variety make the final missions in GTA games, like taking out Big Smoke in San Andreas, stand out.

The Grand Theft Auto series is now known as a huge open-world crime franchise, one filled with colorful characters and fun interactions. The games weren’t always this interactive, though, and the 3D gaming landscape that this series exists in started with the release of GTA 3.

Grand Theft Auto 3 may have driven home the series norm of having players work jobs and cause chaos in missions in the games, but it also set another regular theme. That is the final showdown. Every GTA game since has always put players against a central figure in the story to cap off the game in a memorable and intense fashion. Of course, some of these final boss encounters are more exciting than others.

5 Grand Theft Auto 3

Another Alternative To Paying A Ransom

• Final Mission: The Exchange

The last mission in Grand Theft Auto 3 brings the story to a close in a way that brings together everything that players have done in this 3D game so far. Unfortunately, having Claude as a silent protagonist hinders the plot from excelling at an emotional climax. Instead, Claude acts like someone who is merely doing as he is told throughout the story with no pushback, and it is the same when he finds out that Maria Latore has been kidnapped.

To rescue his former flame, Claude is told to pay the villain Catalina $500,000, and he goes to meet her without question. What follows is an exciting helicopter chase, a small shoot-out with some regular goons, and a quiet confrontation with Catalina before she is killed. It may have set the standard, but the final boss encounter in GTA 3 leaves a bit more to be desired.

4 Grand Theft Auto 5

An Explosive Finale

• Final Mission: The Third Way

The last mission in Grand Theft Auto 5 tries to do something very different from all the games that came before. Since there are three protagonists in this game, there are three options for the final mission. One will see Franklin asked to kill either Michael or Trevor in a final confrontation that is exciting and will lead to the demise of one of these main characters. Both of these missions are fine and work well as a natural end to the story, though killing Michael has more emotional weight as he is the character who took Franklin under his wing in the first place.

However, the canonical ending in GTA 5 ends with Franklin ignoring these orders and calling Lester instead. This ally provides Franklin with enough firepower to take on the FIB himself in a final mission that is as exciting as it is explosive. It is very by the numbers for a GTA game, but this ending does leave Franklin a hero while also keeping Michael and Trevor alive.

3 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Cutting The Head Off The Snake

• Final Mission: End Of The Line

There were very few players who could predict the betrayal of fellow Grove Street Gang member and meme king, Big Smoke, in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. However, the plot in this game reveals that Big Smoke has defected to the Ballas, and has acted as a secret villain the entire time. As such, the final mission in the game sees CJ and Sweet gearing up to take out their former friend once and for all.

After learning about Smoke’s hideout, players get to take a tank and ram it through a building before fighting their way up to fight the final boss. What follows is a night-vision section, fighting an actual fire, and having to rescue Sweet in a car chase. The emotional stakes and variety on offer help this final encounter stand out from the rest.

2 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Killing A Partner In Crime

• Final Mission: Keep Your Friends Close…

Reaching the final two missions in Vice City is something many players find difficult. To unlock the ending, players must first buy out five properties around the city and complete their storylines. They must also do this with the printworks. Once complete, Tommy will receive a call that his business empire is under attack.

Once repelling the attackers, Tommy learns that it is his former boss, Sonny, and an unknown affiliate trying to take down the empire that he has built alongside his partner, Lance. Unfortunately, this unknown affiliate is revealed to be Lance, which leads to a shootout on the roof of their mansion. The mission is very paint-by-numbers, as it involves gunning down dozens of NPCs, yet the high-stakes showdown between the former partners is too iconic not to love, especially if players are fans of Scarface!

1 Grand Theft Auto 4

Fighting Across The City For Revenge

• Final Mission: Out Of Commission

Revenge is often a great motivation in a story. Therefore, it provided a great motivation for Nico Bellic in the final mission of Grand Theft Auto 4. The character Dimitri is portrayed as someone who cannot be trusted due to his betraying Nico early in the story. Players have a choice to either strike a deal with Dimitiri or get revenge on the double-crossing gangster. The “Revenge” ending sees Nico kill Dimitiri, but his actions result in the death of his girlfriend, Kate, at the hands of Jimmy Pegorino.

As a result, Nico vows to take down Pegorino as a final act of revenge before bowing out of the crime world for good. What follows is a mission where Nico takes his allies to an abandoned casino to shoot it out with Pegorino’s goons and chase down his lover’s killer. This final mission is full of emotional weight, as it’s hard not to enjoy seeing Nico get some retribution on Kate’s behalf.