Games that are primarily about pulling off heists tend to feature a series of missions that lead up to pulling off one final score, these missions might be smaller robberies or simply a way to gather the equipment and information necessary to complete the final heist.
10 Sly Cooper And The Thievius Raccoonus Is A Family-Friendly Classic
Sly Cooper is one of the most iconic video game raccoons, and the legendary thief headed up a team of criminal animals. He burst onto the scene in 2002 in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, the game that kickstarted one of the most highly-rated Playstation franchises.
Players took control of the eponymous master thief and were assisted by his gang throughout the course of the game. Using cel-shading to create a film noir vibe, it perfectly captured the feeling of a classic heist caper with a family-friendly setting.
9 The Greatest Penguin Heist Of All Time Is Pure, Unadulterated Fun
The Greatest Penguin Heist of All Time keeps things fun and light throughout, giving players the opportunity to conduct a variety of heists with a band of cute little penguins. The titular penguins undertake a number of different open-ended missions, all the way from stealing fish to kidnapping chefs.
It’s down to the player to choose how they complete each heist, with different items and weapons available for use. The Greatest Penguin Heist of All Time is the ideal game for someone looking for in-depth heist gameplay with a fun skin on top.
8 Grand Theft Auto 5 Reached A Whole New Level
Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest video game franchises, but Grand Theft Auto 5 reached new heights when it was released in 2013. It followed the same format as the previous entries in the series, having players travel through an openworld completing missions for various different NPCs.
Where Grand Theft Auto 5 differed from previous installments was that it gave players the ability to switch between three different characters at any time, and the main story featured a much heavier focus on completing heists with the trio.
7 Payday 2 Is All About The Heist
Payday 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter that is literally all about heists, it’s the primary plot device and the whole focus of the game. The skills that players can unlock as their character levels up are an incredibly useful aspect of Payday 2, and some of them are key to making heists easier.
Up to four players can work together to complete the game’s heists and each one is different from the last. The heists are often chaotic rather than slick and players will often find themselves having to shoot their way out of a bad position.
6 Thief Simulator Gives Players Endless Options
Thief Simulator is an open-world game with a focus on stealth, where players engage in smaller burglaries as a solo effort. Rather than stealing priceless works of art from a museum or drilling through a bank vault, Thief Simulator sees players breaking into houses in order to steal whatever valuables they come across.
It’s a pretty straightforward and simple game at its heart, but Thief Simulator does what it sets out to do very well. As the game progresses, the skill-tree opens up and new tools are available for the player to change the way they approach each house.
5 Crookz: The Big Heist Throws Players Back In Time
Crookz: The Big Heist is set in the 1970s, giving it a fun and stylish feel as a result of the era. It has all the classic elements of a heist game, although it does allow players to come up with more detailed plans for their robberies than most other heist games do.
Crookz: The Big Heist gives players a full single-player campaign with six different crewmembers to choose from and a decent amount of content, alongside a challenge mode that drastically ramps up the difficulty level.
4 Perfect Heist 2 Gives The Genre A New Twist
Perfect Heist 2 presented a whole new twist on the heist genre, pitting two teams of players against one another instead of having players battle against NPCs. Players will find themselves on either side of the law, with cops aiming to shut down the heist before it happens and robbers aiming to make away with as much money as possible.
The gameplay is simple, but there’s depth in the number of classes available on either team. The game is played in rounds and offers a lot of replayability thanks to that aspect.
3 Sly Cooper 2: Band Of Thieves Is Where The Series Peaked
Sly Cooper 2: Band Of Thieves marked the high point for the Sly Cooper series, improving on everything that made the original so much fun for players. One of the best changes to the game were made to the gang that surrounds the hero, as they made the move from helpful AI allies to playable characters with unique skills.
Although Sly’s friend Murray is a master of brute force, the game still encourages a primarily stealth-based approach to each level and even added the ability to pickpocket enemies as well.
2 Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine Is A Solid Indie Option
Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is a fun indie heist game that is set entirely in the titular country, and focuses primarily on the stealth aspects of heists. The game has four campaigns that contain several missions, with all of it unfolding from a top-down view. Players have the choice of eight characters with unique abilities to help them navigate the story.
Not only does Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine have a story, but it also has player v player maps and a surprisingly fun zombie mode.
1 Teardown Lets You Destroy Everything
Teardown offers something pretty unique in the heist genre, as it gives players an environment they can tear apart or burn to the ground if they choose. The indie game makes use of voxels with different strengths, forcing players to use different tools to destroy them and generating
Teardown a sandbox puzzle game where the player takes control of the owner of a demolition company that falls on hard times and ends up embroiled in a police investigation. The story isn’t particularly long, but the gameplay more than makes up for that.
More: Grand Theft Auto V: Every Heist Ranked From Worst To Best
