'There are times when you want to put GTA down and pick up something else,' Samson studio founder says: 'I think there's a space for us there'

Samson, the open-world crime brawler being developed by Liquid Swords, looks to me like a Grand Theft Auto game leavened with a healthy dose of Condemned: Criminal Origins. It's a much smaller-scale project than (relatively) recent GTA games, of course—because what isn't?—but a tale of a low-level mook making his way in a city filled with crime and cars? Yeah, that sure sounds like GTA alright.

The studio has previously acknowledged those comparisons—in February, mission designer Donald Young told PC Gamer that the comparison to GTA "makes sense, just because it's an open world city game"—but also pushed back on them, pointing out that both the game and the development team are much smaller than Rockstar and the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6.

In a new interview with PC Gamer, Liquid Swords co-founder Christofer Sundberg—also the co-founder of Avalanche Studios and creative director of the Just Cause games—went deeper on it, saying that Grand Theft Auto "has always been a phenomenon" that goes beyond just videogames: "It competes with everything in entertainment."

"I have a huge respect for Rockstar and what they've done to the industry," Sundberg said. "Because every time a GTA game releases, it's just Christmas for everyone. It's like when a new iPhone releases. It's something that so many want, that don't even play videogames. They buy it because, when it releases, it's the talk of the town."

A short video clip of Samson released in 2025 led to immediate comparisons with GTA 4, Sundberg continued, and he acknowledged that there are "similarities" between the two games. But rather than trying to duplicate Rockstar's magnum opus, "which is impossible," his goal is to make Samson a game people want to play alongside GTA 6, rather than instead of it.

"There are times when you want to put GTA down and pick up something else," Sundberg said. "And so I see Samson as being like back in the day when action movies were 90 minutes long, not over two hours. I keep on going back to watching Die Hard and Ronin and First Blood and Rambo. I think there's a space for us there, and that's where I want to end up."

I would first note, because I'm that kind of guy, that both Ronin and Die Hard are over two hours long, but even so the point is valid: Even the most compelling epics can be a bit much at times, and it's nice to have a smaller, simpler diversion when you need a break.

For me, that would be something more like Plants vs Zombies while I'm playing Elden Ring, and I do wonder if people who want a GTA 6 pause will immediately think that the best idea for respite is a smaller-scale GTA. But for folks who don't have the space or the temperament to take a Grand Theft Auto game head-on (and yes, I'm talking about myself here), Samson might prove to be a cars-and-tough-guys game that fits.

It's been something of a rough ride for Samson: It was originally intended to be a much bigger game, but Liquid Swords had to pare it back significantly midway through development because it laid off half its team in 2025. We'll see the results of those changes soon: Samson is set to launch on April 8.