A Side Game, By Design
Christofer Sundberg doesn’t want to topple Grand Theft Auto. He wants Samson, Liquid Swords’ open-world crime brawler, to live beside it. “There are times when you want to put GTA down and pick up something else,” the studio co-founder told PC Gamer. “I think there’s a space for us there.”
Sundberg, who also co-founded Avalanche Studios and served as creative director on the Just Cause series, isn’t shy about acknowledging the shadow GTA casts. He called it a phenomenon that stretches beyond games entirely: “It competes with everything in entertainment.” When Rockstar ships a new entry, he said, “it’s just Christmas for everyone… like when a new iPhone releases… the talk of the town.”
Liquid Swords has heard the comparisons since day one. In February, mission designer Donald Young said the GTA link “makes sense, just because it’s an open world city game.” A short gameplay clip in 2025 fueled that further, with fans immediately lining it up against GTA 4. Sundberg accepts there are “similarities,” but he’s not chasing a 1:1 replica. Trying to duplicate Rockstar’s opus is, in his words, “impossible.”
Shorter, Sharper, Meaner
So what is Samson aiming for? Think a gritty, street-level story about a low-rung enforcer clawing up through a city of crooks and cars—familiar territory, but scoped for shorter sessions. Sundberg frames it like an old-school action flick: “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.” That’s the pacing target: fast setups, punchy payoffs, and out before the bloat sets in.
That approach puts Samson in a different lane from the sprawling, everything-box ambition of GTA 6. It’s less about simulating a metropolis down to the last sidewalk and more about a focused crime brawler that hits hard, then hands you back your evening. If GTA is your epic weekend binge, Samson wants to be the stylish single-serving thriller you reach for on a Tuesday night.