Hurtworld
Hurtworld
Game
Game2019
American Fugitive
Developer Fallen Tree Games Ltd
American Fugitive is a 2019 action-adventure video game developed by Fallen Tree Games and published by Curve Games. It is a Grand Theft Auto clone, though it mimics the earlier entries, which had a top-down perspective. Set in the 1980s in the fictional Southern American town of Redrock County, the single-player story follows protagonist Will Riley as he seeks answers about the murder of his father, which Riley was… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
205 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 4, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
75
LovedLoved
141 positive · 48 negative
95% range 68–80%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 141 | 48 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 5 | 0 | 7 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
934 of 1,288 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
74% recommend · 138 yes, 48 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 186 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (2,453 of 3,273 positive).
Players say it's a love letter to classic top-down GTA games, especially GTA 2. [1][2][3] Many find the burglary and home invasion mechanics a unique highlight. [2][4][5] Some reviewers note the missions become repetitive and the police chases frustrating. [6][7][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [18]
I feel like I just ate junk food until I was sick. I didn’t plan on putting 20 hours into this game, but the it’s so easy to get distracted. One more time trial, one more stolen painting, stop to jump off a ramp… must be pretty fun, to hook me like this, right? Well… The opening sequence almost tricked into thinking this was a sort of stealth thriller, but then I realized that it didn’t matter if I was spotted, or …
- [1]
If you were a fan of GTA, particularly GTA 2 during the late '90s, and enjoyed the charming text dialogues along with the top-down 2D graphics, then you’re in for a treat here. This game may not be a high-budget blockbuster, and it might lack a plethora of options or an extensive arsenal of weapons. Some might argue that it doesn’t deliver enough intensity or that the dialogue is sparse, and while those points are …
- [2]
The game feels like a throwback to the PS1 GTA top dowen era. Plays a lot like GTA, pretty noticeable from the mission design and its storytelling. Also it’s a short but awesome experience that you can wrap up in about 8-10 hours! The house robbing mechanic is one of the highlights for me, a very unique touch to the usual criminal antics. But unfortunately, some of the other tasks start feeling like a chore after a …
- [6]
As others have said, American Fugitive is like an homage to the early top-down GTA games but with an emphasis on burglary, which means you can enter just about any building. It's got a certain charm being set in a small town, and it's pretty fun to go on rampages. But I have a few issues with the game, namely the repetitiveness. The missions start to follow more or less the same premise at a certain point, so …
- [3]
Recommended (with reservations) American Fugitive is a love letter to classic top-down crime games, especially the old-school GTA vibe, but with modern polish. If you grew up stealing cars from a bird’s-eye view and causing chaos just because you could, this game understands the assignment. The open world is surprisingly dense. There is always something going on, whether it is side jobs, robberies, police chases, or …
Summarised from 34 of the 201 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 10, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
74% of the 186 Steam reviewers we collected recommend American Fugitive. The complaint that keeps coming up: missions become repetitive over time. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
American Fugitive received "mixed or average" reviews on Metacritic across all platforms. The Guardian criticized the writing and atmosphere but said that it "successfully pays homage to a fondly remembered old game while adding something meaningful". Push Square and Nintendo Life praised the open world elements while criticizing the other gameplay. Push Square said the mission design consists of tedious and repetitive fetch quests, and Nintendo Life likened the gameplay to "death by a thousand cuts" because of a multitude of small, questionable design decisions.
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 205 · most liked firstIf you were a fan of GTA, particularly GTA 2 during the late '90s, and enjoyed the charming text dialogues along with the top-down 2D graphics, then you’re in for a treat here. This game may not be a high-budget blockbuster, and it might lack a plethora of options or an extensive arsenal of weapons. Some might argue that it doesn’t deliver enough intensity or that the dialogue is sparse, and while those points are valid, they don’t tell the whole story. For those who appreciate indie…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You play as a dude falsely accused of murder, so naturally the only logical response is to steal every car in the county and punch a man over a sandwich. The police? Olympic-level psychic bloodhounds who can find you in a cornfield because you bumped into a mailbox 20 minutes ago. It’s like someone took the chaos of early GTA, mixed it with Smokey and the Bandit, and said “What if crime... but sad?” I didn’t kill my dad, but I did rob 12 houses and a donut shop. 7.5/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a nice game with a story that’s engaging, but not too complex. Gave it a full playthrough and got all the achievements. I played it with a gamepad and don’t have any issues in that regard. Performance was near flawless on both Gen. 5 Intel i7, 16GB RAM, and 4GB Nvidia GT 960M (1080p@60fps) and Gen. 7 Intel i5, 16GB RAM, and 2GB Nvidia GTX 1050 (1440p@120fps). The gameplay is good and in my opinion has a good variety of in terms of mechanics and activities in roughly the first…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →American Fugitive is an endearing mid-game. It's fun enough that you want to keep playing it until you beat, but not good enough for you to remember it after beating it. It's bad to the point you wonder why you're playing, but not bad enough for you to stop playing. It's a game that absolutely deserves to be bought on a sale, or even full price if you want to 100% it, but that has no chance of becoming a classic or to be remarked among the greatest games of the year. In short, it's a throwback…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →GTA with top down view set in country side. Take on a missions, drive around the map and progress the story. Avoid cops, rats and other nasty beings. Civilians doesn't pay much attention to your actions so you can smash through the fences without any penalty. There's plenty of different missions and some timed challenges where you drive various vehicles like tank and wreck havoc. Most of objects can't be destroyed, fences and smaller objects are breakable though. Driving tank will not destroy…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is basically a repetitive, pointless « go fetch and come back » game. The story is not interesting, the side content is just here to fill the game otherwise it will be done in few hours. It would have been good if quests were more entertaining and diverse from the fact that you always have to drive 2km in one way, get a pointless object, go back and start another mission. There is also some stupid conditions to 100% the game like run over 250 vehicles with a tank, I mean, a tank that has…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like GTA2, then you have to play this game. The game is almost like GTA2 but set in the Midwest and with an emphasis on burglary, theft, and petty crime. The characters that give you the missions are comparable to the persons you meet in a GTA game. There is plenty of side stuff to do when roaming in between missions. I liked the home invasion looting system where you can either sneak in without notifying the police or you have a certain amount of time before the police arrive. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game feels like a throwback to the PS1 GTA top dowen era. Plays a lot like GTA, pretty noticeable from the mission design and its storytelling. Also it’s a short but awesome experience that you can wrap up in about 8-10 hours! The house robbing mechanic is one of the highlights for me, a very unique touch to the usual criminal antics. But unfortunately, some of the other tasks start feeling like a chore after a while, dragging down the pacing. That being said, the physics and soundtrack…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I feel like I just ate junk food until I was sick. I didn’t plan on putting 20 hours into this game, but the it’s so easy to get distracted. One more time trial, one more stolen painting, stop to jump off a ramp… must be pretty fun, to hook me like this, right? Well… The opening sequence almost tricked into thinking this was a sort of stealth thriller, but then I realized that it didn’t matter if I was spotted, or even killed. This is a GTA knockoff, but instead of an urban gangland,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →American Fugitive had the setup to be a modern love letter to old GTA, but what it really delivers is a stripped down fan mod that forgot to add the fun parts before release. The world is open but mostly empty, with little reason to explore, driving feels like controlling a shopping cart with one busted wheel and the story tries to sell you on a gritty revenge tale, but the characters are flatter than the camera angle and the missions blur together into the same fetch, smash, repeat cycle.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game feels like a mobile game, it's clunky, and the story is very shallow. I would pass on this one or wait till there is a sale or a bundle.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →4.5/10 top down, small town, GTA the RNG is god awful in this game..... oooh you ran half way across town and failed an 80% chance or doing 1 thing that is followed by another % chance choice if you had not failed the 1st now do it all again...WTF soo many things are rng based
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I do not recommend it because of how annoying it is escaping from the police. I've been spending 80% of time my time trying to escape from the police. I constantly have to stop what I'm doing and spend half an hour trying to escape the eternally respawning police before I can get back to a mission. It's just annoying and not fun. Even if I am hidden, the game forces me to get out of hiding and run/drive to the other side of the map because the police won't give up until I get out of the search…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's all right, similar games would be GTA1 and GTA2. I thought the story had a weird concept: "I'M COMMITTING A SMALL GENOCIDE TO CLEAR MY NAME AS MY FATHER'S MURDERER"...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried to get into it, but it lost me pretty quickly. The constant police pressure made the game feel exhausting rather than exciting. It was one chase after another with almost no breathing room to explore or enjoy the world. Instead of feeling tense in a good way, it became repetitive and frustrating. After a short time, the missions started to blur together and I found myself bored rather than motivated to keep playing.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Recommended (with reservations) American Fugitive is a love letter to classic top-down crime games, especially the old-school GTA vibe, but with modern polish. If you grew up stealing cars from a bird’s-eye view and causing chaos just because you could, this game understands the assignment. The open world is surprisingly dense. There is always something going on, whether it is side jobs, robberies, police chases, or just poking around houses you absolutely should not be in. The freedom is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty repetitive and boring, in general it's just less engaging compared to GTA or Saints Row. The cops are annoying and pretty difficult to get rid off. Gun play is reliable but explosions are lackluster and driving is janky. Story is alright but the characters and writing is pretty shallow - the missions ain't fun for the most part aswell and extremly repetitive. Nothing I'd recommend, especially for 20€. (4.8/10)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Alright, let's talk about this American Fugitive game, shall we? The premise sounds decent enough - you're a bloke who's been framed for his dad's murder, so naturally the only thing to do is start nicking tellys and knocking off coppers. Brilliant! Presented in a top-down view, it drops you right into the dusty Southern town of Red Rock County. Visually, the game has a surprising amount of details and the music is a joy to behold. The characters are also quite memorable and it's easy to keep…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looking for a low-budget GTA-like with the top-down view of the first 2 and the missions more like the rest of that franchise ? This will likely tickle that fancy. Story isn't great, but overall presentation is pretty good, and there's enough to keep you entertained for about 20 hours.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →a solid game if you know what you're getting, the trailer makes it look like WILD AND CRAZY GTA, IN AMERICA THIS TIME but really it's kind of a cozy small town GTA / burglary game. There's a plot, and it sure does have an ending. For all I'd complain about the writing, I gotta agree that the writing is significantly better than the original 2d GTA's. The whole game, ultimately, is not that hard, and seems like a fun game to play if you don't feel like going MAXIMUM EFFORT on a GTA game.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →GTA on a smaller and lamer scale Story We are framed for our father's murder, once we escape from prison the main goal is to clear our name, find the real killers and get back our life. Gameplay American Fugitive offers an open world with repetitive and boring quests to total mayhem and destruction, thus being a small scale GTA, we have NPC's giving us different missions, fetch quests, errands and the like, uninspiring at best. It also offers a wanted system, we can pretty much escape the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i tried to get into this game multiple times, but as you might see from my short playtime the game just couldn't keep me interested. it's just boring, and i can't force myself to play it any longer. Not only is every mission that i played just a fetch quest, but even the open world and fighting with the police is just boring, and i end up turning the game off after a couple missions, or sometimes even just one. it doesn't even have great story or characters to carry the otherwise…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →#VideoGameBacklog American Fugitive (PC, 2019) is an open-world, top-down action game from @fallentreegames.bsky.social with decent graphics and gameplay. You’re an innocent fugitive tracking your father’s killer while sneaking around and becoming less innocent as you go, GTA-style. #indiegames
neutral · AI labelView post →Good enough for me to finish and 100%. If you want to make it 10x better and you grew up playing the Classic GTA games, go to GTARADIO.NET and play some music in the background.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like the old-school top-down GTA feel, American Fugitive is super cheap now and is a good-ish game. Same dev has The Precinct, which is top-down GTA but you're playing a cop. The story is not a strong point with either, but if you need that, go to a different genre. And there is also Rustler, which is ridiculously fun. I also loved Simpsons Hit and Run, but that's a bit old and IDK how indie was it.
neutral · AI labelView post →This game is.... mediocre at best. Story wise, it is pretty alright... not much to brag about, albeit throughout the game the story just starts to drag and I couldn't bother to complete side activities other than wanting to see the conclusions. What I really like though is the robbing feature, you can rob absolutely anything, even the stores itself and most of the time you'll just be robbing them for their goods anyway since money don't really come by easily. The driving in this game can be…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As others have said, American Fugitive is like an homage to the early top-down GTA games but with an emphasis on burglary, which means you can enter just about any building. It's got a certain charm being set in a small town, and it's pretty fun to go on rampages. But I have a few issues with the game, namely the repetitiveness. The missions start to follow more or less the same premise at a certain point, so there's not much for me to look forward to in the late game. Also it's annoyingly…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It was not a bad game. Yes, the game looks similar to the GTA series on a small scale, but it has interesting ideas that may entertain or bore you. In the first few hours, the game was very entertaining for me, but as it got longer and a series of repetitive missions made me tired. I think the game could have been shorter and more meaningful. Score: 6.4/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a dream come true for GTA 1 fans. It features modern graphics, improved gameplay, and such a decent narrative but what makes it stand out is the sheer number of things you can do. You aren't just limited to carjacking and shooting; this game offers many more well-built gameplay mechanics, like robbing houses and stores, changing clothes with anyone, using tools to open and smash windows, climbing onto a moving train, and interacting with a fully destructible environment with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hell No! So many worthless side quest and no good storyline. I had to grind to get 100 stash, they could have made GTA SNAp type site to sync your save look what left rather then roaming here and there. Plus the main story not so good.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a Poundland version of some of the older Grand Theft Auto entries, it's enough to disregard it and play literally any of those games. I'm not saying this game is all bad, but it certainly feels very cheap and it almost looks and plays like a mobile game. The characters are uninteresting, the map is small and uneventful, missions and overall storyline lacks almost in every aspect and on top of that all characters are not voiced and all quests introductions are basically the same,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is clearly a fun tribute to old-school GTA, but it feels like an early access game that was never really fleshed out. Core gameplay is pretty mediocre, and unfortunately they never expand on it or do anything interesting. Fun for a while, but it gets repetitive quick. Might be worth a pickup if it's part of a bundle or deep discount, but otherwise I'd look at something else to play.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I LOVE this game! If you like the Old school GTA games then you'll love this, ignore the reviews that say the shooting an the driving is bad, its my favourite part! i LOVED doing the races and mindless rampages. the building looting was really great too one of the best reasons to play!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It wants to capture the early GTA era, but doesn't meet the mark. "If it isn't broke don't fix it." was clearly not a motto fallowed. One has to assume GTA China Town Wars would be this games most relevant inspiration, AF is game is half that of GTACW. The only thing this does better than GTA is shooting, only because it's on platforms that support twin sticks. Story is the only thing that drives progress and purpose. Driving is a mixed bag, a few vehicles feel good, the rest are either to slow…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed playing American Fugitive which has a kind of Grand Theft Auto 2 from 1999 vibe, and I don't understand why isn't more successful. Viewing the achievements statistics from this game, most players quit playing early on. Which is a bit strange to me as the game is easy to learn (and to master), has an open world feeling and is far from boring. While doing the quest line, you'll be able to handle harbour cranes, ride forklifts, steal postal trucks, drive a funeral hoarse and so…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a copy of old GTA games but not fun after the first hour.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a new month! Here's what we're playing in Game Club! Game of the Month (November): American Fugitive Game of the Quarter (October - December): Final Fantasy VI Come join our awesome group! Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/16653... Disord: discord.gg/yhJ2b9Tg7B
neutral · AI labelView post →American Fugitive feels like a modern take on the first 2 GTA games. It has fun, top-down open-world gameplay where you're stealing cars, outrunning cops, and just generally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around between missions in a decent sandbox. It's got a decent variety of vehicles and jobs. It's not revolutionary; missions can become repetitive; the story is serviceable, but nothing special; gameplay is fairly basic; the world isn't very interactive; side activities feel samey, and they just blur together…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://youtu.be/9lU6CMZbZL8 Handling interiors via a cutaway is kinda neat but the outside play is slow and unreactive for what would be expected from a game in these genre.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →American Fugitive is a lively and deliberately old-school crime sandbox that reimagines the classic top-down mayhem of early Grand Theft Auto titles through a modern indie lens. Developed by Fallen Tree Games Ltd and published by Curve Games, it drops players into Redrock County—a sun-soaked, rural American setting filled with junkyards, winding roads, sleepy suburbs, and backwoods criminal activity. You play as Will Riley, a man wrongfully framed for the murder of his own father, who breaks…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Laidback game for chill gaming, apart from occasional gunfights or wanted situations. Good wanted mechanics. Vehicle physics is mint, you can actually pit other vehicles. Ghost Recon Wildlands creators has something to learn here. Nice story, even when I haven't finished it yet.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game gave me some real GTA2 vibes — with the big difference that this one actually has a map (something GTA2 didn’t). Overall, it’s a fun and playable experience. The only downside is a bit of grinding with tank crushes and kills if you’re aiming for 100% completion.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good short timekiller, clearly inspired by GTA. Missions may be rather repetitive, but the overall gameplay is engaging and forgiving
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An incredibly bland top-down GTA clone. Buggy campaign missions and uninspired writing make this a chore to play on top of an already simple gameplay loop. There's a lot of collectibles and optional side content, but I ended the game with over 20 grand in my pocket, and nothing worth spending it on, and most of the upgrades I had left to buy would have been meaningless. Avoid this, even on a sale.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not much of the mechanics are explaned in this game. But what really made me mad was the ATM mission in 1st chapter. Grab an ATM at the nearby store with your towtruck and immediately get swarmed by cops. Run away and return when the heat if off you and observe that the ATM is now gone as is the towtruck you used to pull it. Start over again and realise that the ATM at the store is now gone for good and you have to find another. Once that is done get swarmed by cops yet again and flee. Upon…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'll be honest. The story is not good. But man, the gameplay is so fun it makes the game 100% worthy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Check out our featured review of top-down, open-world action game American Fugitive, new from SomeAwesome author DFrnK 🏃 #IndieGames #OpenWorld #Isometric
neutral · AI labelView post →Reminds me of old GTA
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Buy it if you were big fan of GTA 1 and 2. Buy it if you like stupid physics in games. Buy it if you like total mayhem when riding tank in small city. Buy it if you like awesome soundtracks. How many reason you need? Of course this game lack of difficult quests and activities, but there is no need for that. Game meant to be FUN and sometimes goofy. Gameplay 9/10 Storyline 6.5/10 Soundtracks 9/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →100% The game. It's nothing ground breaking or breathtaking, but it is a nice, fun game to play. I wouldn't say it's a must play, but it is something fun. The story is.. alright, gameplay is good, and some of the car handling isn't the best. Pretty easy game to get all achievements on too. Overall I'd give it a 7/10 . If it goes on sale, it's worth a pick up!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game is fun for a while but gets quite repetitive after while it feels like an old gta game which good but the writing and missions get very boring
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →very low budget, but still pretty fun. the storyline kept me interested but overall this is something you want to grab when it is on a MASSIVE discount.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Average top down GTA clone with a fair bit of charm. Nothing more nothing less. Wouldn't have paid full whack but for a sale price it's a great little time filler. I played the story to completion and found it a fairly non taxing game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →American Fugitive gives you a bird's-eye view of life on the run in an open-world setting. It tries to mix action and exploration, but I didn't find it gripping. The gameplay got repetitive, and the story didn't hook me like I hoped. It has potential, but it left me wanting more excitement and a deeper storyline.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Similar feel as the original GTA. Having a lot of so far.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you're looking for that old-school GTA 2 feel, American Fugitive hits the visual mark with great top-down police chases and destruction. Unfortunately, a bland story and repetitive copy-and-paste missions stop it from being anything special. It's fun for a quick nostalgia trip, but only worth picking up on sale.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great little crime game. Reminded me slightly of the top down GTA. Mission Structure is samey but different jobs/missions to do. Can get a tow truck and yank it on an ATM. Can knock someone out and drag them to the boot of your car. Little things i would not have inspected from an indie game like this.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you find it in discount buy it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →repetative after a strong start.. boring. 3/10.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ever wondered what happens when you break out of prison and immediately get blamed for every crime in town? Just dropped my American Fugitive review and this game is PURE CHAOS! This indie GTA-style game threw me into small-town corruption and the most unforgiving police AI ever.
positive · AI labelView post →
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