O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was, in many ways, a huge change for the series. In some ways, it was the Metal Gear Solid 3 situation: you still saw the remnants of the previous identity, that evolved and remade itself over the course of the previous games, but you could also see what the future of the franchise is going to be. And people loved it, it is considered one of the best games of all time and… I never cared about it much. There was a lot in it I remembered liking, but also a lot more that frustrated me. So the revisit with The Definitive Edition was going to be curious. And it was – I did like the game more than I originally did. But I still don’t like it very much.
GTA: San Andreas continued with the formula originally established in GTAIII and many things are immediately recognizable. Same general concepts, many of the same limitations and abilities and same, if incredibly improved from the style and technology perspective, visual identity. Original game has been quite a looker for 2004 on PS2 and while by modern standards a lot about this game visuals is extremely dated, the sense of style in how the world is presented in different lighting and weather conditions is incredible. Something that is mostly retained with the updated version of The Definitive Edition with the “Classic lighting”, since the older versions of the port completely destroyed the way the game looked like. Now it’s far from perfect, but closer to the original vision than even the old PC port of the game had.
However, the more you play the game, the more you see how things got significantly changed in comparison to the previous entries. Some major new basic elements were added, like crouching and stealth kills (clearly borrowed from Manhunt released earlier). Swimming finally became possible. An entire RPG-light system for skills and attributes was added, with the progression done The Elder Scrolls/Final Fantasy 2-style, where the more you do something, the better it gets. Bicycles were added as a new type of transportation, working off the existing mechanics of sprinting. Game got several different mini-games and concepts like dialogues, where you could reply positively or negatively… There’s a lot of small and huge stuff almost in everything that at first seems familiar. Because the whole game got a lot bigger.
San Andreas isn’t just big, it’s extremely big – with three entire cities to explore and two huge open areas between the cities with smaller towns in them. The focus on the story became even bigger than in Vice City, with characters being more “real” and stories becoming far more complex. This, along with the drive for “realism” and “simulations” defined almost everything Rockstar has done since and… I can’t say I like it.
The game is way too big. Territory wise, it is a pain to get from one part of the world to another, even if you use public transportation options that are supposed to speed it up. Missions are exceedingly long at times, and it’s pretty common to have a huge chunk of the mission being just the very long and boring drive to where something important actually happens. Failing the missions, because of that, was extremely frustrating in the original versions, but at least in The Definitive Edition you get mission checkpoints you can restart from that are relatively generous.
And even the story, that starts off so well, meanders with plots that go nowhere for the entirety of the middle part of the game. Where after a genuinely well delivered opening chapter you get thrown into never ending pastiches of different movie genres, missions that have nothing to do with said good opening chapter. And while they often have good characters and moments of their own, it leads to muddied storytelling where by the end of the game, when things finally go back to the actual plot, you don’t even care anymore. Especially when the game forces you to go through extremely boring “gang wars” system for at least an hour to even get the privilege of unlocking the final mission.
Which is another frustrating thing about the game. Some missions could require you to just grind a skill to even get it. Or waste some time, because they only start during certain time. Or force you to go through the stupid flight school, only to then have just 3 or 4 missions where this is required, and the missions are easier than the school. Also why is there a boat school in the game, if there is no boat skill and no missions that benefit from it?.. Just, so much pointless bloat and annoyances that were simply absent in Vice City. Which, while far from perfect, was a far “purer” experience as a result, a game that just wanted to be fun.
Still, it’s not like the systems are bad, or the characters and stories aren’t interesting. There are wonderful performances, genuinely good writing here and there with some solid jokes and moments that are still entertaining. Sense of style and presentation is still solid, complemented by the great selection of licensed tracks to build the right atmosphere. And when the game works, when you’re not grinding skills because you have to or driving across the entire game world for some nonsensical reason, it’s actually quite fun.
Though it is here where issues of The Definitive Edition are especially noticeable, in comparison with the other two releases. There are countless visual bugs and issues – holes in geometry, incorrect behavior of particles like fire and smoke (you can be on fire and not even see it if you’re moving in a vehicle), jetpack lacking animations (yes, despite the push for realism, SA still had a lot of silly stuff). But more importantly, there are gameplay issues too – in most gang wars enemies have incorrect path finding and often run away from you, for example. Cars and pedestrians can behave closer to how erratic they were in GTAIII, which was somewhat lessened in SA originally. Partially because of how many cars and pedestrians could spawn at once – now a lot of them can spawn, often in large groups in one single spot, which negatively affects missions. Especially since the opposite can happen too and for no real reason missions that require you to have a vehicle quick at hand suddenly forget to spawn any around… It’s a mess. A playable mess, but one that has more issues than the original release did, for all of the faults that original PC port had.
But who knows, maybe someday Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition will get updated to the fully playable state and at that point and will entirely surpass the original release in desirability. And when that happens, I am still never replaying it again. I didn’t dislike my time with it and some of the updates (especially the checkpoints) made the experience even better than one I had with the original two decades ago. But I still can’t say that it was very enjoyable or fun and I’d rather replay Vice City again. If you’ve never played San Andreas before, I feel like it’s worth trying and The Definitive Edition has by now became a solid choice. But I wouldn’t recommend it as an introduction to GTA series.