WITH GTA 6 a new era for the franchise is on the horizon, and this looks to be the most ambitious entry in the beloved franchise yet. The Grand Theft Auto series is full of genre moments that have shaped the video game landscape over the years, and it's likely that GTA 6 will also indicate a trend in this regard. However, the bar for overall impact on gaming as a whole is incredibly high Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas laying the foundation of modern gaming as one of the most impressive games of all time.
When GTA: San Andreas This franchise was released in 2004 and was already quite well established. After the transition from the 2D era GTA 1 and GTA 2, GTA 3 introduced the concept of a 3D open world for players to explore, take on missions, and act as a sandbox for their imaginations. As the third entry in the 3D era Grand Theft Auto franchise, San Andreas elevated the map design and gameplay mechanics of its predecessors to create one of the most impressive and robust open world maps of its time, and it is unlikely that GTA 6 has the means to actually match it San Andreas should for the open world genre upon its release.
Grand Theft Auto fans have one big concern when it comes to GTA 6
Anticipation around GTA continues to grow, and one major concern centers around the game's environmental realism.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas set the standard for an open world map over 20 years ago
It's hard to understand how important the game is San Andreas he was behind the pioneering of the open world genre in the early 2000s as we look back on it today. Modern gaming is full of vast open worlds to the point where it has largely become the standard. But at the time when GTA: San Andreas was released, there were few examples to point to in comparison to previous entries in the franchise.
Other open world games that existed at the time San Andreas's release really couldn't compare to the sheer scale of its open world. Game like The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowindwhich came out in 2002 had an impressive map size at the time, but would be more comparable to GTA: Vice Citywhich was published in the same year. Even open world games like Shadow of the Colossus, Tyrantor Fallout 3which would come out in the following years San Andreasdidn't have nearly as impressive maps.
The main locations in San Andreas divide the game into separate chapters
-
Los Santos
-
San Andreas countryside
-
San Fierro
-
Desert
-
Las Venturas
Although the size of the map San Andreas has been surpassed by games released in the years since, its scope is hard to compete with. Not only will the game introduce Los Santos GTA franchise, but brings with it two other full cities in the state of San Andreas, San Fierro and Las Venturas, as well as areas in between, such as the desert and countryside of San Andreas. Together they make these places San Andreas feel larger than life, even if it's technically smaller than many modern open-world games.
Another factor that contributes to scale San Andreas is how the game uses its main locations to break up story chapters. The feeling of exploring Los Santos in the first act only to have CJ end up in rural San Andreas really showed the scale of the game. The same can be said for diving the San Fierro Arch and eventually the Las Venturas Arch.
San Andreas laid the groundwork for future Rockstar games to follow
New from San AndreasThe huge multi-city map has somewhat lost its luster compared to the Rockstar games that followed it. GTA 4 built upon this world design by separating Liberty City into distinct areas associated with each major act, though still all contained within one city. The Red Dead Redemption games also followed this trend, with Red Dead Redemption 2 is Rockstart's latest game that focuses its story on specific regions such as New Hanover, West Elizabeth, Ambarino, Lemoyne and New Austin. However, it was San Andreas which pioneered the format and there was nothing like it at the time of the game's release.
While GTA 6's map is the biggest in the franchise, it doesn't have to hold a candle to San Andreas
GTA 5 took the player back to Los Santos for the first time since then San Andreasand while the city itself is much larger and more elaborate, GTA 5 lacks the access to San Fierro and Las Venturas that San Andreas had. Map of GTA 5 is greater than San Andreasalmost twice as big in fact, but without San Fierro and Las Venturas, the scale isn't as impressive in comparison. Likely, GTA 5 it also has a better version of Los Santos, but it builds the world San Andreas offered with other cities throughout the state of San Andreas is the best in franchise bar none.
Guess the emoji games.
Start
Guess the emoji games.
Easy (120s) Medium (90s) Hard (60s)
This puts GTA 6 in a difficult position when it comes to scaling the map. While GTA 6 is an ambitious game to include Vice City and parts of the surrounding state of Leonidas, it is unclear how much of that state will be included in the game's map. GTA 6's map may technically be the biggest in the entire franchise, potentially one of the biggest of any game to date, but it comes at a time when massive open worlds may not be associated with big franchises like Grand Theft Autolike this year Crimson desert showed As such, it is unlikely GTA 6's map will be its defining element as GTA: San Andreas's was and is unlikely any future GTA the game map will have the same impact on the genre.
- Released
-
October 26, 2004
- ESRB
-
M for Mature: Blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, strong sexual content, drug use
- Engine
-
RenderWare
