5 fascinating facts about GTA San Andreas worth knowing

GTA San Andreas is one of the most iconic video games of all time. Rockstar Games' 2004 offering marries impeccable gameplay with an amazing protagonist and a thrilling plot. Despite having been released almost two decades back, there are still a lot of facets that players are unaware of.

Due to the humongous size of the map and the countless side missions, it is natural that players fail to notice some small features, gameplay mechanics, and easter eggs. This article will shed light on five fascinating facts about the GTA offering.

Note: The article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion.

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5 facts about GTA San Andreas most players don't know

1) The Cut Throat Business mission affects OG Loc's merchandise

The Cut Throat Business is a mission in GTA San Andreas where CJ needs to bring down OG Lock and steal the rhyme book. After a thrilling chase and taking the required item, the mission ends.

However, the interesting part comes afterward when players try to purchase his merchandise. The price of the OG Lock clothes took a sharp dip as his career plummeted. On the other hand, Madd Dogg's merchandise become expensive.

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2) It has the most number of main storyline missions

While GTA 5 might have better graphics and enhanced gameplay mechanics, it still feels smaller than San Andreas. One of the biggest reasons behind this is the number of story missions, as Grand Theft Auto San Andreas has the most in the series.

While GTA 5 stops at 69 missions (excluding the mission variations), San Andreas goes up to 100. This is a huge number, and it takes hours to finish all of them. This is also because the game lacked several quality-of-life improvements that were later added with the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition.

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3) The game almost had multiple protagonists

While multiple protagonists were an iconic feature of Grand Theft Auto 5, Rockstar had plans to implement it in San Andreas way before. In an old interview with Jeuxactu, Leslie Benzies (former president of Rockstar North) mentioned:

"We had already thought about multiple playable characters in San Andreas, but we couldn't put it up for technical reasons."

Based on this quote, CJ could've had a companion during some of the in-game missions. While a welcome feature, it would also affect his legacy as an iconic GTA character.

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4) Some pedestrians can swim

NPCs in most of the Grand Theft Auto games have limited movement options. However, there are some pedestrians in San Andreas that can swim in the ocean. This is an interesting feature, as only the NPCs belonging to the beach area have this ability.

Apart from some side characters, only these groups can be forced to wade through water. However, they don't do this on their own, and CJ must force them into entering the sea.

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5) Gambling can get CJ into debt

While the game heavily favors the protagonist, it is possible to get CJ into debt while gambling in Las Venturas. This is new for most players as no other game gets the main character in debt or sends assassins to get the money back.

To get the money in negative, players will first need to spend all their cash and then take a loan from the casino. If they continue to lose capital, their cash will be indicated in negative and change to red color. Afterward, they will randomly encounter assassins sent by the casino to retrieve the money.

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These little features further solidify GTA San Andreas as a memorable and iconic title in Rockstar Games' franchise.