5 improvements to GTA San Andreas that could be made in a potential remaster

Modified Mar 25, 2021 21:40 GMT

While there is no official confirmation of a potential remaster of GTA San Andreas, fans are still curious as to what improvements could be made to the masterpiece.

Oftentimes, a remaster gives an old game new life. Fans of GTA San Andreas will still likely play it, no matter how many years go by. However, the topic of a remaster is a different story. Given Rockstar's good track record with GTA titles, a GTA San Andreas remaster would likely be an excellent game. Of course, there's no news about it happening any time soon.

Still, Rockstar is likely aware of how many fans would love a remaster of GTA San Andreas. Although a lot of people have played GTA San Andreas, it pales in comparison to GTA 5 in terms of players. Naturally, this is a discussion of hypotheticals as opposed to official news, but there are still some elements of GTA San Andreas that could easily be improved upon with a potential remaster.

Five improvements to GTA San Andreas that could be made in a potential remaster

#5 - More in-depth interactions

GTA San Andreas introduced the ability for the player to respond positively or negatively to various pedestrians, but later GTA games introduced more mechanics that would fit in perfectly with GTA San Andreas. It wouldn't have to be new mechanics either, for there are old mechanics that could easily be improved upon.

Take the various girlfriends from GTA San Andreas, for example. It's a simple system that could easily be made more interesting with GTA 4 or GTA 5's friends' activities. It would certainly help with immersion, as GTA San Andreas can feel a little too simple at times. Even having the ability to hang out with characters like The Truth or Wu Zi Mu would be pretty neat.

#4 - A remaster would fix some bad bugs

The Steam version of GTA San Andreas is infamously bad. A remaster wouldn't make the PC version feel inferior in some manners (such as removed songs), as it would be likely that both the PC and console versions of a GTA San Andreas remaster would share nearly all content.

Fixing bad bugs is one of the best improvements a game can make. In a good scenario, players won't feel bad about removing the Frame Limiter and being unable to do basic actions due to wonky physics like they would on the Steam version.

#3 - Potentially new content

Sometimes, remasters introduce more content than the game it's based on. While the opposite is true sometimes (a remaster can take away key gameplay elements), this reason will fall under the assumption that GTA San Andreas would get a juicy remaster. It could be minor content that's nice to acknowledge, or it could be major content to sink one's teeth into for a few hours.

Having more content in a GTA San Andreas remaster would improve several aspects of the game. First, it would increase the overall game's value and make it seem less like a graphical upgrade and nothing else and more like a true remaster. Second, the new content could directly improve pre-existing features. Stealth exists in GTA San Andreas, but new content that promotes it more would be an example of it being improved upon.

#2 - Improved controls

GTA San Andreas has a good control scheme for the most part. However, minor touches could certainly go a long way in improving the game's overall experience. Remasters of old games tend to touch up the controls of old games, so it wouldn't be unprecedented for a potential remaster of GTA San Andreas to do the same. It wouldn't have to be a drastic change, either.

Just having the ability to lean on walls like in modern GTA games could make old missions feel fresh. Likewise, more fluid running and jumping controls could make the game feel more modern. It can still be fast-paced (it doesn't have to feel as slow as modern GTA titles); it just has to feel more responsive. Given that the topic of improved controls is a broad one, a GTA San Andreas remaster could tackle it in a multitude of ways.

#1 - Graphics

The main issue most new players have with GTA San Andreas is its outdated graphics. Old games aren't necessarily bad graphically, as some games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker look excellent even to this day. However, GTA San Andreas is not stylized artistically, so it doesn't have the same benefits some other games have.

However, a remaster can easily fix GTA San Andreas's biggest issue. While mods do exist to fix GTA San Andreas's graphical issues, not all players can be bothered to install them. Plus, it would be nice to have the most glaring issue of the game be fixed without 3rd party assistance. Mods would still exist to enhance it, of course, but it wouldn't be as mandatory.

Note: This article reflects the writer’s personal views.

Edited by Nikhil Vinod