5 things GTA 5 improved upon from GTA San Andreas

GTA 5 made significant improvements to various features from GTA San Andreas.

Both games have their fans. After all, both GTA 5 and GTA San Andreas are arguably the two greatest GTA games of all time. The two games have several similarities which make them shine, but this article will focus more on their differences.

More specifically, it will focus on the features present in GTA San Andreas that would later be improved upon in GTA 5. There is almost a decade between these two legendary games.

Hence, there is bound to be a good amount of topics to consider. Some differences are obvious (i.e. graphics) while others aren't.

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Five aspects in GTA 5 that were improved upon from GTA San Andreas

5) Animals

A cat in GTA 5's Enhanced Edition (Image via Rockstar Games)

Animals were in most of the 3D GTA games, but they're largely just background objects that the player couldn't interact with. GTA San Andreas was no different in this regard, even if they started to give animals a little more focus.

However, GTA 5 made animals significantly more important. Not only were they slightly more relevant to in-game missions, but the player was able to interact with them. There were dogs, cats, deer, and several other animals that the player could see in GTA 5.

There was even a hunting feature in GTA 5, which made use of some of the animals in the countryside.

4) The countryside

GTA San Andreas introduced a massive countryside to the series, and it had the largest map until GTA 5 came out. However, one thing some GTA San Andreas players might notice about the countryside is that there aren't too many activities to do there.

As mentioned previously, the wildlife and hunting features from GTA 5 made the countryside feel more alive. Combine this with a larger map overall, and it's easy to see GTA 5's rural areas as being more intractable.

Plus, GTA 5's better graphics make its countryside more aesthetically pleasing.

3) Graphics

An example of how two similar locations look between the two games (Image via Sernando)

It's only inevitable that one game will have better graphics than the other if there's almost a decade in between their release dates. Still, GTA 5 has better graphics in virtually every department.

The textures are noticeably better, the character models are riddled with sharp polygons, and the list goes on. It's easy to notice when comparing the two games side by side, and mods don't help GTA San Andreas that much in this department.

To clarify: the graphical mods do help GTA San Andreas, but GTA 5 also has many graphical mods that help make its superior graphics stand out even more.

2) Attention to detail

GTA San Andreas is an underrated game when it comes to its attention to detail. There are dozens of things that the game does which GTA fans might not be aware of. Still, the same thing can be said about GTA 5.

GTA 5 is a bigger game than GTA San Andreas when it comes to size and scope. Inevitably, this means there are more aspects of the game that some fans would classify as "attention to detail."

Of course, GTA 5 was released nearly a decade after GTA San Andreas launched. By this point, several AAA games had significantly more examples of "attention to detail" than their predecessors.

1) Sports

Golf in GTA 5 (Image via Rockstar Games)

GTA San Andreas was the first major GTA game to allow players the ability to partake in various sports. There were triathlons, pool, and basketball, but they were rather primitive when compared to what GTA 5 had.

GTA 5 had triathlons, but there was also golf, tennis, arm wrestling, and darts. Basketball is a fun sport, but all CJ could do was a few tricks and shoot some hoops by himself.

By comparison, GTA 5's golf and tennis felt similar to a full-fledged experience. Due to this, they were more fun to do for longer periods of time compared to the sports in GTA San Andreas.

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