5 underappreciated features of GTA San Andreas that should return

GTA San Andreas was Rockstar Games' one of the most ambitious titles upon release. It has a huge map filled with a variety of activities and terrains. The game also has a solid story that holds itself together from start to end, taking players through a rollercoaster of emotions and action. On top of that, GTA San Andreas has some features that never returned in subsequent titles in the franchise, much to the disappointment of the fans.

While there are several gameplay mechanics and features that have become iconic over time, there are a couple that are relatively underappreciated and unknown to a lot of players. This article will highlight five things from GTA San Andreas that should make a comeback in the upcoming title.

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

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Five underrated features from GTA San Andreas that should return in Grand Theft Auto 6

1) The gated open world

It might sound weird that the developer decided to gate big parts of the map in an open-world game, only making them accessible to players after they reached a certain checkpoint in the story.

However, considering that the game was divided into six main parts (story-wise), players had to keep completing main as well as side missions if they wished to explore additional parts of the map. This allowed the developer to make the world feel bigger than it was, thereby retaining a feeling of suspense and anticipation among players.

This feature ensures that there is always something new for the players, even if they decide to abandon the plot and only spend time roaming around the map.

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2) Learning different melee fighting styles

With better graphics and hardware, Rockstar eventually stopped evolving the melee combat in its game. While Red Dead Redemption 2 features some of it, Grand Theft Auto 5, despite its triple protagonists, lacked variety when it came to fighting styles.

On the other hand, in San Andreas, players could visit gyms and learn various martial arts forms to knock down enemies and NPCs in style without having to fire a single bullet. Three main types of fighting could be learned.

While guns and explosives are cool, hand-to-hand and other melee combat forms allow the players to get creative and have fun in the game.

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3) Enjoy the local multiplayer

GTA San Andreas introduced local multiplayer for the PS2 version of the title that allowed the players to join the game together without having to use any mod or other special means.

While one person can play as CJ, the other takes over a random NPC, and then both can head out to the city to complete missions or wreak havoc across the map. This was one of the best features that was seemingly forgotten over the course of development.

While Gran Theft Auto 5 has its online multiplayer counterpart, it can be considered a separate game. The local multiplayer was missing from other GTA Trilogy titles.

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4) The gang wars

The whole story of San Andreas revolves around CJ, Big Smoke, and the Grove Street Family trying to capture more territories as they fight against rival gangs and law enforcement.

The gang wars feature kept the players busy as Ballas and other gangs were always looking to take back their territories. There was always the need to clean up the mess and fight off the enemies. This sometimes turned troublesome, especially if someone was busy completing an important mission.

The return of gang wars or something similar to GTA 6 is bound to keep players busy and even cause potentially interesting distractions in between long missions.

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5) Catching the plane

Fast travel is a great way to save time while going across the map. However, GTA San Andreas decided to give it a little twist where players could purchase flight tickets and catch a plane from the airport. This would allow them to travel between the three cities in the game.

This was a cool feature that should have returned to other titles as well. Players could enjoy the beautiful scenery while traveling across the map. This saved a lot of time because traveling long distances in San Andres was sometimes a big pain.

Fans are confused to this day why Rockstar decided not to implement this feature in Grand Theft Auto 5.

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With the GTA 6 trailer release date around the corner, here's hoping that fans get to see some of these features from San Anrdeas in the upcoming title.