5 reasons why GTA Online San Andreas Mercenaries will be the best update of the year

On June 13, 2023, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Online will receive its latest DLC update, San Andreas Mercenaries. Regular updates such as this have been a key contributor to the longevity and success of this game. They are also free of cost, which attracts a large number of players. Although San Andreas Mercenaries is only the second DLC of 2023, there is reason to believe it will be the best this year.

Many things are coming to the game with the new summer update, from novel vehicles to thrilling missions. Hence, in this article, we will be taking a closer look at five reasons why GTA Online San Andreas Mercenaries will be the best update of the year.

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Gameplay tweaks and 4 more reasons why GTA Online San Andreas Mercenaries will be the best update of the year

1) Action-packed missions

The plot of the latest summer update, GTA Online San Andreas Mercenaries, revolves around players taking on the corrupt private military firm, Merryweather Security. For this, they will team up with the Los Santos Angels, led by ace pilot Charlie Reed. The recently released teaser clip showed us some of the action-packed missions, which look like they belong in a Top Gun film.

This will provide an enjoyable experience for all the players. The last two DLC updates featured five and six missions, respectively. While they were also quite fun, the new ones look far superior in terms of immersion and replayability.

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2) New vehicles

New vehicles spotted in the DLC teaser (Image via Rockstar Games)

There are several new features in the GTA Online San Andreas Mercenaries update. However, the most talked-about ones are the new vehicles. One is a Land Rover Defender-inspired Maibatsu SUV, and another is a Hotring version of a Muscle Car that some think is the Bravado Gauntlet Hellfire.

Furthermore, Rockstar Games is adding an F-35 Lightning-inspired jet and what is seemingly a weaponized variant of the Buckingham Conada. The previous updates have also introduced new vehicles, which are much more exciting.

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3) Gameplay tweaks

Confirmed gameplay enhancements (Image via Rockstar Games)

Along with campaign missions and brand-new vehicles, Rockstar Games has also confirmed some essential gameplay tweaks. Firstly, players can reclaim all of their destroyed vehicles at once from Mors Mutual Insurance. It used to be a time-consuming process earlier.

They will also get to use custom description tags to sort through their owned vehicles much faster. Additionally, Rockstar is introducing a Hold-to-sprint control option to the game. While GTA Online is fun already, these tweaks will greatly enhance the overall experience.

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4) GTA 6 is coming close

Several recent events hint towards a GTA 6 release date set around Holiday 2024 to early 2025. If this is true, most development personnel at Rockstar Games must focus on providing the final touches to the highly anticipated sequel.

This might prevent them from focussing too much on future GTA Online updates. Hence, although Rockstar will continue to drop new content for the game, it might be much smaller in scale, making San Andreas Mercenaries the best update for a long time.

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5) Future updates might not be as big

In March 2023, the Design Director for Grand Theft Auto Online, Scott Butchard, confirmed that Rockstar has planned several updates for 2023. There will be an upcoming Halloween event and more content throughout the holiday season.

That said, these events are usually less expansive than DLC updates such as the Los Santos Drug Wars or the San Andreas Mercenaries update. Players will most likely get free add-ons like clothing items and vehicle liveries, which is nothing compared to the things coming in the summer update. Thus, San Andreas Mercenaries might just be the best update of the year.