Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas — The Definitive Edition

Is it worth playing it in 2026?

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is one of the most influential game, that defined a lot of gamers’ childhood. It features a lot of iconic characters, scenes, and moments that we cannot forget to this day. Today, we take a look at this masterpiece and what made it special, alongside with what the engine brought with it.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was released in 2004, originally for PS2, and in 2005 for XBOX and PC. 17 years after its release it was remastered as part of The Definitive Edition Trilogy. It was developed by Grove Street Games and released by Rockstar Games. This is the 3rd and last part of the 3D trilogy.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was one of the most influental game in the industry — Own Picture Used

WEST SIDE, COMING FROM THE WEST SIDE

The game takes place in 1992, on the west coast of America, more specifically California and Nevada. The game breaks from the previous game’s structural build-up. Instead of the three or two island build-up, we have a somewhat state-like build-up. Each of the locations are closed down until the story progression won’t let us go beyond and explore newer areas. The game does a good job with this, instead of a bridge blow-up, or weather warning, the game in the introduction scene and then later throughout a phone call tells us that we cannot leave Los Santos, the story’s starting city. There are 3 cities in the game, surrounded by Badlands and the Country Side. Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas. They are based off of the real life cities Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.

In this game, we play as Carl Johnson, also referred to as ‘CJ’, who escapes to Liberty City in 1987 following the death of his brother, Brian, which was blamed on him by his older brother, Sweet. He works there for Joey Leone, who we already met in Grand Theft Auto 3, stealing cars. In 1992, Sweet calls him, telling CJ, that their mother died, so he comes home. He is voiced by the iconic Young Maylay, who is related to GTA V’s Franklin’s voice actor, Shawn Fonteno. CJ has a more complex build-up than the previous protagonists. While Claude is just a silent protagonist, who does anything for money, and Tommy is a charismatic mobster who aims to take over Vice City, CJ’s goal is to find the killer of his mother and take revenge. He is led by that motive, which will always come back throughout the story of San Andreas. He builds himself up from nothing, and his bad views from his family, to be one of the most influential person in the state of San Andreas.

Just like Vice City, San Andreas is also special in its own ways. This is the game that introduced the RPG elements and enhanced them. Unlike the previous protagonists, CJ can be shaped by the player. He can be fat, skinny, masculine. You can work on his stamina, lung capacity, weapon skills, etc. You can put any available clothes on him, visit the barber shops for hairstyles, and tattoo parlors for tattoos to put on him. Tommy could’ve put on some outfits, but those were given by the game, and they were fixed sets of clothes. CJ throws that out of the window, making him as customizable as much as we want. Shoes, necklace, watches, shirts, jeans, everything that is available, you can put on him. I didn’t mention all of them, but all of the new places are first used in this game.

There is another special part of the game, which made a lot of players love this game forever. Just like how Vice City had the 80s vibe, pop music, and the fictional Miami, San Andreas does the same with the 90s west coast culture of Los Santos, Las Venturas, and San Fierro. Los Santos represents the ghetto, gang lifestyle. San Fierro introduces more of a business based, mafia side of things, while Las Venturas is all about richness, and mafia connections. One thing that solidified these more, is the soundtrack. There are a lot of big artists featured in the game, a lot more compared to Vice City. From the iconic NWA, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, all the way to the country musics with the iconic Statler Brothers, everything can be found in the game. This game has the richest soundtrack and track catalogue out of most of the GTA games. It made you feel like you live in a 1992 Los Angeles with gang life surrounding you. But Definitive Edition changed on the soundtrack. A lot of tracks’ licence has expired, and as a result they are missing from this remastered version. The biggest noticeable ones are ones from the likes of NWA, Tom Petty, even Ozzy Osbourne and 2Pac. Understandable, but very noticeable musics that are missing.

Madd Dogg, the game’s Snoop Dogg — Own Picture Used

SAME MISSIONS, HUGE UPGRADES

San Andreas kept and brought changes. First, let’s go through the mission types.

First of all, the payphone missions from the prequels has been cut and no longer available in this game. It’s a good choice, since there are tons of other things to do.

The vehicle missions. They stayed the same and added new ones. Firefighter, vigilante and paramedic all stayed the same with the 12-level design, and it works perfectly. Rewards are mainly the same, with the exception of the flamethrower removal from the Firefighter. Taxi went through a bit of change, it only needs 50 fares which is half of what the previous game offered. The reward for completing changed to unlimited nitro and jump boost in taxis. The game also brought some new vehicle missions to do. These are Pimping, Burglary, and Freight Train. Burglary is only an optional one, other than money and infinite stamina, it gives nothing. Pimping and Freight Train are only for completion, mainly giving money. They are good inductions to the game, as the game is big, and if they only kept the previos games’ side activites, the map would be half-empty.

Courier also stayed in the game, but instead of one simple pizzaboy, there are 3 courier side missions to do. The rewards are assets. Which leads me to the next topic, assets. Assets stayed in the game, and got a bit of rework. Instead of buying up businesses and completing their missions, they are unlocked for optional buy after certain points in the main story. Since they are optional, they are only required for completion. Buying one of the assets and completing it will also unlock the export-import list. This was present in the previous 3D universe games. They give more of an RPG feeling to the game with them being optional to complete and not a must. Something the prequels didn’t have. This also brings me to another topic. Properties can be bought in house forms too. They are scattered all over the map of San Andreas, in the cities, Badlands, the Country Side. Buying them will count towards completion. Each are different from the others. They can feature garage, or just be a small, little shack.

Vehicle missions are also available to complete. There are 5 of them, with bicycles and motorbike. This also means this is the first game in the series to feature a bicycle, meaning there are more vehicles to choose from.

Races and Stadium Events stayed. They added more of them, instead of 3, we have 4 stadium events, with the same rewards. Another nice touch, that every city feature one stadium, not only one on the whole map like Vice City. Races got expanded, available in every city.

They added vehicle schools, which are a nice touch to the game. CJ cannot drive well, and often mentioned by other characters, so he can learn to drive vehicles at these schools. Boat, Pilot, Bike and Driving Schools. Pilot is a mandatory, story related, while the others are optional.

The Ammu-Nation challenges are also back. It was already featured in Vice City, but it got enhanced. There are 4 weapons to do challenges with. When completing one, the weapon skill goes up, making CJ hold and move with weapons in-hand more proficient.

The game introduces the gym for the first time. Learning gym moves are also counting as progression towards completion. There are 3 gyms, in the 3 cities, with 3 different movesets. This makes fighting for CJ customizable, making it feel more RPG like, rather than bland like Tommy or Claude was.

Lastly, the collectibles. Instead of the 100 like the previous games had, we have a complete 250 collectibles for collecting. Spray Tags, Oysters, Snapshots and Horseshoes. They are all found in different cities, while the oysters are found in the waters all over San Andreas. Collecting all of them will give different rewards and count towards completion. Speaking of it, this is the first official GTA game where the protagonist can swim, which was a huge step for the upcoming games in the series.

Quarry is one of the property missions to complete — Own Picture Used

SAME FACE, WORSE IN DETAILS

Lastly, the engine. We have to mention it, and that it is supposed to upgrade and enhance the game’s look. And let’s get this out of the way, it didn’t. The original, 2004 game was already pushing the limits of the technology of its time, and it didn’t have the best graphics. But the new engine takes this and goes into these details of the graphics. It doesn’t enhance, but makes it look worse than the original one. The release was also full of bugs and issues, like the infamous weather bug.

IN CONCLUSION

Overall, this game is still worth it. If you have the time, the grind, and would even do a completionist playthrough, then go for it. It is one of the most iconic game, not just from the series, but from the whole industry that has left us with unforgettable characters, missions, scenes, and locations. It also put RPG elements in the game, that later defined GTA V. This game, without a doubt, is still worth it in 2026.