5 significant differences between the OG GTA San Andreas and its Definitive Edition

GTA San Andreas is one of Rockstar Games' best creations, released in 2004. In 2021, the video game publishing company remastered the GTA Trilogy and released the Definitive Edition of San Andreas, Vice City, and Liberty City.

Fans were excited about this news as the developers promised many changes to the games. However, not everything turned out as the community was expecting. Despite major improvements, several elements are missing or have become worse than the OG edition.

This article will compare the original version and the Definitive edition of GTA San Andreas to figure out the major differences between them.

Note: This article is subjective and solely based on the author's opinions.

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5 differences between the Definitive Edition and the OG GTA San Andreas

1) No colored aim reticle

Several GTA San Andreas features from the OG title were way ahead of their time. One of them was the colored aim crosshair that indicated the enemies' health. It displayed three colors: green for full health, orange for half, and red for low. Red also indicates if the target is an enemy or an ally.

However, this feature was removed from the game's Definitive Edition and replaced by a simple white one. This change is one of the biggest downgrades that most OG gamers felt while playing this version.

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2) Addition of a weapon wheel

Switching weapons has always been tricky in all the Grand Theft Auto games before GTA 5. This aspect became even more strenuous during heavy gunfire and difficult missions. Fortunately, the developers added a Weapon Wheel to the Definitive Edition of San Andreas.

This addition has greatly improved the title's combat, allowing players to switch weapons effortlessly, even during fighting, without having to duck behind covers just to equip their favorite guns. The game also slows down during the swap, similar to Grand Theft Auto 5, which is quite cool.

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3) There are checkpoints in the game now

The checkpoint is an incredibly useful feature that's extremely helpful during extra-long missions that were absent in GTA San Andreas. Almost every player failed to follow the train on the first try or fly the aircraft in the Flying School mission and had to do them all over.

Fortunately, the remaster has added this feature, allowing players to restart the game from the mid-mission checkpoints or quickly head back to the starting marker. It is one of the biggest improvements to San Andreas that has elevated the overall experience.

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4) Addition of the GPS

GPS is another useful feature absent from the OG San Andreas title. It allows the gamers to set a marker on the map, and the game creates a waypoint for easy travel to the destination without getting lost.

This feature was introduced by Rockstar Games in GTA 4 and later followed in Grand Theft Auto 5. Now, gamers enjoying Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Definitive Edition can put a target on the map and follow a waypoint to the destination.

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5) The mission difficulty

There are some great missions in GTA Vice City, Liberty City, and San Andreas, where some are extremely fun while others are grueling. The Trilogy Definitive Edition took it upon itself to ease the difficulty of some of these missions.

In San Andreas, players can complete the Ceasar Vialpando mission (the lowrider competition) with relatively low difficulty because of the larger circles and the removal of several other actions. The player base is divided over this decision as completing these missions is seen as a badge of honor, and making them easier is considered disrespectful.

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The GTA 6 leaked footage has created a lot of hype in the community, and fans are expecting the developers to implement all the cool features from the previous games in the upcoming title.