A retrospective look at GTA San Andreas’ hardest missions

The old 3D Universe games were much harder than what modern fans are used to, so let's look at some of GTA San Andreas' most notoriously difficult missions. It's worth mentioning that difficulty in a video game is subjective and that some of these missions were likely easy for the reader.

Not meant to be an opinionated listicle, this is a retrospective look at the common aspects that fans know and love (or more likely hate in this instance). This article will also contain reasons why GTA San Andreas players usually find them to be so challenging.

---

Looking back at the hardest missions in GTA San Andreas

Wrong Side of the Tracks

The first hard mission that GTA San Andreas fans can probably think of is Wrong Side of the Tracks. There are three reasons why:

1. The intended way involves Big Smoke gunning down all of the Vagos, which can feel clunky.
2. It happens near the beginning of the game. Hence, players haven't fully mastered the controls or know optimal routes yet.
3. It's a mandatory mission.

Hearing Big Smoke say the following is almost a rite of passage for GTA San Andreas fans:

"All we had to do, was follow the damn train, CJ!"

However, there are several ways to cheese this mission. The most notable one is that players can jump onto the train from a few different points near the beginning of the train chase sequence. Doing so allows them to easily defeat the Vagos without ever relying on Big Smoke.

---

Madd Dogg

Normally, Madd Dogg is rather unremarkable. The intended way to complete it is simple, and there shouldn't be much of an issue there. This changes when the player has previously used a cheat code related to pedestrians rioting.

There is a glitch related to the deactivation of the cheat code, resulting in some pedestrians still being hostile to the player and other NPCs. Unfortunately, Madd Dogg is one of them, resulting in this mission being nigh impossible if one has this glitch active in their save file.

An example of this glitch can be seen in 6:05 of the above video.

---

Freefall

It's time to return to a traditionally hard mission rather than one marred by an unintended bug. Freefall involves CJ going to the airport and flying a disappointingly slow plane to tail another plane. Several minutes of nothing goes on here, resulting in one of the most boring tasks in all of GTA San Andreas.

Some have struggled in trying to reach the corona behind the hitman's plane, especially since any mission involving planes tends to be difficult for beginners. Most notably, the next entry takes this up a notch.

---

Supply Lines

Every GTA San Andreas player should know that Supply Lines is one of the most hated missions in the entire game. What makes it arguably the most infamous on this list is that it involves clunky plane controls. Furthermore, it adds a pseudo-time limit on top of having to eliminate moving NPCs all over San Fierro.

GTA San Andreas players don't have access to flight school by the time they unlock Supply Lines, so it's not as if they will have full mastery over a plane's controls at this point in the game.

At the very least, one can take solace in knowing that Supply Lines is entirely optional.

---

End of the Line

The finale is appropriately difficult. It's not as frustratingly tough as the previous entries on this list, nor is it riddled with bugs that make it unplayable. Instead, it's designed to test a player's skills and is much longer than what some have done in the past.

There are two main aspects of End of the Line to keep in mind:

1. Raiding Big Smoke's Crack Den and eliminating Big Smoke
2. Chasing Officer Tenpenny

Neither one is too hard on their own, but completing both in one go is certainly more difficult than the average task given in this game.