The GTA series is one of the best video game series of all time. It has set several records and earned its name for having some of the biggest gaming communities. The coveted title of GTA San Andreas is loved and appreciated by players all over the world to this day for various reasons such as the graphics, the details and how advanced it was for its time. The most interesting part of GTA San Andreas, however, was its vast and detailed map. It featured 3 different cities, all with their own qualities. We were very close to getting the San Andreas Map in GTA 5 as well, but we didn't due to some setbacks. This article covers the different reasons why we only have a single city in the San Andreas version of GTA 5.
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Why don't we have the full San Andreas map in GTA 5:
To understand the GTA series and its maps, we must go back to GTA 3. The GTA series had already adapted to the trend of open world games. It featured a detailed (for the time) and huge version of New York City with 3 different neighborhoods and even a working airport. This map, known as Liberty City, became a historic location in the gaming universe and had a huge influx of players for GTA 3. The GTA series would go on to have continued success in another edition based on Liberty City, called GTA Liberty City Stories and even got a lot of mentions in GTA Vice City.
The year 2004 saw the release of GTA San Andreas. This title would become the most popular and most celebrated game in the GTA series. It had an extraordinary story, deep characters, and most importantly, a unique map set in the 90s. It featured detailed versions of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas dubbed Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas respectively. All of these cities allowed free travel between them like the older games, but each city was a world of its own.
Los Santos was a low-density urban city, infested with gangs and gang wars on its streets. It housed most working-class and lower-class residents, along with a few upper-class residents near the outskirts. Grove Street, Santa Maria Beach and Richman were among some popular neighborhoods. San Fierro is denser than Los Santos and features an upper class of citizens who live there, although it does have some problems with gangs in Chinatown and the surrounding neighborhoods. Las Vegas was probably the most iconic city filled to the brim with its wealthy neighborhoods and casinos.
Related: How to Collect Arcade Income in GTA 5GTA 4 released in the year 2008 marking the first GTA game with an improved game engine and physics, at least on paper. The highly detailed and recreated version of Liberty City (again) sounded good when spoken, but playing the game itself was a nightmare. Many players did not prefer the dark and deep storyline compared to the light and fun storyline of the other GTA games. Another problem with GTA 4 was that it was full of bugs and glitches and the driving felt more like a simulator than an action adventure game. All this guaranteed the beginning of the end of the GTA series and Rockstar had to act fast.
When GTA 5 was first announced in 2010, fans of the series were confused. Most expected Rockstar to keep working on improving GTA 4, especially as an online scene for the game was starting to become more and more popular, mainly because it was the first true multiplayer GTA game. Controversy surrounded the series, raising doubts about the success of GTA 5. All these doubts were dispelled when the trailer was released in the month of November 2011.
The map was revealed to be the San Andreas map. This bought back all the hope the series had lost. Everyone was excited to get a San Andreas map in the next GTA game as it was the best version of the map from their previous successful GTA San Andreas game. That excitement, however, was short-lived as people soon realized that GTA 5 would not feature the full San Andreas map, but would only take place in Los Santos and Blaine County.
GTA 5 released on September 17, 2013 and established what would become one of the best eras for gaming. It broke several records and earned $1 billion in just 4 days of release. The question, however, still arises: why did the full San Andreas Map not appear in GTA 5. The answer to that, as revealed later, was apparently manpower. When it was in development, GTA 5 wasn't even close to being ready and had already missed 2 deadlines. As the third deadline was approaching, employees were required to work many more hours than listed in their job descriptions. This caused serious concerns about the health of the employees and, in general, even about how Rockstar Games treated its employees.
All these concerns started to become an issue for Rockstar Games as an association. At this point, Rockstar was forced to release the game with whatever it ended up with. For that reason, GTA 5 was released with just one city instead of 3. The game, however, despite all its problems, has established itself as the best game of all time.
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