GTA San Andreas: Removing the Rose-Tinted glasses of Nostalgia.

Last year, I had this sudden urge to start playing GTA San Andreas after a string of yakuza games I had been playing. I played GTA SA as a kid long back on my PS2 and it was a mess, I was too young to figure out the mechanics of the gaming and I would get stuck on missions, ultimately losing interest.

But this time around I was adament to finish this one, I was watching a lot of retrospectives on how this GTA was the best one out there.

Things I liked: I love the vibe this game brings, nails the 90-00s era, the music in this game is a standout, the rap from NWA, Ice Cube, just hits different. I love the way the cars feel. Its fun playing a more sandbox version of GTA after finishing GTA IV. The characters and their dynamics are hilarious and so iconic. The location and what rockstar was able to do with just a mere PS2, the world just felt huge and ready for me to explore and do whatever I wished.

Things I disliked: After the intial nostalgia wears off the game starts showing its age, it didn’t make me stop this game but it made somethinh in the game so frustrating, there are so many janky mechanics that would turn off young players or players who are used to playing games that measure upto today’s standards. The game is incredibly long and they could have definitely cut some missions and made the game more streamlined, the cursed flight school missions haunt me to this day. The game becomes a slog towards the end, I had to really push myself to just finish the game.

I realised playing this game that I could never replicate the feeling I had of playing games when I was a kid, because that was not in the game but it was where I was in life. Sometimes that can be a good thing , sometimes it can ruin your experience. But overall, I did enjoy the game but this time around the flaws this game had, were glaring to my adult eyes.