Is GTA San Andreas the best game ever?

As an avid gamer and content creator focused on the industry for over a decade, I believe San Andreas has a strong case but falls just short when weighed against some other all-time greats.

What made San Andreas so special

Upon its 2004 release, San Andreas simply delivered an unprecedented open world experience. The sprawling state of San Andreas was truly staggering for its time at 13.9 square miles, dwarfed only by modern behemoths like Red Dead Redemption 2:

With vast cities, small towns, forests, deserts and more, this playbox encapsulated early 90s California culture phenomenally from music to fashion to its satires of prominent brands like saving at Cluckin‘ Bell instead of Starbucks.

Beyond the world, CJ‘s personal redemption quest took the series‘ storytelling to new maturity. CJ remains the most fully realized and relatable GTA protagonist for me. Combined with the RPG elements allowing you to shape your character‘s abilities, I‘ve never felt more immersed in a GTA role.

Looking at critical sentiment, San Andreas garnered a 95 metascore on PS2 and sits as the 2nd highest rated GTA only behind Vice City. Commercially, the 27.5 million copies sold make it the PS2‘s top seller and 5th highest selling game ever.

Quite simply everything came together into a package offering unparalleled gameplay variety from the core missions to odd jobs and side activities. The formula captivated gamers from casuals to hardcore such that over 17 years later, I still regularly see it top fan polls as a favorite open world game.

How modern masterpieces compare

While lightning in a bottle, when I analyze recent hallmarks of gaming against it, San Andreas does start to show its age:

Gameplay & Mechanics

• The gunplay lacks the punch and feedback of shooters today
• Driving model isn‘t as responsive as modern works
• QoL improvements around control, UI, AI absent
• Visuals understandably more dated aesthetically

World Building & Attention to Detail

• Restricted by 2004 hardware limitations in crafting an immersive world
• More simplistic physics and interactions between systems
• Less focus on living world realism than today‘s intricate worlds

Take the apex predator in world building today – Red Dead Redemption 2. On a visual front, Arthur Morgan‘s cowboy adventure delivers the most photorealistic vistas gaming has produced. The Avalanche engine driving unprecedented detail into all facets of the world from character models to foliage responds to players in groundbreaking fashion.

But RDR2‘s zenith is the staggering hand-crafted depth making inhabitants feel alive independent of player actions backed by award-winning performances. In an analysis tallying statistics for all activities available, RDR2 outstrips any peer as the golden standard of immersion and realism.

The gap to San Andreas illustrates how far gaming has come in fulfilling entertainment‘s pinnacle vision since 2004 of transporting one into a separate reality.

Balancing nostalgia with perspective

For many San Andreas rightly holds a special nostalgic position as a favorite that blew their minds in the 2000s. I still regard it highly personally for kickstarting my own passion for what games could achieve.

However, stepping back as objectively as one can, the industry has produced arguably even more influential masterworks since that have pushed storytelling and worldbuilding to new levels. And the exponential hardware gains since enable far more expansive and detailed environments today. We almost take for granted now certain emergent elements that seem trivial but require immense design acumen – features that didn‘t or couldn‘t exist back in San Andreas‘s era.

So in good faith I don‘t believe "best ever" quite holds up upon close inspection for San Andreas anymore, even if my younger more nostalgic self may feel outraged at the thought! We‘re lucky to have witnessed multiple eras of gaming greatness.

The verdict

Ultimately, San Andreas remains an undisputed all-time classic that should be played by any game enthusiast for its important contributions cementing gaming‘s popularity today. Yet when I zoom out looking at the full tapestry of gaming‘s evolution, it falls slightly short of multiple modern genre-defining masterworks that have matched or advanced its myriad innovations for me to crown it the indisputable GOAT.

But I‘d love to hear your thoughts! Does nostalgia overcome my more analytical perspective for you? Which game do you consider the best ever and why? Let me know in the comments!