GTA 6 Should Bring Back These Mechanics From San Andreas

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Obaid Ur Rehman

At Tech4Gamers, I mainly cover new gaming news, leaks, and rumours. Aside from that, I love to write features about my favourite games while inserting my opinion about their different aspects. 

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GTA San Andreas is my all-time favorite Grand Theft Auto entry due to its great story, gameplay, open world, and characters. One could argue that GTA 4 has a better story, but San Andreas is my personal favorite to this day.

Rockstar went all out with San Andreas and implemented many brilliant gameplay systems. Unfortunately, many of those mechanics haven’t returned in the modern era, so I think GTA 6 should finally bring them back.

Why it matters: It has been over a decade since a GTA title was released, so fans have insanely high expectations for next year.

Bring Back The Gym

In my opinion, the best mechanics in GTA San Andreas had to do with fitness. You could alter CJ’s physique according to your preference, following a lifestyle based on your preference.

This was a lot of fun, as I often found myself working out or improving my boxing skills. This would also improve CJ’s overall stats. Going to the gym and doing different exercises would give the player more muscle and strength, which would help in fist fights. 

After working out, you would hit harder with your fist or melee weapons. Doing cardio would help CJ build stamina and run for longer durations. Also, stamina could be improved through swimming, which was yet another great design choice from Rockstar.

CJ’s appearance could be altered by simply eating more. You would have to follow a certain diet to keep him in shape, as eating too much would make him fat and bloated. This would also impact the gameplay.

While GTA 5 had various attributes for the playable characters, the system was a lot more limited. In my opinion, GTA 6 should offer more in-depth customization and bring back San Andreas’ excellent gym mechanics. Fortunately, a leak did hint that weight gain and loss would return in 2025.

Dual Wielding Weapons

I still remember dual-wielding weapons in GTA San Andreas since it was so fun. Initially, it’s easy to see that CJ can’t really shoot that well. However, the improvements become pretty clear as you practice and improve his aim.

I think GTA 6 must introduce weapon dual wielding since it would provide additional variety to GTA’s third-person shooting. Red Dead Redemption 2 already did this very well, so I see no reason why this mechanic should be left out of Rockstar’s next release.

In San Andreas, you can’t really dual-wield the weapons until you reach a certain level. So, I think GTA 6 should approach this mechanic in a similar manner. In the reveal trailer, we saw a blonde woman dual-wielding a hammer.

This probably doesn’t prove much, but I would like to be optimistic and hope this is a sign of a potential dual-wielding system.

Some Other Mechanics

In order to make GTA 6 more immersive, I think the developer should bring back the dating from San Andreas. Back in the day, you would select different dates. While this was also in GTA 5, it wasn’t exactly the same. San Andreas, on the other hand, had more in-depth dating.

I would also love to see gang wars coming back. In GTA San Andreas, capturing territories along with your gang was extremely fun. It also enhanced the game’s overall story, but unfortunately, this feature never returned. In my opinion, the system would work even better today.

Other than that, I would like to see more violence in the upcoming blockbuster by Rockstar. I feel like violence has been toned down with each release, something I have found disappointing.

Also, there were different fighting moves you could teach CJ, so something similar would be a neat addition to break the monotony of Grand Theft Auto’s traditional gameplay loop. Finally, I would like to see different types of schools, such as driving and flying.

CJ could attend many different schools where you could improve your driving skills with different types of vehicles. While the flying school is available in GTA 5, Rockstar left out other vehicles with this entry.

I believe these additions would make GTA 6 even better. A former Rockstar developer has asked fans to lower their expectations, stating that Rockstar will probably release something similar to its last work on the series next year.

In my opinion, this doesn’t have to be true, and looking at past entries for inspiration could help GTA 6 avoid such criticisms.

Obaid Ur Rehman

[News Editor]

Obaid is pursuing a Law degree while working as a content writer. He has worked as a gaming writer for over three years because of his passion for the medium and reporting the latest updates in the industry. Having played hundreds of games, Obaid finds himself coming back to Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, and Red Dead Redemption 2, with these games being among his favorites. He has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as Wccftech, Metro UK, PS Lifestyle, GamePressure, VGC, and Gamespot.