Despite sharing a setting, Grand Theft Auto 5 failed to match the best qualities of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' open-world map. The 2004 installment in the crime simulation series brought players to San Andreas, a fictional state based on California and Nevada as they were in the 1990s. The game features three major cities: the Los Angeles substitute Los Santos, the San Francisco stand-in San Fierro and the Las Vegas-based Las Venturas. 2013's Grand Theft Auto 5 returned to San Andreas and Los Santos, but sadly the map is significantly less effective in some ways than its 2004 predecessor.

Many consider GTA: San Andreas the series' best game, and this reputation has a lot to do with the title's open-world map. Despite its comparatively small size, the fictional state of San Andreas and its three major cities give players a huge amount of content to explore. Players can find and enter a variety of locations, like garages, restaurants, gyms, and stores, which serve various functions for protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson. In addition to main story missions, San Andreas is also bursting with different side missions to tackle including driving taxis, making deliveries, putting out fires, fighting crime and driving trains. This huge wealth of content means that every inch of the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas map is filled with function.

Related: Why GTA San Andreas VR But Not GTA 5?

The fifth and latest installment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, released in 2013, brings players back to San Andreas and the city of Los Santos. The map of Los Santos in GTA5 is enormous, with the surrounding San Andreas countryside creating a truly massive open-world map for players to drive, fly and wreak havoc across. The game features a wide variety of side activities for its three protagonists to engage in, like scuba diving and parachuting, alongside its main storyline quests. Various locations, like movie theaters and nightclubs, can also be accessed to engage in different activities. However, despite building a much larger and more photorealistic version of San Andreas, GTA5 fails to live up to its 2004 predecessor.

GTA: San Andreas' Map Was Much More Dense Than GTA5

The GTA San Andreas map

Since it is so much bigger than GTA: San Andreas' map, Grand Theft Auto 5's version of San Andreas comes across as empty compared to the original setting. Due to its smaller size, San Andreas had to pack dozens and dozens of activities and quests into a tight-knit area. Grand Theft Auto 5's map is much larger, meanwhile, which means content is much more spread out. Players usually have to deliberately drive to reach side missions or optional content, making Los Santos feel less like a bustling city and more like a game map. In GTA: San Andreas players could stumble upon plenty of engaging content by just walking down any given street, making the setting feel alive and exciting.

While GTA5 gives players a massive open world to explore, the size of the map ruins the tight design that fans love about GTA: San Andreas. By adding more content to the game, or perhaps shrinking the size of its map slightly, developer Rockstar could have made GTA5's Los Santos feel much more bustling. Rumors suggest that GTA6 will recreate Vice City, and perhaps the next Grand Theft Auto installment can deliver a more densely-packed setting along with it.

Next: What GTA 6's Map Can Borrow From GTA 5's Los Santos