With the release of GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition this November, players can expect easier versions of Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas. Fans are sure to be on the lookout for differences between the new remasters and the original games on release, but Rockstar has already announced a handful of changes. Outside of the obvious graphical overhaul, GTA: The Trilogy's controls are GTA 5-inspired, and new features have been incorporated in order to create a smoother gameplay experience.
The early 3D GTA titles contained some infamously difficult segments, with GTA 3 and Vice City featuring several punishing missions and San Andreas including "Supply Lines," a mission so challenging that Rockstar had to patch it in later ports of the game. Many of these missions offer balanced challenges, but sometimes the difficulty of the original games stems from cumbersome controls. For most weapons in the originals, Rockstar utilized a lock-on targeting system that allows players to focus on one enemy at a time. This flawed system means that locking onto the desired target out of a group of enemies can be challenging. A small selection of guns rely on manual aiming, but free aim uses an imprecise, inverted control scheme. These dated shooting mechanics add a frustrating layer of difficulty to combat-heavy levels.
Now, leaks for the GTA Trilogy suggest the remasters will provide an easier experience when compared to the classic PlayStation 2 and Xbox editions, a change that boils down to the remastered games reconfiguring the shooting and targeting mechanics. Rockstar's announcement even notes that the updates will make the games "easier than ever to play." This is why the remasters will infuse gameplay elements from more recent installments in the series. GTA 4 and 5 seriously evolved the gunplay of the series, adding more precise aiming, the ability to take cover, and an intuitive lock-on system. While it's currently unclear how many features from the franchise's HD entries will be included in the remastered trilogy, the announced enhancements indicate that the remasters will feature significantly modernized gameplay.
New improvements to aiming in the remasters will allow players to more easily tackle gunplay-heavy missions such as Vice City's "Rub Out" and San Andreas' "End of the Line," the trilogy's last entry. Considering that Rockstar has announced both improved aiming and targeting controls, GTA: The Trilogy will likely retain some form of targeting while simultaneously making free aim a more viable option. Despite GTA 4 and 5 giving players the option to lock onto enemies, the standard aiming was strong enough that the lock-on feature could be disabled without negatively impacting the gameplay. With better gunplay controls, players skilled in shooters will be able to rely on their reflexes and aiming as opposed to a clunky lock-on system. In addition, the targeting that is included will likely be more intelligent, meaning that players won't accidentally target a pedestrian accross the street when battling a group of gang members.
Rockstar has also announced updates to San Andreas's drive-by controls. Despite GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas having relatively simplistic car combat, San Andreas put a heavy gameplay emphasis on performing drive-by shootings with friendly gang members. It's far from a broken feature, but players and AI are only able to shoot in two directions when in a car: right or left. HD GTA games included a revamped drive-by system that allowed for flexible, 360 degree aiming when in a car. Applied to San Andreas, this innovation will make car combat significantly more accessible.
GTA: The Trilogy will also borrow from GTA 5 for its general controller layout. Updated button mapping will make gameplay easier for fans who are used to playing GTA 5 or GTA Online. Another massive change will be the addition of a weapon wheel, a feature from the HD games that adds efficiency when equipping one of GTA's many weapons. The original console versions of the games forced players to rely on the shoulder buttons to switch through their arsenal one-by-one, a mechanic that could be frustrating when attempting to equip a weapon in a tight spot. A weapon wheel would further streamline combat in the remasters, cutting down on needless frustration.
The remasters will also improve mini-map features, adding updated mini-maps as well as the ability to set waypoints. This will make navigation more convenient across all three games, but it will be particularly appreciated in GTA 3, which didn't show a large map in the pause menu and included only a very basic mini-map when playing. GTA 3's Liberty City location is legendary, but limited map features meant that traversing Liberty City's sometimes labyrinthine streets could be a chore, especially in difficult missions such as "Espresso 2 Go" that asked players to drive to several points in the city within a time limit. With an enhanced mini-map and a modern waypoint feature, these driving-heavy sequences will be significantly less difficult.
Even when players fail a mission, GTA: The Trilogy will be more forgiving by offering instant mission restarts. One of the more punishing elements of the original trilogy was the need to drive all the way back to a mission's starting point after failing the mission. Except for San Andreas's "End of the Line," there were no checkpoints or restarts in the original games. The second installment of the GTA Trilogy, Vice City, let players take taxis back to the mission start point, but even this option cost in-game currency. Simply being able to immediately restart a challenging mission will make difficult stretches of the trilogy less daunting, especially when playing through GTA: San Andreas' massive open-world.
Even fans who prefer the early games in the series can admit that the handful of flawed gameplay elements led to annoying difficulty spikes. Still, the occasionally steep difficulty of the early GTA games added a level of level of intensity that is sometimes missed in the easier recent releases such as GTA 5. Perhaps more enemies and new challenges will be added in order to boost difficulty and reflect the enhanced gameplay features, though too many changes would require completely restructuring the trilogy's missions. Regardless, it will be exciting to see how fans respond to the tweaked difficulty in the new remasters when GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is released.
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