But above all, it's the world that really sets it apart. The sheer volume of ways to interact with the game was, and still is, remarkable. You can take control of a vast array of land, air, and sea vehicles. You have a ridiculously fine level of control over your character's fitness and appearance, with repeated trips to the gym or Burger Shot having the expected effect. There's a lot in San Andreas that took the open-world genre to new heights in 2004. Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas are satirical send-ups of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas respectively, encompassing the fictional state of San Andreas in the 1990s-and to this day it's the boldest, most ambitious thing the studio has ever done. But no one could have predicted that the next game in the series would feature not one, but three cities, with acres of desert and countryside in between. A year later it was Vice City, a garish '80s analogue of Miami. In 2001 we visited Liberty City, a contemporary spoof of New York City.
After the success of GTA: Vice City, people wondered which caricature of an American metropolis Rockstar would take Grand Theft Auto players to next.
