Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition promises to collect GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, all while giving each game some major overhauls. And while graphical and gameplay enhancements should prove to be worthwhile improvements, there are other areas of these iconic games that may not be as easy to fix. The games featured in GTA: The Trilogy are infamous for having missions that can be very difficult to get through, whether it’s because of aggressive enemy AI or finicky controls. As exciting as GTA: The Trilogy appears, replaying these missions is sure to dig up old nightmares for some gamers.
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GTA 3 - Espresso 2 Go
Grand Theft Auto 3 is fondly remembered for pioneering the sandbox game as gamers know it today, but it also shows the most age compared to other franchise entries, and that is most apparent when playing the mission “Espresso 2 Go.” The premise of the mission is relatively straightforward, players just need to destroy Cartel-owned coffee stands around the city. Unfortunately, GTA 3 doesn’t have a mini-map, and the mission is under a tight timer that can make the experience incredibly frustrating for those that don’t have every corner of Liberty City memorized. Unless GTA: The Trilogy has updated the game to include a mini-map, “Espresso 2 Go” will probably be just as difficult as it was twenty years ago.
GTA: Vice City - Demolition Man
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City saw Tommy Vercetti take on all kinds of jobs in his criminal exploits, and the mission “Demolition Man” served as one of his most infuriating for many fans. What would eventually become one of many RC vehicle tasks, “Demolition Man” saw players control a helicopter to drop bombs through a construction site littered with workers. The controls of this helicopter were difficult to get the hang of, and the near-superhuman awareness of the workers made this mission needlessly painful. While GTA: The Trilogy is going to have GTA 5-style controls, odds are it won’t make this mission any more enjoyable.
GTA: San Andreas - Supply Lines
Grand Theft Auto’s RC vehicle missions did not get much easier when it came to San Andreas. Just when players thought that “Demolition Man” was rough, San Andreas’ “Supply Lines” came in to steal its crown. This mission requires players to control an RC plane to take out various couriers, and it seems all of the odds were stacked against them. The plane was almost impossible to control, there was both a timer and a fuel gauge that players had to manage, and if any armed guards spotted the plane, it would only take a few shots to put it down. While “Supply Lines” has received necessary updates in other ports, the sting of the original version will very much be present in GTA: The Trilogy.
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GTA: Vice City - Death Row
A common thread with many of the difficult GTA missions from the early days is that many of them operated under a brutally strict timer. While the franchise has dialed back the difficulty of these missions somewhat with Grand Theft Auto 5, Vice City’s “Death Row” mission did not hold back in challenging players. For this mission, players had to bring Tommy Vercetti to a junkyard before the character Lance was killed. The struggle comes from the unforgiving timer paired with Vice City’s occasionally clunky controls, making “Death Row” into one of the few missions that really fits its name in more ways than one.
GTA: San Andreas - Wrong Side of the Tracks
Among all of the games featured in GTA: The Trilogy, San Andreas is often remembered the most fondly. It had the good fortune of being able to learn from all of the mistakes made in GTA 3 and Vice City, and its wide cast of characters are still referenced to this day. The locale of San Andreas even became a pillar of the franchise, and its expansion in Grand Theft Auto 5 has turned it into one of the most widely explored open worlds in all of gaming. While GTA 3 and Vice City are worthy of their merits, Grand Theft Auto arguably wouldn’t be the same without San Andreas.
With that being said, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas contains arguably one of the worst missions in the series’ history. Titled, “Wrong Side of the Tracks,” this mission has CJ drive a motorcycle with Big Smoke riding on the back, while the two chase down a train full of gangsters. All players have to do is ride alongside the train while Big Smoke shoots at the gangsters, but San Andreas doesn’t exactly make this easy. Not only is navigating the obstacles along the train tracks difficult, but Big Smoke doesn’t put much urgency into taking down the gangsters atop the train. And to top it all off, whenever players fail the mission, Big Smoke chastises them by shouting, “All we had to do, was follow the damn train, CJ!”
There’s no doubt that Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition is going to be a landmark release for the franchise, giving fans new and old a remarkable remaster of three classic games. The Trilogy’s graphical updates have already proven to be a big hit across the board, and it seems Rockstar is doing what it can to bring these older titles into the current age of gaming. Hopefully, new features like being able to immediately restart failed missions will make GTA: The Trilogy’s harder tasks a little less painful this time around.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition releases November 11 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with mobile versions in development.
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