GTA San Andreas’ gang war system had a lot of untapped potential.
In San Andreas, the Los Santos suburbs were divided into territories, each belonging to one of three gangs. The goal was to win territories for your gang until no more enemy-controlled areas were left to launch attacks against you. You killed a few gang members to start a war and then killed three waves of enemies to take the territory. You did this for every territory until everything was yours.
It was a simple system but repetitive. Fighting three waves of enemies became tedious after the first few times. There was no strategic difference between the territories – no rewards for taking one over another. The only effect taking a territory had was that the enemy gang members in the area were swapped out with your own. This was a neat instance of your actions having a tangible effect on the world – but being neat was all the gang war system could achieve. And considering your territories occasionally came under attack, requiring you to defend them personally or lose them, the gang war system could be frustrating. Whether or not you enjoyed San Andreas’ gang war system, it should be easy to see plenty of potential for improvement.
So what improvements could be reasonably made? It’s easy to brainstorm crazy ideas – but broadly speaking, I can identify three prominent areas of improvement that future GTA games or other open-world games with factions could make.
