Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the largest in scope of the older trio of mobile ports – three interconnected cities, rural countryside between them, and the story of Carl Johnson returning to his native Los Santos amid a gang war offer dozens of hours of content, including RPG elements like character fitness, food, or working out at gyms, which had been missing from the series until then. The sheer scale of the world and the number of side activities made it an unprecedentedly ambitious project for its time, and that remains apparent in the mobile version too.

Rockstar released San Andreas too as a paid game with no ads, i.e., a one-time purchase with the full content of the original game, which for a title of this size is a noticeably more honest approach than the microtransaction model of most mobile competition. Given the game's sheer scope, it also offers one of the best content-to-price ratios among mobile ports of major games in general, since a single purchase unlocks dozens of hours of content.

On a basic level, touch controls work similarly to the previous entries – a virtual joystick and buttons handle driving and on-foot movement, but more complicated actions like aimed shooting, flying planes or helicopters, or biking across demanding terrain reveal the limits of touchless controllers. The game supports external gamepads, and with them the sprawling world of San Andreas plays significantly more smoothly, especially in the later, more action-heavy missions.

Why play: For players who want the most extensive of the older GTA games in their pocket and don't mind a longer time investment, with the recommendation to connect a gamepad due to the more complex controls for planes and shootouts.