Though it lacks many of the defining features and quality-of-life improvements seen in later games, the vibe it has going on is so goddamn thick that it compensates for any inadequacies. Soon you don't even remember that you can't jump out of cars. Did you know that the way the game is programmed, the weather in the city is almost always rainy or foggy, with only a small chance of sunshine?
And it makes sense, really; Vice City is famously incomplete, with large chunks of the map being empty, and San Andreas is so ambitious that it can’t provide this level of attention to a single individual location. Of the classic trilogy, only GTA3 is this complete vision of the one, specific place.