It's been two years since the last Grand Theft Auto title, and it's been well worth the wait. If you're like me, you've been a die-hard fan of the Grand Theft Auto series since the beginning. You've loved the free-roaming, non-linear aspects as well as the well-written and well-produced storylines. You've followed the series from it's 2D, top-down roots all the way to the 3D expanses today, and I'm sure you have one question. What else can they possibly do? Short answer? Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Long answer? Well, read on.
GTA: San Andreas takes place in the early 90s. 1992, to be exact. You take on the role of Carl "CJ" Johnson, a former gang-banger returning to Los Santos from Liberty City after finding out that his mother was killed. Here, you reunite with members of your former gang, the Orange Grove Family, including your brother Sweet. The game takes you all over the state of San Andreas where you try to find out exactly what happened to your mother. You start in the city of Los Santos, eventually advancing to the cities of San Fierro and Las Venturas, GTA's versions of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. The game follows the same basic makeup as the previous entries, but on a much grander scale. Read my review to find out how.
All of my reviews follow a simple five-point scoring cycle. At the end there's an overall score, determined by the final impression of the game and not an average of the previous five scores.
FIVE-POINT SCORING:
GRAPHICS
GAMEPLAY
AUDIO
PRESENTATION
VALUE
GRAPHICS: 8/10
One of the weaker points of any of the GTA games has been the graphics. While they were a definite improvement from GTA3 to Vice City, the improvement isn't so noticeable this time around. There's no doubt that the graphics are still pretty good, but there's still plenty of jaggedness and low-res textures. The main excuse for this is that, essentially, GTA: San Andreas is a MASSIVE game. While GTA3 and Vice City were centralized in one city, San Andreas takes place in an entire state. A state consisting of three major cities and big expanses of countryside in between. With all of this, it's hard to have extremely detailed graphics. The gameplay, however, makes up for all this. This isn't to say that the graphics are terrible, though. Some of the landscapes can be pretty well-done, especially when you start navigating the countryside.
GAMEPLAY: 10/10
I couldn't possibly tell you, in this one post, all of the things you can do in San Andreas, but I'll give you a bit. In addition to the same things you could do in Vice City, including property purchase (and the standard GTA fare), there are dozens of other odd jobs and side games along the way. From the taxi, ambulance and vigilante missions of before, there's also pimping and robbery missions, too. The latter of which is a good way to generate revenue. Hop in a moving van, hit R3 and you're about to perform a home invasion. Nice, eh?
Aside from the side missions, the amount of other things you can do is almost limitless. Grab a can of spraypaint and start tagging your gang sign in Los Santos, grab a parachute and go base jumping in San Fierro, or even pop into a casino for a little blackjack or roulette in Las Venturas. These three things are just a small part of it. For example... You can control RC cars, planes and helicopters, you can go to flight school, driving school, boating school and biking school, you can play pool, spin the money wheel in Venturas, take a BMX bike to a skate course, go 2-player gang-banging, do 4-person drive-bys, get a haircut, buy new threads, get tattoos, pig out, work out, learn new fighting moves, take pictures, go out on dates, go dancing, play video games... and the list goes on. Suffice it to say, you have an awesome amount of things you can do in addition to the general missions.
Aside from what you can do, there's also a number of other things that just... happen. As you saw in the list above, I listed two things you can do - pig out and work out. While that's pretty general, it's an indicator of GTA: San Andreas' new body control system. Aside from just running around and doing stuff, you have to keep fit to be the best gangsta you can be. There are several food joints around San Andreas, and not only do they serve as good fat-builders (which can then be burned later and turned into muscle at the gyms around town - or just by running, biking and swimming around) but they also become your main source of health. Need to refill your health bar? Throw down $10 at the local pizza place on a big meal and put on some pounds while you're at it. While it's pretty easy to keep fit, it's also very easy to become B.I.G. Eat too much without working out, and you'll be rolly polly in no time.
So, in addition to keeping yourself fit, you also have to develop skills in dozens of places. From driving to boating to flying to shooting a pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, and so on, everything carries a certain skill to it. Get better, the controls get tighter (for vehicles) and you're able to maneuver better, or you can aim better and run and gun without a problem. So, basically, the more you use your weapons or the more you pilot certain vehicles, the better you'll get at it and the more you can do.
While GTA: San Andreas gives you more than anyone could expect out of a GTA game, the biggest thing to note is the size of the game. While the volume of things you can do, weapons you can use, vehicles you can jack and skills you can build, the best example of size is in the landmass itself. San Andreas gives you more room to move than the previous two GTA games combined. In addition to housing three huge cities, Rockstar managed to obliterate loading times between them by including a vast countryside full of little housing projects and Deliverance-style dirtfarms. So, instead of outrunning gangs and cops, you'll get to start outrunning shotgun-toting hicks.
From a more external standpoint, this version of GTA controls essentially the same as the previous versions. The driving controls are a little better, however, and the bike controls are pretty fun. The game, overall, feels very refined from Vice City, and even the missions are plenty fun, too. All in all, this is what makes GTA: San Andreas an incredibly fun game and the best GTA to date.
AUDIO: 10/10
GTA has never really been known for superior audio. This time around, however, it's definitely improved. While there isn't DTS in this version, there's still a solid Pro Logic engine giving adequate sound distribution. From a quality standpoint, the effects seem to have been mostly left alone from previous titles. Gunfire seems slightly improved, but that's about it. The voice acting, though, is still top-notch. Excellent performances all around. And as for the soundtrack, again, Rockstar went all out to capture the proper music from the era, with a few extras. Of course, the dominant sound from this era is definitely the early-90s gangsta rap movement. So you'll find plenty of 2Pac, Dre, etc. This isn't all, of course, as there's plenty of rock, country, and house music from the era, as well, including some classic rap and rock music. Of course, like before, the radio stations are just as well written and produced as before, making just driving around an enjoyable experience. It's all this that definitely makes listening to GTA: San Andreas just as fun as playing it.
PRESENTATION: 10/10
Only 3 titles in the entire GTA series have been designed within a specific timeframe. The first was GTA: London 1969, a PS1 mission pack for GTA 2 using the classic top-down perspective. The second was, of course, Vice City, a Miami-like locale based loosely off of Scarface, taking place in the 1980s. Now, we shift up about a decade to 1992. San Andreas, in addition to being a mind-blowing game, does a superior job of capturing what only some of us can imagine is the feel of the early 90s West Coast gangsta era. They steer clear of using slang from the current era, such as "izzle" this and that. It's a solid game, it looks early 90s, feels early 90s and sounds it, too. Rockstar does a superior job every time it tries to capture an era and this is no different.
VALUE: 10/10
Like any GTA game, this one hit the shelves at $50. But, if you love GTA games, you'll get every pennies worth out of San Andreas. Granted, this is not a game for everyone. Younger gamers or those easily offended will be quickly turned off by this game, but the same can be said about EVERY OTHER GTA OUT THERE. Fact is, if you enjoyed the last two titles, you'll love this one. It's just like those, except bigger, deeper, and better. There are only a few games I'll spend $50 on, and the same could be said about many other gamers. This one, however, I'd have even spent more on.
OVERALL (not an average): 10/10
This is a great game, full of replay value and - even if you try to play through just the missions (which will only complete you 50% of the game) - you'll still be looking at a 20-30 hour game experience. Side-track and you'll have well over 100 hours of gameplay. There's more to do in San Andreas than you'll find in almost any other game out there. All I can say is that, the only reason you won't like this game is if you didn't like GTA3 or GTA: Vice City. If you did, and you love free-roaming
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