The Grand Theft Auto series, since it has reached the PS2, has been fantastic, and San Andreas (also on Xbox and PC) is the newest version in the series. Unfortunately, this game also is very controversial, and sometimes its controversy overshadows the gameplay itself. The game is now rated AO.
But besides the controversy, the fact of the matter is, the GTA series has defined the “sandbox” mini-genre of video games, which is an action game where you can do pretty much anything you want. That includes stealing cars, committing crimes, flying planes, and in San Andreas, you can even swim, which could not happen in the previous GTAs. This game is also made to be set in an entire state, not just one city. Initially this sounds like one of the best deals of all time, but I’ll explain later why this is not exactly the case.
This Review is rated on the 0-4 star scale, with 0 being bad and 4 being great. Keep in mind that 4 stars does not mean “perfect”, but it does mean “excellent”.
Graphics: **
The graphics are improved off past GTAs, though not great. The cars look a whole lot better than in the past, and things such as the sun shining and chainsaw sparks look a whole lot more realistic now. That being said, GTA:SA’s graphics can’t compare with the graphics of many other games that are far superior. The characters are still very low quality in their looks, and the houses aren’t all that great-looking either. No fan of the GTA series spends their time staring at the game’s visuals, however, so this means very little to the game’s quality on the whole.
Sound: *½
The sound I care about most in this game is the music on the radio stations. (What am I supposed to do, review how realistic the chainsaw sounds?) Most of the music is poor. I can basically throw out about half the radio stations, the ones that are rap, hip-hop, R&B, and also the country station. I’ve examined the playlists, and except for a song each from Guns & Roses and The Gap Band found on other stations, the classic rock station is the one station I find worth listening to. Almost all of the songs are good on this station. However, when you’ve got only a small percentage of a game’s songs actually being worth listening to, that can’t warrant a good rating.
Difficulty: ***
It can be quite annoying when you’re trying to beat missions, and they’re hard to the point that even using cheats, you have a hard time beating them. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t go through most missions, since I find it much more fun just to go around doing whatever I want, but the fact of the matter is, the game makes you beat missions to open things up. Now they aren’t all terribly hard missions, but I wonder if the makers of this game made the missions hard because they know that so many people use the cheats to this game. So I ultimately feel that the game is a little more difficult than it should be, but considering there are cheats to get around the difficulty as well as the fact that you just flat-out don’t have to complete many missions if you don’t feel like it, it really doesn’t hurt the game that much.
Controls: ***½
The game’s controls have been made easier with a lock-on system for guns, which makes it much easier to shoot at your target. Before, you’d struggle with some guns to fire where you wanted to, but in San Andreas, you can now press the appropriate button to lock on a target and fire away (and the game even gives you a color-coded symbol to show you how weak your target is). Sometimes this lock-on system has problems, if you can’t lock on the right target or if you get behind an obstacle, but most of the time, it works great.
If you want to go anywhere in this game without a vehicle, meaning on foot, swimming, or biking, you’d better tap the A button repeatedly, because if not, you won’t move very fast. This is a nice feature that lets you sprint faster than in previous Grand Theft Autos.
The other controls are pretty much the same as in the past versions, and they are all adequate. Despite the many controls, most people should be able to get the hang of them quickly.
Gameplay: ****
The fact of the matter is, the gameplay is what makes the GTA games special. You have the ability to do so many different things in this game. Of course many of them are violent or against the law, such as blowing up vehicles or stealing them. This game is huge, too, with the area unlocked from the start being bigger than all of Vice City (at least from the way it seems to me). Now there are not just the big city areas; there are now farms, fields, wooded areas, all sorts of different places that makes San Andreas feel like a real place. While the gameplay remains basically the same as in past GTAs, with some improvement, the fact that you’re playing in a whole new environment which is even larger than ever before makes this game excellent.
A feature that I especially love in this game is the multiplayer play. Now you can have another player also play at the same time as you, as one of several characters, which vary depending on where your two-player action begins. This is even more fun than before, because teaming up with someone else really does help you out in a battle with whatever characters are against you.
You can also get gang members to come in your car with you, and they’ll support you in battles as long as they’re alive. As you progress through the game, you can get more and more gang members to join you. This certainly helps you when the police are chasing you, and as you drive, your gang members shoot down the police. Sometimes this gets you into trouble, though, when the gang members start getting into it with another gang, as that always leads to chaos.
The missions are far crazier than ever before, as you can get yourself into some really exciting situations, such as trying to sneak through a guy’s mansion to steal a book of song lyrics and get out without being caught. There are also similar burglary missions, which are really tense, as you try to sneak out boxes from a house by walking as slowly as you can so you don’t fill up a noise meter and wake up the owner of the house (who can call the police- or pull out a shotgun!).
That’s not to say all the missions are “sneak around” missions- in fact, these are probably some of the few that actually are. Most involve your character trying to take down an incredible number of opposing gang members. Other times the mission involves driving somewhere in a certain amount of time. Still more missions include things such as setting a house on fire, then going inside and saving someone (confusing story, perhaps, but a whole lot of fun).
And if those weren’t enough, there are mini-games such as pool and arcade games included in the game in various places, such as bars. There’s even a Dance Dance Revolution-like mini-game in some places. The game has so many things to do in it that there’s always something new to try out each time you play it. Breaking into the airport and flying airplanes is certainly one of the more interesting- and dangerous- things in the game.
Also, you need to eat and drink in this game in order to keep your character healthy, as well as exercise in order to make your character faster and stronger. These things were not the pain I thought they would be when I heard about them, as they really don’t take much time out of your playing time. In fact, going to the restaurants is one of my favorite things to do, because you can finish your meal- then finish off everyone in the restaurant.
The one main problem I find with this game is the fact that there is so much in this game more than the opening area of it- which, as I’ve mentioned before, is probably larger than all of Vice City anyway- but you can’t get to it until you complete a ton of missions (you can actually make it to those places, but you get an automatic 4-star wanted rating which comes back even after using the cheat code to lower it, so you really can’t do much over there). This is annoying for someone who wants to enjoy the game and not worry about having to do specific things. I’d rather just have everywhere and everything unlocked with the missions as an option, but not a requirement. They would take an incredible amount of time to complete, and that really isn’t necessary to extend the life of this game. The game has so much to do in it anyway, and in fact the missions are often put off just because it’s so fun to be able to do whatever you want, not what the game wants.
But even with this problem, I still find this game to be absolutely awesome. It’s way too much fun. This is the type of gameplay that makes video games really fun, when they let the game player choose how they want to play the game, not having to do certain things (as after all, you can just choose not to complete many of the missions).
Replayability: ****
This game can be played over and over again without getting old, because there are so many things you can do in it. It really depends on how creative you want to be. This may mean parking your car in the middle of a highway and waiting to see what chaos occurs after a huge pileup. This may mean going into a police station with some sort of weapon- and seeing if you can get your character out safely. There are so many possibilities, which allow you to play this game on and on and on.
Fun Factor!: ****
This game is a whole lot of fun, and that’s really what makes it- and the other Grand Theft Auto PS2 games- so great. It’s usually the chaos that you can cause by breaking the law that provides the most fun moments in this game. There are so many things that appeal to different people who play this game, like those who want to pull off stunts on motorcycles or those who want to run from the police. It is a game that finds a way to please all sorts of gamers.
OVERALL: ****
This game was my choice for “Game of the Year” for 2004, and is one of the greatest games of all time. It is a game that can be played for a very long time in many different ways. It is very fun, and it is one that can be played for long periods of time at once without your getting bored with it. This is certainly a fantastic game, one of the best that this generation, or any generation, for that matter, has had to offer.
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