Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PC)

Once upon a time there was a group of developers with an idea. Their idea was simple: Put the player in the shoes of a hardened criminal, and encourage him to commit all sorts of anti social acts within a virtual city. This idea manifested itself in the form of the original Grand Theft Auto, a game that shocked the world with its casual portrayal of death, destruction and general mayhem. Three games and an expansion or two later, we have the fourth installment in the series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Has Rockstar North managed to make good on their promises of a bigger, bolder and more in-depth GTA game? Or is just a lot hype to cover up a shallow game designed around the concept of mindless violence? Read the review if you want this reviewer’s opinion.

In GTA: SA you take on the role of Carl Johnson, a former gang banger who left his home and gang after the death of a younger brother. When his mother is murdered, he is forced to return home to Los Santos in order to bury her. Shortly after his arrival he’s framed for the murder of a cop by two other crooked cops out to get control of the streets by using the gangs against one another. This forces CJ on a journey that will take him across the entire state of San Andreas in a bid to retake the streets for his old gang, while staying one step ahead of the law and the other gangs.

In a world where graphics is used as a gauge for how successful a game will be, GTA: SA stands out with its relatively blocky and fuzzy textures. The game still uses the engine that powered GTA 3 and it shows. Even the PC version with its anti aliasing and ability to change the resolution, can’t hide the fact that we’re dealing with an engine that is way past its prime.

This is not to say that Rockstar hasn’t improved the graphics where ever they could. There are certainly some new additions to the game such a speed blur when reaching high speeds and heat shimmering up from the streets on sunny days. But perhaps the most notable addition is the option to increase the draw distance of objects. At maximum distance it pretty much eliminates the “phantom” cars and pedestrians that would suddenly pop out of nowhere, or disappear once they went around a corner. But this is essentially the same engine that we came to know in GTA 3 and grew to love in GTA: Vice City, which can be a good thing or bad thing depending on how important graphics are to you.

That said, one might wonder if the game isn’t trying to make up for its graphics deficiencies with its audio aspect. The music has always been a highlight of the GTA series, and GTA: SA is no exception. While Vice City featured pop music from the ‘80s, San Andreas primarily uses rap, hip hop and reggae from the ‘90s, with a few other stations playing rock and country music if the aforementioned stations aren’t to your taste. Rest assured, you’ll find something worth listening to since this game (like the others before it) allows you to place your own MP3 files in a folder which will then play them on a special user radio station. A nice addition is the option to play commercials between each song, making the user radio station a bit more like one of the regular radio stations in the game.

The voice acting is also top notch. Heavy weights like Samuel L. Jackson and Ice-T come in at the front, but in no way belittle the perfect casting of the other characters such as CJ, OG Loc and Big Smoke. Every actor took their work seriously, making each line uttered in the game a joy to hear, even if it’s just some incidental conversation taking place in the street, CJ making one of a multitude of comments while undertaking some action, or the crazy SWAT guys in the chopper hurling insults at CJ (and each other). In short, if there was a textbook on how to do voice acting in games, GTA: SA would be one of its star examples.

With such outstanding work on the music and voices in the game, it’s a bit odd that the sound effects are so bland. There’s nothing wrong with any of them, but there’s nothing right either. One gun sounds pretty much like the next, with only minor variations on the pitch to separate them. This also applies to the cars and motorcycles. This is an issue that has been around since GTA 3, so there is no excuse for them not to have fixed this yet. Still, it doesn’t break the game; it just stands out when compared to the other audio aspects.

And thus we arrive at the crux of every GTA game, the gameplay. And this is one time when the boys at Rockstar North have gone above and beyond the call of duty. The biggest addition to the gameplay is the reactive avatar. I say reactive because the character of CJ will change according to how you play him. Do a lot of running and his stamina will increase, swim underwater a lot and his lung capacity will increase, shoot a lot with a particular weapon and his skill with that weapon will increase. It’s amazing how much more interesting the game becomes with these stats increasing as you play the game. You’ll also have the ability to change everything from his clothes, hair and beard style, and what kind of tattoos (if any) he’s going to be showing. Although San Andreas uses these RPG mechanics, it avoids the traditional pitfalls of other RPGs by not starting you off as a complete nitwit. You’ll still be able to drive cars and fire guns much as you did in the previous GTA games, but this time you’ll get better as you do it, and being rewarded with things like the ability to make sharper turns at high speeds, greater accuracy or the ability to dual wield certain types of weapons.

The biggest addition to the game per se, is the state of San Andreas itself. Previous games have mostly restricted themselves to one city at the time. In GTA: SA you’ll have the entire state of San Andreas as your playground, with 3 very different cities as well as a variety of small towns and truck stops that make up the rest of the state. In terms of size, GTA: SA is about 6 times larger than Vice City, though it will seem much larger due to the lay of the land. Although each city only opens up as you progress with the story missions, you’ll never really feel boxed in at any time. There is enough real estate to explore (as well as enough reasons to do so) that it’s more likely that you’ll be backtracking to see what you’ve missed after you’ve passed all the story missions in a given city.


The missions this time around are tied much more closely to the actual story, giving you a reason to care about and root for CJ and his buddies, as opposed to simply using him as an avatar for spreading some mindless destruction (not that there’s anything wrong with that…..). In addition to the story missions, you also have a multitude of missions relating to acquiring assets or just some cash on the side. The old challenges involving fire trucks/police cars/ambulances/taxis are still in there, but are joined by the ability to play a pimp, burglar, gang banger, courier or truck driver, as well as getting certain girlfriends to like you enough to give you their car keys and other gifts. In short, there is more than enough stuff to do to keep you occupied for a very long time.

As if all the above missions wouldn’t keep you occupied long enough, GTA: SA also includes a plethora of mini games. Everything is there; from pool and blackjack to the various arcade machines that dot the stores, bars and casinos of San Andreas. And if you enjoyed looking for the hidden packages in the previous games, you’ll be pleased to know that each city features its own type of “package” hunting, such as spraying over gang tags in Los Santos and looking for lucky horseshoes in Las Venturas.

Quality and quantity seems to be mutually exclusive features in today’s games, unless they happen to come from Rockstar North. GTA: SA is the perfect marriage of the two, giving players an interesting story to follow, as well as enough stuff to do to keep you busy long past the 20 hour mark. From its humble origins as a series that sold mostly due to the amount of violent content, the GTA series now stands as one of the few pillars reminding us of why we play games in the first place, because we want to have fun, and in this regard GTA: SA is like the proverbial island in a sea of mediocre titles big on technical achievements, but low on gameplay value.


Graphics: 7
Sound: 9
Gameplay: 10
Multiplayer: N/A
Overall: 8.6

Grove Street 4 life yo!

Excelence as always Sarafan

Damn! Another first class review.

I really look forward to your writeups, SL. Thanks again

A very good comprehensive review! I might go out and buy it on pay day...

great review :thumbup:

though i find GTA:SA very boring half way through the second island.... got totally bored by VICE city too........ 3 was too great in terms of storyline..... SA has got an excellent storyline and takes the best aspects of 3 imo but I think I should of stopped buying them after 3

Honest review :thumbup:

And entertaining to read aswell, nice writing

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. :raisehat:

I just finished reading the Xbox review of GTA: SA on the main page, and i have to admit, that's a great review. Unlike my review, which is rather segmented and analytical in nature, the Xbox review has a very organic feel to it, with no discernable sections to interrupt the train of thought being established as one reads it. That's a style of writing that is very hard to pull off without rambling on about everything and nothing, and i would say the reviewer pulled it off flawlessly. Guess that's why my review is in the user review section and his is on the main page.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sarafan.

You wrote a thoroughly decent review for GTA: SA and, in all honesty, covered considerably more ground than I where detail is concerned. Some folks enjoy the saturation angle more than the light brush strokes I applied, and there's certainly room for both styles in this world.

I just figured on trying to formulate a solid opinion while offering up the essentials to justify it.

The game really IS too big to fit it all into one review, so it's great that you covered pretty much all that I missed for want of space, time, and reader attention.

Again, thanks for the kind words, and more power to you.

Stevie

at first i didnt know about gta games but then a friend told me about so I bought vice city and later I boght san andreas.I enjoy playing expecially because of the cheats and the mods

Testing.... San Andreas eh? Great game but I was hope the graphic will be better than Vice City... I'm wrong.