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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Review for Playstation 2 |
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| Friday, July 28, 2006 |
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| | Title:
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
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System:
Playstation 2
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Genre:
Action Adventure
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Publisher:
Rockstar Games
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Developer:
Rockstar North
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Release:
October 22, 2004
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Online:
No
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ESRB:
AO
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We were first introduced to the Grand Theft Auto world back on the PC. We all got a glimpse, from a bird’s eye view, of a violent action game well before the 3D incarnations were even a thought in Rockstar’s minds. We all remember the release of Grand Theft Auto 3 on PlayStation 2 - it had the nation hijacking cars and seeing how many stars we could get and still hold our own on the streets of Liberty City. One thing is for sure – gaming in general has not been the same since.
It wasn’t more than a little later that Rockstar somehow introduced us to Vice City, which added some awesome new features to the gameplay and made the GTA world a whole lot prettier. For a long time many believed they would be roaming the streets of Vice City for years to come, even whilst rumors of a new title in development circled the gaming community. Ideas of “Sin City”, the rumored title for the now titled “San Andreas” filled gamers’ dreams and had everyone wondering what Rockstar had up their sleeves next… and as details and screenshots of the new GTA world were released, many people, including myself were worried that Rockstar may not be able to pull such feats off. They have managed to create yet another game that will eat up hours and hours of your days for months – maybe years to come.
Introduction
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas takes place in the fictional state of San Andreas. San Andreas consists of three major cities – Los Santos, the first city based roughly on Los Angeles, the second is San Fierro, based on the hilly bay city of San Francisco and lastly the casino filled city of Las Venturas, based on – you guessed it, Las Vegas. The cities are craftily separated by large areas of countryside, mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, deserts and more allowing for a truly realistic feeling of being “free” to go where you want. Want to hit the hills with a four-wheeler? How about skydiving off the tallest mountain? San Andreas features something for everyone and will give you tons to do and take you months to find everything.
While Grand Theft Auto 3 was inspired by the classic Godfather movies and Vice City has a close resemblance to Scarface – San Andreas is more closely related to an early ‘90s west-coast hip-hop film like Menace II Society. In San Andreas, you control the character Carl Johnson a.k.a. CJ, as he returns back home to San Andreas after spending a few years living in Liberty City to find that his mother has been killed and his neighborhood has been turned upside-down with gang activity and violence.
Gameplay
As in the previous Grand Theft Auto titles, it’s possible to get though the adventure by simply completing each of the stories missions, which are competed by visiting certain points on the game map. The story’s missions range from simple hit and runs and drive-bys to more elaborate twenty on twenty gang wars and complex robbery missions. Each mission keeps you informed via text on the screen so that you know exactly what to do and how to do it. San Andreas’s story mode should take you about thirty-five hours to get through if you play straight through, however if you mess around like most of us do, add about ten or twenty hours to that. Add a few months to that if you partake in all of the optional vigilante missions, races, robberies and dating, etc. that San Andreas offers to keep the game fresh. You’ll even be offered chances to play pool, gamble, shoot some hoops and play arcade games and more.
Another awesome new addition to the GTA world is the new RPG-like gameplay. As CJ, you’ll have to eat to stay healthy, visit the gym to become more athletic and build strength and have the option to visit the barber for new hairstyles, clothing stores for a change of duds and tattoo parlors for some custom ink. Additionally, CJ can get better at driving cars, motorcycles, and bicycles and controlling airplanes with experience. Getting better gives you more control over the vehicle and allowing you to access vehicles and areas in San Andreas. Also note that swimming is now an option in San Andreas – no more lunging off a bridge and sinking to the bottom!
The game’s targeting system has been improved over the previous installments and is actually very reminiscent of the Rockstar’s Manhunt, which overall makes it more cohesive. The game allows you to get better with guns and you’ll have different phases, which will give you more control over your overall shooting abilities. CJ can also stealth kill in certain scenarios – another Manhunt first which meshes nicely into San Andreas.
Graphics
San Andreas is gorgeous on the PS2. Every area of San Andreas is populated with people, vehicles, buildings, trees and all kinds of landmarks to make it easy to quickly identify each new area while driving fast to flee an envoy of police cruisers. The character models in San Andreas are decent. Draw distance is impressive, espeically for a game this big.
Audio
Sound is one area where San Andreas really shines. The in-car soundtrack is varied and features a slew of great tracks from the era that San Andreas attempts to replicate. You’ll notice artists like Dr. Dre, 2Pac, Rage Against the Machine, Snoop Doggy Dogg and more. The stations offer something for everyone with your choice of country, rock, talk, and rap among others. You’ll also notice familiar voices throughout the game as the game features high dollar voice acting from Samuel L. Jackson, Ice-T, Michelle Rodriguez, and Charlie Murphy. The sound effects in San Andreas are all comparable to previous GTA titles, nothing to be excited over as most of it is just generic – however it’s varied enough so that you always hear something new.
Overall
Overall Grand Theft Auto San Andreas offers many different things to many different types of people. Despite some noticeable technical and graphical flaws here and there, San Andreas like any GTA title is an incredibly fun game. If you were a fan of the previous installments – don’t pass this one up. It wraps this gaming generation up nicely and let’s us wonder... what’s next?
| The Core Score |
Overall
9.4 |
| Fun |
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10 |
| Gameplay |
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10 |
| Graphics |
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8.5 |
| Audio |
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9 |
| Replay |
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10 |
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