Written by Jeff Buckland, 6/8/2005
Played on:
Windows
Rockstar Games truly revolutionized gaming with the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001. It took open-ended action gameplay to heights most developers hadn't even thought of, much less planned or completed development on. In fact, even today the only company that has delivered a GTA-killer is Rockstar themselves. In 2002, Vice City was unleashed on the world with a fully realized main character, more Hollywood-quality voice acting, tons of new stuff to do, and that unique 80s style.
Late last year, Rockstar proved there was still plenty of life left in the Playstation 2 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was released with not only a much larger playable world, but with new special effects, reduced loading times, and dozens of new features. Despite it being such a great game, though, few could deny that Rockstar was extremely limited in what they could do on Sony's almost-five-year-old hardware. The textures were blurry in many cases, the frame rate was iffy, and while the draw distance was even further than in Vice City, you simply couldn't see that far off into the distance.
The GTA series started on the PC, and despite the waning market share of PC gaming, Rockstar continues to deliver what's usually the best version of their title for those few dedicated PC gamers around. Their ports of GTA3 and Vice City to the PC included new features on top of what was already thrown in to the PS2 originals, and the graphics were much improved as well. Those who have played these titles expect no less from the PC version of San Andreas, and I'm happy to say that they won't be disappointed.
The story behind San Andreas is a little different from Rockstar's last two games. It follows a young thug named Carl Johnson who returns to Los Santos (modelled after Los Angeles) from Liberty City to bury his mother. She, as well as Carl's younger brother five years before, were gunned down, and now he's ready back and ready to rebuild the declining Grove Street gang. CJ's own family and friends care little for him, though, since he's spent the last five years on the other side of the country. He's going to have to start completely over, and regain the respect of his gang as well as his friends.
Ok, screw it. I know what you're here to do - carjack hot rides, shoot people in the street, and see how long you can last against the cops. Don't we all do this in the GTA games? But the story this time around is even better than in Vice City (which had a lovable, but completely, murderously insane psychopath) as the main character. Tommy Vercetti was an incredible game character, but I can't really say I can relate to anything he did or said in the game. Now CJ, though; sure, he is a thug, but he's got a family and connections to his friends that mimics real life much more. His voice acting, done by rapper Young Maylay, is spot-on and encompasses a much larger range of emotions than almost any game character. He experiences sorrow, anger, love, fear, and everything in between during his experiences in San Andreas.
That's not to say that this game is all hugs and kisses and feelings. Rockstar pulled no punches with the script, as F-words and N-words abound here; as many have said, San Andreas is basically Rockstar Games' adaptation of a John Singleton movie. That's not to say that this game takes profanity to a silly level, nor are there any overtly racist overtones. There is some race-based friction between the characters, but again, it doesn't go beyond what has been seen in many R-rated movies over the last fifteen years.
San Andreas added plenty of new features to the GTA formula, like stealth gameplay (with some brutal from-behind kills), house robberies, and much-improved drive by shooting action. Then there's gambling, pimping missions, tons of mini games, jumping from really high skyscrapers with a parachute, and much, much more.
There's only one truly "missing" thing I see in the PC version, and that's the two-player Rampage missions. They were a bonus feature in the PS2 version, but because of the control issues of having two players at once on the same PC, Rockstar elected to just axe them for this port. Sure, they could have thrown in a whole bunch of effort to deal with two whole separate control setups simultaneously, but they probably felt the game would turn out better if they spent their time on the meat and potatoes. I don't consider this much of a loss, especially since those missions were only a very, very tiny part of the full game.
The PC version of the game includes all of the gameplay, speech, cutscenes, and more that made San Andreas the number one selling PS2 game of 2004, and the new graphic detail and handy extra features put it over the top. The draw distance and polygon detail at a distance is much better, and textures look much better than before. Running this game in high-res on a monitor is pure bliss, and completely blows away what any current console is capable of at this time. Sure, the screen isn't as huge, but the detail is about an order of magnitude more!
The state of San Andreas is split up into three cities with several square miles of countryside inbetween. Los Santos represents all the best and worst areas of Los Angeles; San Fierro is strikingly similar to San Francisco; and Las Venturas is, well, it's Vegas. Each city has been fleshed out with almost as much detail and square footage as each of Liberty City and Vice City, and this game gives you all three as a big playground. But the countryside surrounding them is also incredibly fun to screw around in as well, with mountains, rivers, and even some nice stunt areas to play with.
There are so many activities and missions to complete in San Andreas, you'll have a tough time finding and achieving them all even after a month of hard playing. The story has you figuring out who killed CJ's mother and maybe extracting a bit of revenge, but the dozens and dozens of side missions that are available make sure you always have something new to do. While the game imposes a very heavy "thug life" style on the player early on, CJ branches out towards other cultures much more in his visits to San Fierro and Las Venturas. Because of this, and the many ways that CJ's abilities improve as he goes on, it really does feel like two or three normal GTA games squeezed into one box.
