Game Review: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Game: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Rockstar
Release Date: 26th October 2004

I'm fairly confident most people will know what the Grand Theft Auto series of games are about, but for anyone who doesn't, essentially they're sandbox adventure games featuring a protagonist who is involved in increasing amounts of criminal activity for their own gain. The games feature missions which have to be completed to unlock different areas, and features and a story to go alongside these, however there's no time restrictions and the player can take missions whenever they wish.

Mission play usually involves making CJ (the player character) drive cars or less commonly boats, aeroplanes or trains, to a specified location to carry out events relevant to the plot. Also a feature in a lot of missions is the use of firearms and melee weapons, to eliminate other gang members or pursuing police. There's a good amount of variation on these concepts in the missions and the overall plot of the game isn't actually too contrived or ridiculous. The characters are interesting and sometimes genuinely entertaining as parodies.

There's a massive selection of vehicles in game, ranging from tractors to assault aircraft to mountain bikes. Although in their own categories, most of the vehicles handle fairly similarly with speed being the only real variable, its understandable with such a large collection of vehicles that there'll be some overlap. In general, the controls are simple and serve to give seamless transitions between falling off a motorbike and making off with a passerby's SUV.

Weapon-wise also there's an amazing amount of choice in each category, with assault rifles, automatic machine guns, pistols, remote explosives, rocket launchers, even spray paint and tear gas can be used to the player's advantage to neutralise any hostile threats. The missions make good use of the in-game weapons and  see that you get a decent turn with each.

A new feature of this game, in terms of the series is the player stats; eating in the various restaurants around town will add to your "fat" stat which is decreased by running and swimming, muscle is another area that can be improved with harder melee attacks the reward for doing so. The girlfriend system in game works with this, with each possible date requiring CJ to stay within certain stat boundaries to attract them. Other areas that can be levelled up include use of firearms, driving and flying skill. These give the player a greater sense of being able to shape the protagonist than in previous installments.

Alongside the main missions there are side missions which will see CJ delivering freight in 18 wheelers, being a parking valet, ambulance driver, fireman and bounty hunter. There are also races, and events to complete as well as driving, boating and flying license tests. The gameworld is pretty huge, featuring three distinct areas, each based on a real American city. Getting around the map is not only interesting but finding previously undiscovered places is a lot of fun also.

Graphically the game is pretty impressive for its time, there's a lot to render and for the most part it does a good job. Interiors are a little sparsely decorated, and there are a few graphical bugs that could be improved however these never really seriously impact upon gameplay. The only time I can personally remember cursing the game over a graphical problem was when it decided to render the tree my plane was about to hit just after I hit it, thus causing me an untimely death.

Musically, the game has licensed songs on its radio stations as well as original adverts and a talk radio channel and continuity announcers on the radio recorded specifically for the game. Most adverts are satirical and genuinely amusing, and there's a lot of good humour in the game, with names of companies (Cluckin' Bell, Juank Air, Brown Streak etc.) and locations having puns or parodying real companies or locations.

There's a wealth of other activities in game that I haven't yet touched upon, such as gambling in casinos, target practice at the gun ranges, buying clothes for CJ, or picking out his next hairstyle and tattoo, but it should already be obvious that the potential for fun with freeroaming and having as much fun as possible by taking your chances and doing anything that appeals to you is very high. With all the game features, areas, cars and weapons there's almost no end to the challenges one might set oneself.

Overall there's a lot of fun to be had from both missions and freeroaming in San Andreas, it's more rounded and full of features than previous installments, but just as light hearted and humourous. Perhaps some might find this game offensive with the large amount of profanity and violence featured, but that doesn't make it any better or worse of a game. There's not many bad features in game to pick apart, it's easy to outwit the AI with a little practice, and you do run out of activities eventually, but neither of those aspects stop this from being one of the best sandbox action adventure games out there, even today.

Rating: 93/100
Grade: A