Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

"I will never touch Vice City again."

Really, I won't. San Andreas is that good. I expect to see a huge increase in the number of second-hand Vice City's and GTA III's available over the coming months.

This game has made massive leaps and bounds since its last incarnation as Vice City. Almost every aspect of the game has been improved. I have to warn you, though, that a lot of the problems people complained about in Vice City - draw-in graphics, annoying glitches and so on - are still present. And yet, this remains the single best game on the Playstation 2.

Gameplay - 10/10

This is one of the most fun games I have ever played. I wouldn't have thought it was possible, but even more freedom of movement has been instilled into this game than the last two in the series. You can do practically anything. Ride a mountain bike off the edge of a massive mountain, bail off and parachute down. Get a group of gangsters together, grab some weapons and fight for gang territory in the streets of Los Santos. Steal a private jet, fly over a military base and get shot down by a missile battery. It is so incredibly easy to get sidetracked that this game will last for months after you buy it.

There's a whole new range of vehicles to choose from - especially planes. Flight has been much improved since the last game. You can soar far, far higher than you ever could have dreamed of in Vice City, and there's so many planes to do it in. I've come across a Lear jet, a full-winged Dodo, a stuntplane, a seaplane, and a WWII fighter - and I haven't even started looking properly yet.

One of the best additions is the fact that there's three cities, with countryside in between. When I first heard that, I assumed it would just be one long, straight highway through the desert, which you couldn't stray off. I was incredibly surprised. There are vast hectares of wheat farms, pine forests, desert sands, mountains, salt flats, grassy plains and beaches. The cities themselves are varied, diverse and massive. They're so large I doubt I'll ever get to know them off by by heart like most did with Vice City. Apart from Los Santos, the other two cities can be a little repetitive (one part of San Fierro features nothing but the same boring, identical white apartment buildings), but that's not too noticeable.

One of the small, but most important, new features is the ability to swim. I can't believe it took them 4 games to realise that not being able to swim sucked. There was nothing more annoying than plunging off the cliffside roads of Staunton Island into the water, in the middle of a mission, and drown. Finally, though, that's been changed. Water is no longer the deathtrap it once was - in fact, it's now a handy escape method when surrounded by police. If the helicopter shows up while you're swimming, though... you're screwed.

The level of customisation you can give to CJ is outstanding. Clothing, haircuts, shoes, tattoos... CJ's all across the globe will be like snowflakes. Very few will be the same. Stats were also an interesting addition - you now have to work out and exercise to stay muscualr and healthy. Or, hey, you could just completely let yourself go and become really fat, running out of breath after one block and becoming a target of insults from bystanders.

The combat system is much better. Remember the gang wars in Vice City between Haitians and Cubans, where they'd just walk up to each other and start shooting into their faces at point blank range? That doesn't happen anymore. Well, not as much. And not as obviously. Enemy gang members will now duck down, hide behind walls and cars, and pop out to shoot at you. The lock-on system is smaller (I always hated Vice City's massive, glaring pink circle), and changes colour as an indication of the target's health. You can visit gyms to learn new martial arts combat moves, which are really cool. You can also improve your skills with various weapons, letting you run faster while locked on, become more acurate or - the big one - hold two weapons at the same time.

Rockstar has also decided to throw two-player into the mix. This was a little disappointing; they could have made it so much easier by making it split-screen. Instead, your two characters will be trapped together on the same screen, unable to move too far apart from each other. I get the feeling this was a last minute addition that was thrown into the game. It's still pretty fun, however - although most of the missions make you do something boring, like "kill 10 motorbikes", or whatever. The "free roam" missions make up for this - you can just go around, kill cops and so on, until you die. Much more entertaining.

Cash is no longer so easy to grasp. There have been times, quite late in the game, when I would actually find myself short of what I needed. Unlike Vice City, you will not instantly rack up thousands of dollars only a few missions into the game (in fact, early in the game, you don't get any money for missions at all). This makes money much more valuable, especially when you can buy so many more things - clothes, haircuts, car modifications, and a lot more property.

Overall, though, it's the little things that make this game great. The abundance of minigames (arcade games, basketball, pool, gambling, dancing...). The way you can attach trailers to rigs. The height you can fly to in planes and helicopters. The incredible size of the map. The way you can climb over walls. The way you can make a car blow up instantly by shooting its gas tank. The police motorbikes. Car modifications. Public transport. I could go on and on.

Story - 9/10

Like any GTA game, the story is always best at the beginning. You spend the early parts of the game trying to re-establish your gang's status and power, and the way they slipped in territory take-overs blends in seamlessly. Characters are stereotyped, but hey, it's a gangsta game. CJ, though, is a pretty complex character, and I don't know why, but he seems a lot more nice and friendly then the unnamed protagonist of GTA III, or Tommy Vercetti. My biggest complaint is that later on in the game, your purpose for doing missions becomes... unclear. Especially just after you leave Los Santos. Yeah, you "need money bad"... but what for?
Still, the mission storylines are pretty inventive. Sit back and try to think of a really cool idea for a GTA mission. It's not easy - I tip my hat to this game's writers.

Graphics - 7/10

Now, this is the game's shortcoming, but only when compared to other games. C'mon, this is Grand Theft Auto we're talking about. It's not a franchise I go to when I want mind-blowing visuals. Comapre it to the last two GTA games, and it's actually quite improved. The biggest flaw in the graphics engine, however, is draw-in. Quite often I'll find that I'll drive to fast for the game to keep up with me, and when I brake, the buildings around me are featureless blocks. Then the windows and textures appear. This also happens with grass out in the countryside. It doesn't affect gameplay, but it is annoying.

Sound - 9/10

The most obvious aspect of sound in a GTA game is the radio. I was worried that - given the theme of the game - there would only be rap music (which I can't stand), and nothing else. I was wrong. Although rap is the dominant music type, there's also a classic rock station, a country station, an alternative station, a techno station and a talk radio station. The talk radio stations are always funny - for a franchise with so much violence controversy around it, Grand Theft Auto has some surprisingly witty satire. Especially the Ammu-Nation ads.

A great new feature, though, is that radio hosts will now react to things that have happened in the game. When you undertake missions, sometimes you'll be doing crimes that are newsworthy - it was a pleasant suprise to hear the news presenter to talk about my gang warfare activity in Los Santos, or the rock DJ mention the cop I framed for drug dealing.

Voice acting is excellent. Rockstar's recruited names like Chris Penn, David Cross, James Woods and the big one, SAMUEL L. JACKSON. They must have paid him a bunch.

The in-game sounds aren't as cool. The guns now sound pathetic, especially the shotgun. It makes a barely recognisable "poof" noise. In one of the first missions, when the fast food employee shoots a stack of plates near you... I hadn't even realised I was in danger. The machine guns are almost as bad, with popping noises that seem to cut out. I've been told, though, that this is what real guns actually sound like, so maybe I'm wrong on this one.

I hear a lot of people complain about the very heavy swearing in the game. Yes, there's a lot of coarse language in there - especially while you're in Los Santos - but if you're playing a game where you can rip innocent citizens apart with chainsaws and knives, then leave a bloody trail of footprints as you seek out fresh victims... I don't see how you could have much of a problem with it.

Length/Replay Value - 9/10

I'm not exactly sure how long it would take you to finish the storyline aspect of the game, but the non-linear missions and all the other fun things you can do will keep this game fresh for months. Kind of like Vice City, but multiplied about a dozen times over.

I discover something new every time I play this game. Even if you bought it as soon as it came out, you'll probably be playing it well into 2005.

Final Recommendation - Buy

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is - hands down - the greatest title for the Playstation 2. If you only ever buy one game for your PS2, it would have to be this one. This game completely deserves the 10/10 I have given it, and I don't take that lightly. Go out and buy it now.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/04