Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

"This game should run out of stores even before the stores get the game."

Hi there, this is my first review and I hope it will be helpful to you all reading it. In this review I will try my best to give you an overall information on the magnificent piece of work by Rockstar Company. This is really the greatest game I have ever played. With no doubt it is Grand Theft Auto 5 San Andreas.

Story 10/10

This game has a totally different story than the vice city game. In the beginning, you start off with a guy called CJ, which apparently seemed to just get out from jail. As CJ takes his luggage. And heads out from the airport. He gets bugged by two awfully messed up dirty cops that arrest him and order him to obey their actions. They might also use him in their favour, as he is a gangster. And could get illegal stuff. These cops have the power to send him back to jail. This makes CJ worried.

CJ is really pissed of, and tries to stay out of trouble, after serving his time. Now, after this problem, he gets back to the neighbourhood after a long time. He finds out that his mother got murdered. And his friends are deep into drugs. And his family being separated. As you play this game, you are trying to bring all the family together, along with pulling CJ's friends out of trouble. And saving the neighbourhood from a disaster. It is a pretty long story, that will take a long time to finish. And you will have fun going through lots missions trying to accomplish your aim.

Graphics 7/10

The graphics are great compared with the previous game. Which is vice city. And it is also nicely organised. You will find out as you play this game that the cars, buildings, people, weapons. And roads, even bridges. And the weather, all look very real and extraordinary. Basically, the graphics have improved by a great deal. However, there are some errors, that annoy me sometimes. And these occur when you speed. Basically, what happens is that the graphics of the road fade away, as you are flying or something like that. Sometimes, when you are speeding, and choose to take a turn. You will find as you drift, that the buildings sometimes. And I mean it is very rare, that you will crash to it. That is because, it did not appear in the first time. Also, when the weather is rainy, or fogy, it is not so clear. Other than that, the graphics are clear and obviously great.

Control 9/10

The controls are off coarse as every body noticed, exactly the same, as the vice city game. Although, there are some additions to that. Basically, you could still jump, run around. And do other stuff, but in this game, there is a very successful move, that was clearly reached by Rockstar. That is the manual aiming system. Through this system, you could still have the automatic system in any time you want. But this time, you have the ability to choose which suits you better. And which one you have more fun shooting with. This is simply done by using the R3 button, to control the aiming. Before I forget, you will punch later on differently. This will happen, as you will learn during the game at gyms. Other than that, the controls are still easy to handle same as the previous version.

Game actions and features 10/10

In this game, you will notice a great deal of improvement. And new ideas being put in the game. Now, you can swim and even dive, which makes it cool, as you will do missions later involving these stuff. You have a wide variety collection of weapons, more than before. But now, for example, you could stealth some one with a knife from behind. This is cool as you are doing a very hard guarded mission. You will have entertainment facilities, as you can play video games, pool. And basketball. And you still can hang out in casinos and get lap dances, for a hundred dollar enjoyable time. You could race as in vice city. And even play cards like poker and blackjack. There is a very interesting feature, which is that you get to go on dates. You go out for a nice dinner and later on, you may be rewarded nicely. You still can move around. And pick up a girl for a nice treatment.

Other than that, there is the most astonishing move, done by the company. And that is, making your player CJ, go through regular exercises. In order to make him fit, you have to go to the gym. And exercise using the walking machine, with its different levels. This machine, even shows the distance you walked. There is also weight lifting in every gym. And there will be a trainer in each. Each trainer will teach you different fighting techniques, when he thinks that your body is fit enough. Also, you could go to restaurants. And get fat, like the Clucking Bell, which sounds stupid enough to remember. And other places, where you get pizza. In all of these, you could eat meals. And have drinks, not only at restaurants. But also at diners, or any payable machine. You could also buy new outfits, like jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, chains. And watches. And glasses. And shorts. And even different hats. And jackets. You could even now have new haircuts. These two customizing features are the most important of all. And you could do them in many different stores around the city. An additional. And very enjoyable factor, is the horse track betting. You could win lots and lots of money, up to 20 million dollars. And more. You still get to buy property. And make a fortune from it later on. But now, you have to attend schools, to learn how to drive a car, motorcycle. And fly an airplane. You have to attend each one in order to have a licence. The license will be useful later. I nearly forgot about this tiny bit of information. And this is about riding bikes. Now, you can ride bikes and move manually on them. This is cool. Paddling using the X button does it.

My most favourite feature is the pimping. And I mean pimping the car. At first, you have unique cars, that could only undergo this pimping. But later on, most of the cars are pimped. You get to choose the colours, hoods. And curled, twin, and many different styles of exhaust shapes. And side, front, and back bumpers. And vents, tyres, and front lights. Also, there are hydraulics that could be fixed. And nitrogen speed gas. Some cars differ from other in this menu. Some cars could not have wings at the back. And some have special paint jobs in certain pimp garages, like the Remington. Also, you could buy a new stereo channel, to be fixed in your car. Sometimes it is the same, so there is no use of it. The police, and ambulance. And army cars, could not even be painted. Trains may be used as a great help to transport you to far away places. That take time when using a car. These features, with no doubts, are extremely cool. And suit the game perfectly. Moreover, you could also earn more money by importing, and exporting certain cars later on the game. And also, you could do truck missions. These missions are basically burglary at night. Also, there are other features, such as finding oysters, horseshoe. And painting walls, which you will be rewarded later on in the game, when you find all what is required. Also, there is dancing, which is fun to do, as you will get to do it in any club. There is another nicely thoughtful feature. This includes you, challenging others on a car with hydraulics, by dancing. I really mean making the car dance, by using the R3 button. Now, you also have a scale, that shows the level of respect, sex appeal. And skill of certain weapons. In addition to that, you will gain respect, in order to take control later on. And seize areas that you will clean later from gangster business. You will do this by forming gangs. This leads us to a new feature. And that is the feature of making small gangs grow in number, as your respect level scale grows. This is done to get protection. Speaking about the map, well it is a very big one. It includes many cities. I will mention some of them. These are San Fierro, Las Ventures. And Los Santos. You will find out how big the city is once you play it. These are many features that are put in the game. And will definitely blow your mind when using them. You will be amazed of how much work is put in this game. And how much fun you will have playing this game. That is it for me on this filled section.

Sound affects and music 9/10

The weather in this game is very well handled. You will still hear chats of people passing by, and the sound of shotguns. But what makes it an adult game, other than killing, is the swearing. Obviously, that is the last thing on our minds. Gratefully, rock star used a talented group of actors doing the sound of the game characters. Surely, this makes it a very impressive company. That is because the actors are not famous. But they really did a brilliant job on the scenes. And this shows how this company seeks for talents. And not names. Next, while you are driving, you will find some songs familiar but others not. Also, in this game, there are more different channels to tune to. This makes it more enjoyable while in a mission, or at a normal ride. Well, the music is great, and there is not much else to say on this category.

Main idea and summary
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas clearly was a very big hit. Since the first appearance of this game, there was nothing else other than improvement. This story is quite longer than the vice city game. And will take you a long time to finish, nearly a month. I admit that this game really got me addicted to it. And I really think it was an enjoyable addiction. I genuinely recommend you all to buy it (not rent). Well, this is true. Rockstar has done it again. And launched an enormous game that cannot be competed with in all devices, not only PS2. This clearly makes it the most successful. And entertaining company ever. Therefore, this makes us look forward to its great releases. What are you waiting for? Go and have fun.

Overall Rating 10/10

No Comment.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/05