Starfox_King
CAG Veteran
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Playstation 2
Developer: Rockstar North
Publisher: Rockstar
Grand Theft Auto, a series that has become one of the biggest and best franchises around, is back, and even better than ever. San Andreas manages to throw more stuff to do than you could ever imagine, and it all comes together to make one of the most amazing games of all-time.
5 years ago, Carl “CJ” Johnson escaped from the pressures of life in Los Santos, San Andreas. After his mother was murdered, Carl decides to return to San Andreas. Upon his return, Carl is framed for murder by a pair of crooked cops. CJ is forced on a journey that takes you across the entire state of San Andreas, as you attempt to save your family and become the biggest and most feared gangster around.
The story in San Andreas is much deeper than that though. As you advance through the game you uncover more about CJ’s past and present. The story in San Andreas is one of the reasons why this title is so addicting. You will always want to see what happens next, and you will rarely ever be disappointed. San Andreas has finally given a Grand Theft Auto game a solid story to go along with the amazing gameplay.
The graphics in Grand Theft Auto games have never been awe-inspiring, but San Andreas’ graphics were easily the best in the series so far. They have been smoother out significantly and are much less foggy than before. The environments you would travel too looked pretty spectacular though. The level Los Santos was obviously modeled after Los Angeles and they did a good job of re-creating Los Angeles famous areas. The diversity of the levels was pretty awesome. One minute you would be in a dirt road, then next in a spectacular town full of casinos and neon lights everywhere. The buildings that lined the streets of San Andreas were decent looking; they didn’t have much change from Vice City, and were a bit ugly. That is the only downside of the environments in San Andreas, as I can safely say the rest is pretty nice looking.
The character models aren’t the greatest, or anywhere near it for that matter. They are still extremely ugly and look like Neanderthals. However the character customization helped this area a lot. Being able to give your character a haircut and put a hat on them or sunglasses was a lot of fun. The outfits characters wear in this game are pretty well detailed. There was a huge array of clothes you could dress your character in, and being able to customize your character to your liking is an awesome feature and I hope becomes a staple in games to come.
San Andreas has quite possibly the greatest soundtrack of all-time. There are a ton of songs and radio stations to chose from. Some of the most notable songs on the soundtrack are; Tom Petty: Running down a Dream, America: A Horse with no name, Eddie Money: Two Tickets to Paradise, Billy Idol: White Wedding, Ozzie Osbourne: Hellraiser, Alice in Chains: Them Bones, War: Low Rider. As you can see there are many huge names on that list. The music was really important in this game because of all the driving, without the soundtrack and all the amazing songs, I would have been really bored, but instead I enjoyed driving.
When it comes to sound effects, San Andreas could have done much better. Sadly, the worst noise in the game is the sound of gunfire, especially pistol gunfire. It was a dull noise that sounded nothing like actual gunfire. The sound of cars crashing or bullets hitting cars was pretty solid and quite realistic. The best sound effect in the game was easily the sound of motorcycles, they sounded realistic and pretty awesome too.
The voiceovers in San Andreas are excellent. With big name people voicing characters like Samuel L. Jackson as Officer Tenpenny, I expected it to be great. They followed through with every character fitted with a voice that suited their personality perfect. Their voices helped give the characters feelings and made the game seem more realistic. I couldn’t have asked for more in the area, San Andreas has some of the best voiceovers I have ever heard.
There is an amazing amount of missions to be completed in San Andreas. Many of the missions are still drive from point A to point B, but there are many new things to do. In one mission you had to use stealth to complete your mission, and another, you had to eliminate a rival gang. The amount of missions to be done, and the profundity of the missions provides for an excellent experience.
The characters in San Andreas are both lovable and detestable. CJ is my favorite main character out of all the recent Grand Theft Auto games. Big Smoke was a hilarious character, with his insane eating habits; he always provided a good laugh. Ryder is an extremely annoying character; he was noisy and said some really stupid stuff. Sweet, CJ’s brother, was one of the cooler characters; he was smooth and had the same characteristics as CJ. The character I grew to despise was Officer Tenpenny. He was a true jackass. He framed CJ for murder and was constantly harassing him and just being plain annoying. However he fit extremely well into the game, and kept me playing the game with the hope that I would eventually get to kill him.
Driving is even easier than before. Turning is more responsive which makes everything come together better. However, doing drive byes is still a hell of a task. Driving is even more important now, than it was before, due to the size of San Andreas. You are constantly driving around, but it is fun driving. There is also a huge amount of cars to drive which helps keep things fresh.
Shooting has also been heavily improved, mainly due to the targeting button. With the push of a button, I could aim at a cop, a gangster, or whoever I felt like shooting. It took out nearly all of the frustration that came from manual aiming. Another cool addition was being able to shoot people in the head by using the targeting button; it conserved ammo, health and time by offing them with one shot.
One of the most surprising, and awesome new features is being able to run your own gang. When you earn enough respect, you can run a gang. With this gang you can fight other gangs and take over their territory. Your gang will follow you around and ride in your car with you. The only thing having a gang really helps with is if you’re in cop trouble, they will gun them down for you if the cop opens fire on you.
Another new feature is being able to have girlfriends. Now this is an idea some would like, but I personally thought it was dumb. The girls that would become your girlfriend were usually really annoying and weren’t needed in this game. However, some of the girls would eventually give you new outfits for you to wear such as an EMT uniform or a Cop uniform.
San Andreas isn’t too hard, the only times you will really have trouble doing something is if you are in a rival gang territory or if cops are all over your back, then you will probably end up dying. The missions can vary in difficulty a lot though. Sometimes one mission will be completed in one minutes, then the next in 5, then the one after that in 3. It just depends how good you are at driving, because most of the missions involve you driving somewhere to start the mission. Don’t expect too get frustrated often in this game, or anytime in this game, as it is quite easy to play.
The state of San Andreas is humongous. If you can remember playing Grand Theft Auto 3 or Vice City, and thinking that they were huge, then expect to be wowed by the size of the map in this game. It is at least twice the size of the city in Vice City. San Andreas is also separated into 3 cities, Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas. The state of San Andreas is amazing and is by far the best land in any Grand Theft Auto game.
San Andreas provides some of the best fun to be had in any game. The free roaming element is just as fun as playing the missions. With all the new features such as playing basketball, going to the Gym, getting tattoos, playing mini games, and customizing basically everything, there is no way you couldn’t fall in love with this game. San Andreas is quite possibly the most fun game of all-time.
San Andreas is full of replay value. Once you pick up San Andreas, you won’t be able to put it down, even after you finish it. I will guarantee you will want to go through it again, or just free roam all the time.
Overall, San Andreas is one of the greatest games of all-time. It is definitely the deepest game of all-time. Never before has there been a game with so much stuff to do. San Andreas is what happens when a gamers dream comes to life. I recommend this game extremely high, as this is one game you simply can’t afford to miss.
Scoreboard
Story: 9/10
Graphics: 8.5/10
Sound: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Replay Value: 10/10
Overall Score: 10/10
Playstation 2
Developer: Rockstar North
Publisher: Rockstar
Grand Theft Auto, a series that has become one of the biggest and best franchises around, is back, and even better than ever. San Andreas manages to throw more stuff to do than you could ever imagine, and it all comes together to make one of the most amazing games of all-time.
5 years ago, Carl “CJ” Johnson escaped from the pressures of life in Los Santos, San Andreas. After his mother was murdered, Carl decides to return to San Andreas. Upon his return, Carl is framed for murder by a pair of crooked cops. CJ is forced on a journey that takes you across the entire state of San Andreas, as you attempt to save your family and become the biggest and most feared gangster around.
The story in San Andreas is much deeper than that though. As you advance through the game you uncover more about CJ’s past and present. The story in San Andreas is one of the reasons why this title is so addicting. You will always want to see what happens next, and you will rarely ever be disappointed. San Andreas has finally given a Grand Theft Auto game a solid story to go along with the amazing gameplay.
The graphics in Grand Theft Auto games have never been awe-inspiring, but San Andreas’ graphics were easily the best in the series so far. They have been smoother out significantly and are much less foggy than before. The environments you would travel too looked pretty spectacular though. The level Los Santos was obviously modeled after Los Angeles and they did a good job of re-creating Los Angeles famous areas. The diversity of the levels was pretty awesome. One minute you would be in a dirt road, then next in a spectacular town full of casinos and neon lights everywhere. The buildings that lined the streets of San Andreas were decent looking; they didn’t have much change from Vice City, and were a bit ugly. That is the only downside of the environments in San Andreas, as I can safely say the rest is pretty nice looking.
The character models aren’t the greatest, or anywhere near it for that matter. They are still extremely ugly and look like Neanderthals. However the character customization helped this area a lot. Being able to give your character a haircut and put a hat on them or sunglasses was a lot of fun. The outfits characters wear in this game are pretty well detailed. There was a huge array of clothes you could dress your character in, and being able to customize your character to your liking is an awesome feature and I hope becomes a staple in games to come.
San Andreas has quite possibly the greatest soundtrack of all-time. There are a ton of songs and radio stations to chose from. Some of the most notable songs on the soundtrack are; Tom Petty: Running down a Dream, America: A Horse with no name, Eddie Money: Two Tickets to Paradise, Billy Idol: White Wedding, Ozzie Osbourne: Hellraiser, Alice in Chains: Them Bones, War: Low Rider. As you can see there are many huge names on that list. The music was really important in this game because of all the driving, without the soundtrack and all the amazing songs, I would have been really bored, but instead I enjoyed driving.
When it comes to sound effects, San Andreas could have done much better. Sadly, the worst noise in the game is the sound of gunfire, especially pistol gunfire. It was a dull noise that sounded nothing like actual gunfire. The sound of cars crashing or bullets hitting cars was pretty solid and quite realistic. The best sound effect in the game was easily the sound of motorcycles, they sounded realistic and pretty awesome too.
The voiceovers in San Andreas are excellent. With big name people voicing characters like Samuel L. Jackson as Officer Tenpenny, I expected it to be great. They followed through with every character fitted with a voice that suited their personality perfect. Their voices helped give the characters feelings and made the game seem more realistic. I couldn’t have asked for more in the area, San Andreas has some of the best voiceovers I have ever heard.
There is an amazing amount of missions to be completed in San Andreas. Many of the missions are still drive from point A to point B, but there are many new things to do. In one mission you had to use stealth to complete your mission, and another, you had to eliminate a rival gang. The amount of missions to be done, and the profundity of the missions provides for an excellent experience.
The characters in San Andreas are both lovable and detestable. CJ is my favorite main character out of all the recent Grand Theft Auto games. Big Smoke was a hilarious character, with his insane eating habits; he always provided a good laugh. Ryder is an extremely annoying character; he was noisy and said some really stupid stuff. Sweet, CJ’s brother, was one of the cooler characters; he was smooth and had the same characteristics as CJ. The character I grew to despise was Officer Tenpenny. He was a true jackass. He framed CJ for murder and was constantly harassing him and just being plain annoying. However he fit extremely well into the game, and kept me playing the game with the hope that I would eventually get to kill him.
Driving is even easier than before. Turning is more responsive which makes everything come together better. However, doing drive byes is still a hell of a task. Driving is even more important now, than it was before, due to the size of San Andreas. You are constantly driving around, but it is fun driving. There is also a huge amount of cars to drive which helps keep things fresh.
Shooting has also been heavily improved, mainly due to the targeting button. With the push of a button, I could aim at a cop, a gangster, or whoever I felt like shooting. It took out nearly all of the frustration that came from manual aiming. Another cool addition was being able to shoot people in the head by using the targeting button; it conserved ammo, health and time by offing them with one shot.
One of the most surprising, and awesome new features is being able to run your own gang. When you earn enough respect, you can run a gang. With this gang you can fight other gangs and take over their territory. Your gang will follow you around and ride in your car with you. The only thing having a gang really helps with is if you’re in cop trouble, they will gun them down for you if the cop opens fire on you.
Another new feature is being able to have girlfriends. Now this is an idea some would like, but I personally thought it was dumb. The girls that would become your girlfriend were usually really annoying and weren’t needed in this game. However, some of the girls would eventually give you new outfits for you to wear such as an EMT uniform or a Cop uniform.
San Andreas isn’t too hard, the only times you will really have trouble doing something is if you are in a rival gang territory or if cops are all over your back, then you will probably end up dying. The missions can vary in difficulty a lot though. Sometimes one mission will be completed in one minutes, then the next in 5, then the one after that in 3. It just depends how good you are at driving, because most of the missions involve you driving somewhere to start the mission. Don’t expect too get frustrated often in this game, or anytime in this game, as it is quite easy to play.
The state of San Andreas is humongous. If you can remember playing Grand Theft Auto 3 or Vice City, and thinking that they were huge, then expect to be wowed by the size of the map in this game. It is at least twice the size of the city in Vice City. San Andreas is also separated into 3 cities, Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas. The state of San Andreas is amazing and is by far the best land in any Grand Theft Auto game.
San Andreas provides some of the best fun to be had in any game. The free roaming element is just as fun as playing the missions. With all the new features such as playing basketball, going to the Gym, getting tattoos, playing mini games, and customizing basically everything, there is no way you couldn’t fall in love with this game. San Andreas is quite possibly the most fun game of all-time.
San Andreas is full of replay value. Once you pick up San Andreas, you won’t be able to put it down, even after you finish it. I will guarantee you will want to go through it again, or just free roam all the time.
Overall, San Andreas is one of the greatest games of all-time. It is definitely the deepest game of all-time. Never before has there been a game with so much stuff to do. San Andreas is what happens when a gamers dream comes to life. I recommend this game extremely high, as this is one game you simply can’t afford to miss.
Scoreboard
Story: 9/10
Graphics: 8.5/10
Sound: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Replay Value: 10/10
Overall Score: 10/10
There are old reviews all over this page and you get mad over a game that came out 8 months ago. 
