9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
You won't care that you don't finish a hundred percent
Date of Review: Jul 28, 2005
The Bottom Line: I would get this game, but watch out. It is the most addictively fun game overall that I have bought so far in 20 years of gaming. Absolutely AMAZING.
CAUTION: MILD TO AVERAGE SPOILERS AHEAD
"Eschew surplusage", Mark Twain exhorted aspiring writers two centuries ago. In addition to the American literary approach, those two words have helped streamline first an American industrial, then a world technological society.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a crowning example of how much satisfying content you can put into a game once you eliminate all the elaborate but space-consuming content and algorithms.
I actually hated GTA III for its incredible cheapness and I-don't-care approach to the player's approach toward glitch-prone areas. Vice City often had many glimmers of greatness, and was much friendlier toward the player.
San Andreas... San Andreas isn't just a game. It's a movie: a drama, a social commentary, a comedy, an action film. Put the popcorn away; this game has more insanely cool stunts, laughs, cutting truths, fun, and plot than all the major U.S. movies playing at many a given time.
I used to cringe when I saw a drawn-out PS2 cinema, because it gave the developers license to chop the actual game down to 1/3 of its needed depth and length. Then I got better, and got used to longer and longer cinemas without breaking into avoidant sweats.
But I nearly became unhinged when I saw how good the GTA intro was. Convincing voice acting, lifelike character motions and appearances, and very realistic environmental behaviors melded to provide a stunning introduction into what successfully promised to be a completely amazing video game.
From there, GTA:SA made up for every frustrating GTA moment I'd had in the past four games. It's forgiving in gameplay, rich in detail, blessed with refreshing mission variety, awe-inspiring, unflinching, and sheer fun.
The increments in which GTA lets your character grow, and hence you as a player, are pudding-smooth. When Carl Johnson begins the game, he can barely ride a bike, fire a gun, drive a car, fly a plane, gamble, hold his breath, charm the ladies, fight, you name it. In other words, he starts the game as a total n00b: scrawny, poor, unconnected, unlucky. You're made aware of his low lot in life immediately; you get a generous helping of missions before even getting your hands on a single gun, from out-cycling a drive-by to a little B&E to spraying some hapless hoods in the face with spray paint. And the amount of voice acting and cinema time used in these introductory stages is highly commendable; each little mission isn't brushed off as a stepping stone to some ultimate level of gaming competence, but instead is a chance for Carl to earn his good graces and slowly but steadily reclaim his life.
All throughout the missions, a very colorful cast emerges: the villainous Officer Tenpenny, his scabrous sidekick Officer Pulaski, CJ's sister Kendl, his ironically named brother Sweet, Grove Street Family members Ryder and Big Smoke, and several others I will leave you the pleasure of discovering on your own. Whoever you talk to, with the exception of your family, will embody the seamy side of American crime, and the dialogue will be on a par with David Mamet's. Friendly-seeming people you meet will all eventually take dark turns into their own neuroses, psychoses, and obsessions without fail.
What you will notice in all of the cinemas and street life is a deceptively simple free-flowing style of expression that may at times cause you to do a double-take. Remember the crude street speech from GTA I? The sophistication has increased a hundredfold. CJ even has a screamingly funny (but not mean) set of sayings he acquires when he gets fat, like "Go ahead, shoot -- you can't miss me!" and "I'm gonna have that for my lunch money!" Characters on the streets even take time to have conversations with each other in entertaining series of non-sequiturs. And the traffic has gotten a lot more cutthroat in some areas, especially busy highways. Just like in real life, though with maybe 1/10 of the car volume, going upstream against rush hour traffic will get you seriously clocked. Car AI has improved greatly, allowing non-player cars to ram through delays or drive around.
The chaos factor of real life is finally present in GTA in a big way. Instead of yawning to the hermetic street life of GTA III, where no one but the Italians shoots back unless provoked, you'll often be confronted by hostile gangs who will wave gang signs at you and insult you before opening fire without provocation. One of the most surprising and memorable gun fights I've had in the series occurred on this game, where I started winning a fight against two cops and three Ballas gang members with just a sliver of life left, only to sink to the ground with an angry hooker's knife in my back (I still don't know what her beef was)! Other spontaneous moments have included chasing a coveted motorcycle on foot for a half mile, only to have an 18-wheeler rush from nowhere at 80 MPH and smash the driver off his bike, and witnessing an exploding 50-car pileup for five minutes before a flaming car rolled down the hill right toward me. Oh, and it also scares the bejeebers out of you too when a prop plane or jet crash-lands mere feet away from you, with only seconds to avoid the oncoming explosion of it and several cars. Don't ask me why, but I'm glad the programmers put that rare but very cool event into the game.
It took a long time, but the GTA crew has finally realized that their ultra-realistic take on the American scene DOESN'T have to include physics. While my character's flubbed missions or taken lethal damage from truly inept or stupid actions, he's been able to do other things like 720+ sideways through steel barricades, leap with a bike over oncoming traffic, upright a tank by firing into the ground, and even fall 20,000 feet without a parachute (though the game designers made sure you had to work out like crazy in order to survive with the smallest remaining amount of life possible). Driving is equally enjoyable now, and not the pain it used to be. Get good enough with driving or cycling skills and you can bail out with ease. Gunplay is much improved, making targets softer overall and more realistic when dispatched. While the game no longer has the Green Knight-style fun of GTA III, where you could shoot any limb off, a combat shotgun has an immediate effect that will, erm, let you "get ahead" more quickly.
Speaking of improved things (actually, GTA:SA has upgraded every single aspect and subroutine of GTA:VC), the vehicle variety continues to improve and astound. From go-carts to jets, you'll continue to marvel at the variety in this game.
And the last, best aspect of the game: the missions. Even if the control weren't as good, even if your character didn't have myriad stats ("Times you scored on a date") and skill levels, even if the constant dialogue and visual effects like fog and sandstorms weren't included, even if the amazing amount of visual variety, from refineries to casinos to abandoned airfields wasn't there, I would settle for the mission variety. The game is no longer focused on moderately varied long drives through the city shooting things; it's instead evolved into missions involving disguise, industrial espionage, evidence destruction, rescue, stealth, valeting, pimping, intimidation, aerial combat, military break-ins, low-rider bounce competitions, dancing, dating, even bomb disposal, building demolition, and the AWESOME Port-A-Potty and RC helicopter missions.
It wouldn't be an honest review if I did not mention things I did not like: the radio stations, and the bike controls. And I don't even have a gripe with the quality of the stations; it's just not my music. But when you figure that the past four GTAs have all dealt with the same Max Payne-clone protagonists, you'll understand that it's time for another American culture's time to shine anyway. Rockstar deserves big credit for treating this project with the resources and attention to detail worthy of any other. Anyway, about the radio stations: the DJing, announcing, and commercials built around the music are uneven. Some of it simply sounds tired; other parts are downright obscene without any other redeeming value; many otherwise excellent segments lack the concentrated punch of the previous radio stations.
The bike controls are just above okay. They're just right in 60% of situations, passable in 20%, and stiff and counterintuitive in the other 20%. The main gripe I have is that when you get ready to do a leap you lose about half your acceleration if you haven't acquired a good speed already, which makes leaping over a wall in an emergency, even with full biking skill, a detraction that sometimes lands you smack dab on the wall and causes you to ultimately die.
In closing, I would like to say: If you have been burned by cheap games recently, trade them in. Get this game. And have an absolute blast. It's more forgiving than I make it out to be, and
