Customer Reviews

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I hadn't played any of the other Grand Theft Auto games before I got "San Andreas" for the Xbox, but I pretty much knew what to expect before I started playing it. Still, the game exceeded my expectations and is a blast to play. Allow me to list the things I like about it, before I make a few complaints:

You control a character named CJ in a free-ranging storyline that takes you to three different cities. The game world feels big, and the quests will take you to every part of the map. Although the three cities are just a tiny fraction of the size of the real cities they're representing (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas), they still contain lots of different neighborhoods and it will take ages to explore each one. (And you will have an incentive to explore each city carefully, as each one is full of a different kind of easter egg you can collect to improve your final score.) The ghettos of Las Santos, the hippie areas of San Fierro and the neon glitz of Las Venturas all nicely reflect the popular images of the cities they're imitating. In between the cities there are woods, a desert, waterways, mountains, farms -- the design of the game world was done with lots of care and attention to detail.

I love the multiple radio formats. It's great to cycle through the stations and pick appropriate music for the current setting and mission. And I normally listen to rock and hip-hop, but even the reggae and country music stations in "San Andreas" sound good to me. They obviously spent some time in assembling the songs to get a representative list for each genre, and I dig being able to hear stuff from bands like L7 and Black Uhuru that I'm not familiar with. The DJs do fine work as well; Chuck D as the bombastic old-school rap DJ ("I don't even get paid to do this! I spin these records as a public service!") and Axl Rose as the classic rock DJ (and former lead singer of ersatz band "Crystal Ship") are wonderfully self-aware parodies. I would have liked to have a classic jazz station too or a spoof on NPR, but really -- I have nothing to complain about because the radio aspect of "San Andreas" is exceptional. Even the commercials are wickedly satirical.

I love the varied gameplay. Of course you do a lot of driving in "San Andreas", but there are over 100 different vehicles, from monster trucks to sports cars to bicycles to helicopters. Bouncing through the streets of hilly San Fierro on a motorcycle is a genuine thrill. Many of the quests are of the "deliver this package" or "kill that informant" variety, but there are plenty of more original ones, such as one where you have to drive around with a Mafia guy tied down to your hood until he's scared enough to squeal, one where you street-race a souped-up low-rider through Los Santos, and even one where you have to dance to the rhythm of a particular song to allow you to jack a van full of audio equipment.

The optional side quests are also terrific -- you can assume the role of an ambulance driver, a delivery courier, a vigilante policeman, a fireman, a car thief, a taxi driver -- there are always things you can do outside of the main quest line. There are minigames galore, such as training sessions for driving and flying; you can play pool for money against the shark at the local bar; arcade games at the convenience store; even a demolition derby. You can also get extra money for doing "insane" stunts, like driving off the side of a mountain and bailing out with a parachute.

The details are well-realized too. There are about seven classes of guns in the game, from a pistol-with-silencer to a sawed-off shotgun to a sniper rifle. You can perform melee attacks with items such as a pool stick, a samurai sword, a chainsaw or a bunch of flowers. You can buy all manner of clothes for CJ -- I have him wearing the "Helmut", a spiked metal helmet that makes him look Prussian, sort of. You can get different tattoos and hair styles. You can date different girls with different temperaments. You'll recognize a lot of Hollywood stars among the voice actors, but even the non-famous voice work is good.

And my niggling complaints:

I know that "shooty" games are harder to interface with on consoles than on PCs, because joysticks don't allow as much accuracy as mice when aiming, but "San Andreas" makes it TOO easy by allowing you to press a button to auto-aim at enemies in front of you. I know this game is cartoonishly violent (that's one of its strong points), but it still seemed unbalanced to me that I could single-handedly mow down ten or twenty enemies just by crouching and quickly cycling through them with the auto-aim.

Also, I know that this is very much an adult game, with tons of swearing and violence -- I don't mind that. It seems slightly strange to me though that "bitches" and "hos" are so common (one mission description even says "Take the ho downtown to the hotel"), but I've heard no racial epithets in the game. These characters would definitely be throwing around the "n-word" to each other if their slangy conversation were true-to-life. I guess it wasn't worth the controversy to include it.

And I seriously wish you could drive a bus in the game. How funny would it be if CJ was able to jack a school bus and do a mission where he had to pick up a bunch of kids and take them to school? I don't blame the makers of the game for not including kids anywhere though -- it's not a game for (or about) children in any way.

But as you can see, my complaints are pretty small. "San Andreas" is hilariously profane, over-the-top violent, satirical, varied, open-ended, detailed, funny -- it's practically the perfect game.

Grand Theft Auto is the latest game in the GTA series. It has incredibly better graphics and features not 1 city but 4 making it the largest in the series. When finishing missions unlike in the previous GTA games sometimes you will earn respect instead of or in addition to money. Respect reflects how the other people in the gang think of you and in turn, how many you can recruit to follow you. The custimization of your cars and character has been added including paint jobs, hydrolics, eating, haircuts, tatoos, and thousands of combinations of clothing. Another new feature is the "sim like" ability to eat and get fat, work out, etc. There are also many more vehicles in SA including bicycles, ATV's, dune buggys, many different kinds of planes, a Hunter helicoptor that doesn't take forever to get like in Vice City, and the ability to parachute from high places. The ability to recruit gang members to follow you is a bonus, for you can use their help when taking over other gang territories in the city or in completing missions. The character is very original and the environment and story give you a feel for what it is really like there. There are no major flaws in the game, although i found the multiplayer lacking. The two players are on one screen with an overhead view, making aiming difficult. The cheats that can be used in this game are incredible varying from one hit kill punches, to instantly spawning a Hydra (plane with homing missles). I want to add that to people who say this game is terrible and it should be banned, that your are idiots. There's something a little thing called freedom of expression that you might want to check out. It is one thing if you don't want your own kid playing it or something, but to try to take it away from people that are mature enough to play it is wrong. It's only a game and just because someone plays a violent game doesn't make them a violent person. And I think that a lot of kids are mature enough to play this game and know that it is only a game and not something you should do in real life. If your kid can't see the difference between the game and real life than that is an excuse to not let them play it, but don't take one kid being stupid after playing a voilent game out on those of us kids who know the difference. In conclusion this is a game I strongly recommend to anyone who is mature enough to play it.

GTA San Andreas is a big improvement over the past GTA games in the series! There are just so many things to do. My personal favorite is the co-op mode. I also like customizing my ride, doing drive-bys (in cars and helicopters), jumping off of a building and parachuting, plus the simple goodness of shooting the hell outta whoever you want. Also the Xbox version has smoother graphics than the PS2 version and you can add your own custom soundtracks to the game. Overall, the Xbox Version of GTA San Andreas is much better than ANY other game of the GTA series, even the PS2 version of San Andreas. Buy NOW! (P.S. I'm not a kid, I just lost my password.)

The ultimate GTA game San Andreas is absolutly stunning. GTA: S.A. takes the series into both macro & micro levels with a ton of added mini games & not to mention the ton of regular missions. Weighing in at 5 times the square mileage of GTA:Vice City. San Andreas is the coolest,grittiest, biggest action game I have ever played on any console. The XBOX version has sharper clearer textures, with progressive scan & 16:9 widescreen support. Improved lighting & the world is less saturated ,& the draw distance is better than the PS2 version . Although the graphics arent stunning the overall scope & attention to detail is fantastic. Also exclusive to the XBOX version you can play your own custom soundtrack from your xbox's hard-drive, it shows up in the radio playlist while your driving. There is also a 30 second instant replay feature exclusive to the XBOX version ,this is kool when you just performed an insane jump & you wanna watch it again. Load times are faster than the PS2 version ,when you enter a building no long load times on the XBOX,the transitions are flawless almost in the blink of an eye. Im glad I waited for the XBOX version.Everything that was in the other games is in here & more, much, much ,more. You could easily call this game an ACTION/RPG with all of new things to do that have been added to this installment of the GTA series. On the action side they have added bike riding abilities now in this series & its incredibly fun & addictive ,you can do bunny hops, ride in bowls, ramps, back yards. etc. On The RPG side you can eat, get fat ,get thin,work out, get buffed, buy clothes,get haircuts, get girlfriends, run gangs,etc.etc. The Mini-games you can play pool,shoot hoops,horse betting,dance in clubs,etc.The list goes on & on.I could go on for hours how awesome this game is . There is just so much to cover & review. GTA: San Andreas is easily a 60 to 80 hour game to get the coveted 100% game completion. GTA: San Andreas is (NOT) & I repeat (NOT) the the standard rent & beat it in one week type game. San Andreas is a definatly MUST OWN game. My New Favourite Game.

As I walked out my house, I only had one thing on my mind. Sheer destruction. I looked around and saw a few drug dealers on my block. I walked up to one and he asked me if I wanted any. My being the good citizen that I was could have just walked away. Instead, I pulled out my knife and shanked him a couple times and collected the $2000 he had dropped in a puddle of blood. His buddy, just a few feet away, saw what I had done and pulled out his 9mm to cap me a few times.

I could have just avoided the situation and ran away. But I ain't no punk, so I whipped out my Silenced 9mm and shot him dead. Stand-byers that had not ran away after the killings ran away as I took aim on them.

As the ambulance came, I noticed I had a few gunshot wounds so as soon as the medics jumped out I hopped in a drove away. I drove the ambulance down the street to the gym. There I did a few minutes on the treadmill and exercise bike to work off the pizza I had eaten last night.

As I left the gym I saw a few members of a rival gang(The Ballas) dressed in purple walking on the opposite side of the street. They saw me and I jumped in the ambulance and start shooting me with Tec-9s. I slammed the pedal to the metal and drove straight toward them. Two of their dodged me and the other two weren't so lucky. I whipped the car around and tried to hit the other two. They dodged again and continued shooting as I ran into a telephone pole. Now with the ambulance smoking black, I got out and started returning fire with my Tec-9. I killed one but the other hide for cover behind the ambulance. I knew I that I didn't have much health left but could easily dispose of a single Balla with a gun. I wanted to make a statement so I carefully placed a remote explosive in front of the banged up hood of the ambulance. I ran across the street and detonated it. The car exploded with such force that the whole neighborhood shook! After all that killing, I was starving.

Since I had just exploded my only mode of transportation, I had to find another option. Luckily for me some dumb fool came riding a pretty nice BMX bike up the street. Before he had time to react, I capped him with a single shot from my Silenced 9mm. I got on the bike and pedaled quickly as up the street to the local chicken joint in East Los Santos. After a good meal, I decided I was going to go to see my girlfriend up in San Fierro. But I wasn't going to drive...

I walked out of Cluckin' Bell and jumped back on my BMX bike. I rode it down the street to the Los Santos International Airport. I had already gotten my pilot license so boarding the plane was a breeze. As soon as I got over Red County I realized I didn't change my clothes for the date. I didn't want to go in my gang (Grove Street Families) colors so I decided to fly to my safehouse at the Verdant Meadow Aircraft Graveyard. I didn't realized the mistake I had made till I had flown over the No Fly Zone and saw two heat-seeking missiles headed my way!!! I didn't have enough time to dodge the missiles so I jumped out the plane with a prayer and my parachute strapped on. The missiles hit my plane and it exploded on contact. I was now alone in the big open sky.

I safely landed a few miles south of the safehouse and hiked through the scorching desert. I landed too far from the nearest highway so I decided to suck it up and just run the rest of the way.

Once I got there, I changed clothes and decided to pull out something memorable for our date. I ran to the back of the garage and strapped on my jetpack, courtesy of my hippie friend The Truth. I soared through the sky at breckneck speeds. There was no way I was going to miss this date. I laughed as I saw a traffic jam on the Garver Bridge. That could have been me I thought. Once I got to Michelle's house I was ready for our date. But I forgot to bring a car. So I rode the jetpack to my safehouse in Doherty. I hopped in my hot pink Cheetah I had stolen from a wealthy patron of the city and sped off to Michelle's house.



The list of things you can do in this game is unbelievable. Well worth getting. Hope you enjoyed my story.

No need to go into how awesome the game is, we already know that, so I will share some of the things I found wrong with it. (Love the game by the way)

Graphics. They are almost PS1 like. However, when a game is this big, with that large map and all that music, you have to sacrifice somwhere.

Cars. There are just too many of the same car in each city. There are about as many as vice city maybe. it just seems that I see the same five cars everyhwere I go.

Map. The HUD map on the corner could be a little clearer.

Unrealistic "sim" effect. Going for days without food? While it is a cool concept its a little lame. If it indeed were realistic then the game would suck.

Running into stuff. You can still take out street lights and traffic lights at 20 miles per hour, but heaven forbid you run into a bush!

Controls. Why did the have to mess with the controls??? I have played the previous versions so long it was hard to adjust at first. You cannot change the configuration of the buttons. I am still having a hard time remembering that the right trigger is now to aim, not to shoot. Why mess with a working system?

Well thats about it, this game is so awesome you would be a fool not to own it. Great story line, and some great new additions to the already great series.

I've got the other GTA's and damn that I waited until now to pick this up. Production of this has been HALTED! I stopped inside a "Worst" Buy to get one and wouldn't you know it, the cowards pulled it off the shelves. If you've been stalling on this NOW IS THE TIME - BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!

By this point I've almost come to expect a new moral debate with the nigh-annual release of a new chapter in the Grand Theft Auto story. Whether it was the anti-police sentiment of GTA 1, the mass-genocide potential of GTA III or the heavy drug use of Vice City, the entire series hasn't exactly distanced itself from controversy over the years. The concept of pushing the envelope to the point of cultural war is far from novel to the men and women behind these games, so your average gamer is by this point powering up each new GTA with a certain set of expectations. If you remain loyal the series today, you're expecting to be shocked by the vulgarity and humbling potential reality of it all. Bearing that in mind, there's no denying the fact that San Andreas, "coffee" or not, is Rockstar's most ambitiously adult-flavored outing yet.

After a brief hiatus into semi-homage with the Scarface meets Miami Vice storyline of Vice City, San Andreas effectively brings the series back into the territory of wholly original storytelling. The saga begins as Carl "CJ" Johnson, the story's focus, returns home to the city of Los Santos to discover his mother in the ground and his friends and family on the losing end of a bitter gang war. His old running buddies resent him for leaving them to try his luck in Liberty City five years ago, the streets where he was raised have been overrun by drug dealers, his brother hasn't forgiven him for missing out on their mother's funeral and a corrupt police department is breathing down his neck, just waiting for him to make a mistake. In short, things could be better. Fortunately, despite their uncertainty in his loyalties, CJ's friends have no qualms about bringing him back up to speed in the gang's business and allowing him to prove himself through blood, sweat and tears, (or various, mission-based tasks, as it were) and the driving force of the story revolves around this struggle to regain CJ's previous level of respect among his peers while making things right around the homestead. The main characters of the story are rock solid, and Carl is easily the most realistically flawed lead in GTA history. He made some mistakes before the story began and he'll make a few more before it ends, but he never crosses that thick line between sympathetic hero and irredeemable monster, even after curb-stomping a few grandmas. I think it's the game's incredible comedic timing and dry wit that keep CJ appealing; whether it's his brother picking at his driving or his often-venomous conversations with random pedestrians, there's always time for a snide comment or sarcastic remark after a brutal hit and run.

The setting, a dead ringer for early-'90s Los Angeles (with clones of San Francisco and Las Vegas playing supporting roles) is as much a player in the story as the individuals themselves. You can almost feel the weight of the town's imminent civil unrest pressing down on your shoulders throughout the early chapters, and as things build to a climax, that impending explosion just gets closer and closer to reality. There's an extremely angry tone to this game, even when compared to those that came before, and on the whole it feels much more mature (for lack of a better word) and true-to-life than its often-cheesy immediate predecessor. The feel of impending doom you're charged with throughout the game slowly, casually builds to a horrific boiling point that provides the backdrop for one of the most enjoyable, seat-of-your-pants final levels I've ever played. I never thought I'd play a game with a more rewarding, exciting, Hollywood action movie-style climax than I saw in the very first Halo, but if San Andreas doesn't surpass it, it undeniably comes extremely close.

Unfortunately, while the storytelling elements of San Andreas have markedly improved in the years since Vice City, the actual gameplay experience has taken a hit or two. Don't hear me wrong, the open-ended style of gameplay that defined the previous titles in the series is still here in full effect. It's still a blast to jog around the city with a blunt object and beat random civilians into submission, or to stand in the middle of the street and look around as motorists become more and more frustrated with you for blocking their way. There just wasn't as much room for innovation here as there was between GTA3 and Vice City. The addition of motorcycles, airplanes and helicopters were substantial changes to the game, natural steps forward from what had been established before. This chapter's additions of bicycles, an intricate character customization system and a variety of level-based skill power-ups isn't quite the same, and often serves to aggravate rather than amuse. Instead of pulling up to a destruction derby or BMX race and trying your luck right away, for example, you must first spend hours building up your "driving ability" or "biking ability." Some missions require you to gain some weight by eating a dozen fast food meals, while others ask you to lose some weight by running aimlessly on a treadmill for fifteen or twenty minutes. Playing a game shouldn't feel like work, and that's what a lot of the activities required to build your stats feel like.

This was my first experience with the series on the Xbox (I own PS2 copies of the last two GTAs) and I found the translation of controls to be a little awkward, to say the least. Most of the buttons are a simple, literal masking of the PS2's functionality onto the Microsoft controller, such as the "A" button as a run / fire button or the "X" button for jumping. Where the box really loses ground is with its lack of a second "L" and "R" trigger, as well as the additional freedoms bestowed upon players with the right analog stick and the camera angle it controls. Where the L2 and R2 buttons gave players the freedom to easily look to the left, right and behind them while behind the wheel of an automobile, that same functionality is mapped to the Xbox's mysterious black and white buttons with disastrous results. On my Type-S controller, those particular buttons are so small and out of the way that I was almost immediately screaming for the return of my old Dual Shock. Performing a precise drive-by shooting, which is a necessity on several missions, is nearly impossible with these tiny buttons... and forget about looking behind you while you roam the highways of Los Santos.

Where the series has really begun to show its age with this installment is in its graphics. Though the size of the map is just insanely large, close to three times the size of Vice City, the contents are almost identical visually. Though the old engine from GTA III has been tweaked to the very limits with this release, it's still that same old engine at heart. Player models don't exactly hold up when compared with similar games released within the same year. The variety of city buildings and wall decorations is still impressive, but the actual quality of those textures leaves a lot to be desired. After hearing almost endless praise about the differences between the last two games on PS2 and on Xbox, I was left feeling extremely underwhelmed after my first experience in San Andreas.

Fortunately, the same shortcuts apparently taken with the visuals are not repeated in the audio department. The soundtrack to San Andreas, while not quite as awe-inspiring as that of Vice City, is still a behemoth of its own and does an outstanding job of setting the tone for an area and covering a wide range of genres, tastes and ethnicities. Hop into a car in the ghettos of Los Santos and you're likely to hear an excellent collection of the founding fathers of hip hop or the pioneers of gangsta rap. Steal a car in the forest-coated, far less populated towns well outside the city limits, and you're much more likely to hear some country. While the obvious focus is on rap and hip hop, there really is something for everyone here, and the collections showcased on each station are almost indisputable. The famed comedy of the on-air commercials, personalities and programming choices, while not quite up to the same level as the last two games, is still good for a laugh or two and far, far above the level of GTA's closest competitors. The sophomoric humor herein takes a step away from the sarcastic tone of previous games in favor of a slightly cheesier bathroom joke or two.

Well, when push comes to shove, I can't say that I got all I was expecting out of this package. I intentionally waited for the Xbox release for this one, hoping to enjoy it in all its glory on what's quickly becoming the most desirable platform, but in the end I would've been better off just buying it on the PS2 in the first place. The Box offered little to no visual separation over previous titles on the Sony system, and what difference I did notice in load time was balanced out by an occasionally poor control scheme and horrible problems with invisible buildings. Despite some weak innovations in the gameplay, this is still a lot of fun to play and I'd recommend it just for the ongoing insanity of that final stage, but don't expect to be completely blown away, because this is hot-and-cold stuff.

There is no game that really comes close to this one. I don't see how anyone could ever get bored playing it. First off, let me say that the whole violence sterotype is just stupid. Movies, music, and video games don't create psychos, they just make psychos more creative. Besides, the government tries to stop violent games like this, but they don't want to stop the real violence going on all over America. They need to stop blaming and start thinking of other solutions if they really care about stopping the violence(which they don't).Anyways, if you want to, you can drive around the city, the desert, the mountains, whatever. Or you could play the missions and get captivated in the surprisingly great story of the game. You can do hundreds of extra missions for money or just to do them. You can piss off the cops, and try to run from them. You can go on a rampage and shoot up your gang rivals' neighborhood. You can go around and take pictures of all of the great landscapes in this game. You can go to Driving School, Boating School, Biking School, Flying School. You can take your girlfriend out on a date. You can go out to eat, work out, buy new clothes, buy houses. You can even drive out to the mountains and take a vacation at your house. You can check out Area 51, you can go play Black Jack at the casinos in Las Venturas, or bet on horse racing in Los Santos. You can fly airplanes or jets and land them wherever you want to. I didn't even name a fourth of the things you can do. Playing this game is like playing a second life. You've got unlimited possibilities on what you want to do with you're character. The other thing is the cities in this game are basically street for street replicas of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Los Santos is like Los Angeles, half city life and half gang filled poverty. San Fierro is like San Francisco, very artsy and hilly. Las Venturas is like Las Vegas. That one you can easily tell as soon as you drive up there. The strip area where the casinos are is beauitiful. It's a very fun city. All other games take 20-40 hours or whatever to beat. This game takes much longer than that. But they're really is no beating this game. Don't think that if you don't fit the gangster lifestyle that this game portrays, then you won't like it, because you will. I know numerous amounts of people who live in two story suburbian houses and think that this is the best game ever. The story in this game is like a movie. It is very intelligent and very detailed. The missions are so much better than the other GTA games' missions. You do much more than just shoot people. I'm not saying that the other 2 games just had shoot em up missions, but they don't quite have the variety that this game has. So if your'e a fan of the other GTA games, you can't really call yourself a fan if you don't have this game. Don't get me wrong, Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City are probably the 2nd, 3rd best games of all time. This game is twice as good if you listen to any form of rap music while you're playing it. Some recommended albums are Dr. Dre's "The Chronic", Snoop Dogg's "Doggystyle", 2pac's "All Eyez On Me", The Game's "The Documentary", and The Notorious BIG's "Ready To Die" and "Life After Death". But most of all NWA's Straight Outta Compton. But it's not required to have a blast playing this game. So, like I said, this game is on it's own level. There isn't one game that compares to it. I sort of feel like this review is too short, because there is so much to talk about. Trust me, if you buy this game you will see what I mean.

Great game, although it has been out for a while, still fun as heck to play and is compatible with the 360 with an update that you can get from the Xbox website or from live when you put the game in. Never gets old!