Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Written by Troy Matsumiya  on September 14, 2005

Review (and Commentary): Have the time of your life in San Andreas.

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The Grand Theft Auto series is a classic study in contradiction. On one hand, gamers, gaming media and fellow developers love it for its revolutionary style of gameplay, excellent design and focus on providing a fun, entertaining experience. On the other hand, politicians, parent groups and the general media hate it for its perceived influence on violence and criminal behavior on kids.

Gamers know GTA: San Andreas rocks. You don't need another review to tell you that.

But for those of you whose only exposure to GTA: SA is through what you see and hear on the news, I encourage you to read on because much of the rhetoric that is being said about this game is taken out of context and born out of ignorance. Think about it: how can you trust the criticisms of someone who has never even played the game?

Yes, I know all about the Hot Coffee controversy, where players can unlock a sex mini-game. However, what you aren't told is that you need to buy a third-party cheat device like GameShark or Action Replay and download software to unlock Hot Coffee (which Rockstar finally admitted was originally part of the game, but was left out in the final release. Rather than remove the code, which would have been time consuming and expensive, they just left it in there but made it inaccessible Ц that is until some hackers with too much time on their hands found a way to unlock it). In other words, you have to spend extra time and money to get it. And what do you get? Fully clothed characters in simulated sexual positions. That's right Ц there's no nudity, no explicit pornographic action, nothing that anyone can already see on primetime television.

Also, don't you think it's rather funny that politicians, parent groups and the general media are so upset about simulated sex in a game where you can run over innocent pedestrians, steal cars, rob houses, mug little old ladies, visit prostitutes and kill cops? Apparently all of these things are okay, but simulated fully clothed sex? Horrors! Besides the game was rated Mature, equivalent to a Restricted rating for movies Ц which means it was never intended for anyone under 18. If children are buying it, blame retailers for selling it to underage customers or parents for not paying attention to what their kids are playing Ц don't blame Rockstar or Take Two for making an adult game for adults. Slapping an Adults Only rating (equivalent to an X rating) because the game has something in it that can't normally be accessed is pretty silly, in my opinion.

Anyway, enough about the ridiculous Hot Coffee controversy. What about all that killing and stealing? Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? But anything sounds bad when you take it out of context; heck, you can call Luke Skywalker a mass murdering terrorist for killing tens of thousands of government workers when he destroyed the Death Star, for goodness' sake.

Despite popular belief, the game isn't just about some sociopath running around killing people at random (although admittedly you can do that if you so desire). The story is a classic tale of redemption and the fight of good versus evil. It takes place in the early 1990s and follows Carl УCJФ Johnson, who has been forced to return to the fictional city of Los Santos, San Andreas (an eerily accurate imitation of Los Angeles) after his mother is killed under suspicious circumstances. CJ had been in a self-imposed exile in Liberty City for five years to escape the violent gangs, drug culture and the memory of his younger brother's murder. However, upon his return, Frank Tenpenny and Eddie Polaski Ц two of the nastiest, most corrupt cops you'll ever know Ц frame him for murder and dump him in hostile gang territory. CJ is then forced to return to his old neighborhood and call upon his older brother Sweet, his sister Kendl and his friends Big Smoke and Ryder to clear his name and unravel the mystery of his mother's death, all the while being forced to perform dirty jobs for the corrupt cops and survive violent attacks by rival gangs.

The intricate and detailed story, co-written by rapper DJ Pooh, is reminiscent of a Spike Lee or John Singleton movie and takes many interesting twists and turns along the way. It also features a star-studded cast, including Hollywood heavyweights Samuel L. Jackson (who does a riveting performance as Tenpenny), James Woods and Peter Fonda. Heck, what other game can say they have three actors with five Academy Award nominations, four Golden Globe awards and three Emmy awards between them? Other notable names include Chris Penn, Andy Dick, Ice-T, Axl Rose, MC Eiht, Yolanda Whittaker, George Clinton, Faizon Love, The Game and newcomer Young Maylay who does an outstanding job as CJ. In fact, all of the voice acting is top-notch, which really helps pull you into the story. I don't know how many games I've played where bad voice acting really ruins the experience, so to hear quality work across the board is very enjoyable.

Of special note are the DJs on each of the 11 radio stations ranging from real-life radio personalities Julio G and Lazlow to the crazy red-neck country DJ Mary-Beth and the high-strung house DJ Hans Oberlander. Each radio station plays licensed songs from the 1990s and I encourage you to listen to every station even if you don't like a particular genre of music; otherwise, you'll not only miss out on the funny DJ performances, but also some hilarious commercials. The WCTR talk radio station also does outrageous spoofs on the news along with sports, gardening, conspiracy theory, travel, relationship, and political talk shows. Some radio stations even talk about events that happen in the game, which adds a cool touch of realism to the experience. A new feature in the Xbox version is the ability to use your own custom soundtrack to make your own radio station.

And it's not just the radio stations that are funny Ц the whole game is done tongue in cheek with a lot of humor. In fact, this is one of the funniest games I've ever played. Some of the humor is downright silly, but a lot of the writing is actually quite clever, from the witty banter of the characters to the billboards lining the street to the unsolicited comments from pedestrians. The game doesn't take itself seriously so it's actually quite amusing to see critics attack it for being something it is not. In fact, I don't think the GTA series would be nearly as popular as it is without its trademark sense of humor, which lightens the mood and lets gamers know that all of this killing and criminal behavior is purely for harmless escapist entertainment.

Once you start playing, you will quickly learn to appreciate how deep this game really is. It's not just about killing and looting; you can do that if you want (and some of the story missions require it), but you also have an incredible amount of freedom to do whatever you wish. If you just want to play the story missions (which are quite short and have a nice range of difficulty) and find out how things turn out for CJ, go ahead. If you'd rather go off and do the numerous odd jobs like drive passengers around in a taxi, take control of a fire truck and fight fires, rescue people in an ambulance, deliver courier packages, hunt down criminals, pimp some ho's, gamble at casinos, challenge a pool shark, perform stunts, or even play video games (yes, there are video games within this video game), go right ahead. Heck, you can even stand on the street and just watch the world go by. The streets are filled with pedestrians who will engage in funny conversations, cops will chase criminals, gang-bangers will jack cars or do drive-bys, and bad drivers will crash into cars and cause road rage fights. It is not only hilarious and entertaining to watch the NPCs interact with each other, but it also makes you feel as if you are truly in a living, breathing city. One time I was speeding down the highway and this idiot cut in front of me, causing me to crash. I got out and stood by the side of the road watching as cars quickly slammed into my car which caused a huge pile up, resulting in several drivers jumping out and beating each other up. Eventually, some cars sustained so much damage they caught fire and exploded, causing a massive chain reaction of fiery vehicular mayhem that was a sight to behold. I stood there for a good five minutes watching all of this and loving every second of it.

Another time I spent over an hour simply riding around the countryside on a motorcycle and taking in the sights, including an incredible sunrise over the water and a breathtaking night-time view of the lights of Los Santos way off in the distance. The gameplay area is HUGE, consisting of three cities replicating Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, a desert featuring an Area 51-type of secret military base, and several small towns in between. Although the geography is somewhat condensed (after all, no city allows you to drive from one end to the other in less than a minute) it still looks and feels authentic.

Adding to the realism are dynamic weather effects like rain, fog and desert sand storms, and improved shadow and lighting effects. During the day, you can see heat waves shimmering off the hot concrete and pretty lens flares at sunrise and sunset. Nice! But despite these cool graphical effects, the game isn't what you would call beautiful; characters are very angular with club-like mittens for hands and no facial expressions, and there is a lot of pop-up and draw-in that Ц although it is a vast improvement over the PS2 version Ц is still clearly evident when you are driving or flying at speed. However, the graphical shortcomings are more than forgivable considering the vastness and complexity of the environment; moving from one area to another is seamless with no loading pauses, and there is so much going on it boggles the mind. Not only is there constant activity on the street, but you will also see birds flying around and a whole ecosystem of marine life underwater as well.