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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GTA: SA has something for everybody. It doesn't fit into any single category because it takes from many different genres and somehow manages to successfully integrate them together. It doesn't do any one thing perfectly; it's more of a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none that is probably best described as an action adventure driving flying third-person shooter with RPG elements.

Driving makes up a huge portion of the game and it has a nice arcadey feel with just the right amount of realistic physics. There are well over 100 vehicles that you can drive, including various types of cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, tractors, big rigs, and even a bus and combine. There are also several types of boats (and don't worry, veteran GTA players; Rockstar has given you the ability to swim), a parachute (which is very cool) and aircraft with realistic physics. In fact, the aircraft physics are a bit too realistic, resulting in more frustration than anything; I don't know how many times I crashed as a result of the twitchy and extremely sensitive controls.

A big part of the problem with piloting aircraft is caused by the Xbox controller. The PS2 controller has four shoulder buttons, and Rockstar uses two of them to control the rudder. On the Xbox, they instead use the black and white buttons for the rudder, which makes things awkward to say the least. Even worse is attempting to do drive-by shootings; again, the PS2 uses the shoulder buttons to aim out the window, but on the Xbox, trying to aim with the black and white buttons while holding down the right trigger for acceleration and hitting the B button to shoot either requires a second thumb or impossibly painful finger contortions. This is where the Xbox version falls flat and turns what should be fun missions into exercises in frustration.

Another weak point is the aiming system. Other than driving, the biggest component of GTA: SA is shooting. The aiming system works two ways, with an auto-target lock or a free-look. The problem is that the auto-lock always engages first and often locks onto someone other than your intended target. Even worse is that CJ will only aim in the direction he is facing, not where the camera is pointing; so for example, if CJ is facing north and you rotate the camera to the west and spot an enemy, pulling out your gun will cause CJ to lock onto whoever is to the north. Not only is this disorienting, it gets extremely frustrating when there are enemies swarming you from behind and CJ is insistent on aiming in the wrong direction. Yes, you can simply move him around or rotate off into free-look (which takes way too long when you're in the middle of a firefight) but in the meantime you are being hit by enemies that could have been dead already. The aiming system needs to be modified in the next version to be more like Splinter Cell, where Sam Fisher aims wherever the camera is pointing, not where his body is facing.

The mini-map can also be improved to make it less busy; as it stands right now, it is often difficult to see important location markers and landmark icons.

A new feature for GTA: SA is RPG-like leveling up for weapon, vehicle and physical attributes. Leveling up weapons and vehicles is easy; just keep using them. You can also level up your endurance and strength by working out in the gym, which allows you to run and swim longer, and increase your melee attack power. Eventually, you will also have to eat but be careful; eating too much of the wrong food can add fat, causing you to gain weight and lose speed and endurance. However, leveling up seems more gimmicky than useful; I hardly noticed any changes in the way vehicles handle or any additional damage from weapons, although leveling up certain weapons does give you the ability to dual wield. Increasing your endurance is really the only useful attribute, although increasing your muscle does make you more attractive to the ladies (you can date several women and each successful date increases your chance to have sex with her Ц normally represented as simple moaning from inside a house Ц and unlock new items). However, it can get a bit annoying to have to stop what you're doing to buy lunch every time you get a hunger warning.

Also new is a very limited cooperative play feature where you and a buddy can go off on a rampage together. It's a fun diversion but can be improved; for example, you both have to be on the same screen and you can't do any of the story missions.

In later missions you can also recruit members of your gang to help you, but they are virtually useless. More often than not, they will simply stand there like dumb statues while you are being attacked, even if an enemy is right in front of them. Their AI is so dreadfully stupid they think nothing of walking right into your line of fire or attempt to shoot through you in the rare occasions when they finally decide to attack enemies. Chalk up another feature that needs to be improved in the next sequel.

The Xbox version is a straight port from the PS2 version which is good because you will enjoy the same experience as PS2 owners, and bad because most of the same bugs have come over as well. The game locked up a few times on me and I've experienced several of the same bugs and glitches that PS2 players have come to know so well. Not good. Other than the graphical improvements, which also include support for 480p progressive scan and 16:9 widescreen, Xbox players also have the ability to replay the last 30 seconds of gameplay to relive cool stunts, bone-crunching accidents, bloody gunfights, and particularly delightful acts of wanton destruction. Unfortunately, there is no way to save these replays so once again, it seems more gimmicky than a truly useful feature.

Despite the game's flaws and controversy, you can easily rack up over 50 hours of gameplay and thoroughly enjoy every minute of it. The freedom to do whatever you want also means you have almost infinite replayability, making this game an excellent bang for the buck.