by BrianC - November 15, 2004

Five years ago Carl Johnson escaped from the pressures of life in Los Santos, San Andreas, a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs and corruption. Now, it�s the early 90s. Carl�s got to go home. His mother has been murdered, his family has fallen apart and his childhood friends are all heading towards disaster. Carl is forced on a journey that takes him across the entire state of San Andreas, to save his family and to take control of the streets.

Gameplay

If any of you have had the privilege of playing any of the other games in the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) saga then you know that when this game arrived on shelves people were in for something wonderful. One of the new features that appear in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is character customization. A whole wardrobe of clothing is available to be purchased throughout the game as well as accessories such as chains and bandanas. Other customizations for you as the main character can be picked up at the barber shop, that�s right you can get hair cuts from corn rows to and afro. Tattoos are also available to get drawn right on as you please. Other features that you can change for your character are strength (which will increase from working out at the gym or doing things like beating up people), stamina (also increases from working out at the gym or just running a muck in the hood), and overall health. Attractiveness, respect and weapon skills for every weapon in the game also increase and decrease by doing or not doing certain actions.

Another great thing produced in this game is the actual size of play area. With new features such as swimming, the potential to travel pretty much anywhere is very realistic. Three huge cities provide lots of land to complete a seemingly endless number of missions. Loads of vehicles with great detail can be found anywhere in the game to help you navigate this huge mass of land, water, and sky. No matter what your vehicle choice might be San Andreas has something to offer you, yes there are even bicycles for those environmentally friendly gangsters. As well as a large choice in vehicles, you can customize some of them by buying new rims, new paint jobs, and adding nitrous oxide for a little boost.

As far as running and gunning down bad guys there is plenty of time to do that with some great weapons. The guns, bats, knives, and maltov cocktails are increasingly realistic and inflict wonderful amounts of damage and mayhem. The more you use certain weapons, the better CJ�s weapon skill will be allowing him to wield two of the same gun when he is good enough. This can come in handy when attempting to take over neighboring gang territories. The new makeovers of these guns are also good for some good ol� drive-by�s, whether it be with the homies or if you are just taking your girlfriend out for a date and she wants to shoot something. That�s right, CJ knows how to handle the lady folk as well as steal cars and take over entire cities.

In addition to the main missions, CJ can do side missions like in Vice City such as driving a taxi, doing vigilantly missions, and putting out fires with the fire truck. San Andreas offers these and many more to fill up those endless hours of gameplay that can be achieved with this game.

Graphics

As far as the graphics and the overall look of the game go, all I can say is wow. Character detail is great. This includes all of the customizations you can make to CJ. The cars, which are the main part of Grand Theft Auto, in San Andreas are wonderfully detailed. From fender benders to rolling it over, the cracks in the windows and dented doors are great. Everywhere you can go in San Andreas offer beautiful and detailed scenery. The lighting effects are great, when it gets close to night time the sun glares the heck out of your windshield if you are driving and blinds CJ if you are hauling it on foot.

Music and Sound Effects

The sounds are superb. Realistic gunshots, car horns, and crunching of metal as you ram other cars. The bike also sounds exactly like a bike while you pedal away downtown. With over 200 voice actors for pedestrians and radio station callers/DJ�s GTA:SA offers a variety of sounds making you feel as though you are hearing new people all the time. Among the main characters stars such as Ice T, Samuel L. Jackson, and Charlie Murphy can be heard bringing that bad-boy feel to some of their characters. Billy idol, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Public Enemy, Gang Starr, and Dr. Dre are just a few of the artists you can hear as you drive around San Andreas.

Funnnnnnnn

If you are not looking for a game for the strategy needed to beat it or the skills you can develop and are just looking to run around and have fun, then stop right here. This game is for you. Though to beat this game does require strategy and skill, running around stealing cars, taking over hoods, and just doing whatever your heart desires is all achievable in San Andreas. To say that this game has 300 hours of game play is the biggest understatement ever. Saying that you could play this game for months on end still finding something new to do would be a little more realistic. It was only after the first few hours of being drawn into GTA:SA that I felt the urge to throw on a green sweatshirt and represent Grove St. while I played having the time of my life. This is easily the game that can provide any gamer with loads of fun filled hours.

Plasma Factor

Multiplayer features in GTA?! I would have never thought this possible until I stumbled across it in San Andreas. Running around shooting stuff is great but with this new multiplayer feature, doing it with a friend is just out of this world. Though there is a downside to the multiplayer. The only thing you can really do is run around and hit stuff, as far as missions go those you have to do solo. The multiplayer feature can also only be accessed from specific locations, which are few and far between. If you have some money lying around and have yet to buy this game I would recommend that you go do so now.

Conclusion

This game easily gets and Editor's Choice Award. My recommendation: Go buy it. Now. What are you still doing reading this? If you can't afford it follow the GTA tradition, steal it (but not really, unless you wanted to do some hard time for a video game).