Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Reviews

...It's an epic! "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" has to be the greatest video game ever made. I've been playing the game almost everyday since it dropped on October 26th and I'm still not even half way through it. That goes to show you just HOW MUCH thought and detail was put into its production.

While this "GTA" title is a massive improvement over the previous two, it doesn't just surpass them in terms of graphics and gameplay, it surpasses them by building on the many things that made them great in the first place, and then some.

I've been a massive fan and player of the "GTA" titles on the PS2 since the revolutionary "Grand Theft Auto III" was released in 2001 and its 1980s prequel/sequel "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," which dropped in the early fall of 2002.

"GTA: SA" puts a lot of its focus on Carl "C.J." Johnson, who returns to the city of San Andreas and the minute he steps off the plane, he runs into trouble. Trouble comes in the form of two corrupt cops who have him set up to take the fall in the murder of a police officer, and C.J. finds that his old neighborhood of Ganton is in shambles.

His mother has passed, many of his childhood friends are into gangbanging, and many of the families have since dissolved their relationships with one another. What follows is a statewide odyssey for C.J. that will take him out of his Ganton ghetto and into the flash and glitter of the casinos in Las Venturas a la Las Vegas.

From the get-go, you're entranced by a thoughtful storyline that has you doing a lot more than just missions so that you can earn "respect"; you become a significant part of the story, or more accurately, you become the story. Whereas the previous two titles had you doing things to further your position, not a whole lot of weight or thought was put into your motivations in those games.

It is true that this game was heavily influenced by the hip hop culture of the 90s, and many rap artists are prominently featured on the soundtrack, including Dr. Dre, Snoop [Doggy] Dogg, Public Enemy (Chuck D is the "Forth Right MC"), Big Daddy Kane, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice Cube, Cypress Hill, 2Pac, and N.W.A. And also, references to many "'hood" movies from this time are in abundance, namely "South Central," "Menace II Society," and "Boyz N the Hood" (be on the lookout for a "Tre" look-alike wandering about).

10/10

uno de los mejores videojuegos de la historia, su trama increible , su jugabilidad increible, sus personajes increibles , sus graficas excelentes para su epoca, increiblemente relevante para su epoca superando incluso a sus predecesoras y antecesoras marco un antes y un despues en la historia de los videojuegos no hay nada que pueda criticarle a un videojuego tan bueno como este
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Best game ever. Missions,gyms,healths and cars . This game is an extreme package. I have played this game likes 100 times and I still don't get bored or anything. Can be totally compared to gta vice city.

In 2001, Rockstar North release Grand Theft Auto III to the public. Unlike the first games, this made the series a household name by its addicting game play, concept, the freedom to roam everywhere, do a lot of things, and the controversies it got at release due to the content of the game. After Vice City and Advance came out, a new game in the series came out in 2004 which has been called one of the best in the series called Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The plot is about Carl Johnson who returns to Los Santos after he found out about his mother’s death. After arriving to Los Santos and getting involved by police officers who know him a few years ago. He’s back in his house to find that the Grove Street Families gang spit apart and his family in bad times. To win his family’s respect back, Carl helps the Grove Street Families regain land from other gangs, getting weapons, and killing specific gang members. While it works, someone betrays Carl and a series of events happen.

Like GTA 3 and Vice City, you can do story missions to unlock more places to go. Also while not doing story mission, you can freely roam around the areas doing a lot of things like doing side mission like taxis to earn money, exploring the areas you unlock, or straight out cause chaos and destruction while getting away from the cops. There was a bunch of new features they added in the game for its time. One is the ability to finally swim without the chance of dying, and the ability to climb on to things. Now you can go into gang wars and if you succeed in killing the foes of that area, you will earn that piece of land and earn money from it. However there is still a chance that emeries can take over you land so you have to go quickly to protect it. For the vehicles, you can customize your car by giving it updates. You can now ride on bicycles, hovercrafts, and even take over a train. In side missions other than taxi, police, and paramedic. You can go into burglary that you have to go and steal things before the morning light comes. Also you can take on train missions that you travel around stopping at stations to drop off packages before the timer goes off. There are mini games like video games, basketball, and others you can play around the area. Lastly players can go multiplayer to play modes.

A big change to the customization side of the game is the level up system. If you shoot people down with a handgun, its skills increase. This applies to vehicles, planes, swimming, lung capacity and your muscles. There is also sex appeal level when you have certain clothes and other things like jewels on that increases or decreases it and get reactions from the citizens of the area you’re in. You can earn respect by completing missions unlike the past games earlier; you have to keep him healthy by eating without overdoing it and work out often in the gyms around.

One of the things I really enjoy from this game is the freedom it gives you. The map is huge with each area is different, and when you not doing any missions. I find myself just exploring the map and doing whatever I like. The level up system is very easy to get to and never becomes a pain to do. The gameplay still has that addicting fun from the past games and it never gets boring due to how open everything is. The music is variety and I find myself humming to some of the songs. The controls are really good and it doesn't feel odd most the time. The story is pretty good with engaging characters and pretty good voice acting. Honestly I couldn’t think of anything bad about this game while I will say that some parts can be annoying like the mission where you learn to fly that it feels awkward, and can be very annoying to pass. Some may not have a problem while some will have an issue with that part.

Overall this is an excellent game with great gameplay, good story, huge map, and complete freedom to do as you like. I highly recommend this to all gamers.

The graffics are rubbish, the game is... bad! There is nothing more boring than shooting people then watch them dissapear. The best bit about the game is when i turn it off.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the 6th game in the series and one of the best.

The player takes the role of Carl Johnson, an ex-gang member that just heard that his mother was killed and comes back for home for answers. He is almost instantly brought back into his old gang and for the rest of the game he goes on trying to take over his neighborhood and later that whole state.

Players that have played GTA3 or GTA: Vice City know what the game is like; killing, shooting, racing, and just running a muck. And nothing really has changed since the previous games other then a couple little things like the player is able to swim and not die instantly, flying is easier and parachutes are added, lock on isn't perfect but better then before, and the game adds a fat-fitness part where the player has to watch what Carl eats and exercises so that he isn't too fat and slow or too skinny and weak.

One major thing over previous installments is the shear size of the state of San Andreas which it is about 2 to 3 times as big as Vice City's layout and is full of things to do.

The music is a mixed bag for me as most of the soundtrack is full of rap/hip-hop and the only stations I would listen to was the talk and rock stations and sometimes those got boring so I was glad I could mute the game and listen to my iPod.

The voice acting in San Andreas is awesome as all the characters from Carl to Officer Tenpenny all sound like they are real people in this faux world.

Now unless someone was living under a rock for the past couple years, San Andreas came under fire for having a "hidden" sex game but was only unlockable if the player owns a cheat device or has the PC version and unofficially patched the game so really the game got a little more heat than it should have. And in this edition that part of the code has been removed totally so players wanting to see the "hot coffee" are out of luck.

In whole the game is a blast to play and if you own a PS2 you shouldn't be caught dead with out it.

Just when you thought GTA couldn't give you any more to do...

This game has so many fun things to do in it that you really don't even need to do missions that often (although they are fun in themselves). You can learn skills, build stamina and fight power, drive around, collect things, get new clothes/hair/tats, do side missions... tons and tons of variety and replay value here, a must own for whatever system you have. Not for kids though.

Sometimes I just blow things up and start shooting.... all for mayhem's sake.

Good as this game is (and it is) the rapper/twat speak is too grating and too frequent, and the quotient of annoying characters is unbelievably high. Hard to resist failing missions by shooting Ryder's or Sweet's stupid face off. And CJ is a pussy. He cries.

Don't let the hot coffee spill on your lap! Dispite that drama over the mod/in-game extra, GTA is still the best game to play. Not for all ages, but it is especially fun for the 18 and up croud.