Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is one of the most controversial yet
highly ambitious game the PS2 Library has ever had. Straight out of the
gate, the game had a high amount of bad publicity, mainly due to Jack
Thompson and hypnotized soccer moms, but it came out fighting strong.
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Gameplay
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San Andreas is about an urban gangster named Carl Johnson, who returns
to San Andreas for the funeral of his mother. Aside from the main
story, you can be a vigilante, pilot, paramedic, firefighter, and a
whole lot more. If it wasn't that the only way to unlock other parts of
San Andreas was to complete story missions, I might never had done the
story at all.
The controls to the game are incredibly easy to learn, and you should
have the basic controls to every vehicle down in as less than 20
minutes. You can switch to a number of different weapons on the fly,
and even without weapons, the melee fighting system is still a decent
weapon in itself. The controls for walking, driving, sailing, and
flying are essentially the same, with the exception that the airplanes
steering is inverted.
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Graphics
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For a game the size of San Andreas, I truly don't believe the graphics
are that bad. Cars collect rust when left outside, grass sways in the
wind, bits of pieces of car fly off when damaged, etc. With all of the
space taken up with just the gameplay mechanics, I think the level of
detail is truly astounding. ----------
Sound
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Sound has always been the main attraction of the Grand Theft Auto
series, and Rockstar has managed to pull it off again. There are very
many different music stations to choose from, and you might even get
into a genre of music you didn't even know you could like. For example,
I now like country and gangster rap, and that was just from listening
to hours of Radio Los Santos and K-Rose
Aside from the music stations, the guns and weapon sounds are well done
also. It's cool to hear things in the background, like a helicopters
roters spinning closer, or the sounds of a police car's sirens in the
distance. It really gives you a feel of what's to come.
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Value
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I knew San Andreas was a game to last, and boy has it. The game was
initially release in 2004, and I'm still having fun with it, 3 years
later. What makes San Andreas last so long is the sheer variety of what
you can do. If you don't feel like doing the main story or the side
missions, you can go hunting down horseshoes, tag up the walls of Los
Santos with graffiti, or go play casino games in Las Venturas. Unless
you're main goal is to achieve 100% Completion, this game will never
get old.
To narrow all of this information down, I'll complete my review with some simple Good, Bad, and Ugly.
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The Good
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-San Andreas is massive. It compromises of 3 main cities, which are
based off of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Fransisco, and small towns
border the main cities.
-Large selection of different vehicles at your disposal
-An immense display of weapons can be found or bough
-The way in which you purchase weapons has been greatly enhanced from Vice City
-The voice acting is amazing, with the voice actors really playing into their parts
-The sound is the best of any PS2 game to date
-I found the targeting system to be extremely helpful by showing how much health a person still has by using different colors
-New Stats system is a great new function to the Grand Theft Auto series, enabling deep customization options
-The main storyline is deep and extremely long
-A highly likable cast of characters
-High Reply Value
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The Bad
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-The graphics are bad in some places, but mainly with the character models
-Spray painting Los Santos, finding horseshoes, and collecting sea shells is a hassle to those aiming to achieve 100% Completion
-Massive car crashes do not affect Carl at all, just the car.
-Some of the money rewards in the game are ridiculous. For example,
upon completing one mission, a character hands Carl $300 and says,"Go
get yourself some beers."
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The Ugly
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-The melee fighting system is extremely overpowered, with a quick
karate combo or two hits from a shovel will have people die instantly.
-The car damage system is shoddy at best. A car can fly off of a
mountain and land perfectly in one piece, with Carl taking no damage
whatsoever.
-You receive no damage from jumping from a plane at high altitudes and crash landing into water with no parachute .
-Blood is unneeded in some instances when killing enemies. For example,
when spraying an enemy in the face with a spray can, which with enough,
can kill them, a pool of blood still floats from them when they die.
Aside from some of its faults, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' achievements and possibilities greatly outnumber them.
