10 / 10
19 Jan 2006 at 21:51
Review by: cordial
In this 5th installment of the GTA series you play as CJ, a poor African-American living in a gang filled suburb, filled with prostitution, gangbangs and drive-bys. You come home because your mother has recently been killed, and you meet up with some of your homies from way back. As soon as you get into town, you are hassled by the local corrupt police officers, and this starts a very long, awesome game which is probably one of the best PS2 games to date. The graphics are a perfect 10, everything seems real and the people, cars, and buildings are just outstanding. The dialogue between the characters is very good, most of the time it's off topic and random, and it makes you think that Quentin Tarantino might have had a hand in writing it. Even the dialogue between people on the street is revolutionary, as you can hear them talking about they're daily lives as if they really do exist. You can even listen to people having arguments, and these arguments can escalate into full blown gun battles that erupt in the middle of the street. Gameplay is just extraordinary, with the introduction of bike riding, going to the gym, eating to get fat, and respect levels amongst your gang. The newest feature includes skills, where you have skill levels in various activities such as driving, motorbike riding, BMX riding, shooting, respect, lung capacity, etc. When you increase your skill levels in these activities, you get considerably better and you can notice the difference. With full stats on driving, you can control your car better, like taking turns at high speeds becomes simple. And, in some cases you can even achieve ranks. So, with gun skills, if you fill up your skill bar, you slowly gain ranks such as Hitman (the best rank) With ranks, the better you are, the more improved your shot is. So, when you aim, it might instantly go to your targets head, your rate of fire increases, and you can shoot your target accurately from further away. This just adds another nice feature to the long list of things you can get up to in San Andreas. The storyline is the best by far, its what you'd expect from gangstas and homies alike. They talk like they normally would in real life, and they act like it too, which was something I noticed that made the game stand out even more. The story is just filled with surprises, twists and turns that are so well worked into the game that you dont think twice about the strangest occurences, and it goes on for a long time, which keeps you interested. The characters are so real and down-to-earth youd swear you just walked into a rough American neighbourhood. The racing is better than most racing games out today, with much more oppurtunities to get yourself involved in some illegal street races, where you can earn some serious cash. And, that goes to show with your ability to bling cars and give them Nitrous Oxide injections to make them go 5x faster, furthering your ability to excel in the racing industry. The previous game in the Grand Theft Auto series was Vice City, and it introduced a new feature that allowed you to buy properties and businesses, which I though was the best, as you could make money off the businesses. Now, in San Andreas they have added countless numbers of houses and businesses so you can invest in some property and make a name for yourself in the real estate business. You can buy anything from a shack in the middle of a forest to a mansion with 3 cars in the garage in a ritzy neighbourhood. The options are just great. And how can I forget the soundtrack to this game. Its on a radio, which has plenty of flavour and plenty of characters to keep you entertained. 10/10
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