Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
by James Mielke
09/01/2004
It's poetic that nearly two years to the day since GTA: Vice City first brought gaming to unparalleled heights that the series returns to put every would-be crime-sim kingpin in its place. The lines have been drawn and the gloves are off for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the final shot in the trilogy that GTA3 started three short years ago. This is its story...
License To Ill
Whoever said "crime doesn't pay" clearly doesn't do the books at Rockstar HQ, the boutique division of parent company Take-Two Interactive, based in the trendy SoHo district of New York City. The series that started out as a burning ember of a game back in 1998 -- notorious for its dodgy 2D graphics and potty-mouth script -- has turned into a full-on rampaging brush fire since its move into 3D with Grand Theft Auto III and GTA: Vice City, selling more than 30 million copies in the process. As games, they're a little bit of everything for everyone, with a whole lot of gameplay thrown in. GTA first emerged in the late '90s as the industry was drowning in a sea of cute 'n' cuddly 3D platformers, arcade-centric racing and fighting games, and by-the-numbers RPGs. As developers struggled to find their footing while creating 3D worlds on limited hardware, the development team formerly known as DMA (Doesn't Mean Anything) Design eschewed the trappings of modern trends, creating a mostly flat neo-2D world where the main character was little more than a few pixels high. In an era when game design subscribed to aging, antiquated notions of heroism (young orphan saves the world *yawn*) or simple recycled mascot-based platform cash-ins (Crash Bandicoot, raise your miserable paw), Grand Theft Auto's use of the small-time two-bit criminal as a playable antihero was like nothing gamers had seen before. Similar to how Quentin Tarantino carved a career out of microscoping the little guy, so too did Grand Theft Auto pave the road less traveled, bringing a whole new mindset and perspective to an entertainment medium that, even now, can still be considered fledgling.
It Takes A Nation Of Millions
Now, hot on the heels of two of the best-selling titles in the long history of videogames comes the final salvo in a trilogy started by Grand Theft Auto III. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, scheduled for release this October for PlayStation 2, once again puts the spotlight on the little guy -- in this case, one Carl Johnson -- better known as CJ to his friends and family, a collective known as the Orange Grove Families.
The Age-Old Art Of Driving By
There used to be a time when people hopped in their cars for the simple purpose of getting from point A to point B. But these days -- at least in the world of GTA -- you're as likely to see towncars rolling down the street spitting fire and lead as you are heading to the Well-Stacked Pizza Co. for dinner. But now instead of just soloing your drive-bys, you'll enjoy the benefit of cameraderie and conversation courtesy of Smoke, Ryder and Sweet, as they lean out of your vehicle, emptying clips just as fast as they can. Family living, Grand Theft Auto style.
In the early 1990s, shortly after his younger brother Brian was killed, CJ moved from Los Santos to the relatively peaceful climes of San Fierro. But five years later, CJ's mother is murdered, and his friends back home are locked in a downward spiral, prompting CJ to hop in his car (or someone's car), make his way back to Los Santos, and straighten things out. Although the game centers on CJ himself, he has a tight-knit posse that goes where he goes. At his side are older brother Sweet and his two friends Smoke and Ryder. CJ's sister Kendl also plays a large role in the game's events. The young Johnson's travels will take him to the far corners of San Andreas, an enormous place that eclipses the geography of the past two games combined.
San Andreas, much like Liberty City and Vice City, is a fictional area inspired by real-world settings. San Andreas is analogous to California (with a dash of Nevada thrown in for good measure), with Los Santos being the equivalent of Los Angeles. Likewise, San Fierro is San Francisco, and Las Venturas is tantamount to the gambling capital of the world, Las Vegas (although it's contained within San Andreas' boundaries). Each one of these cities is at least as big as Vice City, and that's not counting the vast expanses of land in between. But more on that later.
As GTA3 and Vice City did before it, San Andreas takes its cues from touchstones of urban-crime culture. Movies like Casino and Boyz N the Hood color the settings and events contained herein, while early '90s hip-hop culture paints both the visual and aural landscape with scenes of hazy, sunset-drenched barrios and sweltering bass-heavy beats.
Hydraulics, hoochies, hoods, and hookers. Drive-bys, cocaine, Compton, gambling, gangs, pickups, and pimps. These are some of the things that define San Andreas, but is there more to it than what's come before? There sure is.
By Any Means Necessary
The gameplay is as open-ended as it ever was, meaning that while each mission objective may have a clear-cut point A to point B solution, there will be plenty of other ways to complete your objectives. But some missions are bound to inspire less sympathy for the protagonists than others. Take one early objective called Menace. It seems the local pizza shop, the Well-Stacked Pizza Company, has erased the Orange Grove Families' graffiti tags from its walls. Ryder (who is a dead ringer for the late NWA member Eazy-E) is particularly heated about the offense and heads over to the pizza shop to show the shop owner the error of his ways. As you can imagine, there exists a multitude of ways for you to punish the unfortunate merchant, and the method you use to satisfy the task is up to you.
Another mission, simply titled Drive-By, reunites CJ with his brother Sweet, along with Ryder and the aforementioned Smoke. A rival clan called The Ballas has been encroaching on OGF territory, and it's up to the boys to lay down the boundaries. Without question, the Orange Grove Families is back, and it is during this mission that one of San Andreas' interesting new game mechanics comes to light. Of course, drive-bys are nothing new to GTA. In past games, all one needed to do was drive around and fire that nine millimeter out of the left or right window. Now, in San Andreas, your entire crew rolls out with you, shotguns loaded, Uzis at the ready. When you roll up to the rival crew found lounging on a street corner, it's bone chilling to see your buddies unfold out of every available window and fill the air with lead. As you drive around, each member of your crew animates independently and adjusts to the locations of their targets, bending and twisting as they struggle to maintain their aim. Naturally, you're also able to squeeze off a couple rounds as you put your ride (whatever it may be) through its paces. Eventually, the cops will show up to crash the party, and that's when you go to the old standby: the body shop. A new paint job always throws the fuzz off the case, and in San Andreas, it also removes the dirt and rust that accumulates on your car.
But once you're out of the car, GTA is a different animal, which brings up a small reason for concern: the on-foot targeting system. Formerly known to deeply frustrate gamers who merely want to shoot their enemies, Rockstar has found a solution to this problem in the most surprising of places -- one of its very own games, Manhunt. Anyone familiar with Rockstar North's ultraviolent stealth-action game will find himself right at home with San Andreas' third-person combat. In one brutal sequence, CJ has to extract his brother from an OGF meeting gone wrong. With SWAT team members popping out of every nook and cranny, it's comforting to see that the controls are finally up to speed with the combat. Cops jump out of ventilation shafts and come barreling out of hallway doors, leading the chase to your getaway car, with Ryder at the wheel. The police are in hot pursuit on foot, by car, and in a helicopter. When a potential target exposes himself to your loaded heat, the game takes on an almost Time Crisis-meets-Splinter Cell sort of vibe. Better controls lead to superior combat, which equals more fun.
Regulate
Of course, it's not all guts and glory. Despite the heavy themes and ominous mission details, San Andreas features a lighter touch that contrasts with the game's darker moments (which are as intense, if not more so, as anything that's come before in the series). Naturally, the game's signature humor remains intact (the developers are Scottish, after all). Little cultural jokes and lots of audio and visual gags keep the atmosphere light precisely when you need it. Another new element is San Andreas' attention to customization. One of CJ's acquaintances is a barber known as Old Reece. In Old Reece's barber shop, you can alter CJ's hair however you see fit, choosing from a selection of styles that includes an Afro, a blond Afro, an Afro and beard, a flattop, and many other choices. The tweaking doesn't end there, though. In Vice City, you could switch outfits, but only in a mission that required it. Now, you can customize your character with a wild array of outfits found in different shops all over the state. Rockstar reckons that most players' versions of CJ will look rather different from one another by game's end.
Other factors help determine your game experience as well. Whether this was inspired by the detail-intensive work of Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid games remains to be answered, but CJ's diet will determine his physical condition and appearance. If you should stop by the Well-Stacked Pizza Company (apparently, the owner is very understanding) for a quick lunch, your weight and size will fluctuate depending on whether you order a Buster (a small meal), a Double Deluxe (bigger), or a Full Rack (a whole pizza). This is just a small sampling of the foods you'll find in the game, and whether you look Dy-no-mite! or like just another Rerun is up to you.
I Get Around
With a game five times bigger than Vice City, you can expect -- by Rockstar's estimate -- over 200 hours of gameplay. That's not bad for something that fits on a DVD-ROM, but when is too much just too much? Who knows? Running around an area as big as the state of California could potentially be too much for even the most hardened value-conscious gamer, which is why Rockstar North has added tons of countryside quests and missions for gamers to complete. While there are plenty of vehicle-based missions in the confines of the cities themselves, San Andreas also allows gamers to use vehicles such as BMX bikes, monster trucks, Sanchez dirt bikes, quadbikes, the Tanker, and even the low-flying Dodo that everyone knows and loves. The game is, not surprisingly, reminiscent of Rockstar's own Smuggler's Run in that if you see it, you can go there. The areas are so huge and open that you could easily find yourself just motoring around the countryside, off-road or on. Naturally, you'll be able to go where you want, when you want, but there will always be an agenda once you're done careening around Angel Pine, Shady Creeks, Flint County, Whetstone, Mount Chiliad (a chilled-out mountainy homage to Homer's The Iliad?), Fern Ridge, and Red County.
Barbershop Libretto
One of San Andreas' most endearing features is the ability to customize your character's appearance via haircuts that you can get at your friend Old Reece's barbershop. Is a Kid 'N Play fade what you've always wanted? Get some! Rather go out like Iverson? Braid that brain! Better yet, you can change outfits at different shops you visit throughout the giant state of San Andreas. Customizing your burgeoning kingpin is easier than ever!
One outdoorsy mission finds CJ driving a decoy truck, and he must keep the motorcycle gang that's chasing him from blowing the doors off of it, since that would reveal him to be a fraud. A damage meter shows how much abuse you take as you try to make it to each checkpoint.
The environments are as varied as those you'd find if you were to drive up and down California in real life. Some patches are arid and dry, reflective of Southern California, while other parts are lush with plant life, such as what you'd encounter in the north. Other touches, like breakable fences, ensure that the driving portions are as engaging as any other part of the game.
So Fresh And So Clean
Of course, it's hard to encapsulate the myriad features a game like this contains, but we'll try anyway. GTA's thrills are derived largely from the fact that there's just so much stuff to do. The attention to detail has always been incredible, and San Andreas reads like a laundry list of the series' greatest attributes cranked up to 11. For example, every city within San Andreas has a major airport. There, you can liberate planes such as the Dodo and fly between cities, should driving cross-country prove too arduous. If you desire to catch some surf, boats are available for slicing up and down the coast. The unspoken benefit here is that this adds quite a lot of variety to the game, preventing players from being mired in inner-city events for too long. Another new feature is the addition of camera control married to the right analog stick. No more fussing around with awkward perspectives. Other odds and ends include the ability to pick up hitchhikers (kids, we don't recommend doing this in real life) and tow cars by hooking them up to your (hoisted) tow truck.
The graphics benefit from an improved RenderWare toolset and graphics engine that allows more than three times the draw distance of previous games, making for a larger, more realistic world and even greater environmental detail. It still looks like GTA, though, so don't fret. On the topic of sound, Vice City's groundbreaking funk/new wave/metal soundtrack will likely be surpassed by a soundtrack that mirrors the sounds of the early '90s. While Rockstar has yet to reveal specific tracks, the songs will cover a gamut of popular genres from that period, not just the hip-hop and rap typical of most GTA clones.
A Hard Knock Life
So while the prospects for San Andreas look bright, the only thing that remains to be seen is if Rockstar can pull off such a tremendous undertaking. With a game so big, so huge, so all encapsulating, one wonders if the 180th hour of gameplay will be as compelling as the 18th. One thing remains true to this day, though, and that's that no one does a game like this better than Rockstar. As publishers from every side throw doppelgangers at the consumer, GTA has always delivered. In this, the final slice of a predestined trilogy, GTA will determine its legacy. Will San Andreas complete an unbreakable circle of innovation and open-ended playability, or will it be exposed as an overambitious but well-intentioned behemoth of a game? Come this October, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will settle the argument once and for all of whether it will live up to its own legacy or crumble beneath expectations.
Check out the slideshow for seventeen new screens of the countryside -- the landscape, the vehicles, and more.
Lage store massegraver hehe.