October 09, 2004 - Our last couple of months with Rockstar Games' epic Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been quite the big adventure. Impressively larger each and every time we see it, the sheer scope of the game is nothing short of intimidating. After all, with San Andreas being five times bigger than 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, this latest effort brings new meaning to the word "immense." Yet despite all these different features, areas, and gameplay extras that we've been privy to so far, none of them have gotten us as excited as the mock version of our hometown of San Francisco did. Known as San Fierro in the game, this faux metropolis appears to be ripped right out of reality -- with eerie recreations of the same landmarks, streets, and neighborhoods that we're lucky enough to pass by each and every day.
More of a caricature than a true reproduction of San Francisco, San Fierro has all the proper ingredients of one of the most famous and distinguishable cities in the world. Making sure to get everything correct right from the beginning, an early focus of Rockstar's was to capture all the little microclimates that citizens of San Francisco constantly deal with. So while it may be sunny and warm on one side of San Fierro at any given time, it may also be freezing cold and foggy on the other end at exactly the same time. But the weather isn't the only aspect of San Francisco that Rockstar wanted to simulate accurately; it also wanted to capture the city's culture and architecture.
Dojos and Local Color
For the purposes of our demo, CJ first traveled to San Fierro to help one of his friends out with some trouble, and began his day on the busy streets of Hashbury -- the fantasy amalgamation of the iconic Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco. Described as one of the most colorful areas in the entire city, Hashbury is absolutely littered with open air markets, smoke and tobacco shops, and more hippies than you can shake a stick at. But at the moment, its streets are overly populated with all kinds of different people thanks to the celebrations associated with the "Annual Joint Festival" taking place in the area's center. The manner of people in San Fierro is pretty diverse too, with homeless folk, Starbucks Yuppies, and the aforementioned hippie-types scattered all over the sidewalks. We felt nostalgic immediately.
Directly next to Hashbury is the overly Latin neighborhood of Garcia. Known mostly for being the stomping grounds of the feared Rifa Gang, Garcia is pretty much a recreation of the Mission District that's all too close to the IGN home office (and let it be known right now that it has best taquerias in the country!). But in the game, Garcia is believed to be one of the primary focal points for international drug trading and is described by our buds at Rockstar as one of the most hostile areas there can be. Even so, it was our very next destination on the tour as we headed into one of the area's most important landmarks, the Cobra Martial Arts Dojo.
Completely different than the dojo we explored in Los Santos, Cobra Martial Arts offers a weight set, a treadmill, and one badass Japanese sensei that's ready to whip some behind at a moment's notice. But instead of teaching Carl the street fighting techniques he grew up with (and expanded upon in Los Santos), this particular sensei can teach CJ a much more refined technique. A quick conversation with the potential teacher brings up a dialog box that then allows you to choose which types of moves you'd like to learn -- but not until you can first defeat him in unarmed combat to prove your worth. How very Kung Fu!
Anyhow, the San Fierro sensei's primary strength seems to be teaching kicks, as his principal list of moves included front kicks, roundhouses, and drop heels. But rather than just give your character an automatic move and be done with it, the sensei actually walks you through the proper button pressing procedures; followed by an instructional lecture on when's the best time to use those attacks. Furthermore, once the new move has been learned can then be switched out with existing moves in your repertoire; allowing players to literally create their own fighting combos and styles as they continue to their reflex education. You can even practice your moves on sparring partners in each dojo!
Jumps, Trolleys, and Earthquakes
After learning a couple of foot chops, our next destination took us through the remnants of the historic 1989 earthquake. But along the way we ran into some cool little hotspots and bonus areas. San Francisco's famous trolley tracks, for instance, have been implanted into San Fierro as well -- and just like the city-to-city trains that players can hop on to save travel time from the game's various train stations, the trolleys can be ridden too. Of course, if you want to hijack one of them and take it for a ride all by yourself you can do that too; the choice is entirely yours.
One thing we noticed as we traveled through San Fierro is that there are an awful lot of jump locations along the way. Located all over the hilly environments, it was hinted by Rockstar representatives that you'd probably find more Insane Stunt Jumps here than in any other location in the game. Whether or not that's actually true, we'll have to wait and see. But based on the time we spent moving from place to place, it certainly seems pretty likely.
Mission Time
After that quick run-through of the surrounding areas, it was off to witness our first San Fierro-based mission that took us back to Hashbury. Hooking up with CJ's sister's car-obsessed boyfriend Caesar, the mission itself was actually pretty straightforward: just team up with Caesar and steal some expensive imported vehicles from "Otto's Autos" on the Embarcadero (known simply as Fierro Bay) and make a quick escape. Along the way, we sped through the financial district located downtown and passed several immediately recognizable buildings. We were told that an almost exact recreation of the always-crazy Lombard Street was somewhere in this areas too (known now as the Windy, Windy, Windy, Windy Street), but we didn't have the chance to check it out. We did, however, spot an accessible helipad that we can come back to at another point in the game, as well as the GTA version of the Bay Bridge that's been renamed the Garver Bridge.
Once arrived at Otto's Autos, Caesar and CJ steal a couple of cars right off the second floor and jump right into the next leg of the mission which is all about racing. In it, players are required to follow Caesar back through the streets of San Fierro, but not before CJ runs into all sorts of traffic and environmental problems that are admittedly pretty crazy. Supposedly, this layout of this particular mission had some deep inspiration taken from the classic Steve McQueen movie, Bullitt. The mission is finally over when the duo returns to a brand new garage they've created known as "The Hub;" But not before Caesar reveals an important new addition to the GTA universe -- Nitro.
Nitrous Oxide and Vehicle Physics
Used as a tool to help him go faster, the brand new nitrous feature helps Caesar catch some major velocity. And though the Burnout-like blur effect was still being worked on when we saw it, the scenery-warping tears of the surrounding areas certainly conveyed a sense of speed not really seen before in a Grand Theft Auto game. Now keep in mind, that not all of your cars can be equipped with a Nitrous Oxide kit -- only specific ones that meet a certain criteria. Unfortunately, which cars those are weren't revealed to us. But we do know, however, that you'll have the opportunity to add these kits at your local Mod Garage (more on that later) in addition to being able to dictate how much Nitrous goes in them.
The cost of Nitrous is dependant on how big the bottle is and how many charges you want for them. But once the Nitro is purchased, a special canister graphic appears in the back seat or trunk of whatever car CJ is driving. And the more Nitro he purchases, the bigger the visual becomes. Apparently, the most powerful Nitrous upgrade is what's called the N20 -- and it's supposedly incredibly fast.
To activate the Nitrous, players simply need to press the circle or L1 button while driving around and BOOM! Instant rapidity! Once moving, the aforementioned blur effect and glowing blue-flame tailpipes are pretty much all you're going to notice -- with an average nitrous burst of about 10-15 seconds each. As an added bonus, the momentum that CJ acquires will actually help him crash through destructible objects that normally wouldn't be able to be destroyed had he been going a normal speed. But should he miss such an object and want to try it again, it usually takes around 60 seconds to recharge.
Before moving on to the next area, Rockstar did touch on one last aspect of how the transportation works -- particularly in the field of their physics. The company reps wanted to make it perfectly clear to IGN's readers that not only has San Andreas expanded its horizons with an assortment of all-new vehicles like bicycles, monster trucks, and go-karts, but that each and every one of them has been built and rebuilt from the ground up. And since these modes of transportation all handle differently with their own unique physics models, it means that braking, turning, accelerating, and interacting with the surrounding environments are all entirely distinctive based on which vehicle you're using. Apparently, these kinds of aspects will play into how well you can drive through certain areas too. With some cars best suited for lengthy trips on the freeway and others meant to climb the many hills of San Fierro.
Mod Garages
As we mentioned earlier, another one of the new features in San Andreas this year is the inclusion of what's being called Mod Garages. Located all over the state of San Andreas, these garages allow players to pimp out their rides in any number of ways. Though it's not a feature that's available to all cars inherently, it still supports a nice collection of them -- and in the San Fierro Mod Garages known as Transfender and Wheel Angels, users will be able to upgrade their exhaust pipes, front and rear bumpers, roofs, wings, and wheels in addition to getting brand new paint jobs.
Rockstar's pretty hopeful that users are going to eat this new mode up too. As the ability to grab customized flaming paintjobs or blend multiple color types together for a nice combination are just a few of the options available to them. You can even specify if you want a hard top, soft top, or open top roof and increase the bass in your car's stereo!
This expensive process also allows for specific customization types if you're looking for a particular kind of ride. Wheels Angels, for example, specializes in doing street racing mods while one of Los Santos' garages has experts in creating high-end low-riders. But if that's not what you're looking for, then there more garages all over the state that sport different fortes of their. So if it's a general practitioner or a master of a specific trade, your number of choices is favorable.
Helicopters, Tankers, and Hostages, Oh My!
As you may have guessed by now, our tour guide customized his own car and threw us directly into another mission. This time, our group was off to Chinatown to meet up with a local Triad leader named Wu Zi Mu, but the locals call him Woozie for short. The goal here is to save a bunch of refugees from certain doom as they're being held as prisoners aboard a tanker in the middle of San Fierro Bay. To get them, Carl has to hop aboard a helicopter and head off to save them.
On our way there, we learned that at some point there will be a series of brand new tow truck missions that allows players to tow cars whether they want to be pulled or not. And as has been mentioned before, the Taxi and Ambulance missions have returned as well. We also finally got to see the dead-on recreation of Lombard Street we heard about earlier as well as the Trans-American building that has been appropriately renamed "Big Pointy."
Unfortunately once we hit the ship, the helicopter was immediately shot down which forced Carl into doing something that players had hoped they could do forever: swim. And though we already covered the specificities of swimming in a previous article, it was another experience entirely to see it first hand. Just like when shooting his guns, Carl can improve his swimming ability by doing it more often -- be it his speed, his ability to hold his breath or whatever. But now wasn't the time to worry about upgrading: he had a mission to complete. Swimming all the way to the tanker by himself, he'll need to employ an all-new gameplay mechanic to survive... stealth!
Stealth Kills
Once on the deck of the ship, Carl borrows the second element taken from Rockstar's brutal island horror game Manhunt with a very similar stealth kill mechanic. Now able to hide in darkened corners or alleyways, Carl can use the silence to his advantage. And silence is what he'll need, as noise is the number one method by which enemies will be able to spot you. To aid players as they try and avoid such a fate, the mini-map will turn CJ's location dot blue when he's hidden the shadows. If he walks slowly (or crouches and walks slowly), then he'll probably stay undetected. Once behind an enemy and is ready for a kill, though, he'll be given a number of specific methodologies to do so.
Two of those methodologies were revealed to us pretty convincingly. The first of which being the always-useful knife kill -- which you can be done when CJ's arm raises ever so slightly near his face to signify that he's within striking distance. One quick tap of the circle button after that and the knife is immediately plunged into the enemy's neck; keeping the area quiet and keeping Carl undetected. The other kill technique is just as useful but far more powerful. Utilized with a silenced pistol, this eliminator allows players to take headshots from a distance via the analog targeting system or via auto-lock at close range. There's an un-silenced version of this kill too, but it would likely alert your enemies if you perform it.
A good majority of this mission focuses on the stealth kill aspect. And whether it's sneaking up behind your unsuspecting victim or using the all new climb feature to crawl over boxes and obstacles to get to other areas, silence and patience are your primary ally for this challenge. Eventually, though, there is a scripted event that sparks CJ getting caught and a good old-fashioned blast fest ensues. Once Carl escapes the craziness and gets to the refugee's prison, however, he can shoot out the padlock and let 'em out. Sadly for him, CJ comes face-to-face with a dual-katana wielding warrior named Snake Head, who also happens to be the guy who kidnapped the refugees in the first place. In a nice nod to old samurai movies, Snake Head actually gives CJ one of the katanas to fight him with and a battle to the death begins. Once the boss fight's over, it's onto a boat and back into the city you go.
City Sights, City Lights
The final bit of our time in San Fierro was spent seeing a landmark that San Franciscan natives are sure to recognize: the Golden Gate Bridge. Known as the Gant Bridge in this game, the structure is detailed down to the last rivet and looks just like the real thing. Had our guides really wanted to, they could have easily grabbed a car and driven across it to explore yet another big city. Unfortunately for us that trip was meant for another time.
Even so, we still didn't even begin to scratch the surface of what San Fierro has to offer, as there are still a number of other areas left for us to explore. Corvin Stadium, for instance, is a massive arena that serves as a home to the San Fierro Sixty Niners, while the industrial neighborhood of Doherty (which we were briefly in for one of the earlier missions) has a lot more to look through. And yet there's still even more to be found here. Juniper Hollow, the Docklands, and the Waterfront have an abundance of cool things to find as well, and we never got to stop at one of the many Alex's Hot Dog Stands that populate the entire state of San Andreas.
Amazingly, Rockstar representatives tell us that there's still an incalculable list of stuff we have yet to see; including Las Venturas, the remaining small towns, hundreds of other missions, and additional gameplay elements that have yet to be revealed. Based on the size and scope of this game already, it's already mind boggling -- but I still can't wait to finally get my hands on it. Just when that day will be exactly, I really cannot say: but rest assured, we'll be back with more on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas very, very soon. In the meantime, check the media page below for almost 20 new screenshots taken from San Fierro. Enjoy!
Hehe!
