The detail employed in the construction of the cities far outdoes anything we’ve yet seen from the series. Every building seems individually designed. Weeds, grass and moss move in the wind, signs and billboards are easy to read advertising real goods and services you can seek in the cities, and every aspect of the environment is polished right down to the streets and the paint on the curbside. Highways cross the cities with overpasses, off and on ramps and twisted pretzel intersections. And it’s all beautiful. Considering the massiveness of the whole game, and that there are no load times between the cities, this level of detail is a formidable accomplishment. Better yet, indoor environments have taken a humongous leap from Vice City with sharp details and smooth bit-mapping. Lighting has also been upgrade far beyond anything the series has seen, especially indoors where lamps reflect realistically and the surroundings are much more consistently rendered.

San Andreas’ size is astonishing. Unlike the previous two games where you could traverse one of the islands in a minute or so in a fast car you’ll be doing no such thing in San Andreas. Los Santos alone is larger in square miles than the whole of Vice City with a sprawling, cohesive metropolis in a valley near the ocean and a stupefying expanse of country side just outside the city. Denizens are much more full of life now parking and leaving their cars, sitting on stoops and hanging out in bunches. They respond more readily to the environment, fight among themselves, battle with the police or stand and have conversations - lovers even walk hand and hand. The cities replicate well locales of their real life counter parts -Hollywood Hills, Golden Gate Bridge, Las Vegas strip - and there is a long list of beautiful sights to be seen. Driving down the Las Venturas strip at night is one of gaming’s sublime moments.

Still, one of the greatest graphical leaps is in the character models - Carl Johnson makes Tommy Vercetti look like a stick figure. Facial features with full working parts, chiseled muscles, more realistic body movements and greatly improved animation add volumes of realism to the storyline, cut scenes and game play. But C.J. isn’t the only one. Everyone from the co-stars to the random gang member wandering the streets at night, has been treated to a noticeable face lift. One of the most glaring examples is the prostitute who wanders the streets switching her hips and swinging a 9mm pistol. Or the cops who are no longer faceless clones but dressed in different uniforms with different physical models.

The GTA standard control system was never broke so it hasn’t been fixed but a few things of note have been added. First off, fighting is much more useful and fun than it’s ever been. Forcing some fool's nose bone into his medulla oblongata never loses it's charm, especially as you acquire new fighting systems from the gyms and dojos scattered around the state. Moves like the sneak and slice stealth kill and the down and dirty hit em when he’s down are fun but the list grows exponentially as you progress.

Secondly, the targeting system is slightly more intuitive than before making it a synch to make quick work of a group of enemies. The use of the D-pad for driving has been nixed to my dismay but the analog stick has become much tighter than before. Small adjustments have been made to the use of the d-pad - changing radio stations is now assigned to the up and down buttons.

As much as we were excited about Ray Liotta giving voice to Tommy Vercetti, the character sounded lifeless in contrast to those in San Andreas. The voice cast is massive with highlights like Yo Yo, MC Eiht, Charlie Murphy, Kid Frost, James Wood, Ice T and Samuel Jackson. The soundtrack is unspeakable. Littered with massive hits and cult favorites, Rockstar dug deep into the crates to assemble this one. Tracks like “Hood took me Under” (CMW), and others by NWA, Dre and Snoop, Ice Cube and 2 Pac fit the game’s gang theme best but there are massive amounts of other music from techno to country and classic rock that come in handy once you move away from the hood.

San Andreas is not without it’s flaws though. Some of the old frustrations return like slow camera turning that can get you killed and back tracking that entails long drives to and fro. Back tracking is made even more consuming because of the large expanses to cover. The helpful “mission failed” cabbie rides from the hospital to the blip are abscent for some reason and long rides begin to wear on you after a while. This, however, is just a product of the massive environment which is a plus. The use of commercial jet liners to get from city to city was a nice touch to alleviate "driver's thumb". Another major annoyance is the aggressive way that driving enemies come after you smashing you so relentlessly that you can't even drive a straight line. Sometimes this degrades a mission from fun to #$%@#%$! in 0.3 seconds. On the flip side, cops are not so wild anymore, they come after you in a much more orderly fashion and seem to be more bent on capturing you than just running you off the road and killing you.

The only true problem I found with the game play is the poor direction you’re given during missions and in general. Instructions appear on screen quickly and disappear never to be seen again so certain important tasks, options or opportunities are lost. For instance, the game never really tells you where to find the van used to do burglaries. So if you don't just happen upon it or read a walkthrough you'll miss out completely. Also, a lot of locations are not on the map. This does make it more fun to explore on foot and check things out but it also keeps you in the dark. Often, exactly what you are supposed to do is not explained very well and a lot of time is wasted trying to figure it out. If the game would pause while the instructions appeared it would be better since often you get yourself killed trying to read them.

Verdict
GTA: San Andreas is a definite and permanent milestone in gaming. Being the last in the series to be released on PS2 (the next should be on the next generation of systems) it is the climax in GTA’s stint on the system. It’s rare that a sequel so refines a game to a point of near perfection. I’m truly impressed that such expectations could be met and surpassed so fluidly - it would take months to fully explore this game and tire of the options. San Andreas is decidedly the best game in the series and, in my opinion, the best game of the year so far. I'd go so far as to say it is the best game ever released on the Playstation 2. I’m reluctant to say “Best Game of All Time” but the fact that the phrase floats around in my mind when I play it says a lot.

page [1][2]

Posted: October 30, 2004