Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is an open world action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 26 October 2004 for the PlayStation 2 console, and on 7 June 2005 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. It is the seventh title in the Grand Theft Autoseries, and the first main entry since 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It was released on the same day as the handheld game Grand Theft Auto Advance.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is played from a third-person perspective in an open world environment, allowing the player to interact with the game world at their leisure. The game is set within the fictional US state of San Andreas, which is heavily based on California and Nevada. The state of San Andreas consists of three metropolitan cities: Los Santos, based on Los Angeles; San Fierro, based on San Francisco; and Las Venturas, based on Las Vegas. The single-player story follows Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns home to Los Santos after learning of his mother's murder. CJ finds his old friends and family in disarray, and over the course of the game he attempts to re-establish his old gang, clashes with corrupt cops, and gradually unravels the truth behind his mother's murder. The plot is based on multiple real-life events in Los Angeles, including the rivalry between the Bloods and Crips street gangs, the 1980s crack epidemic, the LAPD Rampart scandal, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Upon its release, the game was acclaimed by many reviewers who praised the music, story and gameplay. It became the best-selling video game of 2004, and has sold over 27 million copies; it remains the best-selling PlayStation 2 game of all time. The game, like its predecessors, is cited as a landmark in video games for its far-reaching influence within the industry. However, the violence and sexual content of San Andreas has been the source of much public concern and controversy. In particular, a player-made software patch, dubbed the "Hot Coffee mod", unlocked a previously hidden sexual mini-game.

The next main entry in the series, Grand Theft Auto IV, was released on 29 April 2008, also to critical acclaim. San Andreas has been ported to various other platforms and services, such as OS X, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Fire OS). In October 2014, the game was taken off the Xbox Live Marketplace & PlayStation Store. It was later announced that the game would be re-released and enhanced for Xbox 360 to celebrate the 10th anniversary.

Gameplay

San Andreas is structured similarly to the previous two games in the series. The core gameplay consists of elements of a third-person shooter and a driving game, affording the player a large, open world environment in which to move around. On foot, the player's character is capable of walking, eating, running, sprinting, swimming, climbing and jumping as well as using weapons and various forms of hand-to-hand combat. Players can drive a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, buses, semis, boats, fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, trains, tanks, motorcycles and bikes. Players may also import vehicles rather than steal them.

The open, non-linear environment allows players to explore and choose how they wish to play the game. Although storyline missions are necessary to progress through the game and unlock certain cities and content, they are not required as players can complete them at their own leisure. When not taking on a storyline mission, players can free-roam and look around the cities, eat from the restaurant, or cause havoc by attacking people and causing destruction. Creating havoc can attract unwanted and potentially fatal attention from the authorities. The more chaos caused, the stronger the response: police will handle "minor" infractions (attacking pedestrians, pointing guns at people, stealing vehicles, manslaughter, etc.), whereas SWAT teams, the FBI, and the military respond to higher wanted levels.

The player can partake in a variety of optional side missions that can boost their character's attributes or provide another source of income. The traditional side missions of the past games are included, such as dropping off taxi cab passengers, putting out fires, driving injured people to the hospital and fighting crime as a vigilante. New additions include burglary missions, pimping missions, truck and train driving missions requiring players to make deliveries on time, and driving/flying/boating/biking schools, which help players learn skills and techniques to use in their corresponding vehicles.

Not all locations are open to the player at the start of the game. Some locales, such as mod garages, restaurants, gyms, and shops, become available only after completing certain missions. Likewise, for the first portion of the game, only Los Santos and its immediate suburbs are available for exploration; unlocking the other cities and rural areas again requires the completion of certain missions. If the player were to try travel in locked locations they would end up attracting the attention of SWAT teams.

Unlike Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City, which needed loading screens when the player moved between different districts of the city, San Andreas has no load times when the player is in transit. The only loading screens in the game are for cut-scenes and interiors. Other differences between San Andreas and its predecessors include the switch from single-player to multiplayer Rampage missions (albeit not in the PC version), and the replacement of the 'hidden packages' with spray paint tags, hidden camera shots, horseshoes, and oysters to discover.

The camera, fighting, and targeting controls were reworked to incorporate concepts from another Rockstar game, Manhunt, including various stealth elements, as well as improved target crosshairs and a target health indicator which changes from green to red to black depending on the target's health. The PC version of the game implements mouse chording; the player has to hold the right mouse button to activate the crosshairs, and then click or hold at the left mouse button to shoot or use an item, such as a camera.

RPG features in character development

In addition, players can swim and climb walls for the first time in the series.The ability to swim has a great effect on the player as well, since water is no longer an impassable barrier that kills the player (although it is possible to drown). For greater firepower, players can also wield dual firearms or perform a drive-by shooting with multiple gang members. Due to the size of San Andreas, a waypoint reticle on the HUD map can be set, aiding the player in reaching a destination.

Rockstar has emphasised the personalisation of the main protagonist by adding many role-playing game elements. Clothing, accessories, haircuts, jewellery, and tattoos are now available for purchase by the player, and have more of an effect onnon-player characters' reactions than the clothing in Vice City. CJ's level of respect among his fellow recruits and street friends varies according to his appearance and actions, as do his relationships with his girlfriends. Players must also ensure CJ eats to stay healthy and also exercises properly. The balance of food and physical activity has an effect on his appearance and physical attributes.

San Andreas tracks acquired skills in areas such as driving, firearms handling, stamina, and lung capacity, which improve through use in the game. CJ may also learn three different styles of hand-to-hand combat (boxing, jujutsu and wrestling) at the gyms in each of the game's three cities. CJ can also speak with a number of pedestrians in the game, responding either negatively or positively. According to Rockstar, there are about 4,200 lines of spoken dialogue.

Plot

In 1992, Carl "CJ" Johnson returns to Los Santos after spending five years living in Liberty City when his brother Sean "Sweet" Johnson calls to inform him of their mother's murder. Shortly after leaving the airport, CJ is intercepted by a group of corrupt LSPD C.R.A.S.H. officers led by Frank Tenpenny, and consisting of two officers, Eddie Pulaski and Jimmy Hernandez, with whom CJ has a history. Tenpenny implicates CJ in the murder of a police officer, Officer Pendlebury, that Tenpenny himself committed, as he was on the verge of exposing him, and threatens to frame him for it if he does not co-operate with them.

CJ returns to his former home on Grove Street and reunites with his brother Sweet, his sister Kendl, and members of his old gang, Big Smoke and Ryder. Finding that the Grove Street Families (GSF) have lost much of their territory while he was gone, CJ decides to stay in town. Working with the others to re-establish the GSF, CJ gradually restores the gang to power, by helping to reunite the various Grove Street sets who had previously splintered, allying himself with Kendl's boyfriend, Cesar Vialpando, leader of the Varrios Los Aztecas, and together they drive off the rival Ballas and Vagos gangs, reducing the amount of drugs on the streets. In doing so, CJ regains the respect of Sweet, who was disappointed that he had left Grove Street after the death of their brother, Brian. While en route to join Sweet for a showdown against the Ballas, CJ is called by Cesar, who tells him to meet with him outside a garage where they witness Smoke and Ryder meeting with Tenpenny and a group of Ballas, learning that they had been working with Tenpenny all along, and were responsible for his mother's murder, explaining their suspicious behaviour. Suspecting a set-up, CJ rushes to Sweet's aid, who was wounded in the ambush, and fights off the Ballas, but the police arrive shortly afterward. Sweet is thrown in jail while Tenpenny takes CJ into the countryside and dumps him there. With the GSF in shambles, Smoke and Ryder, now openly allied with the Ballas, take over Los Santos and flood the streets with drugs.

Exiled in the countryside, CJ is forced to carry out favours for C.R.A.S.H, particularly by killing people with incriminating evidence against Tenpenny, under threat of his imprisoned brother being transferred to the cell block where Ballas affiliates are housed. He also works with Cesar's cousin Catalina to make money by carrying out several heists in the area. He also befriends a hippie called The Truth and a blind Triad leader named Woozie. After winning the deed to a garage in San Fierro in a race against Catalina and her new boyfriend, CJ goes there with The Truth, Cesar and Kendl to get it up and running so they can make a living. While in San Fierro, CJ crosses paths with the Loco Syndicate, Smoke and Ryder's drug connection. CJ infiltrates the organisation and identifies its leader, the mysterious Mike Toreno. Along with Cesar and the Triad, CJ kills Ryder and the other Loco Syndicate leaders, Jizzy B. and T-Bone Mendez, and shoots down Toreno's helicopter.

Despite Toreno's apparent death, CJ is soon contacted by him in the desert. Toreno reveals that he is actually a government agent and enlists CJ's help in several shady operations in exchange for Sweet's freedom. Meanwhile, CJ travels to Las Venturas, where Woozie invites him to become a partner in the Four Dragons Casino, where the organisation is facing problems from the mob families that control the city. Seeking to wrest control of Venturas from them, CJ helps Woozie plot a robbery of the mob's casino and gains the mob's trust through various jobs for mob boss, Salvatore Leone. Eventually the heist is carried out successfully, earning the Triad a place of power in Las Venturas, although causing the mob to distrust CJ. CJ also encounters disgraced rapper Madd Dogg, whom he rescues from a suicide attempt. Grateful, Madd Dogg asks CJ to be his manager once he returns from rehab.

Tenpenny, fearing his arrest is inevitable, tasks his partner Pulaski with killing CJ and disposing of the body of Hernandez, whom Tenpenny found out was informing on them. While CJ is digging a grave for both Hernanzez and himself, Hernanzez, still alive but wounded after being hit in the back of the head with a shovel by Tenpenny several times, manages to attack Pulaski, leading him being consequently killed. Pulaski then flees, but CJ pursues and kills him.

Madd Dogg returns from rehab, prompting CJ to return to Los Santos to get his music career started again. Toreno contacts CJ for one last favour, destroying some spy ships in the area, and finally has Sweet released from prison. Now rich and successful, CJ attempts to cut Sweet in on his businesses, but Sweet becomes angry that he ran away and let their home be taken over by drug dealers to make his fortune. While CJ helps Sweet once again drive off the rival gangs, Tenpenny is tried for several felonies but the charges are surprisingly dropped due to lack of evidence, prompting a city-wide riot.

Sweet soon learns that Smoke is holed up in a fortified crack den in the city, and seeking to stop the flow of drugs on the street, he and CJ go there to confront him. CJ enters the building alone, fighting his way to the top floor and battling Smoke. As Smoke dies, Tenpenny appears and steals Smoke's drug money, intending to use it to leave the city before the rioters kill him. Tenpenny rushes out of the building and CJ and Sweet pursue him as he flees in a fire truck. While CJ and Sweet are in pursuit, Tenpenny eventually loses control of the truck, driving off a bridge and crashing at the entrance to the Grove Street cul-de-sac. CJ and his friends watch as Tenpenny crawls from the wreckage and dies of his injuries.

In the aftermath, CJ's family and friends arrive at the Johnson house for a meeting. Cesar proposes to Kendl and Madd Dogg announces his first gold record. As his friends and allies celebrate their success, CJ turns to leave. When Kendl asks where he's going, he replies, "Fittin' to hit the block, see what's happening."

trailer