Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas review for PlayStation 2

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This Episode of the GTA Franchise picks up in 1992 and follows the life of ex-street gangster CJ, (Carl Johnson) returning home for the first time in 5 years, previously living in Liberty City he has heard about his mothers death and gets a plane ride to Los Santos, his home town, to attend her funeral. On his arrival in Los Santor CJ is tracked down by C.R.A.S.H (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) they are the corrupt police officers in the game, and threaten Carl to work for them, and intend to frame him for the murder of a fellow officer they had killed, in case he revealed there dodgy dealings.

As he makes his way into the family home he see's a picture of his mother on the table, picking it up he looks at it for a while. After a few seconds a man comes round the kitchen corner with a baseball bat and shouting. This turns out to be Big Smoke one of CJ's, and the family's, best friends. As they make their way to the funeral you meet CJ's older brother, Sweet the leader of the Grove Street Families, his sister Kendel. And Ryder another family friend. At this point everyone is at the grave and Sweet is annoyed that CJ has only just come back, engaging in a small arguement they then walk off and are ambushed by their sworn enemies The Ballas.

After learning that the Grove Street Families has become a weak gang Carl begins to work for them and try to make their name big again. Missions involve, graffitiing other gangs terrotory and attacking rival gangs. You can also work for Ryder and make some money, he also introduces the "Burglary" option, where you can go into a desired house between 9pm - 00:00am and steal belongings each worth some cash.

After the Grove Street Gang has made their name Big Smoke and Ryder set a trap for Sweet and CJ, this is unknown at the time Sweet is arrested and CJ is forced to the
Countryside where he works for a woman he meets named Catalina (The Villain in GTA III) and a drug growing hippy known only as The Truth, these missions involve stealing a Combine Harvester and Robbing various stores.

The next city San Fierro (Based on San Fransisco) is where CJ sets up a garage with his friend and his sister Kendel's partner Ceasar Vialpando a gang member of Mexican origin. This continues until you can return to Los Santon when you are given the signal.
While in San Fierro you must kill Ryder which is where CJ learns that it was him(Ryder) and Big Smoke that sold out the Grove Street Families, this entails tailing Ryder on a boat and shooting him down. After many missions in San Fierro the storyline ends here, although as in previous games options to do the Vigilante, Taxing and Ambulance missions are still available.

The next city to move onto is Las Venturas (Based on Las Vegas) which is the biggest city yet. After arriving there you are offered work by goverment agent Mike Toreno, who i nturn for doing his deeds, will set your brother sweet free. Missions of his include buying an abandoned airstrip where you can learn to train as a pilot. As the story moves on and you do enough of the missions for Toreno Sweet is released from jail, as promised. CJ wants himself and Sweet to give up the Grove Street Families and move onto a new life, instead Sweet wants the opposite and convinces Carl to join him.

On their arrival back into Los Santos riots have broken out because C.R.A.S.H Leader Officer Frank Tenpenny who commited a large number of crimes has been released without charge. Missions here include getting the Grove Street Families back to the top of the gang chain, and setting out to get revenge on Big Smoke, who is Los Santo's biggest drug kingpin now. The games story ends when Frank Tenpenny and Big Smoke are killed, Big Smokes final words are "Everyone will remember my name, Big Smoke!"

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, The Playstation 2's top selling game of all time with around 12 million copies sold worldwide. Does it life up the reputation it recieves? Indeed it does, with a map 5 times the size of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
it really does itself gratitude and the size is not the only good thing about it.

Graphically the game is great to look at even in the newer generation of consoles it is still one of the most "pretty" games out there. You can view spectacular scenery and even capture it with the camera and save it onto your memory stick for your own "Gallery". The use of customising your characters clothes, hair, tatoos and even physical aspects is genius in itself. Giving the player a sense of control of life.

Their are many activities to be done in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, muscle building, Stamina building, swimming (which increases lung capacity) and murder.
The police in this game are more intelligent than in any preveious games although still a bit dim-witted. They're very easy to lose, just cruise down an open alley or go into the pay and spray. The optional missions are also very enjoyable, go round the city taking care of crime in the Vigilante car, or help people get to their desired destination in the Taxi missions, or even help injured civillians to the hospital in the Ambulance options. With so much to do you will have a lot of gameplay on this game at least 250 hours i would say.

Their is also the option to customise your car, get different paint jobs, rims, bumpers, roofs and even exhausts. Of course the choice to do nothing except cause chaos is still as ever optional. Create havoc in the city of your choice by whatever means neccesary.

Dance competitions in clubs are also available just press the buttons in the sequence to complete it, as with the car option too, using hydraulics to "dance" along to the beat.
Or if your a gambling person then head over to one of the casinos and gamble your money away, to win and lose. Many classic casino games in the game are, Blackjack, Roulette, and even the slot machine.
You can also play pool in different bars with the computer, the option to have girlfriends is also here in San Andreas and even win back gang turf in gang wars.(Only available in Los Santos)

Their are many gun options in this game as with the others, a slight difference is the reticule has now changed and has an "Auto aim" feature for EVERY weapon, as well as free aim for every weapon too. Ammu Nation is still available to buy weaponry from, as well as your usual shady dealers that you can purchase ammo and artillery from.

The vechile availabilty has dramatically increased, their are many makes and models to choose from including; Bikes, Cars, Go Karts, Pickups, Forklifts, Buses and even aircraft! Remember the Dodo plane from Grand Theft Auto III? If not then it was basically a old fashioned short wing plane that rose up for a few seconds and then back to the ground. Well in this game there are a fair few aircraft to let your pilot insticts grab a hold off and fly into the air! Including a full size passenger plane, if you can find it ;).

As with the hidden packages in Vice City and Grand Theft Auto III where you find one and it would give you $100 cash, in San Andreas there are horseshoes to find which when acustomed increases the players "Luck" in casinoes. So this gives you a better advantage at winning money back from them.

A little letdown is that the stunt ramps/moves have been removed from the game whereas in previous editions you would go over a ramp and get a "Stunt Ramp Found" text and it would add to your precentage completed. In San Andreas there are still options to make cash from doing this ( It would take a long time, or a very good stunt to do it though) this feature has been removed.

However their are still comical gags as with the other games, such as Area 69 (A joke at Americas "Fictional" Area 51) and amusing Radio Adverts on...Guess where. Yep the Radio. In between programme transmitions (Which like in Vice City, share news of what has just happened, sometimes with involvement in the previous mission, or helped NPCS)

A dissapointment for me is the introduction of the JetPack, as for me it is like Rockstar ran out of ideas for a day or two so they decided to cram a cheest sci-fi idea in there which in my opinion didn't really work out. Although this is just my opinion and probably doesn't really count.

If you have enough cash to throw around you can also purchase certain properties, either to make cash or just to say you own the lot. There are many places to own from little suburb houses to your very own car company distributor. The icons on the map will come up with a little green house if you own them or a small red one if you do not, but is purchaseable.

Import/Export has not left us either, the chance to go around and steal cars and send them off to a boat to be exported for cash is still here, and once that car is given it can be bought with your own cash. These side missions are fairly easy and have 4-5 different "Levels".

Boat cruising is also still available from using fabulous yachts to your own sinkable dinghy, police can also follow you using their own boats if you have a felony.

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There are also various BMXing challenges for you to complete, hop on a BMX and try to collect all the hoops for a cash reward, but careful you need to do it in the time limit. Other mini games include basket ball where you can dribble the ball around the court by yourself =[ (This is just for fun no money involved)

So all in all this game is really a collection of, racing, shooting, gambling, boating and sports. Which when completed brings together one of the best games that I myself have ever played.
Whatever you decide to do Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be a pleasure to your gaming experience and is a must have for every gaming fan.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas gets a 9.5/10, a very enjoyable game with an equally pleasing storyline of corruption, betrayal and revenge with so many hours of gameplay to let yourself sink into. Read a good book? No play a great game instead.

Good review. Two things i want to point out (to maybe help you get better) is that alot of it is just running through the storyline, which is not hard to do, you need to be more opinionative, and point out things which people might miss, good or bad. You've done that quite abit, but there is alot more to cover Secondly, use a spoiler button! I haven't actually completed GTA:San Andreas all the way through, but you've just told me what's happened, which is a big mistake in reviews. You don't want to give everything away, otherwise there is nothing to enjoy when people consider buying the game. Give people the option to read the plot, but don't just tell them it. More features mentioned (there's more in San Andreas to cover), more opinions, less storyline. Hope this doesn't discourage you, just trying to help you mate ;)