If you are morally offended by this game, then this review is meant for you...
User Rating: 8.1 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas PS2
As of this writing there are 335 reader reviews posted. What in the world could I POSSIBLY add to what has already been said? Not much, except one thing. An angle that no one has seemingly tackled just yet. Admittedly, it’s not an angle most of the GameSpot community much cares about. But there are some who do and for you this review is dedicated…the moral ramifications of GTA:SA. First a quick review of my opinions of the game as a game. To me the differences in its strengths and its weaknesses are as distinct as night and day. The weaknesses – Graphics (at times) are not all that great. Navigating the map system can be downright confusing. The vocal portions of the audio tend to be muffled. Frame rate is low. The character animation is unrealistic, to the point of looking like a SIMs game at times. The targeting is downright bad. It’s probably my worst complaint, in fact. There were times, when trying to auto-target between enemies, that the camera kept jumping from one perspective to another. Definite flaw. The Strengths – You’ve heard it a million times already…this game is HUGE. Seriously, it’s hard to really grasp this concept until you’ve play it for yourself, and once you do you’ll easily forgive the graphics’ lack of perfection (I guess you simply can’t have both on the current generation of consoles). The voice acting is generally very, very good. The radio stations are a blast to listen to. The freedom you’re provided is amazing. All in all, it can be a very fun experience. And while most, if not all, of these points have been made by 335 other GameSpot members…I’m now going to tackle the moral ramifications of GTA:SA… Here are the facts – The protagonist of the game (the character you play as) is a morally delinquent thug. He has no qualms with death except when it happens to those he cares about. The entire point of the game is to amass other thugs in order to reestablish your gang as a dominant force within the community. You may, at any time, kill innocent people, steal their cars, shoot cops and cause all sorts of serious mayhem. You can break into people’s homes and loot their belongings. Your character (and everyone else in the game for that matter) uses all sorts of vulgar language (from F bombs to N bombs) copiously. Lyrically, some of the hip hop music you’ll hear can be as offensive as it gets, though there isn’t a single song that was written for this game and therefore you couldn’t have already heard by buying a copy of the artist(s) CD. On paper, these stats can be construed as offensive for sure. However, with regard to the violence in this game, it’s frankly not all that realistic. As I mentioned above, the animations are pretty unconvincing of how a person truly behaves to the point of looking like a SIMs game at times. Therefore, the end result leaves you with no actual (or even virtual) sense of what killing a person would be like in the real world. In other words, it can not be used as a means of “training” a person to kill as that insane attorney down in Florida claims who is trying to sue Rockstar and Sony (among others). Still, if the things I’ve mentioned above are offensive to you, then there’s no way to candy coat it. You’ll be offended by this game. Yet, there’s something that begs to be mentioned here. How do any of these things differ from other, more socially accepted forms of media? The Academy Award winning Godfather films, which are highly regarded as cinematic masterpieces, have the same basic premise. A group of thugs tries to strengthen their “family” in order to reestablish themselves (or in this case, maintain the themselves) as a dominant force within the community. We’re rooting for the bad guys in both instances. A couple of other examples – Silence of the Lambs and Goodfellas. Both Academy Award winning films (Silence winning for best motion picture) had their protagonists as morally corrupt killers. Admittedly, the lead protagonist in Silence wasn’t, but didn’t we breathe a sigh of relief when Hannibal escaped? And even if you didn’t, wasn’t the concept as a whole nothing more than the exploitation of other real life victims of serial killers? Why, then, is there all this uproar over the GTA games? I can only think of two reasons. 1. The people who criticize haven’t actually played the games and 2. It’s the medium, not the content, that shocks people the most. You and I both know that videogames have evolved into something no one ever imagined twenty years ago. Videogames are for kids!! Right? Actually, no. I recently read that the average age of those who play videogames nowadays is 29. Like it or not (and like it we do) videogames have grown up with their players. Therefore, it only makes sense that more mature games are created for those that enjoy them. The bottom line is, you can’t have it both ways. If, on one hand, you’re going to legitimize simulated violence through the perspective of a morally corrupt protagonist in a movie, then you can’t change suit once it happens in a videogame. Pick your side and stick to it. With that said, OF COURSE this game should NOT be played by kids…any more than watching any of the films I listed should be watched by them either. Parents (and I am one myself) need to understand this and it’s when we fail at our jobs of limiting access to such things that problems arise. Additionally, after having played this game, I’ve come to the realization that as far as graphic violence is concerned, there are many other games out there that are far, far worse. The unrealistic animation of GTA:SA in no way allows one a sense of reality (at least it didn’t for me), yet some of the other games out there have actually made me cringe. Why this game? Because of its success? Maybe. Probably. Actually, I’m sure it has everything to do with hype. A friend of mine is appalled by this game, though he’s never actually played it. It seems all the hype surrounding the game has fueled him to believe things that are simply not correct. I think this is true of many others like him. They’ve burned the book, so to speak, before they’ve read it. I am currently tracking Fear and Respect, a game that many will call a GTA clone. I’m doing so for one reason only – I respect John Singleton as a filmmaker and I’d like to see how he uses his unique vision to create a game. If you don’t already know – he wrote and directed Boyz N the Hood, a film most people credit as being the primary inspiration for GTA:SA. It will be interesting to see if those who criticize the game when it comes out also criticized Boyz N the Hood when it came out over ten years ago. My guess, probably not. Bottom line – If, like my friend, you’ve been put off by the moral ramifications surrounding the hype of this game and you watch R rated movies, don’t sweat it. There’s nothing in GTA:SA that you haven’t already stomached in more graphic detail elsewhere. And as for the game as a game…as long as you’re willing to forgive some serious flaws in design to get to the overall enormous environment and varied gameplay, you too will probably think this game can be a lot of fun…just don’t let your kids play it (or any other M rated game for that matter). PS – I apologize if this became more of a journal entry than a proper review, but since none of this has been mentioned, I thought it was worth saying. And at least you didn’t have to read what a “masterpiece” the game is for the 336th time. 
