Bigger, badder, edgier…and with new SIM-like elements, San Andreas is even more addictive than it’s predecessors.
THE BAD: combat sequences are way too easy; some of the objectives and challenges seem rather pointless, and can be frustratingly difficult to complete.
THE UGLY: exorbitant use of profanity; required to murder innocent victims in a couple of missions.
With their newest release, Rockstar and Take Two have once again raised the bar for their flagship series, Grand Theft Auto. The new content is too extensive to cover here, but suffice it to say that your character, CJ, can now eat regular meals, work out at the local gym, choose his wardrobe, trick out his cars, and wine-and-dine the ladies. Combining these aspects with the traditional core element of stealing cool cars and driving them very fast results in making San Andreas even more immersive and fun to play than any previous GTA game. The player will meet some fascinating new characters, as well as encounter some old friends, all of who are superbly voiced by stars like Samuel Jackson, James Woods, Chris Penn, and many others too numerous to list. And of course, it wouldn’t be GTA without the hilariously inane snippets of dialogue picked up from the man-on-the-street. Picking a fistfight with just about any passer-by will usually result in a string of threats that will give the player some real belly laughs.
Still, as my 107 year old granny taught me, there’s always room for improvement, and I have some observations to offer up in the spirit of constructive criticism. For one thing, I have always found the combat sequences in the GTA series to be a bit weak. Fire fights in the missions are just too easily won to qualify as true “shooter” caliber, and I personally would like to see these sequences beefed up a bit. On another note, I feel that, for the most part, the new objectives and challenges are extremely fun, and contribute nicely to the over-all scope of the game. There are a few, however, that I could easily do without. These range from irrelevant, tiresome objectives, like collecting oysters (what’s THAT all about?), to maddeningly difficult challenges like the NRG 500 Challenge (why on EARTH do I need to be able to jump a motorcycle insanely high multiple times in a brief period?). Still, this is a pretty minor gripe, given the exceptional quality of the majority of the new content.
Finally, I couldn’t conclude my review of GTA: San Andreas with out pulling out my soapbox and writing a little bit about The Ugly. I’m not talking about the “Hot Coffee” fiasco, since anyone who has seen the crude, cartoon-ish rendition of sex in that silly little mini-game knows the controversy was blown way out of proportion (Besides, that’s a subject more appropriate for a forum or blog post.) But there are a couple of aspects of the game that I feel could be changed to make for a more enjoyable experience, and at the same time, help Rockstar and Take Two reduce the amount of flak they take from the so-called “moral majority”. My first idea, which is not unique to GTA, is to reduce the pervasive use of profanity. Now, before you label me a prude, understand that I am not offended by the constant use of the f-bombs…I simply find it tiresome. For example, all the missions involving Catalina are complex and engaging enough that they should be FUN. But personally, I found the character of Catalina to be so abrasive and foul-mouthed, I dreaded having anything to do with her. Why the hell CJ would ever show up at her dumpy little white-trash cabin is beyond me.
My second idea is to eliminate the need to kill innocent people. To their credit, the developers of San Andreas have provided the option for CJ to utilize stealth to complete some of the missions involving innocent guards, there-by reducing the body count to zero. For example, in “Madd Dogg’s Rhymes”, getting in and stealing the book undetected is a challenge worthy of Sam Fisher, and successfully completing the mission with no collateral damage is much more satisfying than simply murdering Madd Dogg’s entourage. In other missions, unfortunately, there is no such option. In “Robbing Uncle Sam”, CJ is tasked with stealing weapons from a National Guard Armory, and he has no choice but to gun down the hapless soldiers foolish enough to try and stop him.
Personally, I found this a little distasteful, maybe because of our current situation in Iraq, and the fact that the majority of our troops there are, in fact, National Guardsmen. So before anyone starts yammering about “it’s only a game”, I want to say that I KNOW THAT, but I’d also ask you to consider whether a player with a brother, or sister, or father, or even a son posted in Iraq would find that particular mission as entertaining as the rest. I know I didn’t, so regardless of any of the moral implications in my suggestion, I’m simply saying that the option to complete the objectives without extraneous casualties would probably result in a more satisfying gaming experience for a lot of players. And it sure couldn’t hurt the developers’ reputation any.