At the time of its release, this is not just the best PS2 game ever, its quite possibly the best game of all time.
The premise of GTA:SA is seperate from GTA3 and VC, but still set in the same world and with some of the same charecters. Set in 1992, in a fictional US state called San Andreas, based loosely on Califnornia. SA contains three whole cities, Los Santos (based roughly on LA) San Ferrio 9San Fransico) and Las Ventruas (Las Vegas). In between these is desert and countyside, all up the game is rougly five times the size of VC, think about that for a moment.
The player takes the role of Carl Johnson, CJ, who grew up in the gangland ghettos of Los Santos. At some point time CJ's brother Brian was killed and CJ left LS to live in Liberty City of GTA3 fame. The game begins five years later, CJs older brother Sweet has contacted CJ saying their mother has been murdered and CJ decided to head home. On his arrival CJ is framed for murder by two corrupt cops, Tenpenny and Polaski, played by Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Penn. This is just some of the talented stars working in GTA:SA. CJ is forced back into his gang life, re-joining his old crew, Grove Street of which Sweet is the leader. Grove Street is on the verge of collaspe though, its enemies the Ballas are heavily into drug dealing. The Ballas and other gangs are one the edge of wiping Grove Street off the map and its up to CJ to join with Sweet and his old friends to take out the Ballas and the other gangs to reclaim the streets. But if anyone who played GTA3 and VC knows, there is always more to the story. While the game starts and ends in the ghetto, it will go far beyoun it though. CJ will travel across all of SA to stop the corrupt cops, clean up the streets of drugs and fin out what happened to his mother. And even then, there is HEAPS more to the plot and charecters but I'd ruin it if I mentioned anything else.
There are a ton of new features in SA and all of them suit the gameplay brillantly. First, the targetting has been completely re-worked. Players still use a lock on auto aim to track and shoot enemies, but now it is much more fluid and refined. Players are one, not rooted tothe ground, they can lock on to an enemy and strafe around them. Next, far more weapons can use the lock on now, assault rifles, melee and even hand to hand all utilise the lock on, making it very similar to the Z targetting of the Zelda 64 games. And this is a very good thing. Next the targetting reticle around an enemy now changes colour to show how much health they have left. Players can also move while crouched now and can even perfrom commando style rolls around corners while locked on to targeted enemies. The shooting now feels incredibly naturly and easy, those who were great at VC, but wished for more freedom in their shoot-outs will love this targetting system.
But in their infinite wisdom RockStar have added several other new tweaks to the shooting. All weapons have a skill level, the better your skill th better CJ is wit that weapon. For example the first gun is basic pistol, and CJ can only fire it while standing still, but as his skill progresses he'll be more accurate, do more damage, be able to run and shoot enemies at the same time and eventually even duel wield. The applies to other weapons, eventually a player will find the M4 is the best gun in the game becasue they can move and mow down enemies at the same time with pin-point precision. Some will moan that fact that it can takes hours and hours of practise with one weapon to get their skill level up but this in turn helps the gameplay, players will generally have enough skill with their weapon to beat what ever part of the game they are currently on, and will have stronger ablitiles when they need them later.
Like weapons, CJ also gets better throughout play, but differently. First off, CJ is a presented as a real person, depending on the player's actions his apperance will alter. Spend ages in the gym liftng wieghts and CJ will get stronger and appear much buffer, and NPC will re-act differnelty to him and his attacks can do more damage. The same applies to body fat and stamina, CJ really is a living breathing person and the effect this has is to make the game incrediably immerisve. CJ can even learn different fighting styles, boxing, martial arts and kick-boxing. While all are basically the same moves they are presented differenlty and its a cool twist.
If one part of the GTA games has always fallen short its the missions. These have actaully always been quite fun with varied, interesting and action packed scenarios for the player to beat, but they have always paled in comparison to the mayhem the average player can wreack when just messing around. Now it seems RockStar have approached the missions with the intent of having the best GTA experiances ever. And damn it if they don't come really close, while not apparent at the very start of the game it won't be too long beforethe average player will gap in open amazement at what RockStar serve up. A massive gangland shoot out involving dozens of combatants on eachside. A running street battle with enemy gangs. Assaulting a speeding military train filled with soldiers firing at you. These are just a few of the dozens of great moments in the game, you'll truly wonder just what other developers have been for the past few years, with the oldest technolgy in gaming Rockstar has something that rival even the likes of FarCry and Half Life 2.
The music of SA is like previous GTAs, a collection of real worlds licensed tracks. These populate the game's radio stations and include plenty of great early ninties songs. The game does focus heavily on rap and hip hop but it suits the mood and besides so many of these songs are great, the talk stations are also still as funny as ever, Lazlow gets his own talk show again, be thankful.
Its a pity that graphics dont quite hold up though, RockStar obviously neglected them knowing it was just a waste of resources with the ageing PS2 hardware and its the old truth, gameplay is more imortant then grpahics. Some of the pop-up issues are going a bit too far though but you'll having too much fun to care.
Overall this is a standout title, its got some of the best action scenes ever seen in gaming it's huge, the re-play value is huge and you'll love every minute of this long, stylish, violent over the top action adventure.
BUT THS NOW!!