System: PS2
IGN Score: 9.9
Release Year: 2004
Let me just get this out of the way: The graphics in San Andreas are terrible. This is the second time I have played through this game. The first time was on the PC. I was quite shocked at the downgrade in visuals between the PC version and PS2 version of this game. The pop-up is terrible. The scenes at night and in the dust storms of Bone County at night along with the pop-up are so bad at times, I would have to save my game to advance time because I simply couldn't complete the stage because I couldn't see where I was going without crashing. The graphics are quite a downgrade from the visuals in Vice City. With that being said, the rest of this game is quite amazing. This is the only major complaint I have about this game. (The only other complaint that I really have is that there are a lot of flying missions. Flying in this game is quite a bit more difficult than in previous games and they can become quite tedious honestly. But this is a minor issue.)
In an attempt to answer your questions as to how I could rank this game better than Vice City, I am going to write about the features of this game in direct comparison to Vice City.
I am not going to waste time on the protagonist. Tommy Vercetti is the man - the type of guy they write books and movies about. Carl Johnson is just some random thug from the hood. There is no comparison here.
The soundtrack in Vice City is better, but only slightly. It is tough to compete against Michael Jackson and Toto's Africa in 1980s Miami (the voice acting and DJs on the Vice City radio stations are excellent too). With that being said, it is quite amusing to jack a car and jam to unedited Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. Additionally, the music out in the countryside is great too. Driving around in old pickup trucks listening to Merle Haggard and DJs talking about how they married their cousin makes this soundtrack a close, close second to Vice City's soundtrack.
I have already said that Vice City is the funnest city of all the GTA cities. However, San Andreas is an entire state. It includes Los Santos, San Fierro, Los Venturas, and a ton of interesting countryside to explore. All of the major landmarks from the corresponding real-life cities are included, including the Golden Gate Bridge, the Vegas Strip, Hoover Dam, Area 51 (cleverly named Area 69), the Capital Records building, the Hollywood sign (Vinewood), Santa Monica Beach, and on and on. Overall, the map in San Andreas is over 5X as large as the map in Vice City. And if that isn't enough, there is a stage where you get in a jet, fly out of Los Venturas, land in Liberty City, and go to the St Mark's district to complete a stage. I am not even kidding. It is absolutely amazing. And there are no load screens in San Andreas. Every time you cross a bridge in Vice City there is a load screen which is quite annoying. There is so much to see in the San Andreas state, you could literally spend hours doing nothing but seeing all of the sites and driving all of the vehicles. You have all of the traditional vehicles in other GTA games, and a boatload of off the wall vehicles too like tractors, ATVs, hovercrafts, go-karts, and on and on. Vice City might be the funnest individual city, but San Andreas makes up for it with all of the interesting countryside and desert to explore.
The voice acting in San Andreas is just as superb as in Vice City. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Andy Dick, James Woods, Peter Fonda, Charlie Murphy, Chris Penn, Ice T, and Chuck D just to name a few. Like Vice City, these well-known actors voice some very interesting characters in San Andreas. Unlike Vice City, however, these characters play crucial roles in a wild and interesting story that takes protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson throughout the state of San Andreas (and even to Liberty City). These characters aren't just introduced and forgotten, they are important to the story. They are interesting. They are developed. All of this, in addition to the huge and interesting map is really what sets San Andreas apart from Vice City.
CJ arrives in Los Santos after a 5 year hiatus in Liberty City. Both his mother and brother have recently been murdered, and chaos is erupting on the streets of Los Santos as the Grove Street Family (GSF) gang has lost power and respect as rival gangs have began pushing drugs on the neighborhood streets. Of course, everyone is mad at CJ for being gone for so long, and the opening stages of the game are spent introducing you to the characters of the GSF gang and trying to get respect back from them. Unfortunately, the story gets off to a bit of a slow start as the Los Santos stages are the game's least interesting (with the exception of the Big Smoke mission "Just Business" which features an awesome truck and motorcycle chase scene reminiscent of Terminator 2). What keeps the game interesting is the members of the GSF gang are what you stereotypically think of when you think of early 1990s rappers (basically NWA members) and the fact that you are introduced in the opening cut scene to crooked cop Officer Tenpenny (played by Samuel L. Jackson). Tenpenny is the game's major antagonist, constantly showing up out of nowhere using CJ to murder witnesses and destroy evidence to keep him out of jail.
As the GSF gang starts to regain power, you are involved in a shootout with another gang downtown. At this shootout, your brother Sweet is arrested. The screen goes black briefly, and when visuals return, you are in the middle of nowhere, far from Los Santos. Tenpenny has kidnapped you, saving you from jail. In exchange, you begin running errands for him that involve murder and destruction of evidence. This is where the story (and game) really take off. You travel to various places of the San Andreas state as you learn that the other members of your GSF gang are heavily involved in pushing the same drugs you were trying to clean off the streets. Your only friends quickly become your sister and her Mexican boyfriend Caesar. Here the list of characters become quite fascinating.
Caesar introduces you to his crazy cousin Catalina. CJ and Catalina perform a few robberies in small towns, before she leaves you for Claude in Liberty City. Tenpenny introduces you to his crazy hippy friend the Truth. CJ and the Truth do a number of missions together, including destroying his pot farm before the feds show up.
The Truth follows you to San Fierro, where you hookup with local pimp and drug pusher Jizzy. Jizzy, along with GSF gang member Ryder and other various gang members are heavily involved in pushing drugs on the streets of Los Santos. Of course you get rid of these people throughout the course of several missions, including a memorable mission where you kill Ryder at the game equivalent of Fisherman's Wharf. You also hook up with Woozie, the leader of a Triad gang in San Fierro. Through your dealings with Jizzy, you are introduced to shady government agent Mike Toreno. He gives you a call, inviting you to his ranch in Bone County.
Upon arriving, a string of missions are triggered where you have to do various over the top missions for Toreno in exchange for the safety and release of your brother Sweet from jail. These missions include stealing military fighter jets from aircraft carriers in order to kill soviet spies and a number of over-the-top missions that are quite fun. While in the desert, you hook-up with the Truth again where you discover that he is much more than a rambling hippy on a peyote high. Turns out he is quite connected. You and the Truth storm the restricted area/Area 69 in order to steal the military's top-secret $50 million dollar project - the jet pack. In all honesty, I cheat as much as I can on these games, and had been using the jet pack from the beginning of the game. The jet pack is by far the best cheat in all of the GTA games. Also while in the desert, you meet Kent Paul from Vice City's fame, and his partner Maccer, who is always masturbating for some reason. The Truth lost the both of them on a peyote hunting trip while in the desert.
You eventually get a call from Woozie, who is setting up a casino in Los Venturas and wants you to be a partner. In Los Venturas, you do a number of missions eliminating the major Liberty City forces from Los Venturas in order to make your casino more profitable. Here you run into Vice City lawyer Ken Rosenberg who is every bit as whiny as he was in Vice City. While in Los Venturas, you save washed-up rapper Mad Dogg's life and insist that he come clean from the booze and drugs. Madd Dogg wants CJ as his manager in an attempt to restart his career (despite the fact that CJ stole his book for his friend Jeffery "OG Loc" while in Los Santos. Madd Dogg doesn't know this, of course). This triggers CJ's return to Los Santos.
Upon returning to Los Santos, you pick up your brother Sweet who has been released from prison thanks to Toreno. However, the streets are filled with rioters upset about the "not guilty" verdict in the Officer Tenpenny trial due to lack of evidence (all thanks to CJ). The streets are filled with people stealing TVs and setting things on fire reminiscent of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. After getting your gang strength back up, you take on the drug lord of Los Santos - former GSF gang member Big Smoke. After eliminating Big Smoke, the credits role as you have successfully rid the streets of Los Santos from yay-yo and returned the GSF gang back to power.
San Andreas has a quite involved story with numerous interesting characters who continue to evolve throughout the game. They don't disappear after briefly showing up like they do in Vice City. This, in addition to the ultra-large map of San Andreas really pushes this game to the top of the list. San Andreas is much better in the plot and game play departments. In categories where it lags Vice City, such as soundtrack, it is second only by a small margin. Because of the catchy music and iconic locale, Vice City is probably the more memorable game. If I had to chose which game to just pick up and play for an afternoon, I would probably choose Vice City (plus San Andreas clocks in at over 24 hours - it is a marathon of a game). However, if I had to pick which was the better game, all things considered, I would pick San Andreas. I am a sucker for great stories and characters (one of the reasons why I love the Uncharted games so much), and to me San Andreas does the best of all the GTA games in these departments.
No comments:
Post a Comment