Blast From the Past: GTA San Andreas(2004)

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh title in the Grand Theft Auto series, and the follow-up to the 2002 game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It was released in October 2004 for PlayStation 2, and in June 2005 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. 

The game, set within an open world environment that players can explore and interact with at their leisure, focuses on the story of former gangster Carl “CJ” Johnson, who is brought back home by the death of his mother, only to become involved in a long journey that sees him exploring the fictional U.S. state of San Andreas, which is heavily based on California and Nevada.

Following the 3D universe of its two direct predecessors Grand Theft Auto III (GTA III) from 2001 and its prequel Vice City (GTA: VC) from 2002, GTA: San Andreas was released on June 7, 2005 also for the PC with Windows XP as well as for the Microsoft Xbox and should remain the most successful offshoot of its franchise until the publication of the eleventh part of the series – GTA V (test).

Due to the great success of the game, no less successful ports for macOS (then Mac OS X), the game consoles PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Xbox 360 as well as for smartphones and tablets with Android, iOS and Microsoft’s already buried mobile operating system appeared in the following years Windows Phone.

The more than 20-minute prologue video was able to significantly increase the anticipation of the action game and its open-world principle around the story of the main protagonist Carl Johnson (CJ for short) in many places.

Storyline

Carl Johnson lived in Liberty City for the past five years to get away from his criminal past in Los Santos. Hardly having arrived in his old homeland, the three corrupt police officers Frank Tenpenny, Eddie Pulaski and Jimmy Hernandez blame him for the murder of Officer Ralph Pendelbury, which they themselves committed because he threatened to reveal their machinations. 

CJ also finds that his old gang has broken up over drug problems and internal disputes. In what follows, he tries, with the help of his brother, Sean Sweet Johnson, to free his “hood” (neighborhood) from drug trafficking and to restore his old gang. But shortly before the Grove Street Families reunite, they fall into a trap: some of his old gang members have betrayed the ideals of the gang and are now teaming up with Officer Tenpenny. CJ is betrayed and has to leave town while his brother Sweet is arrested.

With the help of Cesar Vialpando, his sister Kendl’s friend, CJ succeeds in opening a car repair shop in San Fierro and in the further course of the story acquiring a car dealership. These acts lead to his getting to know Mike Toreno over time. He is an agent of a government agency and promises CJ to help him if he does some jobs for him in return. 

These assignments also lead CJ to Las Venturas as the game progresses, where he works his way up to co-owner of a casino, and finally back to Los Santos, where he becomes the manager of rapper Madd Dogg.

Toreno keeps his promise and arranges for Sweet to be released. But his brother is not impressed by CJ’s successes and accuses him of not having taken care of the “Hood”. CJ has no choice but to deal with the gangs and Officer Frank Tenpenny again.

Tenpenny is ultimately tried, but acquitted. This causes riots to break out in the city as Tenpenny is notorious as a corrupt police officer across the city. In this situation, CJ succeeds in killing the gang members who betrayed him and seriously injuring Officer Tenpenny in a chase. Tenpenny then dies as a result of his injuries.

The story is based on African-American rap and ghetto films such as “Menace II Society”, “New Jack City”, “Boyz N the Hood”, “Training Day” or “Colors – colors of violence”. Parallels to the plot or characters from these films appear within the missions, as well as allusions to real events, such as the riots and gang wars in Los Angeles.

Land, Water, Air

San Andreas takes place in the mid-90s, i.e. exactly between Vice City (80s) and GTA 3 (present not being defined in more detail). The scenario is therefore very reminiscent of films such as “Blood in, Blood out” or “Colors – colors of violence”: You start in the Los Santos ghetto, wage gang wars and mark your territory. After a few hours of play, you will end up in the country, more precisely to San Fierro – there you will find picturesque mountain ranges, dense forests and sweeping country roads. 

The grand finale takes place in the desert around Las Venturas, which is not reminiscent of Las Vegas for nothing. There are casinos and an eternal war between the Mafia and Yakuza. At first you are limited to Los Santos, if you cross the city limits you will be immediately and ruthlessly chased by the police.

This is your natural enemy anyway: If you shoot around wildly or steal a car a bit too conspicuously, you immediately have either a puffing law enforcement officer or a tralü-making car behind you. If you are at the bottom of the wanted list, you will have peace again shortly afterwards. But those who cannot leave their criminal existence and maybe even shoot at police officers are branded an enemy of the state faster than they can fire – and quickly have the FBI and the heavily armed army on their backs. The only way to get out of here safely is to go to a paint shop and give the current car a new coat of paint.

Gameplay

Mainly the game consists of a combination of shooting, driving and flight sequences. The tasks for the player can be divided into three categories: main missions, side missions and free play.

Both in the missions and outside the missions, the police react to criminal acts committed by the player. The more crimes the player commits at short intervals, the higher his wanted level (represented by stars) and the more police officers and other units pursue the player.

The main missions form the plot of the game and therefore a chronological order. To do this, the player has to visit various clients in the game world. In the following short cutscenes, the plot is continued and the problem to be solved is described. The player then has to solve the mission with weapons and / or vehicles that he finds in the game world or has already found.

The game follows the open world principle, so the player is not forced to focus exclusively on the missions. The game world offers various employment opportunities. For example, the player can intentionally commit crimes to provoke a police chase or just explore the game world.

There is also a two-player mode in the console versions. In this, however, the two players cannot move freely, but are tied to the same location, i.e. That is, they are always shown together in the same picture. This mode has been removed from the PC version, as it is not possible to use two mice and two keyboards effectively on one computer.

Plenty of reasons to stay in San Andreas

Side missions are not part of the storyline and can therefore be performed at any time after they are unlocked. The number of side missions has increased significantly compared to its predecessors. Money can be won or earned in all missions. When a certain level of the respective additional missions is reached, the character gets skills or extras.

For the first time there is also a mission (the conquering of enemy corridor areas), which must be partially completed in order for the main story to continue. This mission is basically a variation on the rampages from the previous versions.

For bonus weapons in the hiding places, a collection campaign must be carried out per city this time, namely spraying graffiti in Los Santos, photographing sights in San Fierro and collecting horseshoes in Las Venturas. Oysters, on the other hand, have to be sought all over San Andreas; as a reward, the character’s attractiveness increases.

In addition to the side missions known from its predecessors, such as police, fire brigade and taxi missions, there is another vehicle-related task in the game: Driving schools for cars, motorcycles, boats as well as airplanes and helicopters, whereby only the completion of the flight school is required for the continuation of the main story. The play figure itself can also participate in sporting competitions such as B. Participate in triathlons and car races.

Real money can also be earned through other newly introduced part-time jobs, such as truck drivers or couriers. After a successful career, the respective companies are taken over by the player and bring regular income. Additional criminal part-time jobs include night raids through houses.

To pass the time, the character can play arcade games and billiards on machines in bars or basketball on sports fields. The player can also play games of chance such as blackjack and roulette in casinos or take part in horse bets in betting shops and thereby increase or lose his money. 

The magnificent world of San Andreas

Basically, you can be divided about San Andreas’ optics: even on PC and Xbox, you can expect very weak textures with giant pixels, clear color transitions and a violently flashing “I come from the PS2, huh!” Sign. The rough and smooth figures are not indicative of a high-end game either, as some characters look like they were designed with a jackhammer. On top of that, the game starts in a pretty ugly neighborhood. 

However: the hell with it! The sheer splendor that is offered to you in the mountains above San Fierro at sunset, the incredibly intense feeling of a lively, realistic city, the wonderful animations – all of this simply wipes the clutter of low-resolution textures from the table, which suddenly seems so meaningless . Like its two predecessors, San Andreas also clearly proves that developer Rockstar has a golden knack for credible scenarios in which you simply feel good – and immediately forgets realistic, but emotionally cold games like True Crime as quickly as possible.

Modding

As in all parts of the GTA 3D series, elements of the game world, such as buildings, entire parts of the city and landscape and, above all, vehicles can be exchanged with freeware replacements from the Internet. Other modifications add functions such as new camera perspectives or the ability to purchase new fuel at gas stations for a fee.

Since the game was released, thousands of vehicles have been created or converted from their predecessors or other PC games. Commercial add-ons are meanwhile not possible, as original files would have to be replaced.

GTA SA Mobile

In November 2013, Rockstar Games announced the release of GTA: San Andreas for mobile platforms. On December 12, 2013, the implementation appeared for the first time for iOS. The announced versions for Android followed on December 21, 2013. The release for Windows Phone followed on January 27, 2014. The mobile versions were developed by the developer War Drum Studios, who also implemented the other mobile GTA ports. New is improved graphics with revised lighting and character models. The game is controlled by touch controls or special controller add-ons. Scores can be synchronized via the Rockstar Social Club.

Bottomline

San Andreas can best be described with one word: awesome! There is simply no other game that so cleverly combines brilliant mission design with a fantastic feeling of freedom and cool characters. Here you get a game world that deserves its name! However, I wasn’t enthusiastic from the start: The dirty ambience and the poor graphics made me look a little longingly in the direction of the Vice City box. 

This moment of weakness didn’t last long: After a few missions, you don’t give a damn about the poorly colored and flickering textures and only see hoods, homies and motherfuckers. And hear the most brilliant soundtrack that has ever been heard in a game. Anyone who does not let themselves be deprived of sleep by San Andreas must either hate action games or rap music – everyone else will find one of the best games of all time here.

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