Well we all remember when San Andreas first came out in October 2004 and we all wanted a piece of the game. I remember myself waiting very impaitently for this game to realese much like Grand Theft Auto IV. But enough rambling lets get to the review.
The game is set in 1992 in the huge state (yes state not city) of San Andreas which is based off california and part of Nevada. We got a huge world which i believe is 4 times larger then Vice City was. It consists of three cities which are Los santos. San fierro, and Las venturas which are based of Los angeles, San Fransico, and Las Vegas respectively. But thats not all, between these cities are two regions the country side and the desert. This makes for an all terrian free roaming experience like nothing seen before then in the GTA series. There are some familiar skyscrapers and landmarks in each city which will make the game feel more like the city they are basing it off of. Its all very huge and will provide hours of exploration while killing the cops and the gangstas that may come your way.
As for the character he is named Carl "CJ" Johnson. He is forced to come to Los Santos after his mom is killed in a drive by but finds his gang has fallen apart due to drugs. This sends him on a journey that will take him across the whole state of San Andreas to find sucess for himself as well as his family. We got some solid voce actors such as Samuel L. Jackson and James Woods voicing the main characters and the storyline though vey long has a lot of variety so you will not get bored playing through it.
The gameplay has also been overhauled since Vice city. In fact it has been so overhauled that I may not be able to fit it all into this review but i'll do my best to try. The gun mechanics have changed to where you can free aim with any weapo instead of lock on which is useful for destroying cars or going for headshots. CJ can slso learn martial arts which will inflict more melee damage oon his opponents and lastly you can upgrade your skill in guns. As his skill grows he will fire more accurately ans soon he will be able to dual wield certain weapons.
Next comes the character customization. If you want CJ to be a buff 50 cent then take him to the gym, if you want him to be skinny then dont feed him and if you want him to be Fat Albert then stuff his face. This along with hundreds of clothing options and even tatoos gives you a perfectly customizable character.
Next are the vehicles. Waht do you fancy? A sports car? A boat? A helicopter? A plane? All this and much much more are in this game. You have normal cars and even military equipment such as an army plane all which can be driven and you can even upgrade his skill on driving, flying and boat driving rewarding you special vehicles. All this character enhancement brings those RPG elements into GTA for the first time and it works well.
Then there are the guns. Where would GTA be without these? You got nearly any gun you need here and they are all fun to destroy things with whether you like a pistol, an RPG, or even a minigun it is all here and waiting for you bring doom to San Andreas. With that firepower you can also hire a little more by recruting gang members. They will follow you and shoot at opposing gangs for you. You will also have to take opposing gangs turf by starting gang wars. You do this basically by provoking a gong in their turf and if you are still alive by then end you have conquered the area.
The only negatives about this game are the graphics which is expected from a free roamer of this size. The graphics will suffer a little but the game still goes graphically beyond Vice City and the unique charm cant be resisted. There is also the occaisonal pop up while driving fast but it's nothing too serious. The AI can also be a problem when using your gang members. Sometimes they won't shoot at othe cops and other times they wont get in your car so they are more like throw aways then fellow friends.
There is a lot I left out of this review because it would literally tun into a book if i put it all here. The side quests, the hidden packages,and much more will make you spend hours completing 100% of the game (if you have the time). This shoot em up free roamer is filled with a ton of variety and a lot of fire power. So if you have not played this game then I would advise you to get to the store and buy this because these days its $20.00 (maybe even less) value makes it a great game to play while we wait for GTA IV.
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