With the release of Grand Theft Auto 5 and a return to Los Santos its only right that we pay homage to the game that brought us to Los Santos to begin with. So lets take a trip back to sunny Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. For starters San Andreas revolutionized the sandbox genre. While there had been other sandbox games, not just previous grand theft auto games. San Andreas included more to do than ever before. There wasn't just more to do there was more to see. At the time San Andreas had the largest map for a sandbox game at the time and for a while it was untouched. The story of San Andreas really stands up over time. I should probably give a spoiler warning but I'm not, if you haven't beat this game by now you never planned to. Anyway, the game does have a few plot holes, but what game doesn't. We don't know how Mike Toreno survived the helicopter crash, why can area 69 spot your plane in a mission as far away as Angel Pine, but not in free roam? But, if we ignore the plot holes it's still a damn good story.
The gunshots in this game, trash. Maybe they were great at the time but compared to now it's bad. Likewise the car audio is bad. Nothing about the audio of this game is great. Wait, there is one thing. The radio stations are still crazy good. The music really does help sink in to the time period. Lazlow is still funny.
The only aim is auto aim. I honestly prefer auto aim when it's done right. I can lock on to one target and take him out then quickly switch to another all with the freedom to move the stick and aim for the head still. But I can't do any of that in San Andreas. The auto aim locks on and you can't switch to free aim after your target. If you want to use free aim you have to use the shoulder button but using free aim starts the reticule in the air for some reason. If you switch targets with the trigger buttons you're going to have to press multiple times because it sticks for some reason. I tried with three different controllers.
Some of the missions are really cool, stealing military jetpacks, casino heists, and stealth are all awesome. But there are 100 missions and I'll tell you 75 of them are just point A to point B shot some people and back to point A or A to B car chase to C. There are so many car chases, and they are so hard. Rockstar tried to make each car handle different and they succeeded, but every car is one extreme or another. I hate those car chases. GTA has horrible car chases. GTA V was the first time there were good car chases. Side missions are also horrible. Too many button sequences and car chases. The button's don't even register as being pressed sometimes.
I don't know if San Andreas was difficult, or just nerve grinding. You would often fail missions for no reason. The mission "End of the Line" has to be the most infuriating mission in the last twenty years. All you have to do is follow the train and shoot at the guys on top. But you fail the mission if they escape. The problem is you can be right next to the train and they escape. That's not the only mission where you can get a target escaped message while looking at the target.
San Andreas was one of the first sandbox games to feature multiplayer. While this was groundbreaking at this time, GTA V laughs in it's face. While San Andreas allowed two players at designated locations around the map GTA V offers up to 32 players all with customized avatars. San Andreas allowed the second player to choose from several NPC models. However, you can only choose from a few different models at each multiplayer point. Did I mention the only way to enter multiplayer was from three designated spots on the map.
Once in multiplayer there's no lag brought on by modern games, because it's all hosted right there on your console. That means you have to have a real friend play with you, in your house, on your couch. The odd thing about this multiplayer is that it's not split screen. Both people share the same screen. This sounds okay but it's not. It just keeps zooming out to keep both players in the frame, to the point where the camera is higher than some of the buildings. Eventually the game just says "Screw you" and disconnects the second person if you get too far away.
San Andreas had some ground breaking "realistic" graphics at the time. It was billed as pushing the PS2 to its edge. Compared to today, nope. This game would be canceled with graphics like this. But at the time they were great. I can't even think of a current gen game with graphics this bad. Why are Carl's fingers stuck together?
Even with all the mean things I've said, I still enjoyed replaying San Andreas. You should go and show it some love since Rockstar still hasn't fixed the multiplayer in GTA V. Go remember the good times we had together. Take a trip to San Fiero or Las Venturas.
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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