It’s time to bring a close to my look at the PS2 GTA trilogy and their “Definitive Editions” with the iconic San Andreas. As you’d hope with the final entry in a trilogy it built upon what came before it and added so much more… everything, even cities to explore. Sadly this is the one game where its Definitive Edition is still a bit of a mess, but ignoring that little modern road bump I’ve had nothing but praise for San Andreas since it came out, let’s see if that still holds true in 2023, nearly 20 years later (bloody hell…)
Background:
Humble beginnings in terms of the crimes CJ ends up committing later in the game… (PS4)
GTA San Andreas was released on the PS2 on October 26th 2004 in the US, with a European release a few days later on October 29th, and exactly on the 29th as I remember expecting it the day before like all online pre-orders had been up to that point only to find out Rockstar had put an embargo on GTA SA being delivered early. THAT was a disappointing Thursday, let me tell you…
As with all PS2 era GTAs it’s been ported many times over the years; for PC and original XBOX on June 7th 2005 in the US and June 10th 2005 in the UK, for mobile devices in December 2013/January 2014, the XBOX 360 got a port of the XBOX version on October 26th 2014 while versions of the mobile ports were made available on the PS3 and PS4 digital store but were of extremely poor quality. As for the Definitive Edition, that was released on PS4, PS5, XBOX One, XBOX Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC on November 11th 2021 and sadly San Andreas was the worse effected of them all, with rain that made it hard to see, zero fog meaning you could see other cities from the streets of Los Santos and endless amounts of clipping, bad textures and much more. Unlike when I played the Definitive Editions of GTA III and Vice City and had a good time with no gripes sadly San Andreas is still buggy as I’ll get to in the next section, though thankfully still playable with all the major problems like the rain and draw distance fixed at least.
Gameplay:
Grrrrand Theft Auto: in the middle of the wilderness! Hooray! (PS2)
As with the previous games San Andreas is a third-person open world game full of walking, running, swimming (at last!), shooting, driving, flying, skydiving, jetpacking… a lot of -ing, basically. This time you’re let loose on not one but three cities in Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas), with plenty of countryside, desert and small little towns dotted in between, plus the massive mount Chilliad as well. Well, I say massive, it is funny how in 2023 everything seems so small… I swear travelling from one city to another used to be some sort of epic journey, instead it takes barely a minute or two to traverse the mostly barren landscapes and highways between the cities to reach the next one, but again in 2004 on the PS2 it can’t be understated how impressive this all was. The aiming had been improved with a similar lock-on mechanic seen in later games and you can crouch and aim as well as roll to your left and right while crouching to dodge in coming fire. It won’t be until GTA IV added the ability to take cover that the actual shooting mechanics fully clicked but this was better than having to stand in the open to fire like the previous two entries.
While most forms of driving and piloting remain mostly the same, i.e. very simple but satisfying, I will say that flying the new planes in the game is a bit of a pain in the arse and extremely twitchy. The less said about flying the tiny remote-control planes in that one mission the better, that was the only mission I had to restart several times in my Definitive Edition run-through, and I don’t remember it being easier in the past given the noticeable feeling of dread when the opening cut-scene played, as if unlocking a repressed memory. The newly added swimming mechanics, both above and below water, work perfectly fine, and some attempted stealth mechanics … don’t really work that well, but thankfully its never one of those “you’ve been spotted, game over” moments and you can normally blast your way out of trouble if/when you’re spotted. The last thing I’ll mention here is the melee combat, which has been greatly improved thanks to the ability to block and learn different styles, like boxing and martial arts, to give you some different movesets to work with. Very satisfying to dodge or block a strike and then deliver a martial arts kick combo.
Crouching to take cover behind something! So close to the great cover system of future games… (PS4)
Alongside all these new and improved controls is the real big addition to the gameplay: RPG-like mechanics. Our protagonist CJ has a list of things that get tracked, from stamina, muscle, fat, hunger, sexual attractiveness, gang respect, ability to drive and pilot all types of vehicles, ability to fire all types of guns and more, all of which go up or down depending on what you do. Most of them just go up the more you use them, like stamina, ability to hold your breath underwater and the vehicle and gun ones, but muscle can only be increased by working out at a gym and fat will go up and down depending on how much you have CJ eat, so even though you have to eat to not lose energy you can’t over-eat either. Well, unless you WANT an overweight protagonist, I guess. It sounds restrictive, and I know it didn’t go down very well when the game first came out from my own early internet message board experience, but in reality it barely effects anything. I worked out a few times early in to get CJ looking muscular rather than all skinny and then ate whenever the prompt told me “I was getting hungry” and that was that, the rest went up as I played.
Another major new addition is the “Gang Warfare”, as Los Santos is sectioned into areas controlled by specific gangs and you can initiate a “turf war” by shooting several members of the gang within their own area, and if you survive three waves your Grove Street Gang take the area. You can recruit generic members of your gang (how many depends on your respect stat) to give you a hand as well. It’s fun, but I remember the first time I played it I did a whole bunch of them before finding out part of the main plot is you being kicked out of Los Santos and the Grove Street gang losing all their territory… That was annoying back in the day, thankfully I was still having a great time so having to redo them wasn’t a big deal, but still! Returning from Vice City is the ability to buy property, both houses for you to save in and business that you can make profit from, and although not all of them have a set of missions associated with them, some do. There are a TONNE of places to own, luckily its easy to make money at the betting shops and casinos thanks to the ability to save and then try a risky bet again until you win. Scummy? Yeah, but everyone was doing it, so that makes it okay.
If only this was somehow a thing in real life, it would’ve saved so many poor addicted people their money… (PS2)
In terms of things to do with all these new abilities? Well, if you’re a complitionist prepare to cry real tears because there is perhaps TOO much to do. Alongside main missions to forward the plot and side missions for certain NPCs or businesses you’ve purchased as already mentioned, you have the returning car missions like Vigilante (steal a cop car and take down criminals based on reports that come through the radio), Fire (steal a fire truck and put out fires), Ambulance (you know where I’m going with this) and Taxi (same deal), plus now you have Pimping missions by stealing a pimpmobile, burglary missions where you steal a black van and literally go into people’s houses, steal various things like TVs and such, load them into your van and escape before they wake up, and construction missions by stealing a specific construction site vehicle. Then you have the classic list of cars to bring to a certain location, various women you can take out of dates and reach the top of their own RPG stat meter, street races, driving and piloting schools (two of those you have to do as part of the main mission questline anyway) and various little minigames like dancing in a nightclub or taking part in a lowrider, um, bounce-off or whatever they’re called (sorry for being a very white man in Britain) Add in your usual collectables, which is this case is 100 graffiti tags to respray in Los Santos, 50 snapshots to take in San Fierro, 50 horseshoes to collect in Las Venturas, and 50 oysters to collect in the deep waters across the whole of San Andreas, plus 70 unique jump locations and it’s on the overwhelming side, that’s for sure.
So GTA San Andreas on the PS2 was a true marvel of the age and its impact on the gaming business cannot be understated. What about the Definitive Edition in 2023? Well, as mentioned, it was worse when it came out, but it still has issues. Planes with randomly crash into buildings or the road, or sometimes just be frozen in mid-air. Lampposts knocked over in your car will fall through the ground and vanish rather than clank on the floor and roll away. While still playable (and I’ll always appreciate mid-mission checkpoints, fair play to 20-year-old me for completing some of the later missions in one go!) unlike GTA III and Vice City’s Definitive Editions I can’t say this is particularly the best way to play it. It’s better than the horrible mobile version that was poorly optimised for consoles a few years ago, but it would probably still be best if you just played the original version, unless you just want it on the big screen with little setting up effort, in that case you can still play through the game and have fun, I did, but I was always aware things weren’t quite right, and not just the 16:9 framing or improved lighting…
Graphics and Sound:
Taking in the setting sun … via a jetpack above a secret military base. (PS4)
The original PS2 version was great at the time, really pushed the console as far as it would go. I remember seeing the Las Venturas strip in screenshots and in motion and being blown away by all the large neon buildings in one area, and that’s not to mention the feeling of driving a car through the countryside or riding a bike through a desert during sunset. It might be peak PS2 in terms of graphical capability and definitely in terms of memory. The Definitive Edition is fine, it up-scales everything, gives some textures new polish and everything looks nice with the new lighting, but once again whether you like the interpretations of the already cartoony exaggerated characters or not is up to you, plus even with the added fog the bigger screen, improved draw distance and no load times does make the game feel much smaller.
Sound though is the area the game is impossible to fault. Voice work is outstanding from all involved, from legends like Samuel L. Jackson to unknowns like Young Maylay, who voiced the lead character CJ. The sound effects are top as well and of course the soundtrack is outstanding. The in-game original themes are good and match the tone but the radio stations are amazing, featuring pretty much every genre you can think of, from rock to rap, hip hop to funk, country music to house music, old and new (well, new to the setting of the game, but given that’s 1992 I guess it’s all old, especially now…) While licensing issues meant the Definitive Edition ironically is lacking in a few tracks, you can’t go wrong with the San Andreas radio stations, musically and for the hilarious ads and DJ chatter.
Story:
The only time two protagonists from two different GTA games come face to face… (PS4)
GTA San Andreas focuses on Carl “CJ” Johnson, a kid from Los Santos who was a member of the Grove Street gang who left town when his brother Brian died and he was blamed for not helping him. After several years in Liberty City he returns to Los Santos when he hears his mother was killed in a gang attack, but on the way back in he’s taken aside by corrupt police officer Tenpenny and told he’d be framed for the murder of a cop he and his friends at C.R.A.S.H. (ironically an anti-gang arm of the Los Santos police) had done if he didn’t help them. Despite this grim reminder at how little things have changed CJ attends his mother’s funeral and meets back up with Grove Street members like his brother Sweet, his sister Kendl, Big Smoke and Ryder. Although he has to prove his loyalty to “the Grove” once again, especially to Sweet, CJ does just that and helps the gang reclaim a bunch of territory and kick out the deadly drug culture that had been spreading in the hood. He also befriended rival gang leader Cesar after it was revealed he was dating Kendl and together they were about to put an end to everything when Cesar called CJ over to a secret meeting that showed Big Smoke and Ryder were not only working with Tenpenny but were in league with the Ballas, the Grove’s rival gang and the people responsible for CJ’s mother’s death.
CJ attempts to save his brother from an ambush but fails, Sweet is injured and thrown behind bars while Tenpenny tosses CJ out of his car on the outskirts of the city and tells him he’ll come calling to CJ when he needs more help. From here CJ teams up with Cesar and Kendl, who managed to get out of the city in time, and after a strange string of missions with Catalina and GTA III’s protagonist Claude (always a fun cameo!) he ends up in San Fierro, where he meets blind Chinese Triad leader Woozie, among other sometimes weirder allies, as well as US agent Mike Toreno, who sends Carl on some of the more crazier missions involving stealing military jets and bombing boats, and more! CJ eventually follows Woozie and invests in his casino which leads to a heist on a casino ran by the Leone family, helped by a panicked Ken Rosenburg and his allies Kent Paul and Maccer (more fun cameos from both games either side of San Andreas, timeline-wise). After all this insanity, money and success Toreno makes good on his promise and gets Sweet released from prison, leading to CJ returning to his home city of Los Santos…
*STORYLINE SPOILERS FOLLOW!*
I didn’t have any spoilery pictures, so here’s a picture of CJ getting facial hair somehow razored onto his face instead. (PS2)
There actually isn’t that much to say here: Carl takes out Ryder and Tenpenny’s main lacky Eddie Pulaski and helps Sweet once again reclaim the streets of Los Santos for the Grove Street Family. Eventually Tenpenny’s actions come to light and he’s taken to court but he gets off with barely a slap on the wrist causing a major riot to break out across the city. In the final mission CJ and Sweet take out Big Smoke and then chase a fleeing Tenpenny across Los Santos until the corrupt cop crashes his stolen fire engine and dies due to the resultant injuries. Carl, Sweet, Kendl and Cesar (plus a few other characters they met) all celebrate and plan for the future now they have control of the Grove again as well as Carl also being a multi-millionaire property owner and record producer… okay, that last bit is sort of glossed over, but still, I doubt their lives went exactly back to normal…
*STORYLINE SPOILERS END!*
I still think GTA San Andreas is the perfect blend of serious storytelling and absurd and often satirical humour. GTA IV leans heavily towards the former where as GTA V leans more towards the latter, and while both are great in their own right San Andreas I feel remains the best of both worlds. At one point you’re dealing with the very real early 90s L.A. gang wars and drug culture, or the still very real corrupt cops, the next your breaking into a secret military facility and stealing a jetpack because a high-as-a-kite hippy is convinced “the man” is hiding a deadly secret. Somehow these two things happening side by side work, and that’s to the immense credit of the writing team.
Thoughts Then:
“Wow you can fly actual planes in this one!” Rockstar: “Here’s a flight school mission you have to complete. Careful what you wish for!” (PS2)
After “knocking it out of the park” for two games in a row I couldn’t have been more excited for San Andreas, I’d been playing Vice City for nearly two years straight at that point and thanks to the evolution of the internet I’d been pouring over previews and videos leading up to the release just in awe of what it was going to be like, and somehow despite that insane build up the game lived up to those impossible expectations. Given it was a good four years or so before GTA IV (not including time with Liberty City and Vice City Stories) I must have played this to near death. Admittedly when the next generation came along I was less inclined to stick my PS2 on towards the latter half of those four years, but it can’t be understated just how much San Andreas dominated my gaming life at that point, and it deserves all the praise it gets as an all-time classic.
Thoughts Now:
A plane has randomly crashed onto the streets of San Fierro and very few people are bothered. I guess anything can become common place if is happens enough! (PS4)
GTA San Andreas in 2023 is still a fun time. Okay, the graphics and controls have become dated, and sadly the Definitive Edition only sort-of fixes one of those issues, the storyline, missions, acting and soundtrack are still top tier and keep you hooked very quickly, and the design of the three cities and the areas in between are still good fun. I can’t give it a 5 as playing the original and the remake each have their little niggles in 2023, but it still has more than enough good that without any nostalgia you can still really enjoy your time playing through Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Hogan Reviews 