Carl “CJ” Johnson is thousands of feet in the air hurtling towards the San Fierro Bay, and he doesn’t have a parachute. The only thing between him and a bone-pulverizing impact on the water is a plane filled with armed hostiles and an uncooperative pilot. Plane or water? With an unpleasant, metallic taste in his mouth, CJ thinks: “How the f*** did I get here?”

The course of events that inexorably lead him to leave the plane well before the “fasten your seat belts” light blinks on begins when CJ returns home to take back his old neighborhood from the gang of hoods that killed his mother. As he works his way up the gangsta food chain, his missions become more violent and more sinister, gradually accelerating into the free-form circus of mayhem that the Grand Theft Auto series is infamous for.

That’s all we’ll say about the story—we’ll let you find out on your own why CJ ditches Los Santos (Los Angeles) for San Fierro (San Francisco), keeps a low profile in the vast boonies between cities, and ends up pulling off a nail-biting casino heist in Las Venturas (Las Vegas).

San Andreas comes together in ways the previous two games never did, stripping out party-pooping frustrations (such as the dreadful RC ‘copter mission in Vice City), or at least making them elective, while expanding on RPG elements. In fact, compulsively drilling through the required missions is the least satisfying and most difficult way to advance through the story. Instead, by eating regularly, working out, earning money by means fair or foul, and even wooing the ladies between missions, you’ll excavate all of San Andreas’ secrets, mini games, and storylines.

San Andreas remains a humble game in many ways, with laughable,
low-res textures, mildly retarded enemy AI, and a disappointing number of audio bugs. Nonetheless, it’s an enormous step up from Vice City, and we’re hooked on the stylish way it evokes criminal thrills in a vast and—the word can’t be avoided—“immersive” virtual world.
—Logan Decker

Month Reviewed: September 2005
Verdict: 9
URL: www.rockstargames.com