Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas opens with a murder the player never sees. Carl “CJ” Johnson comes home to Los Santos in 1992 after five years in Liberty City, and his mother is already dead — killed in a drive-by shooting. Within minutes, corrupt cops from CRASH, led by Frank Tenpenny, threaten to pin a police officer’s killing on him unless he cooperates. That is the whole machine of the game in one scene: family, corruption, and a man with no good options.
Rockstar North built something enormous here, and it still holds. San Andreas is the fifth main game in the Grand Theft Auto series and the seventh entry overall, following 2002’s Vice City. It holds a 9.3 critic aggregate on IGDB, based on six outlets. That number was not generosity. It was recognition.
Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas
The open world is a fictional U.S. state based on California and Nevada, split into three metropolitan cities. Los Santos is Los Angeles. San Fierro is San Francisco. Las Venturas is Las Vegas. Rural areas sit between them, and the cities unlock as the story moves forward.
Rockstar did on-site research in each city. The studio also consulted Los Angeles natives DJ Pooh, Estevan Oriol, and Mister Cartoon to get the culture right. That research shows. Los Santos does not read as a generic crime map. It reads as a specific place with specific people in it.
The narrative draws on real events: the Bloods and Crips rivalry, the 1990s crack epidemic, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the Rampart scandal. A 75-person development team spent nearly two years on the game. It shipped in October 2004 for the PlayStation 2, and it has since landed on Xbox, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows Phone, Android, PC, iOS, Mac, and Xbox 360.
Carl Johnson, Sweet, and the Grove Street Families
CJ returns to Grove Street and finds his siblings Sweet and Kendl, plus old gang members Big Smoke and Ryder. The Grove Street Families have lost most of their territory. CJ rebuilds by reuniting splintered sets and allying with Cesar Vialpando, Kendl’s boyfriend and leader of the Varrios Los Aztecas.
The cast is stacked. Young Maylay voices CJ. Samuel L. Jackson voices Tenpenny. Faizon Love is Sweet, Yo-Yo is Kendl, Clifton Powell is Big Smoke, MC Eiht is Ryder, Clifton Collins Jr. is Cesar. Ice-T plays Madd Dogg, the successful rapper whose career CJ sabotages to help his neighbor OG Loc, voiced by Jonathan Anderson. Peter Fonda is “the Truth,” an ageing hippie and marijuana farmer. James Yaegashi is Wu Zi Mu, a blind Triad leader.
Then the betrayal lands. CJ and Cesar witness Big Smoke and Ryder meeting with Tenpenny and the rival Ballas. They were behind CJ’s mother’s death. Sweet gets wounded and locked up. Tenpenny exiles CJ to the countryside and forces him to kill witnesses to CRASH’s corruption in exchange for his brother’s safety. It is a clean piece of plotting: every favor has a price, and the price keeps going up.
Running the State on Foot and by Vehicle
The game plays from a third-person view. Players take missions — linear scenarios with set objectives — to push the story, and can roam freely between them. A multiplayer mode lets two players roam the world together.
Movement is on foot or by vehicle, and the options are broad: run, swim, drive. Combat covers melee attacks, firearms, and explosives, including dual-wielded guns and drive-by shootings. Weapons come from local dealers, dead enemies, or scattered pickups. Auto-aim locks onto targets.
Health regenerates through pick-ups. Body armour absorbs gunshots and explosive damage. Die, and you respawn at a hospital. Commit crimes, and a “wanted” meter in the head-up display tracks the response. Stars show the level. At six stars, police helicopters and military come after you. Officers search for you if you leave the wanted vicinity, and the meter cools down once you are hidden.
Safehouses can be bought to save the game and store vehicles. Airports allow fast travel between cities.
Where San Andreas Still Wins
| Feature | San Andreas | Vice City (2002) |
|---|---|---|
| Release | October 2004 | 2002 |
| Setting | Fictional state of San Andreas, 1992 | Not stated in source |
| Cities | Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas | Not stated in source |
| Perspective | Third-person | Not stated in source |
| Multiplayer | Two-player roaming | Not stated in source |
| Development | 75-person team, nearly two years | Not stated in source |
The comparison is unfair, and that is the point. San Andreas is a state. Three cities, rural stretches between them, a story that moves CJ from gang territory to countryside to chop shop. The scope is the argument.
The betrayal by Big Smoke and Ryder is the hinge. It turns a gang story into a story about trust and its cost. Tenpenny’s leverage over CJ — his brother’s safety — is the engine that keeps him moving.
The 9.3 holds up. San Andreas is a rare open-world game where the world is the story. Score: 9.3 of 10.
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