Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Critic Reviews

San Andreas breaks the video game mold and emerges as something far greater. This is more than a game. This is entertainment at its best.

A true platform defining title; in 20 years time gamers will look back at the Playstation2 and hold GTA: San Andreas as the true epoch-making title of the times. Nothing can be understated, RockStar North have truly delivered beyond everybody’s expectations.

A masterpiece; the outstanding gameplay from the first two games has been extended, tweaked and applied to a fresh, original and fascinating setting. There's more than enough meat to keep you going for months, and the sheer variety of gameplay is bewildering.

San Andreas is shocking, not necessarily because of its typically contentious subject matter (though there's plenty in it to rub those of a conservative disposition the wrong way) but because of the sheer scale of the experience...Is it really the best game ever made? Quite possibly, yes.

Not only a masterpiece, it's the finest game currently available for the PS2. Buy it now, but don't make any plans for a couple months at least.

The best game on the PS2.

The graphical effects in this title are far superior to anything GTA conjured up previously. On hot days you'll see an intense heat in front of you in the form of lots and lots of orange sunlight and heat waves in the distance. The sunsets and sunrises during hot times are absolutely blinding!

I usually complain that many single player games these days do not have much in the way of "replayability". That is one aspect where San Andreas sets the bar so ridiculously high, that I can't imagine any non-GTA games coming anywhere near it for years to come.

Once again, Rockstar Games and Rockstar North have changed gaming as we know it...The variety of missions in San Andreas is staggering, as there's literally hundreds of varied tasks that will help you gain respect.

Freedom has always been the GTA hallmark, and in that regard, San Andreas piles on the features to ludicrous proportions. Comparing San Andreas to any other game is like comparing King Kong to the other monkeys; it is the Overgame.

There really is no other game like it, despite there being many imitators, and this is precisely the kind of experience that reminds why, exactly, we play games: to be liberated from the constraints of reality, and explore living, breathing worlds. Few games have come this close to realizing that promise.

Despite minor flaws, this is by far the most enjoyable game in the GTA series, and will eat well over 100 hours of your time.

The game's targeting system has also been adjusted. Using triggers and both analog sticks (a la "Manhunt"), players take more complete control of C.J., and can have him run and strafe, change targets, and shoot in almost any direction, even while moving in another.

It has such an enormous amount to offer (did I even mention the two player option?) and carries everything off with such confidence and style that it's hard to fault.

Holy f***ing s***. (Sorry...I'm swearing a lot more now because of San Andreas.) I can't wrap my head around how much stuff is packed into this one disc. It's grand, it's ambitious, and funny as this may sound, it's legendary.

A manifesto for every future video game. Now we've seen what can be done when truly brilliant people get to make a world brimming with variety, music, humour and sheer scale, very few other games are going to be able to live up to it.

It's not just the best Grand Theft Auto to date, it's possibly the best game you'll ever play on PlayStation 2. It's simply that good.

I can't express in words to do the game justice how large and well drawn out these cities are.

So good that it even drew Axl Rose out of hiding (he’s the DJ on the classic rock station, one of 11 listening formats), San Andreas cranks out even more action than "Vice City" as you engage in those wacky gang-related adventures you've grown to love in disconcertingly authentic versions of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas.

Take a large measure of "GTA III"; add a sprinkle of "Vice City", freshly sliced sprigs of nineties gang culture; stir in dashes of "Manhunt", "Fable", and "Dance-Dance Revolution" to taste, then mix in a nitro-powered-blender from hell. Result? Ten out of ten.