Control Command Escape

A love letter to gangsta rap, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas follows the exploits of Carl “CJ” Johnson, trying to rebuild his life after returning from the East coast to his home town. First introduced for the PlayStation 2 back in 2004, it’s finally available on the Mac.

The gameplay follows the standard GTA series- you roam around a large city,  stealing cars, and terrorising pedestrians whilst avoiding the cops. Along the way, you can run a taxi service, become a crimefighter and put out fires. The San Andreas chapter builds on the formula by allowing you to play pimp, courier and burglar, as well as the ability to climb and swim. Another nice addition is that you eat to restore health, which will affect CJ’s outward appearance.

Performance & Quality

The game isn’t much of a looker by today’s standards and its Playstation 2 heritage shows. The models are blocky, the textures very bland and there seems to be some unusual graphical artifacts throughout. Even more unusual is that the sound quality is pretty awful- the game sounds very tinny, like an MP3 with a very low bit-rate. That said, the game is quick to suck you in, and the gameplay, voice acting and cutscenes are all excellent.

There seems to be controller support, however it does not work with an Xbox 360 controller. The mouse/keyboard controls are adequate most of the time and can be remapped, but it would have been nice to get proper controller support.

Gameplay Video

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