Recenze Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition

It would be very mild to write that the trilogy of remastered versions of GTA games from the 3D universe was not very successful. In our previous reviews, you already learned that GTA 3 suffers from a combination of extreme technical problems and outdated game mechanics and Vice City the Nintendo Switch console does not run rather than run. The last piece in the puzzle leaves the most sophisticated of all parts – San Andreas.

• Platform:PS5 (recenzovaná), PS4, XSX|S, X1, Switch, PC
• Date of publication: 11. 11. 2021
• Producer: Grove Street Games (USA)
• Genre: open world city event
• Czech location: born
• Multiplayer: born
• Data to download: 23 GB (entire trilogy 40 GB)
• Game time: 30+ hours
• Accessibility: 18+
• Sales version: digital and box
• Price: 1599 CZK (complete trilogy, Xzone)

Welcome to sunny San Andreas

It is unbelievable how quickly the Rockstar studio managed to release new games at the beginning of the millennium. During the time that is really a gallows term in the development of AAA games today, three episodes of one of the most important game series have been published. And it was definitely not a canapé. GTA3 served as the concept of 3D games in an open urban environment, Vice City a year later added atmosphere and story as cut from action series from the eighties, and San Andreas two years later came up with nothing less than a complete fictional American state led by three giants. cities and large areas.

Compared to the previous part, the story has moved a few years forward and to the opposite coast of the United States. You get into the skin of Carl “CJ” Johnson, returning from his native Los Santos to bury his mother and re-establish relationships with his family (both biological and street). In an unsurprising turnaround, CJ is soon thrown into the criminal whirlwind of gang wars, corrupt police officers, triads and conspiracy theories, which will gradually lead him to the cities of San Fierro and Las Venturas, copying parts of California and Nevada. Following the example of the previous part, you will gradually work your way up from a petty criminal to the head of a giant mafia empire. And all to the sound of classic 90s hip hop. A finished American dream of every boy growing up in the ghetto.

The CJ Gang Wars will also take them to San Fierro and Las Venturas.

San Andreas could be summed up in one word compared to previous works – more massive. The game world is much bigger and brings an incredible amount of new activities that can entertain you for tens of hours. In addition to the obligatory four tasks in a taxi, ambulance, police or fire truck, this time you will also enjoy apartment pick-ups, aerial acrobatics, swimming, dating or “dancing” lowriders. In its time, the game offered as a big draw the possibility to adjust the appearance of the main character – in addition to the traditional changes of suits and hairstyles, you were given the opportunity to improve your hero’s abilities and influence his physique by visiting fitka or KFC. These changes then opened up new missions and the other characters responded to CJ accordingly. From a gaming point of view, it was a completely cut diamond, which Rockstar carefully worked on for three years, and the game deservedly garnered absolute ratings.

Grove Street Families vs. Grove Street Games

The hunger for the players after the nostalgia was so strong that the Rockstar studio decided to recall the trilogy and offer it with a good tinsel to the old guard and a new generation of players. In this case, the Grove Street Games studio was given a functionally sophisticated game, so it was only necessary to slightly improve the appearance, add a few new game features from GTA 5 and then laugh all the way to the bank. Rockstar would add another blockbuster to his belt and revive the enthusiasm for continuing the series. However, this job should not get the Grove Street Games studio, known mainly for its botched transfer of GTA games to mobile phones a few years ago. Instead of quick dust, Rockstar cut a rather embarrassment.

Just as CJ expected an unsurprising turn at the beginning of his story, so this unsurprisingly broken remaster awaits the player. Unlike previous parts of the “improved” trilogy, San Andreas does not suffer from frequent game crashes and frightening FPS crashes (they are still there, but a little less scary). Technical stability thus gives the opportunity to fully enjoy various “graphic delicacies”. Most of the characters in the game look completely horrible and completely different from the original. The animation does not fit the models and there is often a desynchronization of lip sync in the cutscenes. The game, like other titles from the remastered trilogy, suffers from an extreme problem with the effect of rain and the overall darkness of the image. Cities by converting to pure graphics have lost their atmosphere and the increase in oversight shows the limitations of the original technology (seeing the entire state including all the cities from the tall building is just weird). Loading objects is also a problem, and sometimes you will drive over invisible bridges or watch the details of the environment changing just before your eyes. Unlike GTA3, however, the original diamond is still hidden under the cover of technical maraston, and if you can overlook these problems, you can look forward to a playable and systemically great game.