Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was a 2004 classic that kept students away from lectures, parents away from work and players around the world immersed in hours of gun hunting and generally mad cap antics. The PlayStation 2 era may be over, but San Andreas has re-emerged for the iPhone and iPad.
The game, nearly a decade old, impresses with what was considered a cutting-edge console product from the previous generation, in 2004 to be exact. Now it looks even better on the iPad and with a hand-to-touch control mechanism. It’s great even for users who aren’t familiar with the classics.
Some things improve with age. Others don’t. In the case of San Andreas, it’s a mixture of two things: even though it’s one of the most perfect GTA games of recent years, the gaming world has moved on and things have gone faster in the last decade.
San Andreas for mobile devices is like trying to drive a car with a manual gearbox when you only have a licence for an automatic. As perfect as the on-screen controls are, they’re also onerous and make you feel disconnected from the game.
It’s really ironic when such touchscreen antics physically approach the game. If you have a compatible game controller, however, it’s a different story. Revisiting Los Santos in its earlier incarnation brings back memories, and there’s a lot of depth to it.
For newcomers to the field, there’s nothing wrong with parting with the Five and giving up 2GB of space on your device for San Andreas to provide a stroll through the gaming history books. Rockstar has taught the game some new tricks on the mobile platform that have made it one of the best in the iOS catalogue.
With the release of GTA San Andreas, we realise just how far games have come. It’s not Grand Theft Auto V in terms of visuals, as the cruder character models and jumpy direction can attest. But it’s still appealing in its mobile form and, thanks to updated graphics and lighting enhancements, it delivers high-resolution pop.
Nevertheless, it looks undeniably dated. It’s like watching old TV shows in 4:3 format, for example. If the user is new to San Andreas, here’s the best part: you have to play as Carl Johnson, a young, dark-skinned gang member who takes on the lead role, back in town after hearing the news of his mother’s death.
In fact, it’s only a matter of seconds before the cops start the case and things start to get ugly. You’ll need to work your way up the chain of criminal gangs by any means necessary. This is where the fun stuff comes into play, however morally wrong it may be. Rob, steal, shoot – all the nastiness of video games is here.