An amazing game with amazing presentation that will keep you playing for days at a time.
You start the game in the shoes of Carl "CJ" Johnson, and African American man returning to his home city of Los Santos after 5 years in Liberty. Although it isn't exactly a happy reunion, Carl's former gang has fallen into disarray, his family has fallen apart, and his mother is dead. To top it all off he is framed by crooked cops for a murder he did not commit within five minutes of leaving the Los Santos airport. Carl will go on a journey that takes him throughout the entire state of San Andreas in an effort to build himself and his family a better life.
The gunplay is pretty good with the new targeting system (taking from RockStar's previous "Manhunt") showing you the health of your targeted enemy and allowing you to free aim with a movement of the right analog stick. Driving cars is still largely the same, but gets better as you gain more driving skill with the games RPG stats sytem (more on that later). Drive by shooting still requires an exact lineup to the side of your target unless your on a bike allowing you to shoot to the front. Carl is also given the ability to climb fences and swim giving players the chance to escape a bad situation on water.
There are many new vehicles to be found in San Andreas. For starters you can now pilot aircraft of various types with ease replacing the clumsy Dodo mechanics of GTAIII, as well as hovercrafts, go karts, and a new Rhino tank. There are also some new weapons and plenty of "items" you can use that have been given a seperate slot in your weapons line up, including flowers, camera's, spray paint, night vision googles, thermal goggles, parachutes, and even vibrators and a certain purple object that will leave you laughing the first time you maul someone with it. There have been some weapon replacements to make room for some of the new ones. For example, there is no longer a light machine gun since the minigun can now be manually aimed, the sawed off twin barrel replaces the stubby from Vice City, and the Heat Seeking RPG makes an introduction in the series.
The stat building is nothing short of spectacular giving you RPG-esque micromanagement abilities for CJ, as well as a variety of shops to purchase new clothing. Most every aspect of CJ is customizable, from his body build (fat, muscular, or skinny), his clothes (ranging from low to high class styles), to his car (including custom paint jobs and nitrous boost to even an amp for music enhancement). The game also introduces you to a dating sytem that allows you to court various women you meet in the game. Each women has different need and likes, and will give you a special outfit when your relationship reaches 100%. Although this doesn't seem to be a very good reason to take out the women you meet, some women even provide special abilities such as consequence free visits to the police station and hospital. There are also various activities to partake in, including low riding contests, dancing, playing pool, playing arcade games, and various races.
I do have a few beefs with the game though. For one the RPG system, although amazing, doesn't allow you to change certain things quicker once they have been established (such as always dual wielding certain weapons or lowering muscle). The weapons sound as if the developers recorded different types of popcorn crackling in a microwave, and the combat is a bit clumsy. Some missions are very unforgiving, and considering the larger nature of San Andreas it is unacceptable for any sort of mid mission checkpoint system to be available. There are also a wider variety of graphical and technical issues here than ever, including random plane crashes, car spawning, "blue hell", and occasionally people falling from the sky. Also, as detailed as the graphics are the "lobster claw hands" are still there, which is off putting considering the detail put into the characters faces.
Despite some of the glitches and problems this game has, it is still quite possibly one of the greatest games ever, and possibly the best of 2004. If you own a last generation console, or a new generation console with backwards compatibility, I suggest picking this up if you haven't already.