Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas PlayStation 2
User Score
8.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 892 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 789 out of 892
  2. Mixed: 24 out of 892
  3. Negative: 79 out of 892

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  1. Xerxes
    Nov 25, 2010
    10
    This is one of my favourite games of all time, it really capture los angeles and the california area i reckon, the gameplay was awesome and the story surpasses any other game made during its time, 10/10 yes, grove street for life.
  2. Bolo
    Dec 5, 2004
    10
    This game is really fun... u can swim !
  3. JamesD.
    Jan 28, 2010
    10
    If San Andreas has made one thing clear, it is that the GTA experience can be enormous. The locations, the characters, the variety, it all makes for a game which is so awe inspiring and entertaining that putting it down is extremely difficult. I can't believe the arrogance of some of these user critics and the NY times. What on earth are you guys saying, are you trying to diss a game to try and be different from the popular view? Did the New York Times not receive their bribe? Truth and honest says to me that this game is completely defined with one of the best games I have ever played… Expand
  4. ConnerMcleod
    Dec 20, 2005
    10
    a 15 out of 10, sh**t this games kick mayor a**, I normqlly never curse but after playin´ GTASA I gotta say G*dDamn, f*ckin´A. I consider my self a gamer, played all the other Gta and gta´s clones(truecrime) but let me tell U this game will suck U rigth in. There´s nothing like it and belive U me, play it without the cheats you´ll feel the rewards as u get´m, the girlfriend as U find them, u can actually live in the game U can go play at any casino, go to the race track an bet, or play old arcades at any convinience store, but the game itself it´s genuine motherf*cker...give me a hell yeah… Expand
  5. garyfisher
    Dec 17, 2011
    3
    Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has several flaws that are hard to overlook. The basic idea of the Grand Theft Auto Series is to complete task for different people that for the most part are illegal. You have to kill, steal, and commit other crimes to make more money all while avoiding the cops. Past games have been very successful but San Andreas is not. First off, the City of San Andreas is simply too big. Bigger is not always better. It takes ridiculous lengths to travel to some parts of the city, and there really is no actual reason to have such a big city. There is an actual highway system which is basically the developers saying "Our city is too big and boring to drive through, so we make this nice highway to speed up going through all the horrible travel times." Why not just make a smaller city that you actually enjoyed driving through? It may seem not like a big deal, but really it blows my mind that players have to sit there and hop on an express way to their next objective. Going on the same theme of the massive city, there is simply too many pointless things in this game. One feature is having to eat food or else you get thin and weak. This doesn't add anything to the game, just giving players an annoying task to go find food every so often. Also buying food actually take an absurd time, walking up and taking your order. Why have this? All this is doing is wasting my time when I want to be driving the express way for 10 minutes. Every skill has a level feature. The more you use something or do something, the higher your skill becomes. Yet again this adds no strategy or use to the game. A better feature would have been having to pick and choose which gun skills to increase, like pick the shotgun skill and you can do amazing damage up close, but are penalized for far range shots. You know, make the player actually have to decide something. Not just driving around and leveling up your driving skill randomly. Its like "oh thats cool I guess." One feature is the ability to swim, which actually is useful simply because you don't instantly die if you fall in water. Most others are gimmicky nothings. You can have a girlfriend and go on dates, which is completely retarded. Would you rather get into a high speed police chase, or go out with an npc to a hamburger joint? What is the point besides "Hey look at ANOTHER thing you can do besides play the actual game." There are bars where you can play a badly implemented pool game. You can literally ride a bicycle faster then most cars. You can buy houses, which is useful because you will need many places to save or else you are spending 7 minutes driving down Los Santos Freeway to save. You can go try and find all 100 graffiti points, or the 50 oysters in the ocean, or the 50 horseshoes hidden in the game. Isn't that great? Over 200 collectables that you are expected to find in a city that takes a good 20 minutes to drive from one end to another. Basically the developers way of saying "Here is something for you to look up online." Hiding 100 packages in GTA3 was feasible because you could spend 15 minutes and have checked a decent portion of the map off. If they literally expected players to find 200 small items in San Andreas then I truly don't know what to think. ANOTHER feature is the ability to fight rival gangs in turf battles, which is great because your turfs will be attacked and taken over when you're stuck on the freeway 10 minutes away. If you like Dance Dance Revolution type games, then don't worry because you can load up GTA:SA, drive to a certain location, then play the dancing mini game. Why? As the developers must have thought, why the hell not? More and more is better. With all this added nonsense, there IS a GTA game in there, but its hard to find. GTA: SA is not good. All the extra features are irrelevant, and the map size alone is enough to ruin the game. Don't buy this game even if it's on sale for 50% off at the dollar store.… Expand
  6. Carl
    Oct 30, 2004
    10
    GTA San Andreas is the best GTA I've ever played and i played all GTAs except GTA london and the new feature like fat stamina and muscle are very cool and finally u can SWIM this is the coolest new feature in GTA San Andreas i think.
  7. MuratN.
    Nov 16, 2004
    10
    Words can't describe how class this game is. Rockstar's done a great job. Looking foward to the next gta already!!
  8. KyleK.
    Nov 2, 2004
    10
    WHAT THE! Im blown away at how there is so many things to do and it's long. This is way better than GTA 3 So what the hell are the metacritic people doin, 96 score c'mon its way better than gta 3 anyway u do ur stupid calculations but san andreas is the best. I know y u put GTA 3 so high because it was a new "revolution" in the GTA series. But again i say it's the best in its genre. Wicked game.… Expand
  9. TJ
    Nov 3, 2004
    10
    Who Ever Made This Game They Need To Make A Grand Theft Auto San Andreas 2
  10. Mike
    Nov 29, 2005
    4
    Ends up rehashing the same overused formula. More of the same--with no improvements. Lackluster and uninnovative.
  11. ChrisP.
    Nov 11, 2005
    4
    I'll give Rockstar this, they love reusing the same formula over and over again. When I first played GTA 3, my jaw dropped, I was in awe. When I played GTA:SA, I shrugged. The graphics haven't changed much since GTA 3. The music, well, I suppose it suits it. I'm just curious how many times you can run over a prostitute in a golf cart until it starts to bore you. Personally, I got all that out of my system in Vice City. Only thing that keeps this game from getting an even lower score is the ability to jack a tractor. If that wasn't present, I probably would've given it a 1. Yes, I enjoyed it that much.… Expand
  12. Carl
    Oct 30, 2004
    10
    GTA San Andreas is the best GTA I've ever played and i played all GTAs except GTA london and the new feature like fat stamina and muscle are very cool and finally u can SWIM this is the coolest new feature in GTA San Andreas i think.
  13. SabinoS.
    Jan 29, 2005
    10
    I like this game beacuse i like killing.
  14. JJJames
    Mar 3, 2005
    10
    The best game ever.
  15. Dante
    Jun 1, 2005
    10
    This is actually the first gta i played - i just wanted to see what all the hype was about - i AM a gamer - perhaps old school - buts thats what make gta:sa all the more impressive. its a classic game and no amount of review copy would do it just - there just arent enough adjectives to mtch the depth of gameplay in the this awsome entertainment package. if you have any type of gaming console that would support this game - get gta:sa and you will own a defining game of our time - how can a game with such mediocre graphics dominate the PS2? simple - its an incredible game - everything to do and forever to do it. a masterpiece.… Expand
  16. JackD.
    Jul 6, 2005
    10
    This was the best game I ever played!
  17. AlexanderH.
    Jul 20, 2006
    10
    I think this is one of the most brilliantly precieved games ever thought of, and one of the best games I have ever played. DOT. There is absolutly no way you can not love, or at least, like, the abiltiy to chooose and do whatever you please whenever you want., including the missions. GTA:Vice City was good. GTA3 was great. (yeah, I thought GTA3 was better than Vice City) This game is unbelievable on all levels. And you have to admit, there is a little control freak in all of us!… Expand
  18. JasonM.
    Nov 1, 2004
    10
    IT ROCKS.
  19. BenJ.
    Nov 5, 2004
    9
    I was bitterly disappointed with Vice City; it struck me as a carbon copy of GTA3 but with a few, rather bland, bells of whistles attached. However this is game is just amazing - I've played for four hours and only bothered to play 4 missions, the rest of the time I've been soaking up everything else there is to do...and I've only tackled a fifth of the overall map! A staggering game and top marks to Rock Star....you are all fantastic!… Expand
  20. JakeW.
    Dec 11, 2004
    10
    Dude I play this game all the f...ing time!! I love the fact that you can have girlfriends and all that sh.t! It f...ing rules!!!
  21. MasterCheif
    Nov 19, 2004
    3
    The graphics for this game hurts my eyes. Sure it may be big but it sucks. It does so many things but it does them so poorly. This game is like a bunch diffferent thinngs smushed together to make one big mess. Halo2 is much better. GTA San Andreas = overrated
  22. nathant
    Nov 6, 2004
    5
    i havent played the game, so i wont bash it or nething.

    is this all ps2 has left? some GTA series that is honastly overrated? wow go shoot people. steal something here. grab a random tank. drive a tractor through the city. seriously, if u want to kill someone, go become a gangsta. how many gta games are they gunna come out with that are basically the same except in different locati    ons. maybe ps2 would like to make a new, revolutionary game that isnt based on some past series

    just a suggestion    … Expand
  23. GeorgeC.
    Aug 23, 2009
    1
    One of the worst game I've ever played... Missions sucks, CJ sucks, graphics sucks!!! This is not a good game, it is boring and you get annoyed after playing 30 minutes!! Stay away from San Andreas!
  24. ccrogers15
    Nov 15, 2011
    9
    Still the best gta to this date. GTA IV sucks compared to this and watch gta 5 suck compared to it also. Comparing GTA IV to SA is like comparing a potatoe to a computer. SA is a very very good game. So worth the 10 if you ask me. Im hoping R* does something good for its 10th ani unlike the crappy 10th ani for GTA 3 where all it got was ported to mobiles and not ps3. I love SA and still play it to this day. Who says classics are bad?… Expand
  25. Cubixreviews
    May 19, 2012
    9
    Awards: The Best Game of 2004, The Best Sandbox Game of 2004, The Best Single Player Experience of 2004 . The best selling game of PS2 is even one of the best game ever. GTA San Andreas is an open world game, that deserves the place for one of the best GTA ever. Story with gangsters never been so awesome, and the gameplay is a terrific sandbox. This game is even drama, because of the murder of CJ's mothers, and some secrets. It haves some cool extras: drive an transportation airplane, a huge beautiful world, new weapons etc. This game is almost perfect! (9.8)… Expand
  26. YHWH
    Jul 7, 2012
    0
    This game is terrible for our kids, playing as black man that sells drugs is not what we want our kids to become.
  27. TheGamerguy110
    Dec 23, 2012
    6
    It's alright. Very fun to drive around and explore since the map is so large. The voice acting story and soundtrack are top-notch as well. However, the shooting mechanics are the worst I have ever seen. It's almost impossible to hit someone.
  28. LordVader
    Oct 28, 2004
    10
    Awesome game, this is easily the best of the GTA games, excellent graphic and fantastic playability but what's with trashing the Xbox? The game is coming to that console as well so what's the big deal? I think some people need to grow up abit.
  29. SidE.
    Nov 1, 2004
    10
    The best game there is out! i cant wait to see what rockstar can conjure up next. Right when you think it can get any better they suprise us again. congratulations its another victory for rockstar!!!!
  30. Kevin
    Oct 26, 2004
    10
    Excellent! The best game in the series and the main character is finally cool unlike Tommy.
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Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
95 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 80 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 79 out of 80
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 80
  3. Negative: 0 out of 80
  1. My Gamer
    88
    The amount of things to do in the cities of Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas is absolutely staggering... In my opinion there’s no excuse to not have a “save anywhere” feature included.
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  2. GamePro
    90
    San Andreas's chief advantage over "Vice City" is size. And for many players, that's good enough. But another group of fans will come to quietly understand that, at least for the time being, "Vice City" remains the high point of the GTA series.
    Read full review
  3. Warcry
    95
    There's so much to do in this game that it's outside of my range of imagination to be able to picture me reaching a 100% complete. Unfathomable.
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