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Wednesday 23 September, 2009
Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas, where can I start? As with the other GTA games, there is so much tightly packed into the game and presented to the player from the very beginning. Stereotypes and racial slurs are thrown in as soon as you start playing. I mean, the first thing the player has to do when the actual gameplay starts is steal a bike. Gee, golly. Who's ever heard of a black guy stealing a bike?
I have never followed the GTA series very closely, but I have played each of the games in the series to some extent. Usually my experience ranges from trying to follow the story’s actual plot, to then giving up and spending my time just running around doing as I please. This time I decided that I would try to keep the roaming around to a minimum and actually try to follow the story.
Having played the game before, I knew a lot about what to expect. The first thing I did was mess around a bit to get used to the control schemes and the driving. After about 10 to 15 minutes of running around then trying to see how long I could keep a wheelie going on the bike, about 30 seconds, I finally decided I should get on with the story. I played for a bit and didn’t get too far. I died several times, some by accident and some on purpose. By the end of my first session, I didn’t end up very far into the story. I had reached to the beginning of the scene called “Tagging up Turf.”
So far there isn’t too much to talk about. Race plays a very important aspect into the game along with all the negative stereotypes that go with it. The way you and your family present yourself is the typical “gangster” black person. The first few missions have the player getting used to the scenario, as CJ, the protagonists, gets familiar with his “hood” that he had left behind. The game has you running away from gangs and even tagging along for a failed attempt at sticking up a pizza joint. The first thing I noticed while playing the game is that the player is put into a culture where all the cops are corrupt. The first characters you meet are three cops who seem to have had previous encounters with CJ and are already out to get him. They drop you off in the middle of enemy territory, at the same time framing you for shooting an officer. Also, to further promote this aspect, after the first time you are arrested, or busted as the game puts it, a window tells the player that police will confiscate your weapons and put you back into the streets, that is after taking some of your money as a bribe. In this environment, there doesn’t seem to be much need for ethics and morals. One can do as the please and get away with it as long as they have money. As for ethical choices the game makes the player do, so far they amount to something like robbing and killing a person, or robbing and killing a person, then killing five onlookers because you still have ammo. The game almost tries to put the player in a situation as if he was dragged in to the conflict, but after stating that he has been clean for 5 years, CJ jumps back into the ganster life all too readily.
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