Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the fifth main game in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and the seventh entry overall. Set within the fictional U.S. state of San Andreas, the game follows Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns home in 1992 after his mother's murder and finds his old street gang has lost much of their territory. Over the course of the game, he attempts to rebuild the gang, clashes with corrupt authorities and powerful criminals, and gradually unravels the truth behind his mother's murder.
The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on foot or by vehicle. The open world design lets the player freely roam San Andreas, consisting of three major metropolitan cities: Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas, based on Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, respectively. Rockstar conducted on-site research in each city and consulted Los Angeles natives DJ Pooh, Estevan Oriol, and Mister Cartoon for help imitating the city's culture. The narrative is based on multiple real-life events in Los Angeles, including the Bloods and Crips street gang rivalry, the 1990s crack epidemic, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the Rampart scandal. The 50-person development team spent nearly two years creating the game. San Andreas was released in October 2004 for the PlayStation 2.
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