GTA SA Analysis

GTA San Andreas is a
It is probably the most well-known entry in the GTA franchise after GTA five and Vice City.

For me it's game I regularly replay and install on every computer I own, and I think one of the reasons why it's so transfixing and so successful is because of how well written the story is. In this video essay, I'll be detailing why I think the story is so well-writen with screenwriting analysis.

You may not know this, but the story sturcture of San Andreas is actually a variation of Joseph Campbell's the Hero's Journey. In Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey, Vogler presents the screenwriting variant of monomyth with 8 characters and 12 steps, and we can fit the story of San Andreas within this framework.


The inciting incident is the death of CJ's mother, where he returns to Grove Street for his mother's funeral, and decides to help his brother after encountering an ambush. In the story he meets with various mentors such as his brother, Ryder, and Big Smoke.

The midpoint is when he is betrayed by his partners, and Sweet is in jail.

The  is no refusal




While the story structure of San Andreas is special, many other video game storylines also follow the hero's journey to a T. The biggest reasons I think why San Andreas's story is so great, and stood out of the crowd is because how well written the villains are. In Robert Mckee's Story, he writes "A protagonist and his story can only be as intellectually fascinating and emotionally compelling as the forces of antagonism make them."

Frank Tenpenny, the main villain of the San Andreas, I think, is the most well-written villain in the entire GTA franchise, except maybe Dimitri Rascalov. I think the reason why recent GTA five wasn't as vivid in my mind as GTA four or San Andreas is because of the lack of a good villain. In John Truby's Anatomy of a Story, he writes "Create an opponent who wants the same goal as the hero and who is exceptionally good at attacking your hero's greatest weakness." In San Andreas Tenpenny wants the same goal as CJ: the control of the neighborhood. But CJ wants it so he can stop the sell of cocaine on streets, Tenpenny wants it so he can "take out the trash" like CJ.

Tenpenny is a corrupt police officer and has the law on his side, and is he "exceptionally good at attacking CJ's greatest weakness." He is able to frame CJ for the murder of a police officer, flip Ryder and Smoke, put Sweet in prison, and endanger Sweet's life. In every cutscene he is in, he is in control of the situation. We as the audience are in dreadful tension as we fear what his next action might be, and how badly he can fuck up CJ's life. Even in the end when CRASH crumbles, he finds a way to hold CJ at gunpoint, and it is only with the help of Sweet he is brought down.

Samuel L. Jackson's absolutely phenomenal voice performance I think is the cherry on top.

Another thing San Andreas' executed well is the variation of the forces of antagonism. In John Truby's Anatomy of a Story, he presents a screenwriting model called the four-corner opposition. Instead of the hero-villain distinction, here you have the protagonist and four different opponents. The conflicts created from the interactions of each corner of the model has more variation and thus more complexity.

In San Andreas, we have the Grove Street gang, CRASH, the primary antagonist, Ryder, Smoke and the Ballas gang, and the Loco Syndicate. Each forces have different relations, and conflicts with each other. I feel like the lack of the interplay between the Loco Syndicate and CRASH is a huge missed opportunity, where all we have is a side mission where we intercept the courier. My idea of a main mission is this: After Photo Opportunity, you bug the place they are meeting with the help of Zero. Maybe you hear them arguing in the conversation, which shine a light on their inner-group conflicts, and they mention that they will be meeting in a place called Pier 69. It's a mission I think that can be inserted into the game without breaking the natural flow of the story.

Imagine how one-note the game would be if all Ryder and Smoke didn't betray CJ, the Loco Syndicate wasn't in the game, and all you have to do is to just fight Ballas, then San Andreas would just be an average entry in the GTA franchise and wouldn't be the cultural milestone it is today.