San Andreas Multiplayer (SA-MP) Mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas A Tale of Hard Knocks feature

The Grand Theft Auto series is favored by many - most notably for its sandbox-style play that enables you to create your own narrative within a living world. What happens when the dark, gruesome scene of the criminal underworld and corrupt cops is brought online? It would create a truly living city in which every character was a human avatar and looking to score or deal in arms and drugs.

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Multi-Player was brought to my attention courtesy of Shawn Elliot on the 1UP Yours podcast. The way he talked about it with such vibrancy had left me very eager to try out the mod as soon as possible (I bought the GTA Steam pack explicitly for this purpose). Once I was in-game, I immediately saw the potential depth - join/create your own gangs, manage the in-game economy by vying for warehouses that control the flow of guns and narcotics, and even have the ability to infect others with virtual STD's! (uh, yay?) Rather than churn out another review about a mod (it is essentially a framework from which many gametypes have spawned), I've decided to share with you my adventures on a Roleplay server that runs SA-MP. The following is the explicit details of the journey of my game character - Ryu_Arakaki. While this story is somewhat embellished, I can guarantee that all the major events transcribed did occur in-game and this re-telling is a brought about by the exhilarations experienced while playing.

Why Ryu_Arakaki you ask? Well it wasn't always that - I started out with the predictable (for me at least) "stenchy" tag while I was messing around as a hoodlum in the beginning. It wasn't until I was accepted into the posh Yakuza fold that I had to change both my in-game name and character skin to something with a more Asian influence. I quickly googled some possibilities and settled on the aforementioned mainly because the last part sounded like another word used for poop.

Ryu, the upcoming prodigy of the Yakuza.

I quickly established myself as recruit with potential and gained the trust of the Yakuza leaders, Kaze_Catsoup and Nagashima_Sasuke. My second login spawned me into Yakuza headquarters, The Tea House, just before a raid on an enemy faction's arms materials warehouse. "Ah Ryu, you're just in time", Nagashima greeted, "Do you have a weapon?"

"I have a M4 stashed in my locker, why?"

"We're going to take Gun Warehouse 1 back from the La Onda gang. We need everyone to help out. Go get your gun", Nagashima stated. So I did. Upon my return a few minutes later, I saw a couple black, sleek four-door sedans both filled with Yakuza members minus one empty spot for me. "Get in", Nagashima typed. But before I managed to do so, I looked up to see a red sports car barrelling down the driveway and into the awaiting convoy.

"Shit!" Kaze exclaimed as he got out of the wrecked sedan, "Everybody out! Kill them!" A hail of gunfire rained down on the intruders, making short work of them. We quickly mobilized ourselves in fresh vehicles heading towards the warehouse.

"Who the hell were those guys?!" I asked.

"Probably hired mercenaries, sent to slow us down", Kaze smirked, "They didn't do much, did they?"

Upon arrival at the warehouse, Nagashima started barking orders at us to get into positions. I was stationed behind some crates in full view of the main entrance. "If you see any Onda boys come through there you fire, OK!?" Nagashima ordered.

"Yes, Naga-san", I replied.

To my left was Vladimir_Lem, the only Russian named Yakuza member. Vlad trained me in firearms (accounting for copious amounts of lag that some players have) and showed me all the popular hangouts around the city when I first joined. He was a force to be reckoned with - an enforcer high up in the Yakuza ranks who left a wake of destruction and corpses wherever he went.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that someone spotted an enemy on top of a container stack doing some reconnaissance. About three of us opened fire and that's when it happened - a convoy of about 3 cars and a helicopter filed into the narrow warehouse yard and the La Onda gang scrambled out of their vehicles. All of us let loose and unloaded magazine after magazine of bullets on the light blue-clothed La Onda boys. I took a few hits and Vlad told me to get into cover. He handed me some pot and told me to smoke it, "It'll make you feel better", he said. I took a few tokes, miraculously felt rejuvenated and ready to get back into the action. It was amidst all this shooting, and smoking, that finally the La Onda boys started retreating.

Nagashima came around the corner in no hurry, "I took out Dro, one of their officers - they can't capture this place without him. They're gone for now but they'll be back. We have to hold this place for ten minutes."

Keeping a lookout for the La Onda boys.

They did come back, even more of them this time. It got pretty hairy and Yakuza started dying, but in the middle of it all Kaze's cellphone started to ring. Bullets whizzed by as he answered, "Yes?" Moments passed, and I could tell Kaze was typing frantically, "Yes, they're here and lots of them. Hit them from behind now - they won't expect it." He hung up. Since I couldn't hear the other side of the conversation I assumed we had some extra Yakuza troops coming. After all the chaos dissipated and we drove the Onda boys away for the last time, I found out I was half-right - the reinforcements weren't Asian but all Russian. The Yakuza and the Russian Mafia had an uneasy alliance and this time the Russians saw it beneficial to help us out just in the nick of time. After the battle we decided to celebrate with some group pictures and an impromptu hydraulics car show.

The warehouse is ours!

With that little bit of ‘business' out of the way, we headed down to a parking lot on the other side of town for some good ol' street-brawling. The way it seemed to work is fighters would engage in a no-holds-barred match to the death with a large cash purse at stake. It was decent entertainment as a spectator sport, but I was saddened no one would take up any outside bets with me. Vlad managed to win all his fights - almost effortlessly, "I just made 75k off those fights", he said casually.

Vlad warms up for his fight.

Suddenly, Nagashima sent us all a message through the faction chat channel. "Fuck, guys I need your help. I'm at the beach and griefers just parked a car on me - I can't get up. Get here quick!" Kaze, Vlad and I all bolted out of the parking lot and to our car. We raced down to the beach to find Nagashima getting pummeled in circle beats right in front of the Pay N' Spray shop. Jumping out of our car brandishing automatic weaponry was enough to disperse the griefers and we managed to take down all but one as they attempted to flee. "Thanks guys, you really saved my skin", Nagashima said while handing me a wad of cash totaling $20,000.

"No problem", I said. Maybe now I can buy some upgrades...

Smoking crack increases your armor.

This is only a sample of what awaits you within the SA-MP mod. There are a few hundred servers with differing gametypes ranging from pure stunts to hardcore role-playing and everything in-between. I've played a few MMO's in my time but in the end the whole experience just becomes too repetitive and daunting for me. GTA SA:MP is different in that it just barely creates the framework for a persistent world that's very rough around the edges. Yet out of that, you have a whole society that thrives and works together to enforce and maintain the illusion of a living, breathing city rife with criminal activity. It doesn't feel like everything is engineered and finely calculated to make sure everything is fair and works whether or not you're on your own or in a gang. Shit sometimes happens and, well, that's life. Add to this the fact that it's all free and you have my scrupulous stamp of approval. I can jump in and out all I want without having to worry about logging enough hours to justify a monthly subscription fee. My gut feeling tells me that even after GTA IV comes out at the end of this month, I'll still be playing a lot of this GTA: SA mod.

SA-MP has been around for a while, but is newly listed on Mod DB - download SA-MP.

_{Ryu_Arakaki hangs out with his Yakuza brethren on the SZR-GTA Roleplay server, everyone is welcome providing they are willing to follow the rules.}