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*** There's actually two ways of beating "High Noon". The first is pop the tires of [[spoiler:Pulaski]]'s Buffalo and chase him afterwards as normal, or you can get a Minigun and fire away as soon as the cop enters the car. A few seconds of blasting and the car will go up in flames. (Oddly enough the car will be intact in the cutscene and afterwards.)
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*** There's actually two three ways of beating "High Noon". The first is pop the tires of [[spoiler:Pulaski]]'s Buffalo and chase him afterwards as normal, or you normal. You can also get a Minigun and fire away as soon as the cop your target enters the car. A few seconds of blasting and the car will go up in flames. (Oddly enough the car will be intact in the cutscene and afterwards.)) Finally, you can force the Buffalo into the water, either by knocking it in yourself or shooting out the tires so it swerves into it. After the scripted chase dialogue plays out, your target will drown and you instantly pass the mission, skipping over the ending cutscene entirely.
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* RateLimitedPerpetualResource: CJ can acquire properties and has to personally go to these business to get the stored earned money, and these businesses cannot hold an unlimited amount of funds.
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* ParentalIncest: The Truth takes umbrage at being called "motherfucker" by a gangbanger.
-->"Firstly, you are a real buzz killer, amigo. And secondly, I never made love to my mother -- [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne She wouldn't]]. And thirdly..."
-->"Firstly, you are a real buzz killer, amigo. And secondly, I never made love to my mother -- [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne She wouldn't]]. And thirdly..."
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* ParentalIncest: The ParentalIncest:
**The Truth takes umbrage at being called "motherfucker" by a gangbanger.
-->"Firstly, --->"Firstly, you are a real buzz killer, amigo. And secondly, I never made love to my mother -- [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne She wouldn't]]. And thirdly...""
** The radio has advertisements for "Inversion therapy," a face-your-fears self-help program. One of the success stories [[spoiler: heavily implied to be Lazlow]] involves this.
--->'''Customer:''' I was having really dark thoughts. I wanted to sleep with my mother. Now that I've done it, I don't want to anymore.
--->'''Darius Fontaine:''' Incredible!
**The Truth takes umbrage at being called "motherfucker" by a gangbanger.
** The radio has advertisements for "Inversion therapy," a face-your-fears self-help program. One of the success stories [[spoiler: heavily implied to be Lazlow]] involves this.
--->'''Customer:''' I was having really dark thoughts. I wanted to sleep with my mother. Now that I've done it, I don't want to anymore.
--->'''Darius Fontaine:''' Incredible!
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*** "Local Liquor Store": Why use the QuadBike if you can leave a Sanchez nearby and use it to chase the thieves?
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*** "Local Liquor Store": Why use the QuadBike quad bike if you can leave a Sanchez nearby and use it to chase the thieves?
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*TraumaCongaLine: Carl finds out that his mother was killed in a drive-by shooting by the Ballas, prompting him to return to Los Santos. However, he was arrested by Tenpenny who stole his money and threatened to frame him for killing Ralph Pendelbury if he refused to do dirty works for him. After that, Carl gets thrown out of Tenpenny's police car in the middle of one of the Ballas strongholds.
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** In the mission "Photo Opportunity", C.J. and Cesar are taking pictures of a drug trade from a rooftop across the street. While they do this, the two are constantly shouting at the top of their lungs at each other. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This is a remnant of the beta]], where the two would have been taking pictures from a helicopter rather than from a rooftop, which was changed for the released game precisely because a helicopter hovering overhead would be even more conspicuous.
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** In the mission "Photo Opportunity", C.J. and Cesar are taking pictures of a drug trade from a rooftop across the street. While they do this, the two are constantly shouting at the top of their lungs at each other. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This is a remnant of the beta]], mission's original concept]], where the two would have been taking pictures from a helicopter rather than from a rooftop, which was changed for the released game precisely because a helicopter hovering overhead would be even more conspicuous.
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** In the mission "Photo Opportunity", C.J. and Cesar are taking pictures of a drug trade from a rooftop across the street. While they do this, the two are constantly shouting at the top of their lungs at each other. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This is a remnant of the beta]], where the two would have been taking pictures from a helicopter rather than from a rooftop.
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** In the mission "Photo Opportunity", C.J. and Cesar are taking pictures of a drug trade from a rooftop across the street. While they do this, the two are constantly shouting at the top of their lungs at each other. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This is a remnant of the beta]], where the two would have been taking pictures from a helicopter rather than from a rooftop.rooftop, which was changed for the released game precisely because a helicopter hovering overhead would be even more conspicuous.
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* SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness: The game tries to keep this in effect. The weapons you can't get in the starting city are the M4 (better assault rifle) and some of the heavy weapons, which can show up in later towns. The gun shops unlock according to a pattern as well ... although there's nothing stopping you from {{sidequest}}ing your way to an arsenal.
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* SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness: The game tries to keep this in effect. effect.
** The weapons you can't get ''normally'' (see exceptions below) in the starting city are the M4 (better assaultrifle) rifle), the SPAS-12 (better shotgun), and some of the heavy weapons, which can show up in later towns. towns (and of those, only the M4 and the flamethrower show up in the second city). The gun shops unlock stuff according to a pattern as well ... although well, with the best weapons like the Desert Eagle, the M4 and the SPAS-12 not showing up until the third city missions. However, there's nothing stopping you from {{sidequest}}ing your way to an arsenal.arsenal, and there's still hidden weapon spawns where you can pick them up (with the bonus of them being free). Experienced GTA players know where the good drops are and will often stock up on ammo (the only way for them to respawn is to either save the game and advance time forward, or move a sufficient distance away) by SaveScumming at the nearest safehouse and making a few "gun runs".
** Still, there are a few pickups for those powerful weapons in the first cities, just in out-of-reach locations. The first city has a M4 inside the airport runway and a rocket launcher in a roof, and the second city has a heat-seeking RPG inside the airport runway and a minigun on top of a bridge. However, the airport runways aren't normally accesible until the player has acquired a flying license, which in a normal playthrough happens during the third city missions. Similarly, building roofs and bridge tops aren't normally accesible without aircraft, which prior to acquiring the flying license, mostly they either don't spawn or are locked. Of course, experienced GTA players know methods to acquire these spawns early.
** The weapons you can't get ''normally'' (see exceptions below) in the starting city are the M4 (better assault
** Still, there are a few pickups for those powerful weapons in the first cities, just in out-of-reach locations. The first city has a M4 inside the airport runway and a rocket launcher in a roof, and the second city has a heat-seeking RPG inside the airport runway and a minigun on top of a bridge. However, the airport runways aren't normally accesible until the player has acquired a flying license, which in a normal playthrough happens during the third city missions. Similarly, building roofs and bridge tops aren't normally accesible without aircraft, which prior to acquiring the flying license, mostly they either don't spawn or are locked. Of course, experienced GTA players know methods to acquire these spawns early.
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* UranusIsShowing: You can play a ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' like [[ShootEmUp shooter game]] on the VG console of Sweet's house. The game's name? '''They Crawled From Uranus!'''
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* UranusIsShowing: You can play a ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' ''VideoGame/{{Gyruss}}'' like [[ShootEmUp shooter game]] on the VG console of Sweet's house. The game's name? '''They Crawled From Uranus!'''
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* ThisIsNotADrill: Spoken by a military personnel over the intercom after CJ manages to break into the research laboratory of Area 69.
-->'''Intercom:''' Installation personnel, please be aware we are at Condition Red. This is not a drill!
-->'''Intercom:''' Installation personnel, please be aware we are at Condition Red. This is not a drill!
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Being cut per TRS
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* PausedInterrupt: There is a segment where a NonPlayerCharacter, Catalina, calls the protagonist up on his cell phone to chew him out. As with most phone conversations in the game, this happens in real time. She flies into her usual rage, and hangs up on the player -- but the game doesn't know how to handle a dramatic mid-call hangup. She just stops talking, there is no click or dial tone, and the protagonist calmly folds up his phone and puts it away without a second glance, precisely the same way he is animated to end every (complete) phone conversation.
** Also can be averted by the player, who can cancel a phone call at any time without any paused interrupts.
** Also can be averted by the player, who can cancel a phone call at any time without any paused interrupts.
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Whip It Good has been disambiguated
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* WhipItGood: We don't actually see Catalina using the whip on C.J. in the intro to the "Gone Courting" mission, but [[SexyDiscretionShot oh man, do we ever hear it]].
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trope merge with Recruiters Always Lie
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* RecruitersAlwaysLie: The game had '''Join The Military''' radio ads which by its very nature, a spoof of recruitment ads. see them [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSFQHtKGaE4 here]].
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* OneLinerNameOneLiner: Said when you fail Zero's "Supply Lines": "Curse you, Berkeley! CURSE YOOOOOUUUUU!"
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* OneLinerNameOneLiner: Said when you fail Zero's "Supply Lines": "Curse you, Berkeley! Berkley! CURSE YOOOOOUUUUU!"
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A Date With Rosie Palms is no longer a trope
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* ThinkUnsexyThoughts: Maccer [[ADateWithRosiePalms is a chronic masturbator]]. To get him to stop, his manager tells him to "Think of Thatcher". Unfortunately, that just turns him on more.
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* ThinkUnsexyThoughts: Maccer [[ADateWithRosiePalms is a chronic masturbator]].masturbator. To get him to stop, his manager tells him to "Think of Thatcher". Unfortunately, that just turns him on more.
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Alphabetizing
[[/folder]]
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[[/folder]]
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* UnexplainedRecovery: Villain [[spoiler:Toreno]] seemingly explodes in a helicopter. Several missions later, [[spoiler:he's having C.J. ride around in a monster truck. No explanation is given for living--or for the truck]].
** Its implied through his dialogue he just fooled C.J. into thinking [[spoiler:he got on the helicopter]] - he knew C.J. was trying to kill him, and needed him to think he had in order to get his help.
** Its implied through his dialogue he just fooled C.J. into thinking [[spoiler:he got on the helicopter]] - he knew C.J. was trying to kill him, and needed him to think he had in order to get his help.
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* UnexplainedRecovery: UnexplainedRecovery:
** Villain [[spoiler:Toreno]] seemingly explodes in a helicopter. Several missions later, [[spoiler:he's having C.J. ride around in a monster truck. No explanation is given for living--or for the truck]].
**Its It's implied through his dialogue he just fooled C.J. into thinking [[spoiler:he got on the helicopter]] - he knew C.J. was trying to kill him, and needed him to think he had in order to get his help.
** Villain [[spoiler:Toreno]] seemingly explodes in a helicopter. Several missions later, [[spoiler:he's having C.J. ride around in a monster truck. No explanation is given for living--or for the truck]].
**
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* WetBlanketWife: Kendl Johnson, sister of protagonist C.J. and lover of C.J.'s ally, Caesar Vialpando, constantly acts as an exasperated voice of reason between the two macho {{gangbangers}}. She usually has some sort of gripe against their lifestyle, but she's often right, such as when one of them plans to [[LeeroyJenkins plans to run off and do something stupid.]]
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* WetBlanketWife: Kendl Johnson, sister of protagonist C.J. and lover of C.J.'s ally, Caesar Cesar Vialpando, constantly acts as an exasperated voice of reason between the two macho {{gangbangers}}. She usually has some sort of gripe against their lifestyle, but she's often right, such as when one of them plans to [[LeeroyJenkins plans to run off and do something stupid.]]
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* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Shooting down and destroying the harmless News Chopper that spawns from a 4 star wanted level onward usually replaces them with a second Police Maverick.
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* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Shooting down and destroying the harmless News Chopper that spawns from a 4 star wanted level onward usually replaces them with a second Police Maverick. However, this does not apply if the News Chopper falls into water, in this case, it will be replaced by another News Chopper.
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* WhamLine: About halfway through the game, CJ gets a phone call from a stranger. He's midway into blowing him off when...
--> '''CJ:''' Moms always told me not to talk to strangers.
--> '''Stranger:''' And look what happened to the bitch!
--> '''CJ:''' Moms always told me not to talk to strangers.
--> '''Stranger:''' And look what happened to the bitch!
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Speedrun is now definition-only
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* SpeedRun: The game was dominated in [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/GrandTheftAutoSA.html six hours nine minutes]]. Though that wasn't in a single sitting.
** Years later, this records has been shattered, with the WR for San Andreas being [[http://www.speedrunrecords.com/Grand_Theft_Auto_San_Andreas/run/551 5:24:17 by UltimateOmega07]] ''done in a single sitting''.
** As of 2019, the Any% record has fallen all the way to fifteen minutes due to a glitch called [[https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/ddrsfd/grand_theft_auto_san_andreas_skip_that_saves_over/ Arbitrary Jump in Script]] that allows the player to skip almost the entire game. The record without this glitch is just under four hours.
** Years later, this records has been shattered, with the WR for San Andreas being [[http://www.speedrunrecords.com/Grand_Theft_Auto_San_Andreas/run/551 5:24:17 by UltimateOmega07]] ''done in a single sitting''.
** As of 2019, the Any% record has fallen all the way to fifteen minutes due to a glitch called [[https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/ddrsfd/grand_theft_auto_san_andreas_skip_that_saves_over/ Arbitrary Jump in Script]] that allows the player to skip almost the entire game. The record without this glitch is just under four hours.
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Trope cut per TRS: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16670278160.54531300
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* RareGuns: C.J. can acquire the Desert Eagle when he reaches Las Venturas, though there's a free one lurking around south east Los Santos, and just a block away from your safehouse in San Fierro.
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* OutOfCharacterMoment: The mission "Deconstruction", Several fans consider genuinely disturbing and creepy radical personality change suffered by the protagonist Carl, being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold to a lunatic homicidal maniac that would make Catalina proud.
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* OutOfCharacterMoment: OutOfCharacterMoment:
** The mission "Madd Dogg's Rhymes". CJ treats innocent mansion security like the Ballas despite the big part of the main story arc at the time is how CJ is trying to shake off the law enforcement attention from him while maintaining a close knit relationship with his family and friends at the same time. Predictably, the escalation of OG Loc's order to CJ and CJ's actions attract the attention of Tenpenny, who ropes CJ into several dirty work for the benefit of the C.R.A.S.H.
** The mission "Deconstruction", Several fans consider genuinely disturbing and creepy radical personality change suffered by the protagonist Carl, being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold to a lunatic homicidal maniac that would make Catalina proud.
** The mission "Madd Dogg's Rhymes". CJ treats innocent mansion security like the Ballas despite the big part of the main story arc at the time is how CJ is trying to shake off the law enforcement attention from him while maintaining a close knit relationship with his family and friends at the same time. Predictably, the escalation of OG Loc's order to CJ and CJ's actions attract the attention of Tenpenny, who ropes CJ into several dirty work for the benefit of the C.R.A.S.H.
** The mission "Deconstruction", Several fans consider genuinely disturbing and creepy radical personality change suffered by the protagonist Carl, being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold to a lunatic homicidal maniac that would make Catalina proud.
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* PacManFever: Justified, the game takes place in the early nineties.
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* PacManFever: Justified, the game takes place in the early nineties. However the playable minigames are as shallow as Atari's games of the eighties, all of them being extremely simple ''EndlessGame''s.
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* ProfessionalKiller: The game features a main character that takes contracts to assassinate people.
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* ProfessionalKiller: The game features a main character that takes contracts to assassinate people.At times, CJ looks (and acts) like this despite almost none of his assignments are explicitly an assassination task.
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* ReusedCharacterDesign: Snakehead, the leader of the Da Nang Boys, uses the same model as the master of the Cobra Marital Arts. But it's not the same person since the master is still there regardless before or after you finish the mission.
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False. It's perfectly possible to kill Freddy during the chase, it even ends the mission earlier.
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* StoryDrivenInvulnerability: The "OG Loc" mission, where you can shoot at Freddy while chasing him by motorcycle, but you can't actually kill him until after the chase. [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules Unfortunately, he can damage you while you're chasing him]].
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** CJ's mother was killed in a drive-by from a green Sabre, [[spoiler:which is later found in a police garage.]] This is directly based off the black Chevrolet Impala SS in the drive-by which killed [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Chris Wallace]], which although related happened in 1997.
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** CJ's C.J.'s mother was killed in a drive-by from a green Sabre, [[spoiler:which is later found in a police garage.]] This is directly based off the black Chevrolet Impala SS in the drive-by which killed [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Chris Wallace]], which although related happened in 1997.
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* RoadBlock: The roads are blocked due to an earthquake some time prior to the game events that has destroyed most bridges. Since your character can swim, there's also a BorderPatrol in the shape of a wanted level whenever you leaved the unlocked area.
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* RoadBlock: The roads major bridges are blocked due to an earthquake some time prior to the game events that has destroyed most bridges. damaged them. Since your character can swim, there's also a BorderPatrol in the shape of a wanted level whenever you leaved leave the unlocked area.area as C.J. is under C.R.A.S.H. surveillence.
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* RareGuns: C.J. can acquire the Desert Eagle when he reaches Las Venturas, though there's a free one lurking around the Los Santos, and just a block away from your safehouse in San Fierro.
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* RareGuns: C.J. can acquire the Desert Eagle when he reaches Las Venturas, though there's a free one lurking around the south east Los Santos, and just a block away from your safehouse in San Fierro.
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** Tenpenny threatens to arrange for [[spoiler:Sweet]] to be raped in prison in order to coerce C.J. into doing his bidding.
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** Tenpenny threatens to arrange for [[spoiler:Sweet]] to be raped in prison in order to coerce C.J. into doing his bidding. Toreno implies this too if C.J. is hesitent with flight school.
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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:O-P]]
[[folder:O-P]]
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* SuperSwimmingSkills: And quite a drastic switch from the SuperDrowningSkills of all the preceding entries in the series at that.
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* SuperSwimmingSkills: And quite a drastic switch from the SuperDrowningSkills of all the preceding entries in the series at that.
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[[/folder]]
[[folder:V-Y]]
[[folder:V-Y]]
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[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas Main Page]] | [[GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas/Tropes0ToF 0-F]] | [[GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas/TropesGToN G-N]] | '''O-Z'''
----
* OfficeGolf: Woozie does this at the Triad's Las Venturas casino. His henchman makes sure his average remains low, despite Woozie being blind.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Radio advertisements in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' mentions a show called ''Just the Five of Us'', featuring a character called Jimmy who looks 12 but claims to be a 42-year old investment banker. This turns out to be real, in show and out here, about 9 years later when we hear the actor who played Jimmy again, still looking and sounding like a kid, even though he's in his fifties.
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: Mike Toreno operates under one of these. And, as always, so do ''you''.
* OneLinerNameOneLiner: Said when you fail Zero's "Supply Lines": "Curse you, Berkeley! CURSE YOOOOOUUUUU!"
* OneManArmy: In order to gain complete control of Los Santos, the protagonist must kill in total thousands of rival gang members armed with AK-47s and other heavy weaponry, usually 30-40 per "territory", and that's not even counting police forces, mob gangsters, hitmen, FBI agents and the U.S. military. Furthermore, because gang members are instantly replaced (or [[NonLethalKO healed by paramedics]]), it's possible for the player character to wipe out the same gang several times over in the course of minutes. Occasionally lampshaded:
-->'''Ken Rosenberg:''' Oh yeah, he's a real one-man army! Real fuckin' dependable.
* TheOneWhoMadeItOut: C.J. has this status amongst his gang. His exile after his brother's death essentially made him a criminal in Liberty City and in the game proper, he forms alliances with Hispanic, Chinese, Italian gangs and the U.S. government, taking a gang-banging crew to circles far beyond their reach.
* OnlyKnownByInitials: C.J. (Carl Johnson).
* OnlySaneMan: C.J. wants to be one of these, but he has a crippling weakness: he can be made to go along with any crazy scheme by [[BerserkButton calling him a "buster" for pointing out why said scheme is likely to get him killed]].
** As far as DJ's from the radio stations goes, Julio G, the DJ from Radio Los Santos, is undeniably the calmest, most laid-back of them all, while every other DJ from each of their respective stations have a certain idiosyncrasy that would often border on quirky.
* OopNorth: Maccer, voiced by Music/HappyMondays frontman Shaun Ryder, is a Salfordian musician dressed in stereotypical Madchester gear and mentions his hometown and adjacent Manchester in his dialogue upon his first encounter.
* OptionalSexualEncounter:
** The game used it as a way to increase your [[RelationshipValues Relationship Meter]] with a girlfriend. But only once it got to a certain point already (except for Millie, who was... less choosy in certain regards).
** ''San Andreas'' also had the Pimping SideQuest, which when completed caused prostitutes to give you money while in your, ahem, employ. And then, of course, there was "[[HotCoffeeMinigame Hot Coffee]]"...
* OptionalStealth: There are numerous stealth sequences in this game, but it's a lot easier in most cases to simply murder your way to the objective, and the game provides alternatives for this scenario. This is particularly true of Area 69, in which the stealth option is arguably more dangerous than the direct approach. The only time where stealth is strongly advised is when you must infiltrate an aircraft carrier: getting seen will make soldiers run to the stationed jetfighters and flee with them, before you can steal one of them, thus failing the mission.
* OptionalTrafficLaws: Lampshaded; the early missions have characters note that Carl (the player character) DrivesLikeCrazy. Despite this, everyone [[ItsUpToYou insists he drive]] whenever they get in a car.
* OrangeBlueContrast: The MoodLighting of Los Santos has this, with the sky being a strong shade of blue, and the ground heavily orange tinted, coupled with heat haze to make the place look truly hot and smoggy.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: The mission "Deconstruction", Several fans consider genuinely disturbing and creepy radical personality change suffered by the protagonist Carl, being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold to a lunatic homicidal maniac that would make Catalina proud.
* OutlawCouple: Carl and Catalina are briefly this in the "Countryside" missions; the radio station even mentions your antics at one point. Catalina, being an AxCrazy psychopath, pretty much ruins their business (and physical) relationship in short order, though.
* OutrunTheFireball: A couple of times, but especially in one of the final missions in the game after you [[spoiler:kill Big Smoke]].
* OutsideRide: Doable.
* OverturnedOuthouse: During the mission where CJ takes revenge on a construction site for catcalling his sister, the foreman hides in a port-a-potty, which CJ not only bulldozes into a pit, but he ''buries the foreman alive in concrete''.
* OxygenMeter: This was a departure from the rest of the series, as previous games gave the player SuperDrowningSkills.
* PacManFever: Justified, the game takes place in the early nineties.
* PaperThinDisguise: Cops will lose track of you if you go into your house in front of their very eyes, put on a pair of joke glasses (y'know, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything thick frames, bushy eyebrows and a huge nose]]) and walk out the front door, waving to them.
* ParallelPornTitles: In the [[{{Gayborhood}} gay section of San Fierro]] (a parody of UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco) there's a movie theater with the title ''[[Film/TheWizardOfOz The Wizard of Ass]]'' on the marquee. It's one of the easiest [[CollectionSidequest photo ops]] to find.
* ParentalIncest: The Truth takes umbrage at being called "motherfucker" by a gangbanger.
-->"Firstly, you are a real buzz killer, amigo. And secondly, I never made love to my mother -- [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne She wouldn't]]. And thirdly..."
* ParkingGarage:
** "Ran Fa Li" has the player tasked in retrieving a car in Easter Bay Airport's massive underground carpark for the Triads, which leads to the player being ambushed by gang members from the rival Da Nang Boys.
** Players in ''San Andreas'' may also stumble across a scene reminiscent of the Rodney King beating in the parking garage of the Los Santos headquarters.
* ParodyCommercial: The advertisements for Cluckin' Bell, a fictional KFC and Taco Bell look-alike, which stress how processed and disgusting their food is, as well as the inhumane manner in which the chickens are treated.
-->The chicken is a bird with a tiny brain,\\
So we assume he doesn't feel any pain,\\
We shrink their heads and we breed 'em fast,\\
Six wings, forty breasts, then they're gassed...
-->-- '''From Cluckin Bell's first commercial'''
-->I love chicken with a shitty smell,\\
And that's why I love Cluckin' Bell!
-->-- '''From the second commercial''
* PassThroughTheRings: This is the first game in the series where such missions aren't optional to get to the end. Some of the flying school missions require this to master the mechanics, and later story missions involving flight will use this as objectives.
* PatchworkMap: The game averts this by putting the desert and forest in different land masses. Though in an inversion of California's geology, the desert is in the north.
* PausedInterrupt: There is a segment where a NonPlayerCharacter, Catalina, calls the protagonist up on his cell phone to chew him out. As with most phone conversations in the game, this happens in real time. She flies into her usual rage, and hangs up on the player -- but the game doesn't know how to handle a dramatic mid-call hangup. She just stops talking, there is no click or dial tone, and the protagonist calmly folds up his phone and puts it away without a second glance, precisely the same way he is animated to end every (complete) phone conversation.
** Also can be averted by the player, who can cancel a phone call at any time without any paused interrupts.
* {{Permadeath}}: Two of C.J.'s girlfriends who are killed on a date[[note]]Denise and Millie[[/note]] will be dead for good.
* PermanentlyMissableContent:
** There are several vehicles that can only be obtained in the main missions, such as a Volkswagen bus with a retro hippy paint job, an armored car, and several modified cars, or cars with vanity license plates. This creates the odd situation where the game ''plans'' for you to lose these vehicles forever -- the only way to hold onto them is often to park them in a garage, then fail the mission and restart it.
** The player can start over with most of C.J.'s girlfriends if they are killed during a date, as they will respawn in their "meeting point" in the map. The only exceptions are Denise Robinson and Millie Perkins because they meet C.J. through the storyline missions, which means that they can't be met again if they end up dead.
* PimpDuds: {{Lampshaded}} when C.J. spies on a meeting...
-->'''C.J.:''' I know a pimp when I see one.
* PimpedOutCar: One of the many things to do in this game.
** RiceBurner: While all the mod garages give you the option to only customize your car's appearance and skip out on performance upgrades, Wheel Arch Angels in San Fierro technically specializes in these, given that they only accept import tuners of Asian makes and aforementioned "performance upgrades" are only limited to hydraulic suspensions ([[MundaneUtility that are actually useful for negotiating uneven terrain when deployed]]) and [[NitroBoost nitrous oxide]].
* PinataEnemy: Drug dealers. Each drops around $2000 (and pistol ammo) when killed, generally spawn alone, and after an early mission are extremely common, making them a valuable source of income early in the game.
* PissTakeRap: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YsdS00GI58 OG Loc]], who actually manages to have a rap career despite being a horrible rapper.
* PixelHunt: One of the turf areas for Los Santos's gang wars is, no joke, a piece of sidewalk in the north area. When checked out on the map, it's a barely visible line unless you zoom in real close.
* PlayerHeadquarters: The safehouses. You can save, heal and clear your Wanted level in them, and you change clothes in safehouses too. You get one free at the start of the game, and to get more, you have to buy them. Though you get a few other free ones along the way (you can count on getting one every time you reach a new part of the state).
* PlayerMooks: Being awesome enough means one can recruit fellow gang members to assist on missions. They will follow, fire, pursue and then try to get in the car with you to go back home.
* PlotDrivenBreakdown: In the second half of one of the last Los Santos missions, you're given an old, poorly-maintained AK-47[[note]]particularly egregious as [=AK=]s [[MadeOfIndestructium hardly ever jam at all]][[/note]] to defend the car you're escaping in. About halfway through that sequence (right as the police manage to set up an effective road block), it irreparably jams.
* PlotTriggeringDeath: C.J. comes back from Liberty City to attend his mother's funeral.
* PlotlineDeath: A character who has the oomph to resist multiple bullets moments ago (on the roof of Madd Dogg's mansion) gets taken down by a single bullet in the foyer.
* PopTheTires: Richard Burns [[Radio/GTARadio on the news]] is riding with cops trying to stop illegal street racing, and Richard then tries to shoot out a car's tires.
* PostProcessingVideoEffects: There's a number of tone mapping filters applied between buildings. You can notice the entire world change color outside as you step inside certain buildings. Film grain pops up during rainfall.
* PowerupLetdown: Satchel charges. They're only required for a few missions and they have very little use outside any mission where your target is already on the move. They're fun for a quick laugh if you want to screw around, but the money spent could have been used for other guns.
* PretenderDiss: OG Loc, a black kid who tries so hard to be gangsta it hurts to watch. His rapping is just as bad.
* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: OG Loc is pathetic as a "gangsta"[[note]]he's black, but this trope covers that as well[[/note]]. He ''does'' manage to make a music career out of it for a while, but that's only because he had C.J. steal Madd Dogg's rhyme book.
* PrettyInMink: Some of the women pedestrians walk around in a fur coat.
** Spoofed when a pimp claims he has loads of stuff made of mink.
** Also spoofed in [[Radio/GTARadio a radio ad]] about selling fur coats to guys in a mid-life crisis.
* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo ([[{{Prequel}} Sort Of]]): The [[SilentProtagonist quiet player character]] from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' (Claude) makes a cameo as the new boyfriend of C.J.'s ex-girlfriend, Catalina. C.J. refers to him as "[[LampshadeHanging that mute asshole]]".
** In the meathouse shootout mission where Ken Rosenberg is accompanying C.J., he sometimes shouts:
--->'''Ken''': Just like old times, [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Tommy]]!\\
'''C.J.''': [[LampshadeHanging Who the fuck is Tommy?]]
* PrisonRape:
** OG Loc is implied to have been raped in prison. It's equally implied that the encounter was more consensual than he would like to admit.
** Tenpenny threatens to arrange for [[spoiler:Sweet]] to be raped in prison in order to coerce C.J. into doing his bidding.
* PrisonsAreGymnasiums: One mission has C.J. picking up his old friend Jeffrey (who now goes by "OG Loc") from prison. When they get a chance to talk, C.J. compliments him on his new muscular physique. OG Loc is quite proud of it himself, and touts prison as a great place to get into shape. C.J. notes he could have done that without going to jail, but OG Loc thinks doing it while imprisoned is important for street cred.
* ProdigalHero: C.J. does it twice: first time, at the beginning of the game when he returns from Liberty City, and second time, when [[spoiler:Sweet gets arrested]] and spends most of the game in San Fierro and Las Venturas, only coming back to Los Santos near the end of the game.
* ProfessionalKiller: The game features a main character that takes contracts to assassinate people.
* ProlongedVideoGameSequel: It's longer than ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' combined, and each city on the map could probably fill out an entire game by themselves.
* ProperlyParanoid: The Truth, who at first glance looks like your average [[TheStoner perpetually stoned]] NewAgeRetroHippie. But as the game goes on, more and more of the weird, seemingly random and/or insane stuff he talks about turns out to be true.
* PsychicStatic: The Truth convinces C.J. and co to "Think of a pink golf ball" and other such oddities when you reach different locations. He doesn't say WHY he says to do these things, but it's presumably to make sure C.J. doesn't think that he's avoiding a mind-scan, which would tip off whoever is reading your mind that you're trying to avoid having your mind read.
* PsychoExGirlfriend: Catalina is one of these to C.J.
* SuperSwimmingSkills: And quite a drastic switch from the SuperDrowningSkills of all the preceding entries in the series at that.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:R-Z]]
* RacingTheTrain: The mission "Wrong Side of the Tracks" involves you and Big Smoke trying to chase a train while on a dirt bike so that he can shoot the rival gang members atop the train. It's tough since [[GuideDangIt the game never tells you]] that you need to be at least another train's width away from the train so that Big Smoke can hit them.
-->"All we had to do was follow the damn train, C.J.!"
* RammingAlwaysWorks: A fun pastime if you made it through the game is to catch special cars, appearing during missions, that are not meant to be caught. Mostly by exploding them and get them to your garage to unlock the doors. That one car was impossible to get - it was everything-proof. Until a complete genius had the idea to land with a parachute on it. Yeah, it took a bit of damage by that! <kaboom> Congratulation, you are now owner of a BP/EP/FP/CP/MP Bravura.
* RareGuns: C.J. can acquire the Desert Eagle when he reaches Las Venturas, though there's a free one lurking around the Los Santos, and just a block away from your safehouse in San Fierro.
* RealIsBrown: Check out the graphics. An unmistakable brownish-gray trend emerges. The game might justify this by imitating the look of early '90s films set in South Central.
* RealMenWearPink: A couple missions feature the Ballas ambushing the Grove Street Families in a hot pink car. While C.J. can't get any pink clothes, he can get a pink mohawk.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Kendl gives one to C.J. when he complains about the state of the garage he's received, telling him that he's wanted rewards without work, and can't see an opportunity when one falls into his lap.
* RecklessGunUsage: In [[Radio/GTARadio one of the radio segments]], [[TheAhnold Jack Howitzer]] threatens to kill host Billy Dexter unless he touches Jack's genitals (ItMakesSenseInContext... sorta) and then says he was just fooling around and that his gun was unloaded, only for it to [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace go off and kill Dexter]].
* RecursiveReality: The infamous DummiedOut HotCoffeeMinigame has a ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' poster hanging up in the wall, especially odd given that characters from ''Vice City'' do appear in this game. Given that the minigame wasn't finished, the poster was probably just a placeholder.
** For examples that did make it in the final product, there's a theater in Los Santos featuring a wall of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' posters and Zero RC selling ''Vice City'' and ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'' figures.
* RedplicaBaron: ''San Andreas'' features a red remote-controlled bi-plane called "RC Baron".
* ReliablyUnreliableGuns: In the mission "Reuniting the Families", Ryder hands your character an ancient, POS AK-47 that jams to the point of uselessness [[PlotDrivenBreakdown right when you need it.]]
* ResignationsNotAccepted: C.J. finds out that this is also true about gang-banging. So, he [[spoiler:''takes over the entire state''.]]
* RewatchBonus: [[spoiler:Before Big Smoke does his FaceHeelTurn, the game drops several subtle hints at it]]:
** [[spoiler:Big Smoke's house is in Idlewood, which is Ballas territory]].
** [[spoiler:During the Drive-Thru mission, Big Smoke is too preoccupied with eating his food to shoot the enemy gang members. At first, it just seems like Smoke is being a FatBastard, but the mission "The Green Sabre" casts his actions in a new light]].
** [[spoiler:During the "Reuniting the Families" mission, Big Smoke and Ryder leave Sweet and C.J. to take on the LSPD by themselves]].
* RiceBurner: Customizing was one of the new features made available - though some cars are much better suited to it (hint: an actual sports car can take more modifications and already goes fast anyway). In keeping with the trope, most of these will make no difference whatsoever to the car's performance, a notable exception being the NitroBoost.
* RiddleForTheAges: We never do find out just what the green goo The Truth gets is.
* RightThroughHisPants: The infamous "hot coffee" mini-games has Carl keeping his pants on while the women he beds are usually nude.
* RightThroughTheWall: When C.J. chooses to have "coffee" (sex) with one of his girlfriends, the camera stays outside the home and the sounds of them having sex are muffled, as if we're listening to them through the wall. Later games with this option, ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' (and its {{DLC}}s) and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', also keep the camera outside during "coffee" or "booty calls", but the sounds are no longer muffled.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: The game features one mission where C.J. must sneak on a farm owned by a Waco-esque group in order to steal their combine harvester for The Truth. They shoot at him on sight -- although C.J. ''is'' trespassing with the intention of committing theft, he barely steps foot on his property before they start firing. Also, they shout racial slurs at C.J. and clearly enjoy hunting him down. [[ChunkySalsaRule But once you actually get to the harvester...]]
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The bent cop Tenpenny works for an anti-gang unit C.R.A.S.H. -- Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums. The unit is (very loosely) based on a real life police counter-gang unit gone bad. In real life the Los Angeles Police Department was rocked by the C.R.A.S.H. Rampart scandal.
** CJ's mother was killed in a drive-by from a green Sabre, [[spoiler:which is later found in a police garage.]] This is directly based off the black Chevrolet Impala SS in the drive-by which killed [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Chris Wallace]], which although related happened in 1997.
** Towards the end of the game, [[spoiler:the riot that breaks out in Los Santos is a take on the Rodney King beating trial riot]].
* RiskStyleMap: There's a color-coded overlay for the turf wars in Los Santos, denoting blocks and sometimes even streets as belonging to a certain gang.
* RoadBlock: The roads are blocked due to an earthquake some time prior to the game events that has destroyed most bridges. Since your character can swim, there's also a BorderPatrol in the shape of a wanted level whenever you leaved the unlocked area.
* RougeAnglesOfSatin: An interesting FreudianSlip is to misspell "martial arts" as "marital arts". It appears on the billboard of a usable gym in San Fierro. Easy mistake to make but [[RefugeInAudacity since this is]] ''[[RefugeInAudacity GTA]]''...
* RPGElements: Unlike previous games, C.J.'s skills improve the more he uses them. Physical activity (running, biking) improves stamina, swimming improves lung capacity, weight lifting increases strength, vehicles become easier to control the more C.J. uses them (in specific categories; four-wheel, two-wheel, flying, pedals), guns have greater accuracy and range with use (and you can strafe while aiming), and he can even learn new combat moves from trainers at the various gyms. The player also has to eat occasionally in order to stay healthy. If C.J. goes without eating for too long, it begins to drain his fat. Once that's gone, muscle and stamina follows. Conversely, eating too much builds fat that affects his strength and stamina accordingly. C.J.'s physical appearance also feeds into his relationships with his girlfriends. Some like C.J. to be wearing certain clothes and fat is generally looked down on. Fortunately, several of these statistics can be bypassed through various means. If you find all 50 oysters in the game, C.J. has infinite lung capacity and will automatically be attractive regardless of appearance. If you earn $10,000 in the Burglary side mission, you gain infinite stamina. Compared to the [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV sequel]], the work required to keep on top of these elements is fairly light and often optional.
* RuderAndCruder: Previously GTA games have the character speak like an elite, with instances of "shit" not reaching even 20. Now here the swearing is off-the-wall, especially for the GangBanger characters, and Rockstar wouldn't look back before this game anymore for the succeeding installment while writing their scripts.
* RunningGag:
** Catalina will periodically call Carl to tell him how happy she is and how she [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial doesn't miss him at all]]. She does this well through to the end of the game.
** People calling Carl a terrible driver.
** No matter how good C.J. dresses. Even if he drives a CoolCar such as a Cheetah, and wears the best clothes from Didier Sachs, and has a great haircut such as a cornrow, and has a slender but muscular physique and wears no tattoos, many [[NonPlayerCharacter pedestrians]] will complain about C.J.'s smell. This is ironically especially true of poorer and middle class civilians in San Andreas. Fortunately not all types of pedestrians care about C.J.'s smell. Gang members, emergency personnel and, surprisingly, most of the rich pedestrians never seem to mind C.J.'s smell. The smell is linked to the sex appeal stat; the higher sex appeal Carl has, the better he smells. The only way to keep the sex-appeal stat high at all times is to constantly change outfits (and only the more expensive clothes are valid).
** Despite all of CJ's efforts to keep the casino heist a secret, more and more people just keep on stumbling into he and Woozie's planning hall, finding out about it, and then being inadvertently recruited. It eventually gets to the point where just about ''every single friend and ally CJ has made throughout the game'' plus the janitor is now in on the heist.
* RuthlessForeignGangsters: The Da Nang Boys, Vietnamese drug dealers, and human smugglers all try to muscle in on both the San Fierro Triads and the Loco Syndicate. Since the latter two groups have C.J. on the payroll, it doesn't go well for the others.
* {{Sadist}}:
** Catalina. She loves to cause misfortune or suffering to others, including sexual, and this is evident when she tortures C.J. for sexual pleasure.
** Tenpenny and Pulaski. Both of them love throwing their weight around and watching their mark, who usually happens to be CJ, squirm.
* SafetyGearIsCowardly: In the final mission, C.J. taunts [[spoiler:Big Smoke]] for wearing body armour, contrary to his gangsta image, Ryder also mocks a member of the Ballas for doing the same in a previous mission. The fact that [[GameplayAndStorySegregation C.J. can buy body armor at stores]] doesn't seem to count.
* SatchelCharge: ''San Andreas'' features a satchel charge as one of the available weapons in the game, being the remote-detonated variety. They become available for purchase at any Ammu-Nation store for 2000 USD following the "Against All Odds" mission.
* SatelliteCharacter: Kendl is for the most part C.J.'s sister/Cesar's girlfriend.
* SaveScumming:
** You can save scum to build up all the money you'll ever need by gambling, if you're willing to spend several hours. This is most easily accomplished after you've unlocked the Las Venturas mission strands and can save at the casino. Simply gamble at your choice of game (video poker is a popular one) and save when you win big, or quit/reset when you lose all your money).
** Another method of doing this which can be accessed earlier in the game is to use the betting shop in Blueberry. Catalina's house on Fern Ridge has a save spot and a fast car that spawns on every load. The road down the ridge leads directly to the Shop, and only takes about 30 seconds. Betting on the longshot has a massive payout and can net you a huge income very quickly.
** ''San Andreas'' introduced ways to let the player keep their weapons after death or arrest to discourage save scumming: it had a few missions where you would lose all of your guns at the start of a mission, pissing off players who had been save scumming to keep their guns and finding out they have to lose them anyway.
* SawedOffShotgun: With the advantage of greater spread and no real reduction in power versus the basic shotgun. Not only can sawed-off shotguns be wielded like pistols, but C.J. can use ''[[GunsAkimbo two at once]]'' with enough practice. [[MST3KMantra Best not to think about how he reloads]].
* ScatterbrainedSenior: Old Reece is implied to be this, as Ryder mentions the former having 'popped his membrane years ago'. Indeed, he will talk to C.J. in a manner that suggests he is mentally in the past.
* SceneryPorn: Being a sandbox game, ''San Andreas'' doesn't have much in the way of huge, time-consuming panoramic shots of the landscape, but the love and attention to detail is clear. [[FictionalCounterpart Las Venturas]] is, barring certain plot-and-legality-based changes and scale, almost perfectly accurate to the Strip and Fremont Street in real life (at least, how they were in the '90s; Fremont Street has since become 'The Fremont Street Experience').
** Dated visuals aside, the countryside is still quite beautiful, with its rolling hills, tall trees and open meadows and fields that are easy to get lost and immersed in. On the other hand, it can also be [[NothingIsScarier quite creepy, especially at night]].
* SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp: One of the motorcycle cop voices in the game is an inversion of this trope. You might sometimes hear him tell C.J. that he was the one who bullied him back when they were kids.
* SchrodingersGun: In the mission "Green Goo", it's always the third box that contains the eponymous green goo you're looking for.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski were assigned to stop gangs and instead tried to control them.
** Toreno has elements of this, although he's aware that many of his actions have to stay quiet.
* SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: Reversed in one mission you are required to kill a group of construction workers (they looked at your sister funny or something). The mission is fairly routine until the last guy, who runs into a portable bathroom and you push him into a pit and fill it with cement. He gets rescued offscreen later, though, apparently.
* SecretAIMoves: Only the AI has the ability to do drive-by shootings with the basic Pistol in non-missions.
* SecretKeeper: C.J. has a few things to hide from some of his acquaintances:
** Denise was trapped in a house fire caused by him.
** Madd Dogg [[spoiler:was driven to suicide due to C.J. killing his manager and stealing his rhyme book.]]
* SelectiveCondemnation:
** The game contains a central plot point involving the protagonist being forced to do the bidding of a crooked cop, who has in his possession a gun used in the murder of a police officer. He threatens to use it to frame C.J., and it's implied that this gun alone is evidence enough for a murder conviction and life imprisonment sentence. However, in-game, the player can freely murder police officers in broad daylight (often dozens at a time), and subsequently actually be arrested, with no dire consequences.
** Not to mention the time C.J. and Ryder stole a ton of guns from a National Guard depot, shooting dozens of soldiers in the process. You know, ''treason''.
** An optional side-quest requires C.J., the protagonist, to murder about twenty police officers. Why are they gunning for him? He took pictures of blueprints for a casino.
* SelectiveEnforcement: An early mission has you fleeing on bicycles from gangsters shooting at you with machine guns from a car. The police won't respond even as they stand in the gangster's line of fire, but so help you if your bike bumps into them.
* SenselessViolins: Implied in one mission, where you have to gun down a bunch of Mafia thugs who were going to carry out a hit disguised as a ''string quartet.''
* SeparateButIdentical: The Grove Street OG's hate the palette-swapped Ballas. The only real difference between the two crews is the Ballas sell cocaine; otherwise both are filled to the brim with violent psychotics.
** Similar goes for the two Latino gangs in San Andreas.
** The Ballas in the south near the beach differ in that they are armed with pistols at best.
* SequelEscalation: If you were expecting more of the same ''GTA III''/''Vice City'' gameplay, only set in the '90s and with RPG elements, boy were you in for a surprise.
* SequenceBreaking: It ''is'' possible to simply swim out of the parts of the game you're currently permitted to explore, but doing so sets the cops and even the navy on you. Most of this can avoided by making a jump over the guard building into the airport, getting into a plane and simply flying off (it does, however, mean flying while being attacked by Navy planes). Using this technique to complete all the optional goals before playing the actual story is a fairly popular SelfImposedChallenge.
** There are several missions in San Andreas that can be done in a way different from intended:
*** "Robbing Uncle Sam": Instead of opening the gate immediately after you enter the military base, you can kill every soldier already spawned on the place, then use the forklift to place the boxes near the entrance neatly waiting for when you finally shoot the gate's control panel to open and let Ryder drive inside.
*** "Wrong Side Of The Tracks": Instead of driving alongside the train and let Big Smoke kill the Vagos, you can overtake the train, ride your dirtbike on top of a nearby building using a few ramps and a bridge, then jump on top of the train and use the [=AK47=] or M4 to kill the Vagos yourself.
*** "Gray Imports": Rather than having to chase down the arms dealer through the warehouse and out on the streets, it's possible to get just the right angle on his office door that you can see (and shoot) him before the game triggers his fleeing.
*** "Badlands": Instead of facing off against the FBI agents to kill the witness, you can scare him into getting into his car and running away. When you're out of the FBI's range, you can shoot his car until he bails and kill him easily.
*** "Local Liquor Store": Why use the QuadBike if you can leave a Sanchez nearby and use it to chase the thieves?
*** "The Da Nang Thang": You lose all your weapons during the helicopter crash, but since there's no timer in this mission, you can go back to the city, stock up on weapons, armor and ammo, then go back and finish the job.
*** "Ice Cold Killa": Pop the tires of Jizzy's car before entering the Pleasuredome. When he tries to flee using his car, it's much easier to chase him.
*** "Pier 69": Instead of jumping on the water and swimming after [[spoiler:Ryder]], just shoot him from the dock with the Sniper Rifle.
*** "Toreno's Last Flight": Get the Heat Seeking Rocket Launcher from the airport before starting the mission. When the chopper takes flight, it's just a matter of locking on it and firing. Same can be done in ''Interdiction''.
*** In "Misappropriation", the game wants you to have a spectular chase using among other things a helicopter. You can bypass it all by sneaking in quickly enough in the place where the case is, kill the guy who's carrying it, grab the case and flee.
*** In the PC version of "Freefall", a technically non-cheating way to finish this easily is to [[spoiler:open Notepad as administrator > open handling.cfg in GTA SA directory > change Dodo's drag value from 12 to 6. Or 2. Just tune them how you like them.]]
*** There's actually two ways of beating "High Noon". The first is pop the tires of [[spoiler:Pulaski]]'s Buffalo and chase him afterwards as normal, or you can get a Minigun and fire away as soon as the cop enters the car. A few seconds of blasting and the car will go up in flames. (Oddly enough the car will be intact in the cutscene and afterwards.)
*** After the mission "Vertical Bird", the Minigun will spawn in Toreno's ranch amongst other weapons. Why don't you get yourselves a bargain and keep 10000 Minigun ammo for bloody missions down the line (such as [[spoiler:gangbanging and killing Big Smoke]])? Sure some dialogues might not trigger, but it's better than dying...
** Other than that, there's still the side missions; the "Chiliad Challenge" for example. Instead of winning your races, you can come in dead last, and using a sniper rifle, kill the competition after they crossed the finish line but you still haven't. Killing the competition also works on the "Dirt Track".
* SerialKiller: Catalina. In fact, she has three bodies buried in her backyard.
* SetAMookToKillAMook: This is quite fun to do. Unless two mooks are specifically on the same side, any mook will attack the mook that attacked it last (or run away). You can often offend someone into attacking you, and then get the police to kill them for you (or the other way around). Irate taxi drivers are particularly useful; climb onto the roof of their cab and [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight they'll ignore you entirely]], but when the guy chasing you throws a punch at your ankle and [[WatchThePaintJob hits their car]], they'll be brawling in no time.
* SexyDiscretionShot: The player can choose to sleep with his girlfriends. If he does so, the camera shows the outside of the house while you hear the sounds of love. Amusingly, Rockstar was actually planning to allow the player to control the sex scenes, but wisely changed the game to prevent it. When a man later discovered them, it spawned the infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_coffee Hot Coffee mod controversy]].
** It also happens in the intro to the "Gone Courting" mission, where Catalina decides to jump C.J.'s bones, and from what she brings into the encounter in question, she's quite into S&M.
** Not to mention, the player can pick up hookers on the street and take them to a quiet area for some ''fun''. This causes the car to rock violently, but nothing can be viewed... Unless you change the camera to see inside the car, when both the player's character and his prostitute just sitting there, facing forward and not moving, and the sounds apparently coming from nowhere.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Spoofed when one of the guests on a radio talk show, "Entertaining America", is a washed up action movie hero who earnestly believes everything that happened in his movies, including his friend dying in Vietnam, happened for real. And the host gets shot and killed by him when he calls him out on it.
* ShiftingSandLand; The desert around Las Venturas qualifies to some degree: although it's rather realistic, it has Native American reservations, ghost towns, rock formations with funny names, an abandoned airport, oil pumps, a big Hoover-like dam, a geyser, and even [[DoubleEntendre ''Area 69'']], the local version of the Area 51.
* ShirtlessScene: The game gives players the option to dress C.J. however they wish... that includes stripping him to his underpants for a nearly completely nude shootout with cops and rival gangsters! Is the block hot or is it just me?
* ShootTheFuelTank: The game allows you to instantly detonate a car if you aim for the gas cap. Even if you can clearly see the rest of the tank, as on lorries, ''only'' the cap will set it off. Maybe they're [[{{Pun}} blasting caps]]?
* ShopliftAndDie: Been doing a little gambling in a casino, and you're a bit in the red? No problem, they'll give you time to pay them back... about five minutes in real time. After that, the casino owner will send a hit squad of four guys with SMG's after you. Even if you happen to be the casino owner...
** And when you kill them, they drop a ''lot'' of money. An interesting way to pay off your debt.
* ShoutOut[=/=]ReferenceOverdosed: [[ShoutOut/GrandTheftAuto All on this page]].
* ShovelStrike: Shovels can be found and used as melee weaponry. Farmers are often equipped with it.
* ShowWithinAShow: The game includes a large number of in-game radio stations that can be listened to from any vehicle (or even simply during the pause screen). Content ranges from music and dynamically updated news bulletins, to complete talk shows and phone-in programs.
* SignsOfDisrepair: A billboard shows a girl drinking a bottle of milky-white soda. At the end of a mission, C.J.'s out-of-control car changes its message from "A taste of what's to come!" to "A taste of come!"
* SillinessSwitch: It's possible, with the right cheats, to have hordes of Elvis (Elvii) and fast food employees rioting through the city while any car hit goes flying into space.
* ASimplePlan: "All we had to do, was follow the damn train, CJ!"
* SimpleYetAwesome: The mountain bike. Unlike the Bike and the BMX[[labelnote:+]]listed above under BoringButPractical[[/labelnote]], it's a really fast vehicle with an acceleration rate that puts even motorcycles to shame if you pedal fast. It also has the benefits of the Bike and BMX of being indestructible and very agile in cramped quarters. The only downsides are that it's ''very'' rare (one guaranteed to spawn on top of Mount Chiliad, which also start a racing event at certain daylight hours, and regardless of win or lost, you can keep the bike), and bunny hops with it are rather short even on max cycling skill (although there's a trick to jumping higher by shooting your gun at the precise moment you let go of the jump button).
* SimultaneousWarningAndAction: The San Fierro Police are trained social workers. That means they try to "open a constructive dialog" while beating Carl with their nightsticks.
* SinkOrSwimMentor: Mike Toreno "teaches" C.J. to learn to fly by giving him a plane and ordering him to figure it out for himself.
* SkewedPriorities: While he and the rest of his friends are being attacked by Ballas, Big Smoke would rather focus on eating all his food (and for that matter, [[VillainousGlutton everyone else's]]) than fire back at gangsters ''trying to kill him''. [[spoiler:Subverted when you find out he secretly betrayed Grove Street and has been working for the Ballas the whole time.]]
* SlashCommand: The game can be patched to play online. Most servers have hundreds of commands, and every one is different, so switching is always an exercise in frustration.
* SlashedThroat: It's possible to do this. It's not possible to see it in the console version, since the third-person camera view obscures the sight, but it sounds pretty messy. The PC port, on the other hand, allows for the player to see it in full – it's an initial deep stab followed by C.J. ripping the blade out the front of the victim's neck.
* SleevesAreForWimps: C.J. starts out wearing a white tanktop.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games generally lie heavily on the cynical side. As an example, in ''San Andreas'', the only two police officers that seem non-corrupt are both killed by the corrupt ones that drive the plot. Even generic cutscene cops often care more about taking bribes or eating snacks than actual justice.
** Even then ''San Andreas'' was more optimistic than the other ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games in the franchise. Carl and Sweet managed to defeat the corrupt cops and their traitors without losing anyone close to them, especially after Cesar pulled a Retirony moment out. Compared to what happens to the later VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto protagonists, ''San Andreas'' is by far the most optimistic of the franchise as the sequels will not be so kind to the other protagonists who lose everything close to them.
--->'''The Truth:''' You know, I mean, you beat the system! I tried for thirty years to cross over, but you've maaaanaged it, man! I mean, man, you're an icon, man!
* SlidingScaleOfVideoGameWorldSizeAndScale: The game would fall under a form of '''real-time, small scale world''' (for example you can drive across San Andreas in a couple of minutes, even though it's meant to represent a whole state). However, the game also features the '''locked doors everywhere''' feature, in that there are usually tons of buildings but few, if any, are actually enterable.
** Driving times ARE shortened by the fact that you're normally driving pedal-to-the-metal without a care about crashing. But even if you did drive like people do IRL, the locations are still much smaller than their real-world inspiration.
* SmallNameBigEgo:
** Sage, the DJ at grunge/alternative station Radio X, to the point that she's an in-universe [[TheScrappy Scrappy.]]
** Ryder talks big and acts like he's "too fucking intelligent" to go to school. While Ryder is a decent shot with a gun, even Sweet tells Ryder that C.J. (the player character) has been doing all the work and might be better at being a gangbanger than Ryder is. [[spoiler:After you discover Ryder betrayed your gang for a rival gang, he still acts like he's the best. Luckily, you get to put a bullet in his head.]]
* SmartCopDumbCop: The game provides a more malicious take on this trope. Frank Tenpenny is the EvilGenius, while Eddie Pulaski is the dumb racist (though not towards his boss).
* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: Big Smoke has this reaction when your car is attacked by a car full of Ballas gang members, chowing down on the food everyone just ordered instead of shooting like the others. [[spoiler:Of course, considering he defected to the Ballas before the game started, this turns out to be more {{foreshadowing}} about his betrayal.]]
* SnowMeansDeath: This is present when C.J. returns to Liberty City later in the game, he shows some Italian mobsters how to have fun in the snow, Grove Street style.
* SoccerHatingAmericans: The host of "The Tight End Zone" calls out to fans of various sports before lashing out at soccer fans.
-->''Your game is terrible and we don't win at it.''
* SocialClimber: Progression in WideOpenSandbox games often features examples of this, where the PlayerCharacter starts poor but eventually becomes super-wealthy, his mission-givers also show the same progression. The most extreme example is the hero Carl Johnson, who grows up in a Los Angeles slum with poor weapons and neighbourhood gun-fights, graduates to working with the Triads, moonlights with a corrupt American agent and then becomes a wealthy entrepreneur in the casino business while tussling with the Italian Mob for turf.
* SocietyIsToBlame: Done satirically. When the player beats or kills someone or steals a car, CJ will sometimes spout lines like "Don't blame me, blame society!"
* SoftWater: You can get into a jet, go over a body of water at full screaming-engine speed and drop without a parachute and all you'll get will be wet clothes. Of course, previous games in the series [[SuperDrowningSkills lacked a swimming mechanic]], and so treated any body of water greater than waist-deep as a pool of instant death.
* SomeDexterityRequired: A staple of the ''GTA'' series, some missions are made difficult NOT by actually being hard but by forcing the player to use cars with inferior to awful handling. Case in point: Race across San Fierro would be MUCH easier if the car didn't fishtail every time you tried to turn. Same goes for the 8-track stadium car racing.
* SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness: The game tries to keep this in effect. The weapons you can't get in the starting city are the M4 (better assault rifle) and some of the heavy weapons, which can show up in later towns. The gun shops unlock according to a pattern as well ... although there's nothing stopping you from {{sidequest}}ing your way to an arsenal.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Can happen at anytime when you listen to the radio while driving, but there is also at least one deliberate example: When you have to go to Liberty City to execute a hit in a restaurant (i.e. it turns into an [[MoreDakka action packed gunfight]]), quiet classical music is playing in said restaurant.
** Radio X contains [[Music/PrimalScream 'Movin' On Up']], a heartwarming and inspirational song that simply doesn't mesh with the drive-bys and manslaughter.
** Radio Los Santos typically plays type 1 and 2 GangstaRap that suits the game perfectly. But then we have '[[Music/TooShort The Ghetto]]' and 'Hood Took Me Under', both of which are certainly not glorified takes on gangster culture.
** In the original sixth-generation console releases, if CJ took his girlfriend on a bad date, "Killing In The Name" by Music/RageAgainstTheMachine would accompany the resulting cutscene. In all subsequent re-releases, however, said song is removed from the game due to the license for it expiring, so the "good date" music plays in its place during bad dates. The result? Happy music playing over CJ's girlfriend berating and throwing food at him, clearly not enjoying their time together.
* SpeedRun: The game was dominated in [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/GrandTheftAutoSA.html six hours nine minutes]]. Though that wasn't in a single sitting.
** Years later, this records has been shattered, with the WR for San Andreas being [[http://www.speedrunrecords.com/Grand_Theft_Auto_San_Andreas/run/551 5:24:17 by UltimateOmega07]] ''done in a single sitting''.
** As of 2019, the Any% record has fallen all the way to fifteen minutes due to a glitch called [[https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/ddrsfd/grand_theft_auto_san_andreas_skip_that_saves_over/ Arbitrary Jump in Script]] that allows the player to skip almost the entire game. The record without this glitch is just under four hours.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: OG Loc's name is ''not'' pronounced "Ogg Lock".
* SpicyLatina: Catalina definitely counts as this, and so does Michelle.
* SpitefulAI: The police cars don't really do much except try to crash into you as hard as possible. They don't mind flipping over in crazy ways that no normal human could survive, or brutally totaling their car every now and then. [[AttackAttackAttack They just want to TAKE YOU DOWN]].
** Even if you're driving a tank and their cars instantly explode when they hit, the LemmingCops will still constantly ram you just to slowly drain your HitPoints.
** Another way the police AI hates you is seen when other criminals go after you. In one of the early missions, you can be riding a bicycle while three men in a car are gunning you down. Even if a policeman is standing in the line of fire, he won't respond. But god help you if your bicycle hits the policeman. In some games, the police may be in a neutral or hostile (to you) state, and any criminal action against the police by AI enemies will lead to the police blaming YOU for it.
* TheSpook: Mike Toreno. Even his name is suspect, since he was [[spoiler:working undercover]] when C.J. was introduced to him.
* SpySpeak: In a mission cutscene, you overhear [[TheMenInBlack government agent]] Mike Toreno's radio conversation:
-->'''Mike Toreno:''' Roger that, Big Monkey, I got a 13-6 fat vulture. Need to acquire a drowning baby. Over. [gets interrupted by Carl's arrival] In 15 by the moon. Break your heart. Over and out.
* StealthBasedMission: Some of the storyline missions and the "Burglar" side mission follow this formula. They are generally not too difficult, and actually quite engaging, as they take cues from [[VideoGame/{{Manhunt}} another infamous game by Rockstar]].
* StealthPun: Big Smoke's icon on the radar is "BS"; which while those are his initials, they're also short for "bullshit". It foreshadows that his missions [[spoiler:are done for the benefit of C.R.A.S.H., not the Grove Street Families, despite him claiming otherwise]].
* SteelEarDrums: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in a mission. C.J. and Catalina chase after redneck bank-robbers on a quad; C.J.'s driving, Catalina's shooting while sitting behind him. C.J. keeps on berating her shooting right next to his ears, even saying at one point that he thinks he's gone deaf. However, he suffers no hearing loss whatsoever, and all other instances of people being gunners in/on the same vehicle as him go without any mention from him. (The difference between Catalina and all other instances is that [[AxCrazy Catalina is a lot more trigger-happy than the others are]].)
* StickyBomb: There are remote-detonated satchel charges that when thrown stick to any wall, vehicle, or [[BreadEggsMilkSquick innocent bystander]].
* StillWearingTheOldColors: [[spoiler:Big Smoke and Ryder still wear their [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience Grove Street Family greens]] long after betraying the gang to work with the purple-clad Ballas and yellow-clad Vagos]].
* TheStinger: Immediately after the credits have rolled and you are dumped back into the gameplay after completing the final plot mission in the game, Catalina will call Carl to yell at him one final time.
* TheStoner: The Truth and Ryder. A few of the recurring characters from ''Vice City'', as well.
* StonersAreFunny: The Truth.
* StormingTheCastle: The cops do this to your motel, then you do this on [[spoiler:Smoke]]'s crack house.
* StoryDrivenInvulnerability: The "OG Loc" mission, where you can shoot at Freddy while chasing him by motorcycle, but you can't actually kill him until after the chase. [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules Unfortunately, he can damage you while you're chasing him]].
* StoryOverwrite: In the mission "Dam and Blast", you have to sneak into the Sherman Dam and rig the power generators with explosives. Even if you get in, plant all the explosives, and get out without being spotted by the guards, the following cutscene will still show C.J. running away from the police.
* StrangeSecretEntrance: The game [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this in a way, by having a sign that reads "There are no Easter eggs here, go away" on top of a massive bridge, and in itself features a presumably unintentional version of this with the legendary [[MinusWorld "hidden interiors"]].
* StupidCrooks: Very early, C.J.'s friend Ryder tries to rob a Pizza Stack where he is a regular customer. He wears a PaperThinDisguise that consists of taking his hat off and putting on a nearly-transparent mask. The results are as expected.
-->'''Clerk:''' Ryder? [[OhNoNotAgain Not this again]]!\\
'''Ryder:''' [[ImplausibleDeniability It ain't me, foo]]'!\\
'''Clerk:''' No one else is that small. I feel sorry for your dad!
** Also, turns out the clerk is [[MuggingTheMonster better armed than Ryder is]].
* StupidSurrender: This game is quite possibly the [[TooDumbToLive Crowning Moment of Stupid]] for this trope, more so because Rockstar Games had, even when the game was first released, developed a reputation for [[LampshadeHanging hanging lampshades]] and PaintingTheMedium. C.J. not only surrenders without a fight the moment crooked cops Tenpenny and Pulaski point guns at him, but even spends several hours digging his own grave with Pulaski standing over him after Tenpenny has left to do more important things than keep a gun trained on a guy wearing 200% armor, 200% hit points, and strapped with weapons ranging from katanas to rocket launchers to rocket jetpacks. Only when Pulaski is about to execute the compliant C.J. does he drop his gun for no apparent reason at all, which is apparently the trigger CJ needs to start trying to fight back... but only after he lets Pulaski climb into his (explosion and bullet proof but strangely not impact proof) cop car parked several meters away. Because the goal of the mission is to kill Pulaski, and it just has to be done only after engaging in a car chase along the entire length and breadth of the game map.
* StylisticSuck: The one OG Loc song we hear, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyl-MN8JdQA It's Loc Baby]]", contains all the things common in bad GangstaRap songs rolled into one: A simplistic and repetitive beat, random shout outs, extremely short verses and terrible wordplay. [[EarWorm Doesn't stop it from being incredibly catchy]].
* SuicideAsComedy: We hear this on the radio:
-->'''James:''' Hello, you're on "The Wild Traveler". Where are you?\\
'''Caller:''' I'm on a cliff.
-->'''James:''' How romantic!
-->'''Caller:''' I want to jump!
-->'''James:''' Yes, I know what you mean. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Jump into the unknown.]] How can it be a sin if it feels good? Anyway, why are you calling?
-->'''Caller:''' Why am I here?
-->'''James:''' I don't know. Why are you there? Where are you? Kenya?
-->'''Caller:''' No, I'm in Verdant Bluffs.
-->'''James:''' Loathsome place. I'd jump if I were you.
-->'''Caller:''' I want to go to Hell.
-->'''James:''' Me too! Buy a refrigerator magnet when you get there!
* SuicideDare: Madd Dogg is on top of a building thinking about jumping after losing all his money and his rhyme book. A couple of bystanders encourage him to jump.
* SuperDrowningSkills: The first game in the series to [[AvertedTrope avert]] this... unless your name isn't Carl Johnson and you're not a mission critical NPC, a GSF member following CJ, or [[DevelopersForesight a swimsuit-clad bystander]]. Then you die the second you hit even a shallow pond.
* SurprisinglyEasyMiniQuest: There are a couple instances where you lose all your weapons, no matter if you never get wasted or arrested (or never save when that happens). The next few missions after each on have the good grace to drop in difficulty until you get your stock up, although it's not a cakewalk.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: In one of the very first missions, Ryder puts his cap backwards and goes to rob the local Pizza Stack. But when the cashier recognizes him due to his height and voice (and, obviously, his PaperThinDisguise):
--> '''Ryder:''' Give up the money! This' a raid!\\
'''Cashier:''' Ryder! Not this again!\\
'''Ryder:''' It ain't me, foo'!\\
'''Cashier:''' I don't know anyone so small! I feel sorry for your dad!
* SwordFight: Played, to a point. One mission gives you the choice of going sword to sword against a crimelord. Your other options involve whatever other guns you picked up on the way to him.
* TakeAThirdOption: After completing "Key To Her Heart", you are presented with two options in order to get [[SafeSaneAndConsensual Millie Perkins]]' keycard for the heist of Caligula's Palace: [[VideoGameCaringPotential Date her]] like you would with any of the other girlfriends, or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential kill her]] and [[CuttingTheKnot get to the heist sooner]]. If you're feeling impatient but not particularly bloodthirsty, you could instead have CJ wear the gimp suit and visit Millie. Doing this will grant a 10% relationship boost and save you some time.
* TakeOverTheCity: ''San Andreas'' upped the ante and gave you three cities to conquer.
* TakeThat:
** Quite a few at ''VideoGame/Driv3r'' and ''True Crime: Streets of LA'', most notably a billboard in Los Santos with "True Grime: Street Cleaners". Also, at the War Memorial in San Fierro, at the top and bottom are tombstones that read "R.I.P Opposition 1997-2004". Also HilariousInHindsight, due to ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' coming into existence [[VideoGame/SaintsRow1 two years later]].
** Get a Bullet off of the Import/Export ship and read it's license plate. "[[Creator/ElectronicArts EA]] SUCKS" and "FUCK YOU" can be read on them occasionally.
* TakeThatAudience: Many characters insult CJ's driving and how dangerous and insane he is behind the wheel. Considering how most players handle their cars in GTA games, it's as much a commentary on the player's driving as it is CJ's.
* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: C.J. comes across Madd Dogg, who's threatening to jump. He makes a token effort to get him down, but in the end steals a straw truck so he lands semi-safely.
* TankGoodness: A series staple, the Rhino, returns with upgraded speed and handling as well as a new look based on the M1 Abrams. There's also a bulletproof SWAT tank in the final mission, though the only way to get it in normal gameplay is by exploiting the game mechanics to save it after failing the mission.
* TaughtByExperience: You pick up skills by performing them -- driving, shooting things with weapons, etc. -- and can earn large bonuses through schools.
* TechnicalPacifist: The Police Helicopter Pilot could be considered one of these:
-->'''Gunner:''' Why do I always do the shooting?\\
'''Pilot:''' Because I'm a pacifist! '''KILL HIM!'''
* TeleportingKeycardSquad: The mission "Vertical Bird". If you don't blow up the other two Hydras before stealing the third, three of them will chase you. If you do blow up those two, a single one will chase you anyway. And if you are fast enough to get on the deck and destroy the Hydra that's taking flight at that moment (wich one would assume is the one that chases you later), at least one Hydra will appear out of nowhere and chase you anyway.
* {{Thememobile}}: The Truth's "Mothership", a repainted camper van, is a great example. Several other major characters have their own vehicles, but for the most part they're only distinguished by a unique license plate.
** Players can also create their own Theme Mobiles thanks to the game's vehicle modification capabilities.
* ThemeTuneRap: CJ's voice actor is Young Maylay, an up-and-coming rapper. His debut album, "San Andreas: The Mix Tapes", features a song that has him rapping about the game in character as C.J.
* ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld: [[Radio/GTARadio Tommy "The Nightmare" Smith's]] view on the world: "There's two kinds of people in this world: Those who like me... and those who can go to hell!"
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: As the game progresses the player gains access to very powerful weaponry and vehicles, which can make a number of missions a cakewalk. The epitome of this is the Rhino, a near-indestructable tank, which can be used on everything from the game's Vigilante side-mission to running over hapless enemy gang members during the gang warfare stage of the game. It's also possible (though usually more trouble than it's worth) to do several missions using an assault helicopter if you place it where it needs to be in advance.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Subverted in one mission, which has you go to a drive-thru restaurant, only to be attacked by Ballas after you've got your food. This doesn't stop Big Smoke from enjoying his food instead of shooting at them [[spoiler:since he's also working with them.]]
** Played straight in another; a patrolling police officer comments to his colleague on wasting their donuts, discarding them on the road as they are radioed in to pursue C.J. and the crew.
* ThinkUnsexyThoughts: Maccer [[ADateWithRosiePalms is a chronic masturbator]]. To get him to stop, his manager tells him to "Think of Thatcher". Unfortunately, that just turns him on more.
* ThirtySecondBlackout: There's an optional sidequest composed of several sub-missions preparing for a big casino heist, ''Film/OceansEleven'' style. One of these missions involves planting [[StickyBomb remote controlled sticky bombs]] on the generators of the dam that powers the game's [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed Las Vegas analogue]], so they can be detonated and blackout the whole city during the heist. When it happens, the power stays off for a few minutes requiring the player to venture back upstairs and blow the cassino's back-up generators. Despite this, the city has power about a minute later.
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: "I ain't ''nobody'''s "ass technician", bitch!" - OG Loc
** CJ himself says things like "Leave me the hell alone, bitch!" when returning insults to [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]].
* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: C.J. invokes this trope on Sweet in the final mission. C.J. insists he takes on the BigBad alone in order to make up for running out on his gang when they needed him most.
* ToastedBuns: Averted with the Black Project Jetpack, which has outboard shoulder-level thrusters, by a simple use of [[RealLife actual]] design of Bell Rocket Belt that has exhaust pipes moved away and to the side of pilot's body. It is also a very practical vehicle to use; it is useful in collecting the [[GottaCatchEmAll hidden Horseshoes in Las Venturas]] and plays a central part in one of the game's most memorable missions.
* ToneShift: For the first quarter of the game, C.J.'s dealings in Los Santos are relatively realistic and grounded. There are some wacky moments here and there but nothing too out of the ordinary. Once C.J. is forced to leave Los Santos, the game goes up a couple levels in ridiculousness and peaks with the missions for Toreno and the Truth. The third quarter, where [[spoiler:C.J. goes back to Los Santos to see Sweet's release from prison]], is when the game goes back to the tone it had in the first quarter.
* TooAwesomeToUse: The combine harvesters. These vehicles had the unique and delightfully sadistic feature of turning crops of pedestrians into [[{{Gorn}} neatly bundled up bales of body parts]]. Unfortunately, the harvesters are rare, encountered only at certain times in rural areas. In addition, almost all of them are locked and can only be accessed by killing the driver of one already in use. Even after obtaining one, the size of the vehicle makes it difficult to move in populated areas and impossible to fit into a garage for safe keeping. Its slow speed and bad handling make the player easy for law enforcers (who inevitably start to show up after a few good mauls) to catch. Finally, if the player decides to exit the vehicle for any reason, the door locks behind them.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: C.J., the protagonist, [[VillainProtagonist isn't exactly a paragon of morality]], but he tends towards PragmaticVillainy. His friends are all dumb thugs to a greater or a lesser extent. A typical mission will begin with them explaining their latest scheme, him [[OnlySaneMan pointing out how risky it is]], them [[BerserkButton calling him a buster]] (mainly Ryder, for whom this is almost a CatchPhrase), and him agreeing to go along with what turns out to be an absolute clusterfuck with at least seven people shooting at him at once. [[{{Railroading}} Of course, if he didn't go along, we wouldn't have a plot]]...
* TrainEscape: The player can do delivery missions using trains. Initiating the delivery mission while wanted will cause the player to lose their wanted level.
* TrashTalk: C.J. does this all the time in combat. "Oh, look, a gun." *Blam*
* TheTriadsAndTheTongs: The San Fierro missions deal with this dynamic.
* TrueCompanions: The group C.J. builds during the course of the game is large, diverse and bound together like family.
* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Released in 2004, set in 1992. [[spoiler:Since San Andreas is an {{expy}} of early-'90s California, the ending features [[HistoricalInJoke the GTA universe's counterpart to the 1992 LA riots.]]]]
* UnconventionalVehicleChase: A pursuit mission in go-karts, preceded by hovercrafts, no less.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange: The game featured a couple of stealth segments in the main story, and more in the form of sidequests.
** Many of the missions were horribly designed, nearly impossible to control flight simulators. What truly makes this awful is that while flying itself was very straightforward and easy, the mandatory missions forced the player to use the poorest plane available. Imagine if the player had to do the street racing segments with a street sweeper, the slowest motor vehicle in the game.
** RC Plane, Quarry Missions, Cesar's Races, Pilot School, rhythm sequences...
* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: One of your missions as Carl is to date a chick in order to steal her key card to get access to a casino. In a game with some missions that won't even let you destroy your highly non-essential car without failing the mission, this mission has two options: Go on a couple of dates with her. [[CuttingTheKnot Or just kill her.]] You won't fail anything, and the key card will be right there in her house.
* UnexpectedShmupLevel: Subverted in The "Da Nang Thang", where it initially looks like it's going this route, only for your helicopter to be shot down almost immediately, forcing you to complete things on foot.
* UnexplainedRecovery: Villain [[spoiler:Toreno]] seemingly explodes in a helicopter. Several missions later, [[spoiler:he's having C.J. ride around in a monster truck. No explanation is given for living--or for the truck]].
** Its implied through his dialogue he just fooled C.J. into thinking [[spoiler:he got on the helicopter]] - he knew C.J. was trying to kill him, and needed him to think he had in order to get his help.
* UnflinchingWalk: This is without a doubt the most fun way to use the remote plastic explosive, and with the FreeRotatingCamera you can make sure you've got the best possible viewpoint.
* TheUnfought: Officer Tenpenny is the meanest, most {{manipulative|Bastard}} son of a bitch in the game, but you never get to actually fight him. After a city-wide car chase, he ends up losing control of his truck and driving right off a bridge through a concrete barrier, just in front of [[WhereItAllBegan C.J.'s home]]. [[spoiler:C.J. is convinced by Sweet not to drive a bullet into the man's head "just to make sure", and lets Tenpenny die of his own internal injuries.]]
* UngratefulBastard: Mike Toreno is very ungrateful when CJ and the other members of Mike's Loco Syndicate rescue him from the Da Nang Boys in Mike's self-titled mission. Upon being rescued, instead of thanking his rescuers, the first thing Mike does is point a gun at C.J. and say "Who the fuck is this?!".
* UnifiedNamingSystem: Grove Street Families vs. Kilo Street Ballas vs. Varrio Los Aztecas vs. [[OddNameOut Los Santos Vagos]].
* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: There's a well-known glitch occurring in the later mission "Madd Dogg". You're supposed to line up a truck full of hay under down-and-out rapper Madd Dogg before he jumps to his death, but for still-unconfirmed reasons he can commit suicide as soon as the mission cutscene ends. Fans speculate that this is caused by too many cheats being saved, though this has been mostly discredited. Another theory is that the pedestrian riot cheat has been activated, which makes Madd Dogg walk off the roof to attack the nearest person. There is no way to complete the story mode on the same save file if this happens.
* UniversalAmmunition: Pistols don't share ammunition (one fires a bigger bullet than the others, and another presumably uses lower-velocity ammo to complement its suppressor). The [=SMGs=] and shotguns can take ammo from other weapons in their class, which are justified by all using the same rounds (and being fed with loose ones in the case of the shotguns).
** However, the AK-47 and M4 both share ammo.
* UniversalDriversLicense: The game introduces airplanes as available vehicles; the PlayerCharacter must complete a training course before he can ''legally'' fly those, but is still ''perfectly capable'' of flying them before that if he sneaks into an airport and hijacks one.
** Not only can C.J. pilot airplanes perfectly the first time he clambers into the cockpit, he also learns how to fly a Harrier jet just as fast (all of his previous experience likely being little more than a P-51, an Apache, and a Learjet) and learn how to properly operate all of the weapons systems well enough to defeat several experienced pilots in a dogfight and destroy boats sitting in a lake with heat-seaking missiles.
** And don't forget the ''experimental'' jetpack that you steal in one mission, and thereafter always have, if you can bother to go pick it up. Not only does he fly it without trouble, but he can fire any singlehanded gun from it as well as from any vehicle.
* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: The MoodLighting of the city of San Fierro is predominantly blue.
* UpdatedRerelease:
** After the game was pulled from stores after the {{Hot Coffee|MiniGame}} incident and the {{Media Watchdog}}s had a field day with it, Rockstar tried to justify a re-release of the game (while making the "offensive" bit truly inaccessible to keep the game rated M) by including a "behind the scenes" movie and a 30 minute cutscene showing events that occurred before the beginning of the game. Some say that some glitches and bugs were also fixed. PC modders used downgraders to avoid the updated PC version as it made modding, well, harder due to hard-coded checks to prevent any modifications, but the modding community later developed a tool to revert later re-releases to their original v1.0 release to remove these anti-modding checks.
** A mobile port of the game was released in 2013 featuring a revamped menu system, auto-saves and mid-mission checkpoints, support for HD resolutions and many graphical settings for players to optimize the game for their device, and updated character and vehicle models. Some of the later console and Windows Store re-releases used the mobile version as a base for an HD remastered version.
* UpperClassTwit: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToumKORTtgM Rich Guy]].
* UranusIsShowing: You can play a ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' like [[ShootEmUp shooter game]] on the VG console of Sweet's house. The game's name? '''They Crawled From Uranus!'''
* UselessUsefulStealth: This even shows up. There are two or three stealth-based missions, in which you can evade detection entirely by hiding in shadows. The game tries to tell you after the first one that you can also use stealth to hide from police, but [[TheAllSeeingAI anyone who's played a video game]] [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard before that point knows better.]] In fact, "stealth" kills with a knife outside of missions seem to attract more attention than waving a sword around or even firing a silenced gun at someone.
** There's also robbing houses, which the player is also introduced to through one of the aformentioned stealth-based missions. It's supposed to be an easy way for the player to make cash without actually playing the storyline, but in 90% of the houses you can try to infiltrate, its occupants are in the front room, ready to discover you as soon as you enter.
* VanInBlack: Get a 5-star wanted level and the FBI will come after you in black tinted SUV's. Probably the best time to retreat to a safehouse before [[TankGoodness the army]] shows up.
* VanityLicensePlate: The game upped the ante by including a far larger number of vanity plates on specifically parked or mission-specific cars.
* VerbalTic: T-Bone ends each and every sentence with "Ese", to sound more "cholo". Cesar Vialpando also does this, though less often, and also ends his phrases with "holmes" and "vato". (A number of pedestrians can be heard using these phrases in their conversations, too).
* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: [[spoiler:Big Smoke]]'s Crack Palace, an abandoned set of apartments that the Ballas have taken over to install their drug factory.
* ViceCity: Well, Vice ''State''.
* VideogameCaringPotential: The nameless Grove Street mooks you pick up to assist in missions will chatter with C.J. on the way to the goal, giving him shit like all his named friends. Makes it hard to watch them mowed down like wheat. Of course it doesn't help they tend to fire wildly at every cop that comes by.
** Deliberately played with, when it comes to Carl's girlfriends. You would expect this game feature to evoke this trope but once Carl starts dating his first girlfriend, Denise Robinson, things turn out quite differently: she will hurl insults at Carl whenever he bumps into her and berate him if does as much as nudge any object with his car. During the "driving dates", on the other hand, if you drive too carefully[[note]]advisable if your driving skill is still somewhat lacking – which it most likely is at this point in the game, unless you've spent hours honing your driving skills on the airstrip which is only accessible through a bit of trickery[[/note]], you will end up "boring her legs shut" and if you neglect her for too long, she will threaten Carl with dating one of his friends instead. And let's not even mention her endless lust for gratuitous drive-by shootings...
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: A staple and much of the point of the whole ''GTA'' series, but it especially comes into play here as an odd case of GameplayAndStorySegregation. CJ is, for the most part, presented within the story as a ruthless but well-meaning AntiHero rather than a VillainProtagonist, but the player's still free to go on genocidal rampages in between each mission.
** There's a few cruelty moments that are a part of the main missions. One mission has you kidnap a music manager and his girlfriend and drive off the docks while you jump out of the car, hearing him whine before that he can't swim. Another one has you get revenge for your sister who was harassed by some construction workers by pushing the foreman around with a bulldozer while he is inside a portable toilet, hearing him gag and yell about the smell and being splashed with his own feces. You kill him by pushing his stall in a ditch and ''filling it with cement, burying him alive''!
** In ''San Andreas'', they added the ability to swim to the player, the girlfriends and some other {{Non Player Character}}s. Note that cops are not on the list.
** ''San Andreas'' has just dozens of examples; heck the cops and pedestrians will sometimes just kill the hell out of each other with no player involvement.
** ''San Andreas'' gives the player the option to do burglaries as a side mission. While the only mandatory burglary enforces stealth, the typical sidequest burglary goes like this: Enter house, kill the occupants in their sleep and then just sweep the apartment clean. Repeat a few times each night.
** Sometimes, hitting a pedestrian in the car would not be enough to kill em. You could just park ''over'' them instead and watch the blood flow from underneath your car...
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Shooting down and destroying the harmless News Chopper that spawns from a 4 star wanted level onward usually replaces them with a second Police Maverick.
* VideogameFlamethrowersSuck: Definitely the case: the tendency for enemies to run directly at you when you light them on fire (leaving you completely helpless and vulnerable), the ridiculously short range meaning you could have killed the enemies with anything else in the game by that point, and that, since its technically classed as a BFG, you can't run and gun with it makes it all but useless.
* VideoGameFlight: Oddly, ''San Andreas'' has flight as a later-game ability, with the requirement being 'learn how'. Not many limitations, aside from two logical ones: avoid buildings, and avoid no-fly zones. Of course, not many [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential targets]] when you get too high.
** It's not naturally a late game ability, you can climb over the airport fence and steal a plane at any time. It's just that if you don't have a pilot's license, military jets will come and shoot you down.
** Even later in the game, you get a jetpack (''[[IWantMyJetpack finally!]]'')
* VillainExitStageLeft: {{Averted|Trope}} in the final mission. This is what [[spoiler:Tenpenny intended to do -- bail out of Los Santos, or perhaps out of San Andreas for good, even as the city burns with riots over news that he has been cleared of charges of corruption (thanks to blackmailing C.J. into concealing damaging evidence). Not if C.J. and Sweet had something to say about that]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler:Big Smoke]] appears as a respected public figure on the news in latter parts of the game, encouraging (of all things) to keep the streets drug free while building orphanages. Lazlow, of all people, remarks on this during a radio interview with OG Loc.
-->'''Lazlow''': [[spoiler:Big Smoke]] is doing a lot for the community. Or ''to'' it. Sounds like a great guy.
* VillainousBreakdown: Both Tenpenny and Pulaski undergo one late in the game, because [[spoiler:the FBI has taken an interest in their involvement with the criminal underworld. Tenpenny is the one most visibly effected by it, as he goes from being smug, superior and cocky to edgy, paranoid and prone to outbursts. And when it's revealed that fellow officer Hernandez has been ratting them out... well, Tenpenny's reaction isn't pretty]].
* ViolationOfCommonSense: There's one point where you jump out of a moving plane, onto another moving plane, open the door and start shooting everyone in sight. Impossibility notwithstanding, who the hell would ever think of trying to do this just for a second?
** C.J. himself lampshades some of these missions himself occasionally, especially during the Toreno missions, in which he would have just walked away and never looked back if it wasn't for the fact that Toreno happens to be the key to getting Sweet out of jail.
* VirtualPaperDoll: For the first time in the series, you are given a highly customizable character in the form of C.J. -- you can make him skinny, buff or fat, change his hairstyle and facial hair, and buy him a wide variety of clothes.
* VitriolicBestBuds: CJ's relationship to Ryder, [[spoiler:before the latter's betrayal]].
* VivaLasVegas: The city of Las Venturas, a dead ringer for Vegas, as the third big city in the state along with [[HollywoodCalifornia Los Santos and San Fierro]].
* WarpWhistle: The trains and airports.
* WarriorPoet: OG Loc refers to himself as one during a radio interview and it apparently is the image he tries to create. It doesn't quite work out that well.
* TheWarSequence: At the end of the Los Santos mission chain when C.J. arrives late to a gang fight after discovering a horrible secret and has to kill waves of Ballas (some of them driving cars) while protecting his brother, with only the help of a few surviving gang members and some cars parked in a circle for cover.
* WaxingLyrical: In the definitive edition, one of the achievements is called "Today was a Good Day"[[note]]Unlocked by going 24 hours (in game) without breaking the law, being wanted, killing or harming anyone.[[/note]], which is taken directly from Music/IceCube's lryics in "It was a Good Day".
* WatchThePaintJob: After reuniting with Big Smoke, C.J. finds that Smoke has gotten himself a pretty nice car, and they drive to Beverly's funeral in it. As they're leaving the cemetery, some Ballas show up and pull a drive-by. [[EveryCarIsAPinto Take a wild guess what happens to Smoke's new car.]] "AW MUTHAFUCKA, MY CAR!"
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Tenpenny claims that his approach to the job is about "percentages" and that his philosophy calls for overlooking some crime to achieve a greater good. It appears that he believes what he says, but in reality he's rotten to the core.
* WetBlanketWife: Kendl Johnson, sister of protagonist C.J. and lover of C.J.'s ally, Caesar Vialpando, constantly acts as an exasperated voice of reason between the two macho {{gangbangers}}. She usually has some sort of gripe against their lifestyle, but she's often right, such as when one of them plans to [[LeeroyJenkins plans to run off and do something stupid.]]
* WeUsedToBeFriends: C.J. and Sweet with [[spoiler:Big Smoke and Ryder]].
* WhamEpisode: "The Green Sabre". Not only are [[spoiler:your best friends Ryder and Smoke revealed as working with the enemies (C.R.A.S.H. and the Ballas), but your brother Sweet is shot and arrested, Grove Street goes to shit, you lose all the territory you'd captured up to this point, and you're taken out in the middle of nowhere to do an errand for Tenpenny and Pulaski. Just... holy shit]].
* WhatAPieceOfJunk:
** Sweet's Greenwood. At first glance, it appears to be an unremarkable, boxy, and dated sedan (even by 1992 standards), [[BoringButPractical but turns out to be dependable enough that it's the definitive car driven during specific drive-by shootings and car chases in missions]]. Even after the car survives a HelicopterBlender, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P0HkRCCplI#t=9m09s ends up in a spectacular crash with a tanker trailer]], and Sweet's stint in prison, Sweet remained insistent reacquiring the same car, having the player driving it in late in the storyline and the final mission.
--->'''Carl:''' "Can't believe you bought that same bucket ass car, man!"\\
'''Sweet:''' "Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
** A better in-game example (as the Greenwood is average at best in all areas) is the Clover. It looks like your typical redneck ride, corroded paint and parts of different colors included. However, it has a very nice acceleration rate, brakes nicely and turns like a dream. It's not on par with the [[CoolCar sportscars]] you can find in richer areas, but it's a dependable ride that's very common everywhere.
** If C.J. drives any trashy car around San Andreas, [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] will often say things like "What a piece of shit!".
* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife:
** C.J. says a variation of this after [[spoiler:killing his friend-turned-crack-pusher Big Smoke]].
** He also says something similar after [[spoiler:killing Ryder]] before Cesar snaps him out of it by [[spoiler:mentioning "Little asshole tried to bang your sister, you know that?"]]
* WhatMeasureIsAMook: The game follows this trope in order to FollowThePlottedLine. C.J. is told by some corrupt cops that if he leaves town, they'll pin the murder of another cop on him. Thing is, during the game you can murder cops and civilians by the dozens with your comeuppance being... respawning at the police station or hospital less 10% of your money.
** Tenpenny and later Toreno stonewall any attempts to put C.J. away for good. And besides, it's knocking out a few fellow officers off the ladder.
* WhatTheHellPlayer:
** You can have fellow gang members ride around in your car. Driving recklessly (excessive speed, driving off a cliff, etc) will result in them calling you out on it. The best is "Cars can't fly, you ''bitch!''"
** The "dates" respond to crazy conduct, as well. Police officer Barbara is prone to scream "This is not responsible driving!" if you speed (Katie appears turned on by it, however, even though your relationship status meter actually drops). Even worse, if you use the attack button while trying to give flowers you'll get a sharp message about abusing your girlfriend and the relationship status will go down.
** When C.J. crashes into cars, he tends to shout insults at them. e.g. "did you buy your license!?" or, "Oh, you asshole, my shit!" While he is technically insulting the driver of the other car, some of the lines could be interpreted as insults to the player's own driving abilities.
* WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame: The Gaydar Station. Like the other two night clubs you can visit, you can play on the arcade games there or go on the dancefloor for a [[RhythmGame rhythm-based minigame]]. Sadly, you still dance with girls there (which isn't a huge stretch, but still).
* WhereItAllBegan: The last few missions take place in Los Santos again. The final cut scene takes right in Grove Street, where C.J. started his adventure after coming back home.
* WhileRomeBurns: During the last mission, [[spoiler:while riots are breaking all across Los Santos and C.J. is storming Big Smoke's crack palace killing everyone who gets in his way, Smoke himself is merely sitting in his pad playing video games.]]
* WhipItGood: We don't actually see Catalina using the whip on C.J. in the intro to the "Gone Courting" mission, but [[SexyDiscretionShot oh man, do we ever hear it]].
* WhiteGangBangers: Subverted in this game, where the Grove Street Families and the Ballas are 100% black people; the Vagos are a Hispanic gang; and then there's the Triad running Las Venturas. You rarely, if ever, find a white gangster until the Mafia comes into play later on.
* WholePlotReference: The first third is basically ''Juice'' mashed together with ''Film/BoyzNTheHood''. The last two thirds of the game are basically the plot of ''Literature/TheCountofMonteCristo'' with a brief interlude to reenact ''Film/OceansEleven''.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Cesar is afraid of heights, as seen in a mission where he and C.J. have to steal a car out of a cargo ship by lifting it out with a crane. C.J. gets up in the crane while Cesar stays on the ground. Surprisingly, he's fine with the idea of jumping from a moving car to jack a moving truck.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim:
** In the mission "High Noon", [[spoiler:Officer Pulaski reveals that he's wanted to just shoot C.J. from the beginning. The only thing stopping him was Officer Tenpenny, who kept coming up with reasons to keep C.J. alive]].
** C.J. could just shoot every villain near the beginning.
** Same with every villain towards C.J. as well, an example being [[spoiler:when you first meet Big Smoke, he could have just easily bashed C.J.'s head in, seeing his true nature and all that. Big Smoke's approach may be justified, though, in that he may have preferred to convince C.J. to come to his side a la [[Franchise/StarWars Emperor Palpatine to Luke Skywalker]], especially when Sweet early was the guy heading the Families and C.J. at that point was his [[TheLancer lancer]].]]
* WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: A couple of missions early in the game deal with this. In one, you have to stop an arms dealer from the post-Soviet black market who's been supplying the Ballas gang.
* WideOpenSandbox: Once all areas are unlocked, the player has access to a huge, open-ended, "living" region to explore, with widely varying geography, cities, and waterways. Even in the early stages of the game, when only Los Santos and countryside to the north is available, this still provides the player with more exploration space than most previous GTA games combined (and a cheat code, coupled with C.J.'s newfound ability to swim, makes it possible to explore the complete state from the start). Unlike the past games (and even the later GTA IV), the addition of rural areas and diverse city design give the game a sense of distance not found in the others; when C.J. is standing in the middle of the desert area, Los Santos seems a long way away.
* WithCatlikeTread:
** Carl and Ryder are ready to break into a war veteran's house and steal as much as possible; Carl suggests sneaking in rather than taking the place by storm. Ryder agrees that it's a smart idea, but then follows this up by howling "COME OUT YOU OLD BASTARD!" at the house.
** In the mission "Photo Opportunity", C.J. and Cesar are taking pictures of a drug trade from a rooftop across the street. While they do this, the two are constantly shouting at the top of their lungs at each other. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This is a remnant of the beta]], where the two would have been taking pictures from a helicopter rather than from a rooftop.
* WizardNeedsFoodBadly: The game tied C.J.'s life meter to his hunger. If you go without eating for a long time, C.J.'s fat and muscle stats begin to deplete, and his health meter eventually starts draining. Luckily, you'd have to go a very long time without food before the game starts to remind you that you need to eat and you'd practically have to be starving C.J. on purpose if he were to die from hunger. Since food is the only way to recover energy while not on a mission, eating too much (except salads) would make C.J. gain weight, while eating too much ''in one sitting'' results [[VomitIndiscretionShot in his meal coming back to haunt him]]. And don't forget the fact that, since it is tied with your life bar, ''[[HyperactiveMetabolism going for a burger heals the bullet holes in your body]]''.
* WorstAid: The medical personnel some how can magical revive people who died from gunfire, explosions, and fire just with CPR, and still run in to the enter the area the insane gun man (i.e., you) is still shooting up. That pales in comparison to all the people they '''run over''' in their pursuit of saving lives.
* {{Yandere}}: Catalina, particularly once she starts falling for you. As if she weren't already [[AxCrazy crazy enough]].
* YearZero: Invoked, but not used. After grabbing the Green Goo from an armored train for The Truth, he claims "they will call this YearZero". [[SubvertedTrope Sadly, nothing comes of it.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Tenpenny has Carl retrieve a dossier during his time in Las Venturas. Right afterwards, he has Carl dig his own grave, intending to have Pulaski kill him.]]
* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: You can replenish your life bar by eating. However, you can't buy food until you've completed the "Ryder" mission. Fortunately, this is the second mission.
* YouKnowImBlackRight: Played with. C.J. has been working with Wu Zi Mu (or "Woozie"), a Triad leader who tries to hide the fact that he's blind, but fails spectacularly. When C.J. responds to Woozie's big reveal by saying "No shit!", he then asks if Woozie knows he's black. The Triad's response? "I'm blind, Carl, not stupid."
* YourHeadASplode: Heads would always neatly pop when shot with a sniper rifle. Heads will also explode when shot with a shotgun or assault rifle.
* YourOtherLeft: When the player has to shoot incoming cops during a car chase;
-->'''Ryder:''' C.J., to the left!\\
'''C.J.:''' Your left, or my left?\\
'''Ryder:''' Hell, I don't know, just shoot everybody, motherfucker.
[[/folder]]
----
----
* OfficeGolf: Woozie does this at the Triad's Las Venturas casino. His henchman makes sure his average remains low, despite Woozie being blind.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Radio advertisements in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' mentions a show called ''Just the Five of Us'', featuring a character called Jimmy who looks 12 but claims to be a 42-year old investment banker. This turns out to be real, in show and out here, about 9 years later when we hear the actor who played Jimmy again, still looking and sounding like a kid, even though he's in his fifties.
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: Mike Toreno operates under one of these. And, as always, so do ''you''.
* OneLinerNameOneLiner: Said when you fail Zero's "Supply Lines": "Curse you, Berkeley! CURSE YOOOOOUUUUU!"
* OneManArmy: In order to gain complete control of Los Santos, the protagonist must kill in total thousands of rival gang members armed with AK-47s and other heavy weaponry, usually 30-40 per "territory", and that's not even counting police forces, mob gangsters, hitmen, FBI agents and the U.S. military. Furthermore, because gang members are instantly replaced (or [[NonLethalKO healed by paramedics]]), it's possible for the player character to wipe out the same gang several times over in the course of minutes. Occasionally lampshaded:
-->'''Ken Rosenberg:''' Oh yeah, he's a real one-man army! Real fuckin' dependable.
* TheOneWhoMadeItOut: C.J. has this status amongst his gang. His exile after his brother's death essentially made him a criminal in Liberty City and in the game proper, he forms alliances with Hispanic, Chinese, Italian gangs and the U.S. government, taking a gang-banging crew to circles far beyond their reach.
* OnlyKnownByInitials: C.J. (Carl Johnson).
* OnlySaneMan: C.J. wants to be one of these, but he has a crippling weakness: he can be made to go along with any crazy scheme by [[BerserkButton calling him a "buster" for pointing out why said scheme is likely to get him killed]].
** As far as DJ's from the radio stations goes, Julio G, the DJ from Radio Los Santos, is undeniably the calmest, most laid-back of them all, while every other DJ from each of their respective stations have a certain idiosyncrasy that would often border on quirky.
* OopNorth: Maccer, voiced by Music/HappyMondays frontman Shaun Ryder, is a Salfordian musician dressed in stereotypical Madchester gear and mentions his hometown and adjacent Manchester in his dialogue upon his first encounter.
* OptionalSexualEncounter:
** The game used it as a way to increase your [[RelationshipValues Relationship Meter]] with a girlfriend. But only once it got to a certain point already (except for Millie, who was... less choosy in certain regards).
** ''San Andreas'' also had the Pimping SideQuest, which when completed caused prostitutes to give you money while in your, ahem, employ. And then, of course, there was "[[HotCoffeeMinigame Hot Coffee]]"...
* OptionalStealth: There are numerous stealth sequences in this game, but it's a lot easier in most cases to simply murder your way to the objective, and the game provides alternatives for this scenario. This is particularly true of Area 69, in which the stealth option is arguably more dangerous than the direct approach. The only time where stealth is strongly advised is when you must infiltrate an aircraft carrier: getting seen will make soldiers run to the stationed jetfighters and flee with them, before you can steal one of them, thus failing the mission.
* OptionalTrafficLaws: Lampshaded; the early missions have characters note that Carl (the player character) DrivesLikeCrazy. Despite this, everyone [[ItsUpToYou insists he drive]] whenever they get in a car.
* OrangeBlueContrast: The MoodLighting of Los Santos has this, with the sky being a strong shade of blue, and the ground heavily orange tinted, coupled with heat haze to make the place look truly hot and smoggy.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: The mission "Deconstruction", Several fans consider genuinely disturbing and creepy radical personality change suffered by the protagonist Carl, being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold to a lunatic homicidal maniac that would make Catalina proud.
* OutlawCouple: Carl and Catalina are briefly this in the "Countryside" missions; the radio station even mentions your antics at one point. Catalina, being an AxCrazy psychopath, pretty much ruins their business (and physical) relationship in short order, though.
* OutrunTheFireball: A couple of times, but especially in one of the final missions in the game after you [[spoiler:kill Big Smoke]].
* OutsideRide: Doable.
* OverturnedOuthouse: During the mission where CJ takes revenge on a construction site for catcalling his sister, the foreman hides in a port-a-potty, which CJ not only bulldozes into a pit, but he ''buries the foreman alive in concrete''.
* OxygenMeter: This was a departure from the rest of the series, as previous games gave the player SuperDrowningSkills.
* PacManFever: Justified, the game takes place in the early nineties.
* PaperThinDisguise: Cops will lose track of you if you go into your house in front of their very eyes, put on a pair of joke glasses (y'know, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything thick frames, bushy eyebrows and a huge nose]]) and walk out the front door, waving to them.
* ParallelPornTitles: In the [[{{Gayborhood}} gay section of San Fierro]] (a parody of UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco) there's a movie theater with the title ''[[Film/TheWizardOfOz The Wizard of Ass]]'' on the marquee. It's one of the easiest [[CollectionSidequest photo ops]] to find.
* ParentalIncest: The Truth takes umbrage at being called "motherfucker" by a gangbanger.
-->"Firstly, you are a real buzz killer, amigo. And secondly, I never made love to my mother -- [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne She wouldn't]]. And thirdly..."
* ParkingGarage:
** "Ran Fa Li" has the player tasked in retrieving a car in Easter Bay Airport's massive underground carpark for the Triads, which leads to the player being ambushed by gang members from the rival Da Nang Boys.
** Players in ''San Andreas'' may also stumble across a scene reminiscent of the Rodney King beating in the parking garage of the Los Santos headquarters.
* ParodyCommercial: The advertisements for Cluckin' Bell, a fictional KFC and Taco Bell look-alike, which stress how processed and disgusting their food is, as well as the inhumane manner in which the chickens are treated.
-->The chicken is a bird with a tiny brain,\\
So we assume he doesn't feel any pain,\\
We shrink their heads and we breed 'em fast,\\
Six wings, forty breasts, then they're gassed...
-->-- '''From Cluckin Bell's first commercial'''
-->I love chicken with a shitty smell,\\
And that's why I love Cluckin' Bell!
-->-- '''From the second commercial''
* PassThroughTheRings: This is the first game in the series where such missions aren't optional to get to the end. Some of the flying school missions require this to master the mechanics, and later story missions involving flight will use this as objectives.
* PatchworkMap: The game averts this by putting the desert and forest in different land masses. Though in an inversion of California's geology, the desert is in the north.
* PausedInterrupt: There is a segment where a NonPlayerCharacter, Catalina, calls the protagonist up on his cell phone to chew him out. As with most phone conversations in the game, this happens in real time. She flies into her usual rage, and hangs up on the player -- but the game doesn't know how to handle a dramatic mid-call hangup. She just stops talking, there is no click or dial tone, and the protagonist calmly folds up his phone and puts it away without a second glance, precisely the same way he is animated to end every (complete) phone conversation.
** Also can be averted by the player, who can cancel a phone call at any time without any paused interrupts.
* {{Permadeath}}: Two of C.J.'s girlfriends who are killed on a date[[note]]Denise and Millie[[/note]] will be dead for good.
* PermanentlyMissableContent:
** There are several vehicles that can only be obtained in the main missions, such as a Volkswagen bus with a retro hippy paint job, an armored car, and several modified cars, or cars with vanity license plates. This creates the odd situation where the game ''plans'' for you to lose these vehicles forever -- the only way to hold onto them is often to park them in a garage, then fail the mission and restart it.
** The player can start over with most of C.J.'s girlfriends if they are killed during a date, as they will respawn in their "meeting point" in the map. The only exceptions are Denise Robinson and Millie Perkins because they meet C.J. through the storyline missions, which means that they can't be met again if they end up dead.
* PimpDuds: {{Lampshaded}} when C.J. spies on a meeting...
-->'''C.J.:''' I know a pimp when I see one.
* PimpedOutCar: One of the many things to do in this game.
** RiceBurner: While all the mod garages give you the option to only customize your car's appearance and skip out on performance upgrades, Wheel Arch Angels in San Fierro technically specializes in these, given that they only accept import tuners of Asian makes and aforementioned "performance upgrades" are only limited to hydraulic suspensions ([[MundaneUtility that are actually useful for negotiating uneven terrain when deployed]]) and [[NitroBoost nitrous oxide]].
* PinataEnemy: Drug dealers. Each drops around $2000 (and pistol ammo) when killed, generally spawn alone, and after an early mission are extremely common, making them a valuable source of income early in the game.
* PissTakeRap: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YsdS00GI58 OG Loc]], who actually manages to have a rap career despite being a horrible rapper.
* PixelHunt: One of the turf areas for Los Santos's gang wars is, no joke, a piece of sidewalk in the north area. When checked out on the map, it's a barely visible line unless you zoom in real close.
* PlayerHeadquarters: The safehouses. You can save, heal and clear your Wanted level in them, and you change clothes in safehouses too. You get one free at the start of the game, and to get more, you have to buy them. Though you get a few other free ones along the way (you can count on getting one every time you reach a new part of the state).
* PlayerMooks: Being awesome enough means one can recruit fellow gang members to assist on missions. They will follow, fire, pursue and then try to get in the car with you to go back home.
* PlotDrivenBreakdown: In the second half of one of the last Los Santos missions, you're given an old, poorly-maintained AK-47[[note]]particularly egregious as [=AK=]s [[MadeOfIndestructium hardly ever jam at all]][[/note]] to defend the car you're escaping in. About halfway through that sequence (right as the police manage to set up an effective road block), it irreparably jams.
* PlotTriggeringDeath: C.J. comes back from Liberty City to attend his mother's funeral.
* PlotlineDeath: A character who has the oomph to resist multiple bullets moments ago (on the roof of Madd Dogg's mansion) gets taken down by a single bullet in the foyer.
* PopTheTires: Richard Burns [[Radio/GTARadio on the news]] is riding with cops trying to stop illegal street racing, and Richard then tries to shoot out a car's tires.
* PostProcessingVideoEffects: There's a number of tone mapping filters applied between buildings. You can notice the entire world change color outside as you step inside certain buildings. Film grain pops up during rainfall.
* PowerupLetdown: Satchel charges. They're only required for a few missions and they have very little use outside any mission where your target is already on the move. They're fun for a quick laugh if you want to screw around, but the money spent could have been used for other guns.
* PretenderDiss: OG Loc, a black kid who tries so hard to be gangsta it hurts to watch. His rapping is just as bad.
* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: OG Loc is pathetic as a "gangsta"[[note]]he's black, but this trope covers that as well[[/note]]. He ''does'' manage to make a music career out of it for a while, but that's only because he had C.J. steal Madd Dogg's rhyme book.
* PrettyInMink: Some of the women pedestrians walk around in a fur coat.
** Spoofed when a pimp claims he has loads of stuff made of mink.
** Also spoofed in [[Radio/GTARadio a radio ad]] about selling fur coats to guys in a mid-life crisis.
* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo ([[{{Prequel}} Sort Of]]): The [[SilentProtagonist quiet player character]] from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' (Claude) makes a cameo as the new boyfriend of C.J.'s ex-girlfriend, Catalina. C.J. refers to him as "[[LampshadeHanging that mute asshole]]".
** In the meathouse shootout mission where Ken Rosenberg is accompanying C.J., he sometimes shouts:
--->'''Ken''': Just like old times, [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Tommy]]!\\
'''C.J.''': [[LampshadeHanging Who the fuck is Tommy?]]
* PrisonRape:
** OG Loc is implied to have been raped in prison. It's equally implied that the encounter was more consensual than he would like to admit.
** Tenpenny threatens to arrange for [[spoiler:Sweet]] to be raped in prison in order to coerce C.J. into doing his bidding.
* PrisonsAreGymnasiums: One mission has C.J. picking up his old friend Jeffrey (who now goes by "OG Loc") from prison. When they get a chance to talk, C.J. compliments him on his new muscular physique. OG Loc is quite proud of it himself, and touts prison as a great place to get into shape. C.J. notes he could have done that without going to jail, but OG Loc thinks doing it while imprisoned is important for street cred.
* ProdigalHero: C.J. does it twice: first time, at the beginning of the game when he returns from Liberty City, and second time, when [[spoiler:Sweet gets arrested]] and spends most of the game in San Fierro and Las Venturas, only coming back to Los Santos near the end of the game.
* ProfessionalKiller: The game features a main character that takes contracts to assassinate people.
* ProlongedVideoGameSequel: It's longer than ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' combined, and each city on the map could probably fill out an entire game by themselves.
* ProperlyParanoid: The Truth, who at first glance looks like your average [[TheStoner perpetually stoned]] NewAgeRetroHippie. But as the game goes on, more and more of the weird, seemingly random and/or insane stuff he talks about turns out to be true.
* PsychicStatic: The Truth convinces C.J. and co to "Think of a pink golf ball" and other such oddities when you reach different locations. He doesn't say WHY he says to do these things, but it's presumably to make sure C.J. doesn't think that he's avoiding a mind-scan, which would tip off whoever is reading your mind that you're trying to avoid having your mind read.
* PsychoExGirlfriend: Catalina is one of these to C.J.
* SuperSwimmingSkills: And quite a drastic switch from the SuperDrowningSkills of all the preceding entries in the series at that.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:R-Z]]
* RacingTheTrain: The mission "Wrong Side of the Tracks" involves you and Big Smoke trying to chase a train while on a dirt bike so that he can shoot the rival gang members atop the train. It's tough since [[GuideDangIt the game never tells you]] that you need to be at least another train's width away from the train so that Big Smoke can hit them.
-->"All we had to do was follow the damn train, C.J.!"
* RammingAlwaysWorks: A fun pastime if you made it through the game is to catch special cars, appearing during missions, that are not meant to be caught. Mostly by exploding them and get them to your garage to unlock the doors. That one car was impossible to get - it was everything-proof. Until a complete genius had the idea to land with a parachute on it. Yeah, it took a bit of damage by that! <kaboom> Congratulation, you are now owner of a BP/EP/FP/CP/MP Bravura.
* RareGuns: C.J. can acquire the Desert Eagle when he reaches Las Venturas, though there's a free one lurking around the Los Santos, and just a block away from your safehouse in San Fierro.
* RealIsBrown: Check out the graphics. An unmistakable brownish-gray trend emerges. The game might justify this by imitating the look of early '90s films set in South Central.
* RealMenWearPink: A couple missions feature the Ballas ambushing the Grove Street Families in a hot pink car. While C.J. can't get any pink clothes, he can get a pink mohawk.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Kendl gives one to C.J. when he complains about the state of the garage he's received, telling him that he's wanted rewards without work, and can't see an opportunity when one falls into his lap.
* RecklessGunUsage: In [[Radio/GTARadio one of the radio segments]], [[TheAhnold Jack Howitzer]] threatens to kill host Billy Dexter unless he touches Jack's genitals (ItMakesSenseInContext... sorta) and then says he was just fooling around and that his gun was unloaded, only for it to [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace go off and kill Dexter]].
* RecursiveReality: The infamous DummiedOut HotCoffeeMinigame has a ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' poster hanging up in the wall, especially odd given that characters from ''Vice City'' do appear in this game. Given that the minigame wasn't finished, the poster was probably just a placeholder.
** For examples that did make it in the final product, there's a theater in Los Santos featuring a wall of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' posters and Zero RC selling ''Vice City'' and ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'' figures.
* RedplicaBaron: ''San Andreas'' features a red remote-controlled bi-plane called "RC Baron".
* ReliablyUnreliableGuns: In the mission "Reuniting the Families", Ryder hands your character an ancient, POS AK-47 that jams to the point of uselessness [[PlotDrivenBreakdown right when you need it.]]
* ResignationsNotAccepted: C.J. finds out that this is also true about gang-banging. So, he [[spoiler:''takes over the entire state''.]]
* RewatchBonus: [[spoiler:Before Big Smoke does his FaceHeelTurn, the game drops several subtle hints at it]]:
** [[spoiler:Big Smoke's house is in Idlewood, which is Ballas territory]].
** [[spoiler:During the Drive-Thru mission, Big Smoke is too preoccupied with eating his food to shoot the enemy gang members. At first, it just seems like Smoke is being a FatBastard, but the mission "The Green Sabre" casts his actions in a new light]].
** [[spoiler:During the "Reuniting the Families" mission, Big Smoke and Ryder leave Sweet and C.J. to take on the LSPD by themselves]].
* RiceBurner: Customizing was one of the new features made available - though some cars are much better suited to it (hint: an actual sports car can take more modifications and already goes fast anyway). In keeping with the trope, most of these will make no difference whatsoever to the car's performance, a notable exception being the NitroBoost.
* RiddleForTheAges: We never do find out just what the green goo The Truth gets is.
* RightThroughHisPants: The infamous "hot coffee" mini-games has Carl keeping his pants on while the women he beds are usually nude.
* RightThroughTheWall: When C.J. chooses to have "coffee" (sex) with one of his girlfriends, the camera stays outside the home and the sounds of them having sex are muffled, as if we're listening to them through the wall. Later games with this option, ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' (and its {{DLC}}s) and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', also keep the camera outside during "coffee" or "booty calls", but the sounds are no longer muffled.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: The game features one mission where C.J. must sneak on a farm owned by a Waco-esque group in order to steal their combine harvester for The Truth. They shoot at him on sight -- although C.J. ''is'' trespassing with the intention of committing theft, he barely steps foot on his property before they start firing. Also, they shout racial slurs at C.J. and clearly enjoy hunting him down. [[ChunkySalsaRule But once you actually get to the harvester...]]
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The bent cop Tenpenny works for an anti-gang unit C.R.A.S.H. -- Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums. The unit is (very loosely) based on a real life police counter-gang unit gone bad. In real life the Los Angeles Police Department was rocked by the C.R.A.S.H. Rampart scandal.
** CJ's mother was killed in a drive-by from a green Sabre, [[spoiler:which is later found in a police garage.]] This is directly based off the black Chevrolet Impala SS in the drive-by which killed [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Chris Wallace]], which although related happened in 1997.
** Towards the end of the game, [[spoiler:the riot that breaks out in Los Santos is a take on the Rodney King beating trial riot]].
* RiskStyleMap: There's a color-coded overlay for the turf wars in Los Santos, denoting blocks and sometimes even streets as belonging to a certain gang.
* RoadBlock: The roads are blocked due to an earthquake some time prior to the game events that has destroyed most bridges. Since your character can swim, there's also a BorderPatrol in the shape of a wanted level whenever you leaved the unlocked area.
* RougeAnglesOfSatin: An interesting FreudianSlip is to misspell "martial arts" as "marital arts". It appears on the billboard of a usable gym in San Fierro. Easy mistake to make but [[RefugeInAudacity since this is]] ''[[RefugeInAudacity GTA]]''...
* RPGElements: Unlike previous games, C.J.'s skills improve the more he uses them. Physical activity (running, biking) improves stamina, swimming improves lung capacity, weight lifting increases strength, vehicles become easier to control the more C.J. uses them (in specific categories; four-wheel, two-wheel, flying, pedals), guns have greater accuracy and range with use (and you can strafe while aiming), and he can even learn new combat moves from trainers at the various gyms. The player also has to eat occasionally in order to stay healthy. If C.J. goes without eating for too long, it begins to drain his fat. Once that's gone, muscle and stamina follows. Conversely, eating too much builds fat that affects his strength and stamina accordingly. C.J.'s physical appearance also feeds into his relationships with his girlfriends. Some like C.J. to be wearing certain clothes and fat is generally looked down on. Fortunately, several of these statistics can be bypassed through various means. If you find all 50 oysters in the game, C.J. has infinite lung capacity and will automatically be attractive regardless of appearance. If you earn $10,000 in the Burglary side mission, you gain infinite stamina. Compared to the [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV sequel]], the work required to keep on top of these elements is fairly light and often optional.
* RuderAndCruder: Previously GTA games have the character speak like an elite, with instances of "shit" not reaching even 20. Now here the swearing is off-the-wall, especially for the GangBanger characters, and Rockstar wouldn't look back before this game anymore for the succeeding installment while writing their scripts.
* RunningGag:
** Catalina will periodically call Carl to tell him how happy she is and how she [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial doesn't miss him at all]]. She does this well through to the end of the game.
** People calling Carl a terrible driver.
** No matter how good C.J. dresses. Even if he drives a CoolCar such as a Cheetah, and wears the best clothes from Didier Sachs, and has a great haircut such as a cornrow, and has a slender but muscular physique and wears no tattoos, many [[NonPlayerCharacter pedestrians]] will complain about C.J.'s smell. This is ironically especially true of poorer and middle class civilians in San Andreas. Fortunately not all types of pedestrians care about C.J.'s smell. Gang members, emergency personnel and, surprisingly, most of the rich pedestrians never seem to mind C.J.'s smell. The smell is linked to the sex appeal stat; the higher sex appeal Carl has, the better he smells. The only way to keep the sex-appeal stat high at all times is to constantly change outfits (and only the more expensive clothes are valid).
** Despite all of CJ's efforts to keep the casino heist a secret, more and more people just keep on stumbling into he and Woozie's planning hall, finding out about it, and then being inadvertently recruited. It eventually gets to the point where just about ''every single friend and ally CJ has made throughout the game'' plus the janitor is now in on the heist.
* RuthlessForeignGangsters: The Da Nang Boys, Vietnamese drug dealers, and human smugglers all try to muscle in on both the San Fierro Triads and the Loco Syndicate. Since the latter two groups have C.J. on the payroll, it doesn't go well for the others.
* {{Sadist}}:
** Catalina. She loves to cause misfortune or suffering to others, including sexual, and this is evident when she tortures C.J. for sexual pleasure.
** Tenpenny and Pulaski. Both of them love throwing their weight around and watching their mark, who usually happens to be CJ, squirm.
* SafetyGearIsCowardly: In the final mission, C.J. taunts [[spoiler:Big Smoke]] for wearing body armour, contrary to his gangsta image, Ryder also mocks a member of the Ballas for doing the same in a previous mission. The fact that [[GameplayAndStorySegregation C.J. can buy body armor at stores]] doesn't seem to count.
* SatchelCharge: ''San Andreas'' features a satchel charge as one of the available weapons in the game, being the remote-detonated variety. They become available for purchase at any Ammu-Nation store for 2000 USD following the "Against All Odds" mission.
* SatelliteCharacter: Kendl is for the most part C.J.'s sister/Cesar's girlfriend.
* SaveScumming:
** You can save scum to build up all the money you'll ever need by gambling, if you're willing to spend several hours. This is most easily accomplished after you've unlocked the Las Venturas mission strands and can save at the casino. Simply gamble at your choice of game (video poker is a popular one) and save when you win big, or quit/reset when you lose all your money).
** Another method of doing this which can be accessed earlier in the game is to use the betting shop in Blueberry. Catalina's house on Fern Ridge has a save spot and a fast car that spawns on every load. The road down the ridge leads directly to the Shop, and only takes about 30 seconds. Betting on the longshot has a massive payout and can net you a huge income very quickly.
** ''San Andreas'' introduced ways to let the player keep their weapons after death or arrest to discourage save scumming: it had a few missions where you would lose all of your guns at the start of a mission, pissing off players who had been save scumming to keep their guns and finding out they have to lose them anyway.
* SawedOffShotgun: With the advantage of greater spread and no real reduction in power versus the basic shotgun. Not only can sawed-off shotguns be wielded like pistols, but C.J. can use ''[[GunsAkimbo two at once]]'' with enough practice. [[MST3KMantra Best not to think about how he reloads]].
* ScatterbrainedSenior: Old Reece is implied to be this, as Ryder mentions the former having 'popped his membrane years ago'. Indeed, he will talk to C.J. in a manner that suggests he is mentally in the past.
* SceneryPorn: Being a sandbox game, ''San Andreas'' doesn't have much in the way of huge, time-consuming panoramic shots of the landscape, but the love and attention to detail is clear. [[FictionalCounterpart Las Venturas]] is, barring certain plot-and-legality-based changes and scale, almost perfectly accurate to the Strip and Fremont Street in real life (at least, how they were in the '90s; Fremont Street has since become 'The Fremont Street Experience').
** Dated visuals aside, the countryside is still quite beautiful, with its rolling hills, tall trees and open meadows and fields that are easy to get lost and immersed in. On the other hand, it can also be [[NothingIsScarier quite creepy, especially at night]].
* SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp: One of the motorcycle cop voices in the game is an inversion of this trope. You might sometimes hear him tell C.J. that he was the one who bullied him back when they were kids.
* SchrodingersGun: In the mission "Green Goo", it's always the third box that contains the eponymous green goo you're looking for.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski were assigned to stop gangs and instead tried to control them.
** Toreno has elements of this, although he's aware that many of his actions have to stay quiet.
* SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: Reversed in one mission you are required to kill a group of construction workers (they looked at your sister funny or something). The mission is fairly routine until the last guy, who runs into a portable bathroom and you push him into a pit and fill it with cement. He gets rescued offscreen later, though, apparently.
* SecretAIMoves: Only the AI has the ability to do drive-by shootings with the basic Pistol in non-missions.
* SecretKeeper: C.J. has a few things to hide from some of his acquaintances:
** Denise was trapped in a house fire caused by him.
** Madd Dogg [[spoiler:was driven to suicide due to C.J. killing his manager and stealing his rhyme book.]]
* SelectiveCondemnation:
** The game contains a central plot point involving the protagonist being forced to do the bidding of a crooked cop, who has in his possession a gun used in the murder of a police officer. He threatens to use it to frame C.J., and it's implied that this gun alone is evidence enough for a murder conviction and life imprisonment sentence. However, in-game, the player can freely murder police officers in broad daylight (often dozens at a time), and subsequently actually be arrested, with no dire consequences.
** Not to mention the time C.J. and Ryder stole a ton of guns from a National Guard depot, shooting dozens of soldiers in the process. You know, ''treason''.
** An optional side-quest requires C.J., the protagonist, to murder about twenty police officers. Why are they gunning for him? He took pictures of blueprints for a casino.
* SelectiveEnforcement: An early mission has you fleeing on bicycles from gangsters shooting at you with machine guns from a car. The police won't respond even as they stand in the gangster's line of fire, but so help you if your bike bumps into them.
* SenselessViolins: Implied in one mission, where you have to gun down a bunch of Mafia thugs who were going to carry out a hit disguised as a ''string quartet.''
* SeparateButIdentical: The Grove Street OG's hate the palette-swapped Ballas. The only real difference between the two crews is the Ballas sell cocaine; otherwise both are filled to the brim with violent psychotics.
** Similar goes for the two Latino gangs in San Andreas.
** The Ballas in the south near the beach differ in that they are armed with pistols at best.
* SequelEscalation: If you were expecting more of the same ''GTA III''/''Vice City'' gameplay, only set in the '90s and with RPG elements, boy were you in for a surprise.
* SequenceBreaking: It ''is'' possible to simply swim out of the parts of the game you're currently permitted to explore, but doing so sets the cops and even the navy on you. Most of this can avoided by making a jump over the guard building into the airport, getting into a plane and simply flying off (it does, however, mean flying while being attacked by Navy planes). Using this technique to complete all the optional goals before playing the actual story is a fairly popular SelfImposedChallenge.
** There are several missions in San Andreas that can be done in a way different from intended:
*** "Robbing Uncle Sam": Instead of opening the gate immediately after you enter the military base, you can kill every soldier already spawned on the place, then use the forklift to place the boxes near the entrance neatly waiting for when you finally shoot the gate's control panel to open and let Ryder drive inside.
*** "Wrong Side Of The Tracks": Instead of driving alongside the train and let Big Smoke kill the Vagos, you can overtake the train, ride your dirtbike on top of a nearby building using a few ramps and a bridge, then jump on top of the train and use the [=AK47=] or M4 to kill the Vagos yourself.
*** "Gray Imports": Rather than having to chase down the arms dealer through the warehouse and out on the streets, it's possible to get just the right angle on his office door that you can see (and shoot) him before the game triggers his fleeing.
*** "Badlands": Instead of facing off against the FBI agents to kill the witness, you can scare him into getting into his car and running away. When you're out of the FBI's range, you can shoot his car until he bails and kill him easily.
*** "Local Liquor Store": Why use the QuadBike if you can leave a Sanchez nearby and use it to chase the thieves?
*** "The Da Nang Thang": You lose all your weapons during the helicopter crash, but since there's no timer in this mission, you can go back to the city, stock up on weapons, armor and ammo, then go back and finish the job.
*** "Ice Cold Killa": Pop the tires of Jizzy's car before entering the Pleasuredome. When he tries to flee using his car, it's much easier to chase him.
*** "Pier 69": Instead of jumping on the water and swimming after [[spoiler:Ryder]], just shoot him from the dock with the Sniper Rifle.
*** "Toreno's Last Flight": Get the Heat Seeking Rocket Launcher from the airport before starting the mission. When the chopper takes flight, it's just a matter of locking on it and firing. Same can be done in ''Interdiction''.
*** In "Misappropriation", the game wants you to have a spectular chase using among other things a helicopter. You can bypass it all by sneaking in quickly enough in the place where the case is, kill the guy who's carrying it, grab the case and flee.
*** In the PC version of "Freefall", a technically non-cheating way to finish this easily is to [[spoiler:open Notepad as administrator > open handling.cfg in GTA SA directory > change Dodo's drag value from 12 to 6. Or 2. Just tune them how you like them.]]
*** There's actually two ways of beating "High Noon". The first is pop the tires of [[spoiler:Pulaski]]'s Buffalo and chase him afterwards as normal, or you can get a Minigun and fire away as soon as the cop enters the car. A few seconds of blasting and the car will go up in flames. (Oddly enough the car will be intact in the cutscene and afterwards.)
*** After the mission "Vertical Bird", the Minigun will spawn in Toreno's ranch amongst other weapons. Why don't you get yourselves a bargain and keep 10000 Minigun ammo for bloody missions down the line (such as [[spoiler:gangbanging and killing Big Smoke]])? Sure some dialogues might not trigger, but it's better than dying...
** Other than that, there's still the side missions; the "Chiliad Challenge" for example. Instead of winning your races, you can come in dead last, and using a sniper rifle, kill the competition after they crossed the finish line but you still haven't. Killing the competition also works on the "Dirt Track".
* SerialKiller: Catalina. In fact, she has three bodies buried in her backyard.
* SetAMookToKillAMook: This is quite fun to do. Unless two mooks are specifically on the same side, any mook will attack the mook that attacked it last (or run away). You can often offend someone into attacking you, and then get the police to kill them for you (or the other way around). Irate taxi drivers are particularly useful; climb onto the roof of their cab and [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight they'll ignore you entirely]], but when the guy chasing you throws a punch at your ankle and [[WatchThePaintJob hits their car]], they'll be brawling in no time.
* SexyDiscretionShot: The player can choose to sleep with his girlfriends. If he does so, the camera shows the outside of the house while you hear the sounds of love. Amusingly, Rockstar was actually planning to allow the player to control the sex scenes, but wisely changed the game to prevent it. When a man later discovered them, it spawned the infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_coffee Hot Coffee mod controversy]].
** It also happens in the intro to the "Gone Courting" mission, where Catalina decides to jump C.J.'s bones, and from what she brings into the encounter in question, she's quite into S&M.
** Not to mention, the player can pick up hookers on the street and take them to a quiet area for some ''fun''. This causes the car to rock violently, but nothing can be viewed... Unless you change the camera to see inside the car, when both the player's character and his prostitute just sitting there, facing forward and not moving, and the sounds apparently coming from nowhere.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Spoofed when one of the guests on a radio talk show, "Entertaining America", is a washed up action movie hero who earnestly believes everything that happened in his movies, including his friend dying in Vietnam, happened for real. And the host gets shot and killed by him when he calls him out on it.
* ShiftingSandLand; The desert around Las Venturas qualifies to some degree: although it's rather realistic, it has Native American reservations, ghost towns, rock formations with funny names, an abandoned airport, oil pumps, a big Hoover-like dam, a geyser, and even [[DoubleEntendre ''Area 69'']], the local version of the Area 51.
* ShirtlessScene: The game gives players the option to dress C.J. however they wish... that includes stripping him to his underpants for a nearly completely nude shootout with cops and rival gangsters! Is the block hot or is it just me?
* ShootTheFuelTank: The game allows you to instantly detonate a car if you aim for the gas cap. Even if you can clearly see the rest of the tank, as on lorries, ''only'' the cap will set it off. Maybe they're [[{{Pun}} blasting caps]]?
* ShopliftAndDie: Been doing a little gambling in a casino, and you're a bit in the red? No problem, they'll give you time to pay them back... about five minutes in real time. After that, the casino owner will send a hit squad of four guys with SMG's after you. Even if you happen to be the casino owner...
** And when you kill them, they drop a ''lot'' of money. An interesting way to pay off your debt.
* ShoutOut[=/=]ReferenceOverdosed: [[ShoutOut/GrandTheftAuto All on this page]].
* ShovelStrike: Shovels can be found and used as melee weaponry. Farmers are often equipped with it.
* ShowWithinAShow: The game includes a large number of in-game radio stations that can be listened to from any vehicle (or even simply during the pause screen). Content ranges from music and dynamically updated news bulletins, to complete talk shows and phone-in programs.
* SignsOfDisrepair: A billboard shows a girl drinking a bottle of milky-white soda. At the end of a mission, C.J.'s out-of-control car changes its message from "A taste of what's to come!" to "A taste of come!"
* SillinessSwitch: It's possible, with the right cheats, to have hordes of Elvis (Elvii) and fast food employees rioting through the city while any car hit goes flying into space.
* ASimplePlan: "All we had to do, was follow the damn train, CJ!"
* SimpleYetAwesome: The mountain bike. Unlike the Bike and the BMX[[labelnote:+]]listed above under BoringButPractical[[/labelnote]], it's a really fast vehicle with an acceleration rate that puts even motorcycles to shame if you pedal fast. It also has the benefits of the Bike and BMX of being indestructible and very agile in cramped quarters. The only downsides are that it's ''very'' rare (one guaranteed to spawn on top of Mount Chiliad, which also start a racing event at certain daylight hours, and regardless of win or lost, you can keep the bike), and bunny hops with it are rather short even on max cycling skill (although there's a trick to jumping higher by shooting your gun at the precise moment you let go of the jump button).
* SimultaneousWarningAndAction: The San Fierro Police are trained social workers. That means they try to "open a constructive dialog" while beating Carl with their nightsticks.
* SinkOrSwimMentor: Mike Toreno "teaches" C.J. to learn to fly by giving him a plane and ordering him to figure it out for himself.
* SkewedPriorities: While he and the rest of his friends are being attacked by Ballas, Big Smoke would rather focus on eating all his food (and for that matter, [[VillainousGlutton everyone else's]]) than fire back at gangsters ''trying to kill him''. [[spoiler:Subverted when you find out he secretly betrayed Grove Street and has been working for the Ballas the whole time.]]
* SlashCommand: The game can be patched to play online. Most servers have hundreds of commands, and every one is different, so switching is always an exercise in frustration.
* SlashedThroat: It's possible to do this. It's not possible to see it in the console version, since the third-person camera view obscures the sight, but it sounds pretty messy. The PC port, on the other hand, allows for the player to see it in full – it's an initial deep stab followed by C.J. ripping the blade out the front of the victim's neck.
* SleevesAreForWimps: C.J. starts out wearing a white tanktop.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games generally lie heavily on the cynical side. As an example, in ''San Andreas'', the only two police officers that seem non-corrupt are both killed by the corrupt ones that drive the plot. Even generic cutscene cops often care more about taking bribes or eating snacks than actual justice.
** Even then ''San Andreas'' was more optimistic than the other ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games in the franchise. Carl and Sweet managed to defeat the corrupt cops and their traitors without losing anyone close to them, especially after Cesar pulled a Retirony moment out. Compared to what happens to the later VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto protagonists, ''San Andreas'' is by far the most optimistic of the franchise as the sequels will not be so kind to the other protagonists who lose everything close to them.
--->'''The Truth:''' You know, I mean, you beat the system! I tried for thirty years to cross over, but you've maaaanaged it, man! I mean, man, you're an icon, man!
* SlidingScaleOfVideoGameWorldSizeAndScale: The game would fall under a form of '''real-time, small scale world''' (for example you can drive across San Andreas in a couple of minutes, even though it's meant to represent a whole state). However, the game also features the '''locked doors everywhere''' feature, in that there are usually tons of buildings but few, if any, are actually enterable.
** Driving times ARE shortened by the fact that you're normally driving pedal-to-the-metal without a care about crashing. But even if you did drive like people do IRL, the locations are still much smaller than their real-world inspiration.
* SmallNameBigEgo:
** Sage, the DJ at grunge/alternative station Radio X, to the point that she's an in-universe [[TheScrappy Scrappy.]]
** Ryder talks big and acts like he's "too fucking intelligent" to go to school. While Ryder is a decent shot with a gun, even Sweet tells Ryder that C.J. (the player character) has been doing all the work and might be better at being a gangbanger than Ryder is. [[spoiler:After you discover Ryder betrayed your gang for a rival gang, he still acts like he's the best. Luckily, you get to put a bullet in his head.]]
* SmartCopDumbCop: The game provides a more malicious take on this trope. Frank Tenpenny is the EvilGenius, while Eddie Pulaski is the dumb racist (though not towards his boss).
* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: Big Smoke has this reaction when your car is attacked by a car full of Ballas gang members, chowing down on the food everyone just ordered instead of shooting like the others. [[spoiler:Of course, considering he defected to the Ballas before the game started, this turns out to be more {{foreshadowing}} about his betrayal.]]
* SnowMeansDeath: This is present when C.J. returns to Liberty City later in the game, he shows some Italian mobsters how to have fun in the snow, Grove Street style.
* SoccerHatingAmericans: The host of "The Tight End Zone" calls out to fans of various sports before lashing out at soccer fans.
-->''Your game is terrible and we don't win at it.''
* SocialClimber: Progression in WideOpenSandbox games often features examples of this, where the PlayerCharacter starts poor but eventually becomes super-wealthy, his mission-givers also show the same progression. The most extreme example is the hero Carl Johnson, who grows up in a Los Angeles slum with poor weapons and neighbourhood gun-fights, graduates to working with the Triads, moonlights with a corrupt American agent and then becomes a wealthy entrepreneur in the casino business while tussling with the Italian Mob for turf.
* SocietyIsToBlame: Done satirically. When the player beats or kills someone or steals a car, CJ will sometimes spout lines like "Don't blame me, blame society!"
* SoftWater: You can get into a jet, go over a body of water at full screaming-engine speed and drop without a parachute and all you'll get will be wet clothes. Of course, previous games in the series [[SuperDrowningSkills lacked a swimming mechanic]], and so treated any body of water greater than waist-deep as a pool of instant death.
* SomeDexterityRequired: A staple of the ''GTA'' series, some missions are made difficult NOT by actually being hard but by forcing the player to use cars with inferior to awful handling. Case in point: Race across San Fierro would be MUCH easier if the car didn't fishtail every time you tried to turn. Same goes for the 8-track stadium car racing.
* SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness: The game tries to keep this in effect. The weapons you can't get in the starting city are the M4 (better assault rifle) and some of the heavy weapons, which can show up in later towns. The gun shops unlock according to a pattern as well ... although there's nothing stopping you from {{sidequest}}ing your way to an arsenal.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Can happen at anytime when you listen to the radio while driving, but there is also at least one deliberate example: When you have to go to Liberty City to execute a hit in a restaurant (i.e. it turns into an [[MoreDakka action packed gunfight]]), quiet classical music is playing in said restaurant.
** Radio X contains [[Music/PrimalScream 'Movin' On Up']], a heartwarming and inspirational song that simply doesn't mesh with the drive-bys and manslaughter.
** Radio Los Santos typically plays type 1 and 2 GangstaRap that suits the game perfectly. But then we have '[[Music/TooShort The Ghetto]]' and 'Hood Took Me Under', both of which are certainly not glorified takes on gangster culture.
** In the original sixth-generation console releases, if CJ took his girlfriend on a bad date, "Killing In The Name" by Music/RageAgainstTheMachine would accompany the resulting cutscene. In all subsequent re-releases, however, said song is removed from the game due to the license for it expiring, so the "good date" music plays in its place during bad dates. The result? Happy music playing over CJ's girlfriend berating and throwing food at him, clearly not enjoying their time together.
* SpeedRun: The game was dominated in [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/GrandTheftAutoSA.html six hours nine minutes]]. Though that wasn't in a single sitting.
** Years later, this records has been shattered, with the WR for San Andreas being [[http://www.speedrunrecords.com/Grand_Theft_Auto_San_Andreas/run/551 5:24:17 by UltimateOmega07]] ''done in a single sitting''.
** As of 2019, the Any% record has fallen all the way to fifteen minutes due to a glitch called [[https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/ddrsfd/grand_theft_auto_san_andreas_skip_that_saves_over/ Arbitrary Jump in Script]] that allows the player to skip almost the entire game. The record without this glitch is just under four hours.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: OG Loc's name is ''not'' pronounced "Ogg Lock".
* SpicyLatina: Catalina definitely counts as this, and so does Michelle.
* SpitefulAI: The police cars don't really do much except try to crash into you as hard as possible. They don't mind flipping over in crazy ways that no normal human could survive, or brutally totaling their car every now and then. [[AttackAttackAttack They just want to TAKE YOU DOWN]].
** Even if you're driving a tank and their cars instantly explode when they hit, the LemmingCops will still constantly ram you just to slowly drain your HitPoints.
** Another way the police AI hates you is seen when other criminals go after you. In one of the early missions, you can be riding a bicycle while three men in a car are gunning you down. Even if a policeman is standing in the line of fire, he won't respond. But god help you if your bicycle hits the policeman. In some games, the police may be in a neutral or hostile (to you) state, and any criminal action against the police by AI enemies will lead to the police blaming YOU for it.
* TheSpook: Mike Toreno. Even his name is suspect, since he was [[spoiler:working undercover]] when C.J. was introduced to him.
* SpySpeak: In a mission cutscene, you overhear [[TheMenInBlack government agent]] Mike Toreno's radio conversation:
-->'''Mike Toreno:''' Roger that, Big Monkey, I got a 13-6 fat vulture. Need to acquire a drowning baby. Over. [gets interrupted by Carl's arrival] In 15 by the moon. Break your heart. Over and out.
* StealthBasedMission: Some of the storyline missions and the "Burglar" side mission follow this formula. They are generally not too difficult, and actually quite engaging, as they take cues from [[VideoGame/{{Manhunt}} another infamous game by Rockstar]].
* StealthPun: Big Smoke's icon on the radar is "BS"; which while those are his initials, they're also short for "bullshit". It foreshadows that his missions [[spoiler:are done for the benefit of C.R.A.S.H., not the Grove Street Families, despite him claiming otherwise]].
* SteelEarDrums: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in a mission. C.J. and Catalina chase after redneck bank-robbers on a quad; C.J.'s driving, Catalina's shooting while sitting behind him. C.J. keeps on berating her shooting right next to his ears, even saying at one point that he thinks he's gone deaf. However, he suffers no hearing loss whatsoever, and all other instances of people being gunners in/on the same vehicle as him go without any mention from him. (The difference between Catalina and all other instances is that [[AxCrazy Catalina is a lot more trigger-happy than the others are]].)
* StickyBomb: There are remote-detonated satchel charges that when thrown stick to any wall, vehicle, or [[BreadEggsMilkSquick innocent bystander]].
* StillWearingTheOldColors: [[spoiler:Big Smoke and Ryder still wear their [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience Grove Street Family greens]] long after betraying the gang to work with the purple-clad Ballas and yellow-clad Vagos]].
* TheStinger: Immediately after the credits have rolled and you are dumped back into the gameplay after completing the final plot mission in the game, Catalina will call Carl to yell at him one final time.
* TheStoner: The Truth and Ryder. A few of the recurring characters from ''Vice City'', as well.
* StonersAreFunny: The Truth.
* StormingTheCastle: The cops do this to your motel, then you do this on [[spoiler:Smoke]]'s crack house.
* StoryDrivenInvulnerability: The "OG Loc" mission, where you can shoot at Freddy while chasing him by motorcycle, but you can't actually kill him until after the chase. [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules Unfortunately, he can damage you while you're chasing him]].
* StoryOverwrite: In the mission "Dam and Blast", you have to sneak into the Sherman Dam and rig the power generators with explosives. Even if you get in, plant all the explosives, and get out without being spotted by the guards, the following cutscene will still show C.J. running away from the police.
* StrangeSecretEntrance: The game [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this in a way, by having a sign that reads "There are no Easter eggs here, go away" on top of a massive bridge, and in itself features a presumably unintentional version of this with the legendary [[MinusWorld "hidden interiors"]].
* StupidCrooks: Very early, C.J.'s friend Ryder tries to rob a Pizza Stack where he is a regular customer. He wears a PaperThinDisguise that consists of taking his hat off and putting on a nearly-transparent mask. The results are as expected.
-->'''Clerk:''' Ryder? [[OhNoNotAgain Not this again]]!\\
'''Ryder:''' [[ImplausibleDeniability It ain't me, foo]]'!\\
'''Clerk:''' No one else is that small. I feel sorry for your dad!
** Also, turns out the clerk is [[MuggingTheMonster better armed than Ryder is]].
* StupidSurrender: This game is quite possibly the [[TooDumbToLive Crowning Moment of Stupid]] for this trope, more so because Rockstar Games had, even when the game was first released, developed a reputation for [[LampshadeHanging hanging lampshades]] and PaintingTheMedium. C.J. not only surrenders without a fight the moment crooked cops Tenpenny and Pulaski point guns at him, but even spends several hours digging his own grave with Pulaski standing over him after Tenpenny has left to do more important things than keep a gun trained on a guy wearing 200% armor, 200% hit points, and strapped with weapons ranging from katanas to rocket launchers to rocket jetpacks. Only when Pulaski is about to execute the compliant C.J. does he drop his gun for no apparent reason at all, which is apparently the trigger CJ needs to start trying to fight back... but only after he lets Pulaski climb into his (explosion and bullet proof but strangely not impact proof) cop car parked several meters away. Because the goal of the mission is to kill Pulaski, and it just has to be done only after engaging in a car chase along the entire length and breadth of the game map.
* StylisticSuck: The one OG Loc song we hear, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyl-MN8JdQA It's Loc Baby]]", contains all the things common in bad GangstaRap songs rolled into one: A simplistic and repetitive beat, random shout outs, extremely short verses and terrible wordplay. [[EarWorm Doesn't stop it from being incredibly catchy]].
* SuicideAsComedy: We hear this on the radio:
-->'''James:''' Hello, you're on "The Wild Traveler". Where are you?\\
'''Caller:''' I'm on a cliff.
-->'''James:''' How romantic!
-->'''Caller:''' I want to jump!
-->'''James:''' Yes, I know what you mean. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Jump into the unknown.]] How can it be a sin if it feels good? Anyway, why are you calling?
-->'''Caller:''' Why am I here?
-->'''James:''' I don't know. Why are you there? Where are you? Kenya?
-->'''Caller:''' No, I'm in Verdant Bluffs.
-->'''James:''' Loathsome place. I'd jump if I were you.
-->'''Caller:''' I want to go to Hell.
-->'''James:''' Me too! Buy a refrigerator magnet when you get there!
* SuicideDare: Madd Dogg is on top of a building thinking about jumping after losing all his money and his rhyme book. A couple of bystanders encourage him to jump.
* SuperDrowningSkills: The first game in the series to [[AvertedTrope avert]] this... unless your name isn't Carl Johnson and you're not a mission critical NPC, a GSF member following CJ, or [[DevelopersForesight a swimsuit-clad bystander]]. Then you die the second you hit even a shallow pond.
* SurprisinglyEasyMiniQuest: There are a couple instances where you lose all your weapons, no matter if you never get wasted or arrested (or never save when that happens). The next few missions after each on have the good grace to drop in difficulty until you get your stock up, although it's not a cakewalk.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: In one of the very first missions, Ryder puts his cap backwards and goes to rob the local Pizza Stack. But when the cashier recognizes him due to his height and voice (and, obviously, his PaperThinDisguise):
--> '''Ryder:''' Give up the money! This' a raid!\\
'''Cashier:''' Ryder! Not this again!\\
'''Ryder:''' It ain't me, foo'!\\
'''Cashier:''' I don't know anyone so small! I feel sorry for your dad!
* SwordFight: Played, to a point. One mission gives you the choice of going sword to sword against a crimelord. Your other options involve whatever other guns you picked up on the way to him.
* TakeAThirdOption: After completing "Key To Her Heart", you are presented with two options in order to get [[SafeSaneAndConsensual Millie Perkins]]' keycard for the heist of Caligula's Palace: [[VideoGameCaringPotential Date her]] like you would with any of the other girlfriends, or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential kill her]] and [[CuttingTheKnot get to the heist sooner]]. If you're feeling impatient but not particularly bloodthirsty, you could instead have CJ wear the gimp suit and visit Millie. Doing this will grant a 10% relationship boost and save you some time.
* TakeOverTheCity: ''San Andreas'' upped the ante and gave you three cities to conquer.
* TakeThat:
** Quite a few at ''VideoGame/Driv3r'' and ''True Crime: Streets of LA'', most notably a billboard in Los Santos with "True Grime: Street Cleaners". Also, at the War Memorial in San Fierro, at the top and bottom are tombstones that read "R.I.P Opposition 1997-2004". Also HilariousInHindsight, due to ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' coming into existence [[VideoGame/SaintsRow1 two years later]].
** Get a Bullet off of the Import/Export ship and read it's license plate. "[[Creator/ElectronicArts EA]] SUCKS" and "FUCK YOU" can be read on them occasionally.
* TakeThatAudience: Many characters insult CJ's driving and how dangerous and insane he is behind the wheel. Considering how most players handle their cars in GTA games, it's as much a commentary on the player's driving as it is CJ's.
* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: C.J. comes across Madd Dogg, who's threatening to jump. He makes a token effort to get him down, but in the end steals a straw truck so he lands semi-safely.
* TankGoodness: A series staple, the Rhino, returns with upgraded speed and handling as well as a new look based on the M1 Abrams. There's also a bulletproof SWAT tank in the final mission, though the only way to get it in normal gameplay is by exploiting the game mechanics to save it after failing the mission.
* TaughtByExperience: You pick up skills by performing them -- driving, shooting things with weapons, etc. -- and can earn large bonuses through schools.
* TechnicalPacifist: The Police Helicopter Pilot could be considered one of these:
-->'''Gunner:''' Why do I always do the shooting?\\
'''Pilot:''' Because I'm a pacifist! '''KILL HIM!'''
* TeleportingKeycardSquad: The mission "Vertical Bird". If you don't blow up the other two Hydras before stealing the third, three of them will chase you. If you do blow up those two, a single one will chase you anyway. And if you are fast enough to get on the deck and destroy the Hydra that's taking flight at that moment (wich one would assume is the one that chases you later), at least one Hydra will appear out of nowhere and chase you anyway.
* {{Thememobile}}: The Truth's "Mothership", a repainted camper van, is a great example. Several other major characters have their own vehicles, but for the most part they're only distinguished by a unique license plate.
** Players can also create their own Theme Mobiles thanks to the game's vehicle modification capabilities.
* ThemeTuneRap: CJ's voice actor is Young Maylay, an up-and-coming rapper. His debut album, "San Andreas: The Mix Tapes", features a song that has him rapping about the game in character as C.J.
* ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld: [[Radio/GTARadio Tommy "The Nightmare" Smith's]] view on the world: "There's two kinds of people in this world: Those who like me... and those who can go to hell!"
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: As the game progresses the player gains access to very powerful weaponry and vehicles, which can make a number of missions a cakewalk. The epitome of this is the Rhino, a near-indestructable tank, which can be used on everything from the game's Vigilante side-mission to running over hapless enemy gang members during the gang warfare stage of the game. It's also possible (though usually more trouble than it's worth) to do several missions using an assault helicopter if you place it where it needs to be in advance.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Subverted in one mission, which has you go to a drive-thru restaurant, only to be attacked by Ballas after you've got your food. This doesn't stop Big Smoke from enjoying his food instead of shooting at them [[spoiler:since he's also working with them.]]
** Played straight in another; a patrolling police officer comments to his colleague on wasting their donuts, discarding them on the road as they are radioed in to pursue C.J. and the crew.
* ThinkUnsexyThoughts: Maccer [[ADateWithRosiePalms is a chronic masturbator]]. To get him to stop, his manager tells him to "Think of Thatcher". Unfortunately, that just turns him on more.
* ThirtySecondBlackout: There's an optional sidequest composed of several sub-missions preparing for a big casino heist, ''Film/OceansEleven'' style. One of these missions involves planting [[StickyBomb remote controlled sticky bombs]] on the generators of the dam that powers the game's [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed Las Vegas analogue]], so they can be detonated and blackout the whole city during the heist. When it happens, the power stays off for a few minutes requiring the player to venture back upstairs and blow the cassino's back-up generators. Despite this, the city has power about a minute later.
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: "I ain't ''nobody'''s "ass technician", bitch!" - OG Loc
** CJ himself says things like "Leave me the hell alone, bitch!" when returning insults to [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]].
* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: C.J. invokes this trope on Sweet in the final mission. C.J. insists he takes on the BigBad alone in order to make up for running out on his gang when they needed him most.
* ToastedBuns: Averted with the Black Project Jetpack, which has outboard shoulder-level thrusters, by a simple use of [[RealLife actual]] design of Bell Rocket Belt that has exhaust pipes moved away and to the side of pilot's body. It is also a very practical vehicle to use; it is useful in collecting the [[GottaCatchEmAll hidden Horseshoes in Las Venturas]] and plays a central part in one of the game's most memorable missions.
* ToneShift: For the first quarter of the game, C.J.'s dealings in Los Santos are relatively realistic and grounded. There are some wacky moments here and there but nothing too out of the ordinary. Once C.J. is forced to leave Los Santos, the game goes up a couple levels in ridiculousness and peaks with the missions for Toreno and the Truth. The third quarter, where [[spoiler:C.J. goes back to Los Santos to see Sweet's release from prison]], is when the game goes back to the tone it had in the first quarter.
* TooAwesomeToUse: The combine harvesters. These vehicles had the unique and delightfully sadistic feature of turning crops of pedestrians into [[{{Gorn}} neatly bundled up bales of body parts]]. Unfortunately, the harvesters are rare, encountered only at certain times in rural areas. In addition, almost all of them are locked and can only be accessed by killing the driver of one already in use. Even after obtaining one, the size of the vehicle makes it difficult to move in populated areas and impossible to fit into a garage for safe keeping. Its slow speed and bad handling make the player easy for law enforcers (who inevitably start to show up after a few good mauls) to catch. Finally, if the player decides to exit the vehicle for any reason, the door locks behind them.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: C.J., the protagonist, [[VillainProtagonist isn't exactly a paragon of morality]], but he tends towards PragmaticVillainy. His friends are all dumb thugs to a greater or a lesser extent. A typical mission will begin with them explaining their latest scheme, him [[OnlySaneMan pointing out how risky it is]], them [[BerserkButton calling him a buster]] (mainly Ryder, for whom this is almost a CatchPhrase), and him agreeing to go along with what turns out to be an absolute clusterfuck with at least seven people shooting at him at once. [[{{Railroading}} Of course, if he didn't go along, we wouldn't have a plot]]...
* TrainEscape: The player can do delivery missions using trains. Initiating the delivery mission while wanted will cause the player to lose their wanted level.
* TrashTalk: C.J. does this all the time in combat. "Oh, look, a gun." *Blam*
* TheTriadsAndTheTongs: The San Fierro missions deal with this dynamic.
* TrueCompanions: The group C.J. builds during the course of the game is large, diverse and bound together like family.
* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Released in 2004, set in 1992. [[spoiler:Since San Andreas is an {{expy}} of early-'90s California, the ending features [[HistoricalInJoke the GTA universe's counterpart to the 1992 LA riots.]]]]
* UnconventionalVehicleChase: A pursuit mission in go-karts, preceded by hovercrafts, no less.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange: The game featured a couple of stealth segments in the main story, and more in the form of sidequests.
** Many of the missions were horribly designed, nearly impossible to control flight simulators. What truly makes this awful is that while flying itself was very straightforward and easy, the mandatory missions forced the player to use the poorest plane available. Imagine if the player had to do the street racing segments with a street sweeper, the slowest motor vehicle in the game.
** RC Plane, Quarry Missions, Cesar's Races, Pilot School, rhythm sequences...
* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: One of your missions as Carl is to date a chick in order to steal her key card to get access to a casino. In a game with some missions that won't even let you destroy your highly non-essential car without failing the mission, this mission has two options: Go on a couple of dates with her. [[CuttingTheKnot Or just kill her.]] You won't fail anything, and the key card will be right there in her house.
* UnexpectedShmupLevel: Subverted in The "Da Nang Thang", where it initially looks like it's going this route, only for your helicopter to be shot down almost immediately, forcing you to complete things on foot.
* UnexplainedRecovery: Villain [[spoiler:Toreno]] seemingly explodes in a helicopter. Several missions later, [[spoiler:he's having C.J. ride around in a monster truck. No explanation is given for living--or for the truck]].
** Its implied through his dialogue he just fooled C.J. into thinking [[spoiler:he got on the helicopter]] - he knew C.J. was trying to kill him, and needed him to think he had in order to get his help.
* UnflinchingWalk: This is without a doubt the most fun way to use the remote plastic explosive, and with the FreeRotatingCamera you can make sure you've got the best possible viewpoint.
* TheUnfought: Officer Tenpenny is the meanest, most {{manipulative|Bastard}} son of a bitch in the game, but you never get to actually fight him. After a city-wide car chase, he ends up losing control of his truck and driving right off a bridge through a concrete barrier, just in front of [[WhereItAllBegan C.J.'s home]]. [[spoiler:C.J. is convinced by Sweet not to drive a bullet into the man's head "just to make sure", and lets Tenpenny die of his own internal injuries.]]
* UngratefulBastard: Mike Toreno is very ungrateful when CJ and the other members of Mike's Loco Syndicate rescue him from the Da Nang Boys in Mike's self-titled mission. Upon being rescued, instead of thanking his rescuers, the first thing Mike does is point a gun at C.J. and say "Who the fuck is this?!".
* UnifiedNamingSystem: Grove Street Families vs. Kilo Street Ballas vs. Varrio Los Aztecas vs. [[OddNameOut Los Santos Vagos]].
* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: There's a well-known glitch occurring in the later mission "Madd Dogg". You're supposed to line up a truck full of hay under down-and-out rapper Madd Dogg before he jumps to his death, but for still-unconfirmed reasons he can commit suicide as soon as the mission cutscene ends. Fans speculate that this is caused by too many cheats being saved, though this has been mostly discredited. Another theory is that the pedestrian riot cheat has been activated, which makes Madd Dogg walk off the roof to attack the nearest person. There is no way to complete the story mode on the same save file if this happens.
* UniversalAmmunition: Pistols don't share ammunition (one fires a bigger bullet than the others, and another presumably uses lower-velocity ammo to complement its suppressor). The [=SMGs=] and shotguns can take ammo from other weapons in their class, which are justified by all using the same rounds (and being fed with loose ones in the case of the shotguns).
** However, the AK-47 and M4 both share ammo.
* UniversalDriversLicense: The game introduces airplanes as available vehicles; the PlayerCharacter must complete a training course before he can ''legally'' fly those, but is still ''perfectly capable'' of flying them before that if he sneaks into an airport and hijacks one.
** Not only can C.J. pilot airplanes perfectly the first time he clambers into the cockpit, he also learns how to fly a Harrier jet just as fast (all of his previous experience likely being little more than a P-51, an Apache, and a Learjet) and learn how to properly operate all of the weapons systems well enough to defeat several experienced pilots in a dogfight and destroy boats sitting in a lake with heat-seaking missiles.
** And don't forget the ''experimental'' jetpack that you steal in one mission, and thereafter always have, if you can bother to go pick it up. Not only does he fly it without trouble, but he can fire any singlehanded gun from it as well as from any vehicle.
* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: The MoodLighting of the city of San Fierro is predominantly blue.
* UpdatedRerelease:
** After the game was pulled from stores after the {{Hot Coffee|MiniGame}} incident and the {{Media Watchdog}}s had a field day with it, Rockstar tried to justify a re-release of the game (while making the "offensive" bit truly inaccessible to keep the game rated M) by including a "behind the scenes" movie and a 30 minute cutscene showing events that occurred before the beginning of the game. Some say that some glitches and bugs were also fixed. PC modders used downgraders to avoid the updated PC version as it made modding, well, harder due to hard-coded checks to prevent any modifications, but the modding community later developed a tool to revert later re-releases to their original v1.0 release to remove these anti-modding checks.
** A mobile port of the game was released in 2013 featuring a revamped menu system, auto-saves and mid-mission checkpoints, support for HD resolutions and many graphical settings for players to optimize the game for their device, and updated character and vehicle models. Some of the later console and Windows Store re-releases used the mobile version as a base for an HD remastered version.
* UpperClassTwit: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToumKORTtgM Rich Guy]].
* UranusIsShowing: You can play a ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' like [[ShootEmUp shooter game]] on the VG console of Sweet's house. The game's name? '''They Crawled From Uranus!'''
* UselessUsefulStealth: This even shows up. There are two or three stealth-based missions, in which you can evade detection entirely by hiding in shadows. The game tries to tell you after the first one that you can also use stealth to hide from police, but [[TheAllSeeingAI anyone who's played a video game]] [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard before that point knows better.]] In fact, "stealth" kills with a knife outside of missions seem to attract more attention than waving a sword around or even firing a silenced gun at someone.
** There's also robbing houses, which the player is also introduced to through one of the aformentioned stealth-based missions. It's supposed to be an easy way for the player to make cash without actually playing the storyline, but in 90% of the houses you can try to infiltrate, its occupants are in the front room, ready to discover you as soon as you enter.
* VanInBlack: Get a 5-star wanted level and the FBI will come after you in black tinted SUV's. Probably the best time to retreat to a safehouse before [[TankGoodness the army]] shows up.
* VanityLicensePlate: The game upped the ante by including a far larger number of vanity plates on specifically parked or mission-specific cars.
* VerbalTic: T-Bone ends each and every sentence with "Ese", to sound more "cholo". Cesar Vialpando also does this, though less often, and also ends his phrases with "holmes" and "vato". (A number of pedestrians can be heard using these phrases in their conversations, too).
* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: [[spoiler:Big Smoke]]'s Crack Palace, an abandoned set of apartments that the Ballas have taken over to install their drug factory.
* ViceCity: Well, Vice ''State''.
* VideogameCaringPotential: The nameless Grove Street mooks you pick up to assist in missions will chatter with C.J. on the way to the goal, giving him shit like all his named friends. Makes it hard to watch them mowed down like wheat. Of course it doesn't help they tend to fire wildly at every cop that comes by.
** Deliberately played with, when it comes to Carl's girlfriends. You would expect this game feature to evoke this trope but once Carl starts dating his first girlfriend, Denise Robinson, things turn out quite differently: she will hurl insults at Carl whenever he bumps into her and berate him if does as much as nudge any object with his car. During the "driving dates", on the other hand, if you drive too carefully[[note]]advisable if your driving skill is still somewhat lacking – which it most likely is at this point in the game, unless you've spent hours honing your driving skills on the airstrip which is only accessible through a bit of trickery[[/note]], you will end up "boring her legs shut" and if you neglect her for too long, she will threaten Carl with dating one of his friends instead. And let's not even mention her endless lust for gratuitous drive-by shootings...
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: A staple and much of the point of the whole ''GTA'' series, but it especially comes into play here as an odd case of GameplayAndStorySegregation. CJ is, for the most part, presented within the story as a ruthless but well-meaning AntiHero rather than a VillainProtagonist, but the player's still free to go on genocidal rampages in between each mission.
** There's a few cruelty moments that are a part of the main missions. One mission has you kidnap a music manager and his girlfriend and drive off the docks while you jump out of the car, hearing him whine before that he can't swim. Another one has you get revenge for your sister who was harassed by some construction workers by pushing the foreman around with a bulldozer while he is inside a portable toilet, hearing him gag and yell about the smell and being splashed with his own feces. You kill him by pushing his stall in a ditch and ''filling it with cement, burying him alive''!
** In ''San Andreas'', they added the ability to swim to the player, the girlfriends and some other {{Non Player Character}}s. Note that cops are not on the list.
** ''San Andreas'' has just dozens of examples; heck the cops and pedestrians will sometimes just kill the hell out of each other with no player involvement.
** ''San Andreas'' gives the player the option to do burglaries as a side mission. While the only mandatory burglary enforces stealth, the typical sidequest burglary goes like this: Enter house, kill the occupants in their sleep and then just sweep the apartment clean. Repeat a few times each night.
** Sometimes, hitting a pedestrian in the car would not be enough to kill em. You could just park ''over'' them instead and watch the blood flow from underneath your car...
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Shooting down and destroying the harmless News Chopper that spawns from a 4 star wanted level onward usually replaces them with a second Police Maverick.
* VideogameFlamethrowersSuck: Definitely the case: the tendency for enemies to run directly at you when you light them on fire (leaving you completely helpless and vulnerable), the ridiculously short range meaning you could have killed the enemies with anything else in the game by that point, and that, since its technically classed as a BFG, you can't run and gun with it makes it all but useless.
* VideoGameFlight: Oddly, ''San Andreas'' has flight as a later-game ability, with the requirement being 'learn how'. Not many limitations, aside from two logical ones: avoid buildings, and avoid no-fly zones. Of course, not many [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential targets]] when you get too high.
** It's not naturally a late game ability, you can climb over the airport fence and steal a plane at any time. It's just that if you don't have a pilot's license, military jets will come and shoot you down.
** Even later in the game, you get a jetpack (''[[IWantMyJetpack finally!]]'')
* VillainExitStageLeft: {{Averted|Trope}} in the final mission. This is what [[spoiler:Tenpenny intended to do -- bail out of Los Santos, or perhaps out of San Andreas for good, even as the city burns with riots over news that he has been cleared of charges of corruption (thanks to blackmailing C.J. into concealing damaging evidence). Not if C.J. and Sweet had something to say about that]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler:Big Smoke]] appears as a respected public figure on the news in latter parts of the game, encouraging (of all things) to keep the streets drug free while building orphanages. Lazlow, of all people, remarks on this during a radio interview with OG Loc.
-->'''Lazlow''': [[spoiler:Big Smoke]] is doing a lot for the community. Or ''to'' it. Sounds like a great guy.
* VillainousBreakdown: Both Tenpenny and Pulaski undergo one late in the game, because [[spoiler:the FBI has taken an interest in their involvement with the criminal underworld. Tenpenny is the one most visibly effected by it, as he goes from being smug, superior and cocky to edgy, paranoid and prone to outbursts. And when it's revealed that fellow officer Hernandez has been ratting them out... well, Tenpenny's reaction isn't pretty]].
* ViolationOfCommonSense: There's one point where you jump out of a moving plane, onto another moving plane, open the door and start shooting everyone in sight. Impossibility notwithstanding, who the hell would ever think of trying to do this just for a second?
** C.J. himself lampshades some of these missions himself occasionally, especially during the Toreno missions, in which he would have just walked away and never looked back if it wasn't for the fact that Toreno happens to be the key to getting Sweet out of jail.
* VirtualPaperDoll: For the first time in the series, you are given a highly customizable character in the form of C.J. -- you can make him skinny, buff or fat, change his hairstyle and facial hair, and buy him a wide variety of clothes.
* VitriolicBestBuds: CJ's relationship to Ryder, [[spoiler:before the latter's betrayal]].
* VivaLasVegas: The city of Las Venturas, a dead ringer for Vegas, as the third big city in the state along with [[HollywoodCalifornia Los Santos and San Fierro]].
* WarpWhistle: The trains and airports.
* WarriorPoet: OG Loc refers to himself as one during a radio interview and it apparently is the image he tries to create. It doesn't quite work out that well.
* TheWarSequence: At the end of the Los Santos mission chain when C.J. arrives late to a gang fight after discovering a horrible secret and has to kill waves of Ballas (some of them driving cars) while protecting his brother, with only the help of a few surviving gang members and some cars parked in a circle for cover.
* WaxingLyrical: In the definitive edition, one of the achievements is called "Today was a Good Day"[[note]]Unlocked by going 24 hours (in game) without breaking the law, being wanted, killing or harming anyone.[[/note]], which is taken directly from Music/IceCube's lryics in "It was a Good Day".
* WatchThePaintJob: After reuniting with Big Smoke, C.J. finds that Smoke has gotten himself a pretty nice car, and they drive to Beverly's funeral in it. As they're leaving the cemetery, some Ballas show up and pull a drive-by. [[EveryCarIsAPinto Take a wild guess what happens to Smoke's new car.]] "AW MUTHAFUCKA, MY CAR!"
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Tenpenny claims that his approach to the job is about "percentages" and that his philosophy calls for overlooking some crime to achieve a greater good. It appears that he believes what he says, but in reality he's rotten to the core.
* WetBlanketWife: Kendl Johnson, sister of protagonist C.J. and lover of C.J.'s ally, Caesar Vialpando, constantly acts as an exasperated voice of reason between the two macho {{gangbangers}}. She usually has some sort of gripe against their lifestyle, but she's often right, such as when one of them plans to [[LeeroyJenkins plans to run off and do something stupid.]]
* WeUsedToBeFriends: C.J. and Sweet with [[spoiler:Big Smoke and Ryder]].
* WhamEpisode: "The Green Sabre". Not only are [[spoiler:your best friends Ryder and Smoke revealed as working with the enemies (C.R.A.S.H. and the Ballas), but your brother Sweet is shot and arrested, Grove Street goes to shit, you lose all the territory you'd captured up to this point, and you're taken out in the middle of nowhere to do an errand for Tenpenny and Pulaski. Just... holy shit]].
* WhatAPieceOfJunk:
** Sweet's Greenwood. At first glance, it appears to be an unremarkable, boxy, and dated sedan (even by 1992 standards), [[BoringButPractical but turns out to be dependable enough that it's the definitive car driven during specific drive-by shootings and car chases in missions]]. Even after the car survives a HelicopterBlender, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P0HkRCCplI#t=9m09s ends up in a spectacular crash with a tanker trailer]], and Sweet's stint in prison, Sweet remained insistent reacquiring the same car, having the player driving it in late in the storyline and the final mission.
--->'''Carl:''' "Can't believe you bought that same bucket ass car, man!"\\
'''Sweet:''' "Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
** A better in-game example (as the Greenwood is average at best in all areas) is the Clover. It looks like your typical redneck ride, corroded paint and parts of different colors included. However, it has a very nice acceleration rate, brakes nicely and turns like a dream. It's not on par with the [[CoolCar sportscars]] you can find in richer areas, but it's a dependable ride that's very common everywhere.
** If C.J. drives any trashy car around San Andreas, [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] will often say things like "What a piece of shit!".
* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife:
** C.J. says a variation of this after [[spoiler:killing his friend-turned-crack-pusher Big Smoke]].
** He also says something similar after [[spoiler:killing Ryder]] before Cesar snaps him out of it by [[spoiler:mentioning "Little asshole tried to bang your sister, you know that?"]]
* WhatMeasureIsAMook: The game follows this trope in order to FollowThePlottedLine. C.J. is told by some corrupt cops that if he leaves town, they'll pin the murder of another cop on him. Thing is, during the game you can murder cops and civilians by the dozens with your comeuppance being... respawning at the police station or hospital less 10% of your money.
** Tenpenny and later Toreno stonewall any attempts to put C.J. away for good. And besides, it's knocking out a few fellow officers off the ladder.
* WhatTheHellPlayer:
** You can have fellow gang members ride around in your car. Driving recklessly (excessive speed, driving off a cliff, etc) will result in them calling you out on it. The best is "Cars can't fly, you ''bitch!''"
** The "dates" respond to crazy conduct, as well. Police officer Barbara is prone to scream "This is not responsible driving!" if you speed (Katie appears turned on by it, however, even though your relationship status meter actually drops). Even worse, if you use the attack button while trying to give flowers you'll get a sharp message about abusing your girlfriend and the relationship status will go down.
** When C.J. crashes into cars, he tends to shout insults at them. e.g. "did you buy your license!?" or, "Oh, you asshole, my shit!" While he is technically insulting the driver of the other car, some of the lines could be interpreted as insults to the player's own driving abilities.
* WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame: The Gaydar Station. Like the other two night clubs you can visit, you can play on the arcade games there or go on the dancefloor for a [[RhythmGame rhythm-based minigame]]. Sadly, you still dance with girls there (which isn't a huge stretch, but still).
* WhereItAllBegan: The last few missions take place in Los Santos again. The final cut scene takes right in Grove Street, where C.J. started his adventure after coming back home.
* WhileRomeBurns: During the last mission, [[spoiler:while riots are breaking all across Los Santos and C.J. is storming Big Smoke's crack palace killing everyone who gets in his way, Smoke himself is merely sitting in his pad playing video games.]]
* WhipItGood: We don't actually see Catalina using the whip on C.J. in the intro to the "Gone Courting" mission, but [[SexyDiscretionShot oh man, do we ever hear it]].
* WhiteGangBangers: Subverted in this game, where the Grove Street Families and the Ballas are 100% black people; the Vagos are a Hispanic gang; and then there's the Triad running Las Venturas. You rarely, if ever, find a white gangster until the Mafia comes into play later on.
* WholePlotReference: The first third is basically ''Juice'' mashed together with ''Film/BoyzNTheHood''. The last two thirds of the game are basically the plot of ''Literature/TheCountofMonteCristo'' with a brief interlude to reenact ''Film/OceansEleven''.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Cesar is afraid of heights, as seen in a mission where he and C.J. have to steal a car out of a cargo ship by lifting it out with a crane. C.J. gets up in the crane while Cesar stays on the ground. Surprisingly, he's fine with the idea of jumping from a moving car to jack a moving truck.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim:
** In the mission "High Noon", [[spoiler:Officer Pulaski reveals that he's wanted to just shoot C.J. from the beginning. The only thing stopping him was Officer Tenpenny, who kept coming up with reasons to keep C.J. alive]].
** C.J. could just shoot every villain near the beginning.
** Same with every villain towards C.J. as well, an example being [[spoiler:when you first meet Big Smoke, he could have just easily bashed C.J.'s head in, seeing his true nature and all that. Big Smoke's approach may be justified, though, in that he may have preferred to convince C.J. to come to his side a la [[Franchise/StarWars Emperor Palpatine to Luke Skywalker]], especially when Sweet early was the guy heading the Families and C.J. at that point was his [[TheLancer lancer]].]]
* WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: A couple of missions early in the game deal with this. In one, you have to stop an arms dealer from the post-Soviet black market who's been supplying the Ballas gang.
* WideOpenSandbox: Once all areas are unlocked, the player has access to a huge, open-ended, "living" region to explore, with widely varying geography, cities, and waterways. Even in the early stages of the game, when only Los Santos and countryside to the north is available, this still provides the player with more exploration space than most previous GTA games combined (and a cheat code, coupled with C.J.'s newfound ability to swim, makes it possible to explore the complete state from the start). Unlike the past games (and even the later GTA IV), the addition of rural areas and diverse city design give the game a sense of distance not found in the others; when C.J. is standing in the middle of the desert area, Los Santos seems a long way away.
* WithCatlikeTread:
** Carl and Ryder are ready to break into a war veteran's house and steal as much as possible; Carl suggests sneaking in rather than taking the place by storm. Ryder agrees that it's a smart idea, but then follows this up by howling "COME OUT YOU OLD BASTARD!" at the house.
** In the mission "Photo Opportunity", C.J. and Cesar are taking pictures of a drug trade from a rooftop across the street. While they do this, the two are constantly shouting at the top of their lungs at each other. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This is a remnant of the beta]], where the two would have been taking pictures from a helicopter rather than from a rooftop.
* WizardNeedsFoodBadly: The game tied C.J.'s life meter to his hunger. If you go without eating for a long time, C.J.'s fat and muscle stats begin to deplete, and his health meter eventually starts draining. Luckily, you'd have to go a very long time without food before the game starts to remind you that you need to eat and you'd practically have to be starving C.J. on purpose if he were to die from hunger. Since food is the only way to recover energy while not on a mission, eating too much (except salads) would make C.J. gain weight, while eating too much ''in one sitting'' results [[VomitIndiscretionShot in his meal coming back to haunt him]]. And don't forget the fact that, since it is tied with your life bar, ''[[HyperactiveMetabolism going for a burger heals the bullet holes in your body]]''.
* WorstAid: The medical personnel some how can magical revive people who died from gunfire, explosions, and fire just with CPR, and still run in to the enter the area the insane gun man (i.e., you) is still shooting up. That pales in comparison to all the people they '''run over''' in their pursuit of saving lives.
* {{Yandere}}: Catalina, particularly once she starts falling for you. As if she weren't already [[AxCrazy crazy enough]].
* YearZero: Invoked, but not used. After grabbing the Green Goo from an armored train for The Truth, he claims "they will call this YearZero". [[SubvertedTrope Sadly, nothing comes of it.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Tenpenny has Carl retrieve a dossier during his time in Las Venturas. Right afterwards, he has Carl dig his own grave, intending to have Pulaski kill him.]]
* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: You can replenish your life bar by eating. However, you can't buy food until you've completed the "Ryder" mission. Fortunately, this is the second mission.
* YouKnowImBlackRight: Played with. C.J. has been working with Wu Zi Mu (or "Woozie"), a Triad leader who tries to hide the fact that he's blind, but fails spectacularly. When C.J. responds to Woozie's big reveal by saying "No shit!", he then asks if Woozie knows he's black. The Triad's response? "I'm blind, Carl, not stupid."
* YourHeadASplode: Heads would always neatly pop when shot with a sniper rifle. Heads will also explode when shot with a shotgun or assault rifle.
* YourOtherLeft: When the player has to shoot incoming cops during a car chase;
-->'''Ryder:''' C.J., to the left!\\
'''C.J.:''' Your left, or my left?\\
'''Ryder:''' Hell, I don't know, just shoot everybody, motherfucker.
[[/folder]]
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