Crime, cars, and favelas: this is how 171, Brazil's GTA, is played.

In video games, few names have as much impact and power as GTA. The Rockstar saga has been achieving for decades what for many is simply a dream and it's normal that it has clones and clones everywhere. Names like True Crime Mafia or Saint Row are not unknown to us, but today I'm here to talk to you about one that may not sound familiar to you. 171 The Brazilian San Andreas Clone conceived in 2010, the idea began as a response to the San Andreas Made In Brazil mods that were successful at that time. Now, 14 years later, the Beta games game has been in Early Access on Steam for 2 years and finally arrived in 2024. Full of curiosity about its potential, I have immersed myself in its streets and today I'm here to tell you what that version is like.

171, the Brazilian GTA

From just a few seconds of gameplay, you'll already know that the GTA clone thing isn't something I say lightly. 1771 follows, point by point, all the lessons of the Rockstar saga. You control Nicolau, a young man who lives in one of the least pleasant cities in Brazil, and you'll have to do all kinds of jobs to climb to the top, with plenty of pedestrians to harass, cars to steal, jobs to accept, and weapons to fire, all of which are the DNA of the saga.

I can't tell you much about the story because the truth is that Early Access doesn't have a campaign. Once you hit New Game, you simply appear at your house and are free to go out into the open world to do whatever you want. However, Beta Games has confirmed that the final version of the game will have its own story campaign.

Now, what do you have to do in this game? On the one hand, there are the normal jobs, let's say the ones that an honest person would do. You have the possibility of being a taxi driver or delivering packages, which is normal, but as happens in real life, the truth is that they don't pay much either, but it won't take you long to look for something that will fill your pockets more easily.

gameplay and limitations

in the end with no missions to do and with somewhat repetitive and not very interesting assignments, this section of the Alpha shows that the playable bases are there and are solid, but the lack of a campaign and more elaborate and attractive content can damage the perception of those who try the early access without having much hope for the future. Shooting is actually fun, driving is decent, and the city is entertaining to navigate, not only thanks to its streets but also to the roofs that you can climb and jump on, but above all thanks to the houses that you can enter because the dream of being able to see a house and enter is fulfilled. There, more or less, 20% of the homes in this game are accessible. You can enter, threaten the people who live there, rob them, and even kidnap them to use as human shields.

Map and setting

as for the map size, which is something I said we were going to touch on at the end of the video. The truth is that it is not very big nor varied. I understand that it is based on mundane and real places in the Brazilian urban landscape, but a little more contrast between the areas would not hurt at all. Even so, Beta games has stated that they will enlarge it when the title comes out of early access. So I am looking forward to seeing what this new version will be like, more complete than before, if someone from the Beta games team is listening to me. My biggest complaint is the lack of complexity, not only in landscapes but also on a geographical level, almost the entire city is very flat and with few obstacles. And interesting terrain variations. I think that working more on this aspect can create more than curious playable situations, especially when we are talking about chases and trying to avoid the police and also give the excuse for some other extra activity.

as for performance the game is currently only on PC so this will depend solely and exclusively on the equipment you use on my computer I got an average of 178 fps at 1440p with all the options to the maximum my graphics card is an AMD RX 7900 gre and the processor is a Ryzen 7 5800 x3d with these components the good numbers are as expected but it does give confidence to see that there hasn't been any kind of big negative surprise even so I have eaten some other strange jerk that I don't know if it comes from my SSD, my graphics card, my processor, everything or nothing in particular but I would like to have it fixed on the other hand I know that the final version of the game will have DLSS and I hope that also for those like me who do not have an envy card right now whatever it may be you have to keep in mind that the game is not finished yet so what is expected is also to have more optimization work either at the graphic level or at the performance level.

Conclusion

Let's be clear: 171 isn't perfect, by any means. There are even several aspects to the game that are open to criticism. The graphics aren't the best. The content is sometimes a bit monotonous. It lacks alternative and somewhat more unique activities, like the ones made by Brazilian studios you know. If you like open worlds, I think you should too. If you dare, try 171. I'll warn you, though: you have about 4 or 5 hours of content to see. Practically everything it has to offer. I've spent more time inside, to be honest, because I had a good time being a goat. But maybe that's not what everyone is looking for, even so, as I'm telling you, there's a lot of potential here.