Parachute



The Parachute is designed for only one purpose: to safely return the player to ground level after falling from a significant height. The parachute debuted and appeared only in GTA San Andreas.

History and description
In GTA games prior to GTA San Andreas, death by falling occurs less frequently, resulting in the lack of need for parachutes. While considerable damage may occur as a result of falling in GTA1 and GTA2, the top-down environment resulted in restricted height of buildings, lowering the possibility of such fatalities; with a full health, the player may fall roughly four times from a moderately high ramp before dying. By GTA III and GTA Vice City, the player is allowed to access rooftops of multistorey buildings and skyscrapers, but the player's resilience to damage by falling in both games is increase to a level where it is possible to unrealistically survive jumps off even the tallest skyscrapers, with only a lost of roughly 40 to 60 health points. A lack of aircraft or vehicle ejection in early GTA games is also a factor in the late adoption of the parachute.

GTA San Andreas introduced a more realistic range of damage incurred to the player when falling, where the severity of damage is amplified; jumps from moderate heights will deduct substantial amounts of the player's health, while jumps from extreme heights may result in certain death. With such modifications, the parachute was introduced as a life-saving option, available after exiting any flying vehicles from great heights, or in various high elevations throughout San Andreas, including building rooftops.

Utilizing the parachute is done by pressing the "fire" key, as with weapons. However, there are a few seconds of delay after leaping from an elevation before deployment is possible. Once the parachute is deployed, the player may control their descent by rotating left and right, and by pushing forward or pulling back on the main control to speed up and slow their rate of descent. Pulling back on the parachute also allows the player to land running, instead of falling prone, as occurs when not pulling back.

While introduced in GTA San Andreas, GTA games released after have not resumed the adoption of the parachute although GTA San Andreas' fall damage configuration remains roughly the same.

Los Santos

 * Atop the tallest building in Downtown Los Santos

San Fierro

 * Atop the Big Pointy Building in the Financial district of San Fierro
 * Atop the western tower on the San Fierro side of Gant Bridge

Las Venturas

 * Atop the Emerald Isle casino in Las Venturas

Whetstone

 * Atop Mount Chiliad in Whetstone, near the vista point, on the slope between the Camper and Journey

Bone County

 * Atop Arco del Oeste in Bone County, inside one of the wooden structures
 * Atop the radio tower/control tower near The Big Ear

Glitches
Since the parachute is controlled by the script, there could be times when the parachute won't do what it suppose to do.
 * Sometimes when you attempt to deploy your parachute, CJ will be stuck in freefall mode, so once you hit the ground, you get wasted instead of landing safely.
 * Sometimes hitting the water without deploying your parachute will make CJ stuck in skydiving animation in the water.
 * Sometimes after your parachute is deployed, you might still be falling at great speed, getting you wasted in the end.

Trivia

 * The back of the parachute features a Rockstar North logo.