Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

[Meelis13]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

By Meelis13

Hello folks. Again, while looking for new game to review, i noticed that this game has had none. So here it is- review for GTA: Vice City

Basic Introduction

Map of Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (also known as GTA: Vice City or just Vice City) was released by Rockstar Games in 27th October 2002 for ps2 and in 12th May 2003 for PC (it also has been released to smartphones as is GTA SA). As name states, game takes place in fictional city of Vice City, which is based on Miami. Welcome to Vice City

System requirements (from Steam page):

• Minimum:
  
  • OS: Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP
  • Processor: 800 MHz Intel Pentium III or 800 MHz AMD Athlon or 1.2GHz Intel Celeron or 1.2 GHz AMD Duron processor
  • Memory: 128 MB of RAM
  • Graphics: 32 MB video card with DirectX 9.0 compatible drivers ("GeForce" or better)
  • DirectX Version: Microsoft DirectX® 9.0
  • Hard Drive: 915 MB of free hard disk space (+ 635 MB if video card does NOT support DirectX Texture Compression)
  • Sound Card: Sound Card with DirectX 9.0
  
  Recommended:
  
  
  • Processor: Intel Pentium IV or AMD Athlon XP processor 256(+) MB of RAM
  • Memory: 1.55 GB of free hard disk space(+ 635 MB if video card does NOT support DirectX Texture Compression)
  • Graphics: 64(+) MB video card with DirectX 9.0 compatible drivers ("GeForce 3" / "Radeon 8500" or better with DirectX Texture Compression support)
  
  

Story

Story is heavily influenced by movie "Scarface"- including main character: Tommy Vercetti. Game starts in 1986 Sonny Forelli, head of Liberty City mob discussing with his comrades fate of Tommy as he is being released on jail after serving 15 years in there due to work he did for mob. Sonny decides to send him to vice city with new rank of capo to run drugs from there. As he arrives, he and few goons are welcomed by mob lawyer Ken Rosenberg, who drives them to their first deal. Deal, however is ambushed and only Tommy and Rosenberg escape (and chopper pilot for other end of the party) alive.
Being left in serious debt to mob, Vercetti starts running jobs to earn money and also trying to track down who ambushed the deal.


It leads once again to long adventure and story doesnt end where you first may expect to- i.e after you track down the one who ambushed the deal.
Its also only GTA to have customisable storyline... sort of.. (well, ok, GTA 4 has one too). You can buy estates to affect number of story missions- though there is one estate you must buy in order to get final mission and certain ammount of cash.
Story, as is the case with GTA-s, also contains references to period's politics, popular music, tv shows (others than mentioned "Scarface"), ending of cold war (but not over yet) feeling etc.
Its also first game where main character actually talks and only one where you hear him think.

Gameplay

Gameplay has again, lots of elements- do whatever you want. You do want to consider, however that this game came out before San Andreas, so lot of elements you enjoyed in San Andreas (presuming you have played San Andreas but not this) are not ingame. But im going to break down it for easier reading.

Map- disappointing. While ingame it has nice feel and its very suitable, map base is just modified GTA 3-s map of Liberty City. They could have changed the layout bit more... Also this game doesnt have nature, but it does have lot of beaches as you'd expect from city based on Miami. It especially feels cramped and small after playing San Andreas. Still, its fun to play and it does have its suprises.

Vehicles- It had much larger vehicle count than GTA 3 did, which is positive. It was also game that introduced motorcycles and planes (with exception of dodo from GTA 3) and drivable chopper in 3d universe. Also RC vehicles. Compared to GTA 3, its definite improvment and nice one. You cant drive airliners or fighter planes though. Handling is also off (bit too fast- feels way too unnatural), so... Plus, should you drive to water, then kiss ye'r life goodbye as you cant swim.

Weapons- Improvment over GTA 3, but since i was one of those who played this after San Andreas, it felt it had too few weapons. Also, aiming system was annoying as you always have crosshair on screen when you have weapon selected that you can fire without aiming (in San Andreas, you have to aim). Still, nice selection of weapons. Weapons is also one department i find something being better than in GTA: San Andreas- Vice city had 2 types of sniper rifles (one with nice looking aim graphics) compared to San Andreas one type (with scope i mean). Also combat is at that respect better, that in Vice city when you hit someone lets say in shoulder, they get different death animation, while in SA there were only 3 death animations (excluding drowning)- wheter you fell on back, stomach or got head blown off. Still, overall, GTA San andreas has again better ammount of weapons.


Wanted system- Classic GTA-s wanted system, which ranges from 1 star (lowest) to 6, where 1 is only one you can escape without extra cost or saving. 6 stars means that army also joins hunt with tanks. Tanks in this game are invulnerable though- or at least i have yet to manage to destroy tank.

Missions- there are plenty minimissions, mostly related to estate buying (though they can be considered as story missions, which they actually are). Overall, again, missions greatly vary in style and objective. There are also races troughout Vice City.

Mods- Vice city is less modded than San andreas but still has tons of mods, go check them out.

Multiplayer- As is case with all GTA-s before GTA IV, Vice city doesnt have built-in multiplayer. It had multiplayer capability thanks to modders- Multi Theft Auto was born in GTA 3, but it was quickly moved to GTA vice city, where it became very popular. Its still alive, despite the fact that most players have moved on to San Andreas because San Andreas offers more options.

Music and Graphics

Video is taken from dregshot channel

Graphics are not best by far. They do capture essence of wanted theme, but along with gameplay they feel too choppy. Still, they are not awful either, so they dont get in way of enjoying the game.
Music is, however, excellent. Music is either original 80-s music (including some hits from famous singers like Michael Jackson) or made in such style and also vary in style. Radio programs and commercials are also excellent from parody of Rambo to first-gen home consoles. You can also make your own station again.

Summary

GTA Vice city is great game, though i must say i will only play it for 2 reasons: nostalgy and story. And music. Other than that its gameplay gets in way too much. Its just too... unrefined. I know its old game and all, but i just cant help to compare it to GTA San Andreas.

My rating: 8/10

[Sir Adrian]

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