Yours truly belongs amongst a group of gamers that, back in the day, fell in love with the Grand Theft Auto 3D trilogy of the PlayStation 2 era. Revisiting each of the three titles after so much time, however, feels different.
Yes, Grand Theft Auto III was a pioneer in open world, sandbox-style gameplay, but take away the “magic” of freedom, as well as those darn nostalgia goggles, and it’s very easy to notice the many, many flaws. Flaws that remain almost intact throughout all three titles. That said, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is definitely an improvement, though minor. If anything, it takes A+ in style, as it transports players to the ’80s, with the titular city being a pocket Miami.
Tommy Vercetti, an Italo-American mafia small fry, just got out of prison. His buddies down in Liberty City decide to let him loose down south, where he will help expanding the “business.” During a simple exchange of goods, guns are drawn and Tommy runs for his life. Alive, but with a couple of million dollars lost, he’s forced to find the money by any means necessary… or else Sonny Forelli will make Italian meatballs out of him.
Tommy enters a car and Twisted Sister starts blasting on the radio. Girls in swimsuits take a nice stroll with their rollerblades. Vintage cars everywhere. An array of neon-lit hotels along the beach, where the sunset throws its beautiful orange on the world. The night comes. Disco, even more colourful lights, and tons of cocaine. Liberty City was a miniature, ’00s New York. Vice City is a pocket-sized, ’80s Miami.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City nails the aesthetic of the era extremely well, with its only style rival being San Andreas. This manages to be better than the latter, though, simply because of how striking the ’80s were compared to the ’90s. Tommy and Sonny? Haitian and Cuban gangs? Disco pop? Fast cars, fast women and a city steeped in drugs? Yes, the developer didn’t exactly try to hide that this is a cocktail of The Sopranos, Miami Vice, and most of all Scarface, with a little bit of Dirty Harry and Death Wish sprinkled all over. The killer soundtrack follows suit and is significantly better than Grand Theft Auto III. A collection of licensed tunes, including names like Ozzy, Megadeth, Blondie, Kool and the Gang, Michael Jackson – and many more!
The main hero is no longer a silent protagonist. He has a name, personality, and a mouth that he uses quite frequently. In Grand Theft Auto III, whats-his-name would enter a room, someone would dish out orders, and that was it. Tommy doesn’t just stand there like a buffoon. He interacts with the various characters, and while the missions are mostly errands, he doesn’t act like an errand boy. Tommy is a man who takes initiative.
Visually, the cutscenes have been improved. It could be to do with the higher polygon count or the better animation and all around directing, but the thing that steals the show is the voice acting. A colourful cast of characters being voiced by names such as Robert Davi, Burt Reynolds, William Fichtner, Dennis Hopper, Luis Guzman, Gary Busey, Danny Trejo, Fairuza Balk, Jenna Jameson, and Ray Liotta as the leading man – all doing some great work, with none of them feeling as if they came just for an easy paycheck.
The story is nothing special. A typical tale of crime and backstabbing criminals – so much so that even the game forgets it exists. The plot takes a backseat throughout most of the experience, which makes you almost forget why you are doing what you’re doing.
Vice City, like San Andreas after it, tries to include a bit of drama, but you won’t really feel anything about anyone – neither the protagonist nor the villain. This is much, much better when it leans towards comedy, with the best characters being the ones that are over the top, whose purpose is to make you laugh rather than feel intimidated. Many will even prefer the original, silent protagonist, as he didn’t have a personality and so was easier to accept his behaviour. Whereas in Grand Theft Auto Vice City you are supposed to believe that Tommy is just a “simple” criminal only for him to later go berserk and start killing innocents by the dozen.
This still manages to immerse you into the world of Vice City, which has seen some improvements as well. Apart from being larger than Liberty City, the new setting is a lot more detailed, as well as bit more complex in its design. Gone are the boring neighbourhoods of square buildings next to other square buildings. The city is full of twists, turns, and alleyways – excellent for hiding away from the boys in blue… or is it beige?
The sound design continues to be one of the best aspects of the series, with everything helping in making this microcosm feel like an alive, breathing city, despite being a sandbox with not much interactivity. The satiric aspect of the franchise is intact as well, with talk shows making fun of various aspects of American culture. III’s Chatterbox station remains undefeated, but this is still great fun.
Technically the game is an improvement as well, but not exactly a big leap. First of all, it runs in the same engine as its predecessor. Despite this, many issues have been fixed, but not so much that it matters. The AI has been rebalanced, but NPCs and cops can still go off the rails and behave erratically. Vehicle control has improved, but the new helicopters (and their toy variations) control badly.
The aim mechanics are worse than before, at least in the – still – highly problematic PC port. Car damage is all over the place, as sometimes a few strong hits is all it takes for them to blow up Finally, pedestrians and vehicles still vanish when out of view as the game reworks the world around you in an immersion-breaking way. This also misses some quality-of-life additions that were included in San Andreas, like for example the ability to grab onto ledges and climb over.
The important bit about Vice City is that, while it looks better and has a larger world to explore, it’s basically Grand Theft Auto III with a new coat of paint. To be more specific, most of the missions just aren’t that fun. While they aren’t as annoying (or annoyingly tough) as in the previous instalment, they carry the same main flaw – little room for experimentation.
Grand Theft Auto’s main shtick has always been freedom, with a caveat. You are free to do as you please… but outside of missions. But what can be done outside missions, exactly? Frankly… not much. There are 100 collectible items, Taxi missions, Rampage missions that require killing X number of Y using Z in a specific amount of time, and crazy stunts. While nice and all, there really isn’t any incentive to complete all these. No reward besides a pat in the back.
A new addition has Tommy being able to purchase properties. Some of these will start generating money the moment they are bought, while others will have a small set of missions that must be completed first. None of these are anything special. Some are even downright annoying, like the one where you have to sit by a stripper for a couple of awkward minutes. In the end, once you put main and side missions aside, there’s not enough content to justify the scale of the world. What’s left, then, is to have fun on your own by creating a bit of chaos, or chill out and just drive. The excitement won’t last for most because the sandbox on offer isn’t really that dynamic for it to offer a variety of scenarios.
