*(!@&$^&!$^!!*!*^&$! Politicians - This is Vice City!

Being probably one of three people in the whole world who HADN'T played GTA3 until March 2002, I didn’t really understand what was so good about GTA3. I mean, what’s so fun about stealing cars, running over old ladies, gaining health by bangin’ a hooker...and all the other aspects of GTA3 that made the game so damn FUN. My mistakes being corrected, I have now been basking in the goodness of GTA: VC since a week after it’s been released, and this is what I have to say about it.

Plot/Story

After serving 15 years in prison, Tommy Vercetti is finally released and is sent to Vice City (Miami Vice anyone?) with a job. I don’t mean a salesman or anything, I’m talking about a white gold deal goin’ down at the Vice City docks. But just as the deal was about to go down, Tommy and his boys were ambushed and now Tommy’s drugless, moneyless, and weaponless, and so the family is now mad that their money is gone and most importantly (to them anyway), there drugs are gone too.

Now that Tommy’s basically been made a fool of, he’s now finding clues leading to who set-up the attack, and in the process cause some mayhem in Vice City.

Gameplay

GTA: Vice City is of course the sequel to last year’s GTA3, which became one of the hottest games in the holiday season (correction, it WAS the hottest game of the season), and it was still out-selling newer games right up until Vice City was released on October 29th. Total, GTA3 has sold more than 7 million copies, and so of course Rockstar North continues their masterful creation with Vice City.

But can Vice City really be considered a sequel, expansion, or version 2.0? Personally, I don’t think so, because most of Vice City is so fresh that it’s not really a sequel. Unlike GTA3 where everything took place in Liberty City where it was mostly a dark place, Vice City takes place in a fictional Florida city called Vice City, which has palm trees, beaches, dance clubs, etc. If you want to follow the story somewhat, you can take up the main missions that can include a variety of things like starting riots in a prison yard, to dropping something/someone off at a drop-off point. There are a ton of missions, and they’re all completely different from GTA3, so you won’t be saying “Haven’t I seen this before?”.

Once you’ve finished a mission, you’ll be rewarded with different amounts of money depending on how big the job was, and you can use this money to buy property around Vice City like dance clubs, strip clubs, hotels, and other buildings. If you don't’ want to do any of the main missions or you’ve finished them all ready, there are a ton of side missions you can complete like the Ambulance and Police missions.

When continuing in the story, there will be sometimes where it’ll just leave you hanging and so you won’t really know where to go. But again, it’s not that big of a deal, cause’ eventually you’ll forget what you were doing and start having fun stealing cars.

The same weapons have returned from GTA3 in Vice City, along with a few new ones. A few of the new weapons include a couple new shotguns, a stronger Uzi, and even a chainsaw. There are a ton of weapons to use ranging from pistols to automatics to rifles, and among those weapons there are now more melee weapons including a screwdriver, machete, and meat clever, whereas only a baseball bat was available in GTA3. The problem with the weapons comes in with the controls, because they feel real jerky while trying to attack and then walk, and also while aiming, you’re glued to that spot, so if you’re in a big crowd, don’t stand there and aim forever (or else you’ll get capped in your a$$).

Now onto the meat of the game. You can basically do ANYTHING you want in Vice City, the most popular being the ability to steal vehicles, hence the name Grand Theft AUTO. At the top of your screen there is a row of stars, and as your wanted level goes up, a star will light up. As your wanted level goes up, so does the amount of police that roam the streets. If you’re stopped, then the police will actually come and open the door to try and bust you, so if you don’t want to get caught, just don’t stop. Depending on your wanted level, either a few officers will be after you, or you could even have the swat team after you.

There are over 150 vehicles in Vice City, and there are always people driving around, so there shouldn’t be anytime where you can’t find a car. There are a ton of different types of vehicles, such as Ferraris, and there are also new ones including motorcycles and speed boats. Vehicles aren’t invincible though, so you’ll have to keep the reckless driving to a minimum, or else your car will blow up. Every vehicle differs in speed and how well they control. The Ferraris will be super fast but have loose and wild turning, while big trucks and other small little vehicles will go slower, but be able to take tighter turns without spinning out while taking a turn at only 5mph. The motorcycles are the fastest, however if you hit anything you’ll go flying off the cycle and will lose health. Something that’s really nifty, is instead of losing health by flying off your bike, you can bail by tapping the triangle button, and you’ll jump off the bike. This comes in hand really well at certain points in the city, especially when you’re about to drive off into a river or something, or you’re just going to fast and you’re not gong to make a turn on time.

If you die while you’re in a mission, first you’ll awake in the hospital, and second you’ll have to go and receive the mission again. If you ge busted by the police, you’ll restart outside a police station, and again, you’ll have to receive your mission again. No matter what happens, whether you get busted by the authorities or you run out of health (dying), you’ll lose money, so try your hardest NOT to die or get caught, cause’ time is money.

Some of the missions can get really frantic, and so amidst the chaos, you could get caught in cross-fire, so don’t be afraid to go all out with whatever weapon you’re using (IE: use the shotgun to take out 10-15 people at the same time). When you’re running low on health, there are multiple ways to restore your health (aside from dying and starting over), the most popular being a hooker. Grab a sports car, get one to come in the car, find a hidden spot, and watch your health meter go up. Course’, you aint gonna find a cheap hooker in Vice City, so there of course will be a fee. This really doesn’t matter though, because once they try to leave, you can just run em’ over or bust a cap in their ugly cabooses.

Since Vice City is pretty big, one could EASILY get lost. But not in Vice City, because the map helps you A LOT, and every time you’re on a mission there will be a colored marker showing you where you need to go, and so now it’s up to you to navigate the streets to get to it. Also, other buildings like the clothing store, weapons store, and the places where you get your missions will be placed on the map for you to easily find when you’re lost or don’t know where to go or what to do.

So, now that we’ve gone over that, I’m sure a lot of you have realized something, and as I said before, you can basically do ANYTHING in Vice City, and this ANYTHING is what has caused so much controversy about GTA3 and Vice City. You can steal any vehicle you want, you can kill anyone you want, and that’s why Vice City is rated M for Mature. This is definitely not a game that the little kids should be playing because of all the violence (and I do mean violence, TONS of violence)...

Graphics

Now speaking of violence, Vice City is very, VERY graphical in that blood squirts everywhere, people scream bloody murder as you're killing them, and even using the chain saw on a person made me kind of queasy. Course’, Vice City wouldn’t be as successful now if it weren’t for all the violence, blood, etc.

First of all, although not incredibly advanced over GTA3 in the graphics department, there are a ton of improvements. Those first improvements include the character models of the pedestrians, as they actually look like people instead of Spongebob Squarepants. One thing that REALLY irks me about the character models though, is how the hookers swing that nasty rear end, like the butt cheeks are playing tug-of-war with each other. Otherwise, character models have greatly been updated from GTA3.

Now for the vehicles, which have also had an update from GTA3. The car models, while not up to Gran Turismo 3’s caliber, are still very nice looking considering the massive size that this game is. The sun reflects off of the hoods and stuff at different angles, and when it’s night you’ll see the headlights and crap like that. So um...ya, there are tons of vehicle decals and colors, along with some VERY nice looking cars (Ferrari).

Then there’s the massiveness of Vice City, which is filled with something happening all the time on-screen. Because of this, there is a little slow down in the game, however it probably won’t phase anybody. Unlike Liberty City which was kind of dark, like an evil type of dark; Vice City is actually a lot brighter and a bit more cheery than GTA3, and there are lots of places that you can go that make you feel a little better.

Another thing I should mention that I don’t think I’ve mentioned, is that GTA: Vice City takes place in the 80’s, 1986 to be exact, and so the game’s theme is centered around this 80’s era, from the clothes they wear, to the types of vehicles there are.

Sound

“The city is alive, with the sound of music...” Well, it is. First is the voice acting, which again reflects the 80’s theme, and also our nameless and speechless character from GTA3 is now a named Tommy Vercetti and speechful mouth. The rest of the city is full of different sound effects like people walking down the street spitting out different lines (not LITERALLY spit), and the different motor sounds of each vehicle. All in all, the sound effects are top notch, and you could go around for hours just trying to hear the different lines of speech.

But who cares about the sound effects, when you’ve got a soundtrack so bad-a$$, that a 7 CD set was released with all of the music from Vice City. Like in GTA3, there are radio stations that have a different music genre like rap, rock, and other songs of the 80’s, and also another talk show has been added, so for those who enjoyed those in GTA3, can now listen to two different ones. Seriously, I like the songs so much that I have just sat in a car for hours listening to the music (for those who REALLY like the music, you can buy the soundtracks).

Overall

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is just what the PS2 needed, all though it just doesn’t give you that feeling you got when first playing GTA3, but nonetheless, Vice City is a GREAT game and should be put on most PS2 gamers Christmas lists. Many more vehicles, many more weapons, new locations, more destruction, WONDERFUL game.

happy gaming