Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
December 6, 2002
In my preview of GTA: Vice City, I said it could possibly be the greatest game of all-time. Well, it’s not quite that good, but it’s still a darn amazing game. Everything Rockstar promised us is included in Vice City, and much more.
Graphically, Vice City is a little better than GTAIII. The lighting effects are certainly much better, with the sunlight reflecting off of vehicles, and the pastel effects of the neon lights. The textures seem to be slightly smoother, but the details otherwise certainly aren’t any better than you’d expect. Since the engine in Vice City is the same as GTAIII, the graphical qualities are very similar, but there are also some of the same faults. Trees can become quite annoying as it is difficult to see when they are right up on the camera. You can also still drive and run through some trees, and they still are very pixilated and cardboard-looking. Anyway, who’s to complain about the graphics? The GTA games have never had incredible graphics because it is a gameplay-driven genre.
Wow, the sound is great. The clarity of sound overall is about as good as before, in some cases better, but also other times not quite as good as expected. Some new sound effects are cool, like the added gun effects. The part where the sound really kicks butt is on the radio. There are over nine hours of radio soundtrack. The great part about that is it encompasses all types of music from the 80s ything from mainstream pop like Michael Jackson to progressive rock like Yes to heavy metal like Motley Crue.
Vice City’s gameplay includes tons of new features, all of which drastically affect the way the game is played and creates lots of new strategies and precautions for players. For one, there are 40 weapons and a new targeting system to accompany it. Vice City splits up the weapons into different classes now d the player is allowed to possess one weapon from each class at a time now. It sounds cool and everything, but I think there are only seven or eight classes of weapons, meaning you can only carry that many at one time as opposed to in GTAIII you could carry fifteen. I like it, though, because it adds realism.
As for the new weapons, there are: screwdrivers, hammers, machetes, katanas, nightsticks, chainsaws (yay), multiple shotguns, many automatics and semi-automatics, as well as returning weapons like the sniper rifle and flamethrower. The chainsaw is very fun to use, and very gory. Tommy Vercetti will sort of dig the saw into the person, in which case they immediately fall to the ground. Blood flies all over the place, including on the camera. One thing that wasn’t included that would have been cool is the severing of limbs. Well, with the sniper rifle it is surprisingly easy to do this. Aim at a person’s head and shoot֯ff goes the head. It’s sick, but cool.
I had mentioned the targeting system earlier. I don’t know why there was such a fuss about it before because it’s barely any different than in GTAIII. The priority system does take effect, however, where a person of more significant threat to you will be targeted before an innocent civilian. It’s hardly noticeable, and not much of an improvement. It is still hard to switch targets after you have already shot someone. What I mean is after you target an enemy and kill him, you release R1 and then quickly press it again to target a new enemy. Sometimes I found myself having to press the button more than once for this to work, and often times I was killed as a result. It is a minimal error that will anger you, but it never will get frustrating.
Vice City has slightly improved its artificial intelligence, but not to a significant degree. Pedestrians will be hit by cars, and you see drivers get out to take a look. Policemen also chase after criminals other than Tommy Vercetti, and they also try a lot harder to hunt criminals down. The police and FBI work better as a team, but it is still very easy to get by them for an extended period of time. This detracts from the realism, but it certainly adds to the fun. Gangs don’t seem to be any more aware of their enemies than they were previously, and their teamwork is just as good, but just as flawed as before.
The framerate of Vice City is exactly the same as in GTAIII, no matter what Rockstar says. In fact, many times it’s even slower. There is a mission called 씨e Fastest Boathere the game sort of freezes for a short moment, but this happens every second or so, making it even more annoying. There is also some slowdown when a lot is happening on screen, much like before, but I’m sure that was a very hard issue to address and improve.
Speaking of 씨e Fastest Boatthere are many different boats in Vice City. Since the game takes place in Miami, a city near water, there are a lot more missions involving water and boats. All of the boat missions are very creative and original, and most of them are extremely complex. As for the boat handling and physics, it doesn’t seem to be much improved at all. That is still okay, however, because the boats in GTAIII already handled well. The one thing that has definitely improved significantly is the look of the water. More lighting effects take place against the water, and it looks more like real water.
Although boats were in GTAIII, new types of vehicles are included in Vice City: motorcycles and helicopters. I think there are only four different kinds of motorcycles, but they are all different enough from each other that it includes all of the basic types of motorcycles. If there were many different kinds it would be kind of redundant. Motorcycles in Vice City are incredibly fun to ride. The wind blows through Vercetti’s hair like in real life, but also death is much more probable on a motorcycle. While traveling at high speeds, if you crash into anything you will fall off. Well, even if you’re traveling at slow speeds, it can happen. Just be careful because the faster you go, the harder it is to control and the more hurt you will be when you crash. You can shoot to the left or right as you can in a car, but on a motorcycle you can also shoot straight ahead since there is no windshield. Wheelies are fun to do, and the game even keeps statistics on them. Ramps are very fun to go off of, but don’t attempt a backflip. I hope it is possible because I know I will keep trying to pull one off. Every time I try one Vercetti just falls off of the bike while upside down. It is still fun, though.
There are 120 different types of cars in Vice City. It doesn’t seem like there are many more than in GTAIII, but there are over twice as many. Different cars handle much differently than over cars, which is nice. There are tons of different sports cars, all of which are fun to drive. The sports cars are built for the ramps. Anyway, a new feature with the cars that really affects gameplay is the fact that tires can now be shot out. It doesn’t sound so groundbreaking, but it really does add a lot of realism and it affects the game a great deal. When actually playing you won’t have to shoot others’ tires out very much, but the police certainly use it a lot on you. Whenever you are being chased, as long as you’ve got a good lead they probably won’t be able to shoot them out, but if you need a new car, they shoot out the tires as soon as you get in. Driving with flat tires drastically changes the way the car drives. Depending on how many tires are flat, the car becomes less and less controllable, making you easier to capture. It can be annoying and will get you captured a lot, but it’s still a neat idea.
The radar, or HUD display, or whatever you want to call it, at the bottom left corner of the screen, is different and more specific than in GTAIII. There are different colors indicating different surfaces. For example, grass areas are green, the roads are black, and other paths are gray. I think there are also colors for beaches and water, but I don’t remember. The main thing improved upon in the radar is the elevation indicator. Whenever you are searching for an item, person, or whatever else the mission has you finding, there is a dot if the item is on the same elevation as you are. Otherwise there is an arrow pointing up or down indicating whether the item or person is at a higher elevation or lower elevation. It comes in handy very often as there is now much less doubt as to where what you are looking for actually is.
Overall, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City definitely lives up to the hype. It is certainly the game of the year, and one of my favorites ever. It’s a game that takes about 80 hours to beat, but after that you’ll still be playing it for months. Vice City has everything you could ever ask for in a video game reet racing, water sports, action, adventure, gore, blood, and much more. I think if Rockstar would have spent another month or so on the video game they could have fixed up the few annoyances like framerate slowdown and camera and targeting problems.
As for the inside locations, the camera sometimes does get messed up and it makes it hard to see, and it is quite annoying, but most of the time it won’t cause you to die in the game. I forgot to mention that Tommy Vercetti also gets to carry a cell phone throughout most of the game, which is really cool. Property can also be bought such as strip clubs, shacks, hotels, and other buildings. These properties simply become 쳡fe housess they call them, or a place to save your game. Since Vice City is a tremendously large place, several save points become very useful.
Vice City is a very difficult game, often times much more difficult than GTAIII. It has its share of easy missions, but those are there only to develop gameplay. The storyline is thicker and more involved, and it only makes sense to have such complex missions. For example, in this one mission, you have to go to a mansion on a boat, kill the gang members on the other boats, then go to land, kill all of the thugs guarding the mansion, pick up their briefcases of money, and take it back to your boss, all while the cops are chasing you by boat, air, and land. There are countless other examples I could talk about, but there are too many. What I like about the complexity is Rockstar doesn’t make the missions this way just for the heck of it ey do it in a way that makes sense, in a sort of 쮡tural progression Basically one event leads to another, which leads to another and so on.
Although tons of new features have been included in Vice City, there are a few things that definitely should have been included. For one, Vercetti should be able to swim. He is a grown man who can do all kinds of other amazing stunts, so swimming shouldn’t be a problem. Also, I am a huge fan of online gaming. I know it would have made the game take another year or so, but they should have included online play. There are countless possibilities. Maybe the next GTA game could be a sort of massive multiplayer online game, but they’d have to do it in a way that would make sense, which I think they could. Hopefully Rockstar does this sometime soon.
Vice City can be challenging and you may need some assistance in getting through the game. We used the Grand Theft Auto Vice City Official Strategy Guide from Brady Games to help make it through the title. This strategy guide offers all of the maps and tips needed to make it through the game. Be sure to pick this guide up when you purchase your copy of Vice City.
Thanks for reading this article as I had a lot of fun writing it. No matter what I tell you about Vice City, please, don’t take my word for it, play it yourself. I promise you will immediately fall in love with the game.
CVG Report CardGrand Theft Auto: Vice City
Rating: A+
Platform: PlayStation 2
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