Grand Theft Auto Vice City

Product Details

After a brilliant homage to the era of the Commodore 64 in the opening credits, the first thing you'll notice is the improved graphics, which are smoother and more detailed, and--with effects like neon lights reflected on rain-slick streets, and intense Florida sunlight--have a lush, tropical look that immediately gives you a strong sense of place. The architecture is more fabulous by tenfold, with art deco buildings, high-rise hotels, and believably seedy back alleys. The control scheme is essentially the same as in GTA3, but the cars handle much better, and in pedestrian mode there is a new crouch move. You will have access to fast, great-handling cars right away, as opposed to GTA3 which made you unlock the second island before you could get your hands on any respectable wheels. This game has such riches to offer that there is no need to be chintzy with the vehicles.

Cops are more vigilant this time--minor offenses like whacking innocent bystanders will more often than not get you a two-star wanted level--and are harder to elude (though they still can't seem to climb stairs or negotiate sharp turns). So while free-roaming exploration is as fun as ever, there is more incentive to perform the missions instead of randomly raising hell. Not that that's a bad thing: even lazy criminals like myself (in GTA3, I would rather toss hand grenades into traffic than follow orders from some rude Mafia boss) will be quickly caught up in the vivid characters and hilarious, fascinating story, in which you play an acid-washed-jeans-wearing thug named Tommy Vercetti. Where in GTA3 missions were blocky, schematic affairs only nominally connected to the story, this time tasks move the story briskly along and deftly blend cinematics and game action. For example, there is a scene of a character throwing Tommy a gun, at which point you are suddenly thrown back into the action and must make an instant decision about whom to trust and what to do.

There are more, and more detailed, indoor environments, including a hotel, police station, and mall (a slight downside to this is that some of the more elaborate indoor environments require load times). The layout of the city, with tons of backyards, narrow alleys, and fire escapes, encourages creativity when eluding pursuit, as does greater access to rooftops. Get your motorcycle up the fire escape and a whole new world of action is possible, including... well, use your imagination.

This overview barely scratches the surface of the Vice City experience, its colorful explosion of music, clothes, combat, and brilliant voice acting, not to mention the plot twist midway through the game that changes the very nature of the game itself. Though it was the outrageous, amoral violence that got all the press, the essential genius of GTA3 was its intoxicating blend of script and open-ended action. In Vice City this is--to use a cliché that is for once apropos--taken to a whole new level. --David Stoesz

Pros:

• Astonishing, innovative gameplay
• Godlike attention to detail
• Opportunity to drive on the beach at midnight listening to the Human League's "Fascination"

• More load times

Product Reviews

(5 stars) - Best Game Ever Made.

In my opinion this is better than San Andreas and GTA4.
Maybe it's the story, the music, the 80's, but if you play this game you'll have A LOT of fun.

(5 stars) - The standard bearer for all 80's games and my favorite GTA
As with a lot of games, the first sequel seems to get it right.

GTA3 was lacking a bit in the gameplay and graphical department.

GTA:SA seemed to throw everything including 20 kitchen sinks into it, and it was just way too coarse for my liking.

GTA:VC just FITS and hits the right notes.

Gameplay, wow. Can you ever do so many different things in this game. Heck, you can waste (and will) hours just driving all the different cars, motorcycles, boats and helicopters in this game. There's 100 hidden packages to find. There's all the rampages to do. All the stunt jumps. RC Races. Or you can just roll around and run over people. Whatever you want to do, you can!

As for the missions: Most of them are very open and can be defeated in various ways. Some of them border on insanely frustrating (the R/C Chopper ones especially, and the very last one) but of course some are incredibly easy. So long as you're exploring, getting the hidden packages, and building up your weapon supply (and NOT drowning/getting yourself busted/wasted) you'll progress through the game quite well.

If there was EVER a game for people who love the 80's, this is it. Think of it as Miami Vice on steroids. The music is top notch and one of the best overall collections on ANY video game, enough so to be released as a CD set. Vrock was my favorite station as well (just wait until you hear the commercials, too funny!).

The sound effects are all right on as well. You can tell the voice acting adds so much to the game (Ray Liota=PERFECT Tommy Vercetti). Even his snide comments (for example, when you're "carjacking" someone and he says "I need this"). The vehicles, as varied as they are, all make different sounds.

The short story, without trying to spoil anything:
Tommy Vercetti comes to Vice City to help a drug deal go down. They get ambushed, and he ends up stuck in Vice City starting to work with his lawyer friend, Ken, to clear his name. Where it goes from there, is up to you to decide...

And in closing, that's what makes GTA:VC so great. If you want to just drive around, jumping and exploding cars, shooting people or finding unique ways to do it (my favorite: Stack up around 5-6 cars and shoot a rocket right into them, causing the mother of all explosions), or take on the games well over 50 missions in different ways, you can do it.

Few games have revolutionized a video game genre as the GTA series has, and GTA:VC to me is the very best of them all.

This game can be had on the cheap and to spend $[...] bucks for 50-60 hours (easy) of gameplay is well worth it.

This is one of the few game I've played in my life that truly deserves a perfect "10" across the board.

(2 stars) - Its fun to play, but that's a scary thing
The game is fun, yet its sick and twisted at the same time. Its scary to think pulling some guy out of a car and beating him to death with a bat could be fun, or blowing off a hookers head with a combat shotgun. I'm in my thirties so I know this crap is make believe. I am not that sure some of these kids out there are that smart to understand that. Kids now a days do some sick and twisted stuff, like go on killing sprees at school. The game is fun to me but I totally think its warping the minds of our youth so I will only give it a 2 for an overall rating but a 5 for the fun factor.

(1 stars) - Game is not working.
When the game first arrived in June the introduction to the game played fine and when I finally took control of Verceti and drove across town to the safehouse the game froze during driving to the safehouse I played this game before at my cousins house and I liked the game but my copy of the game is messed up so I will rate this game 1 star for my game not working the way it's supposed to work but the game is fun and addicting.

(5 stars) - A Kids Review
This game has some great features in it like the camera is good the game is fun itself
The Good
1. The game is great compared to most games i have played. The game had some bad things in it like killing immigrants from Cuba and countries like that.
2.The graphics are good but they are not the best.
The Bad
1.The game had a fair amount of blood.
2.The language it is okay. They had some things that were not appropriate in it.

Rating A+

Age limit: I would say 12 or 13

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