Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is an open-world action game released in 2002. Fresh out of prison, and sent to the eponymous city for a drug deal that swiftly goes wrong, Tommy Vercetti must carve his name in the criminal underworld, gather back the assets he lost, and hopefully raise his own empire.


Welcome to the wonderful world of 80’s Florida, with its vivid neon-soaked nights and beautiful tropical sunrises. The tonal shift from Grand Theft Auto III is such that, even in the gloomiest and darkest of storms, Vice City is pleasantly saturated and bathed in light. Even character animation has been bumped up a notch, as they feature more natural movement. Of course, such an old title suffers on the technical side, with fairly primitive pedestrian and scenery models, as well as basic textures and limited draw distance. Occasional seams in the world geometry show up in the poorer parts of the mainland, while the cutscene character models have uncanny facial animation.

No crashes or performance issues on my Ryzen 9 3900X, 64GB RAM, 1070 Ti, Windows 10 system. However, this title has barebones modern system support – widescreen resolutions tend to stretch UI elements, some visual elements like flares can flicker, crosshairs are not aligned with where your weapons actually hit, and there are a host of minor physics bugs that aggravate to game-breaking levels when the “Frame Limiter” is disabled. Highly advise installing basic community fixes for improved resolution detection and a decent play experience.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2612980855

Words struggle to express how awesome the soundtrack in this title is – or indeed, the entirety of the radio. Enjoy the absolute biggest hits of the 80s from the likes of Laura Branigan, Ozzy Osbourne, The Buggles, and countless more. From power ballads to new-wave, the music is absolutely splendid. In case this doesn’t cement its quality, the first song you’ll hear when you enter a vehicle is the sensational “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson. The radio even includes hilarious talk shows and commercials, poking fun at the 80s’ trends and society. Seriously, my only gripe with the radio is that not every vehicle can enjoy it. Emergency services have occasional dispatcher and patrol dialogue, which are still comical, but I wanna hear Gary Numan’s “Cars” again!

Phew. Moving on through the sound category, voice acting has received some welcome improvements too, beyond a mere bitrate bump. Big names such as Ray Liotta and Burt Reynolds are among the cast, providing high quality dialogue in and outside of cutscenes. Meanwhile, sound effects are of a good variety, while weapons are notably punchy and satisfying.


The primary gameplay loop has been largely unchanged from Grand Theft Auto III, with only minor tweaks for convenience. The player controls Tommy throughout the city, on-foot and in various vehicles. Driving is much better across the board in this installment, and you have some degree of in-air and post-rollover control, thus letting you salvage botched jumps or stunts. Motorcycles are also introduced, boasting extraordinary nimbleness on the ground, while aircraft such as helicopters are ideal for rapid transportation across the city. Do be mindful of where you park your stuff – your rides tend to disappear if you wander too far away from them outside of garages, which is annoying.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2612982162

Outside of cars, Tommy has access to an even wider array of weapons. Each equipment slot can contain one of at least two weapons for it, so there’s a small tactical choice to be made in certain cases. The reality, however, is that the gunplay is still pretty poor. Even with keyboard-and-mouse controls offering pinpoint precision, attacking with anything has an unpleasant delay as your character must raise the weapon and shoot, usually compounded by zero mobility while firing. One would be wise to take advantage of jumping and crouching to cancel some animation and get back into the fight faster.

Dirty tricks or not, these may be required in the more hectic parts of the game. Tommy is highly vulnerable to gunfire, especially when rooted by said unwieldy weapons and standing close to enemies who suddenly switch to burst-fire. He also suffers from some aggravating syndromes: the sprinting endurance of someone with no lungs, and a tendency to dissolve in water higher than waist-deep. The latter is especially tragic, when the game world is surrounded by water. Yet another stupid death.


When intrepid players are not engaging in wanton chaos and destruction, they might fancy partaking in missions. The objectives are usually straightforward: drive here or there, shoot here or there, and sometimes escape pursuers. While many missions have memorable moments in and of themselves via unique interactions or scripting, the real winner is the approach flexibility. Why drive across the city and struggle to avoid roadblocks and firing squads in a rickety sedan, when you can airlift to safety?

All good to know when difficulty is seemingly all over the place, depending on the order you tackle missions in. You may finish a mission after killing the lone target, but on the next you get the police throwing everything they’ve got on you and your extremely frail and stupid escort target – or the other way around! And on that note, the escorted are a pain in the backside, falling behind and getting stuck in the level; not to mention the police, who spawn incessantly whenever you attain more than two wanted stars.


Most missions reward the player with some amount of money. Fairly generous, until you realize that there are several devious money gates in the game’s third act, and that, by completing only the necessary missions, your funds may be on the limited side. The player is supposed to purchase property – which is only explained twice in easy-to-miss contexts - and do various errands for said assets before it counts towards unlocking the last story arc. Some properties have really tedious requirements, so new players ought to reconsider buying the ice cream factory or strip club.

Losing all of your weapons on death or arrest is terribly costly, doubly so when your last save was several missions ago. On the other hand, side-missions in emergency or service vehicles provide exponential monetary rewards if done for long enough in one go, on top of other less-obvious diversions and challenges. Those who can exploit the side content will find money no issue.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2612984022

Finishing the story could take some eight to ten hours. Existing side content roughly doubles that play-time. 100% completion – which also provides fun bonuses – can easily eat 20+ hours. There’s also a veritable collection of cheat codes to indulge in, should one fancy an afternoon of even greater silliness. While a full playthrough is fairly long lasting, replayability in itself is limited due to the overall linear nature of the story.


Grand Theft Auto: Vice City suffers from its age, as clunky mechanics and poor difficulty scaling show, yet the stellar 80’s atmosphere keep it fresh to this day. Timeless in presentation.

[h1]The time to take over the city is now.[/h1] [b][i]Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[/i][/b] is an open-world action game released in 2002. Fresh out of prison, and sent to the eponymous city for a drug deal that swiftly goes wrong, Tommy Vercetti must carve his name in the criminal underworld, gather back the assets he lost, and hopefully raise his own empire. [h3]Show me your bright lights, and your city lights![/h3] Welcome to the wonderful world of 80’s Florida, with its vivid neon-soaked nights and beautiful tropical sunrises. The tonal shift from [i]Grand Theft Auto III[/i] is such that, even in the gloomiest and darkest of storms, Vice City is pleasantly saturated and bathed in light. Even character animation has been bumped up a notch, as they feature more natural movement. Of course, such an old title suffers on the technical side, with fairly primitive pedestrian and scenery models, as well as basic textures and limited draw distance. Occasional seams in the world geometry show up in the poorer parts of the mainland, while the cutscene character models have uncanny facial animation. No crashes or performance issues on my Ryzen 9 3900X, 64GB RAM, 1070 Ti, Windows 10 system. However, this title has barebones modern system support – widescreen resolutions tend to stretch UI elements, some visual elements like flares can flicker, crosshairs are not aligned with where your weapons actually hit, and there are a host of minor physics bugs that aggravate to game-breaking levels when the “Frame Limiter” is disabled. Highly advise installing basic community fixes for improved resolution detection and a decent play experience. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2612980855 [h3]Tuuuurn up, the raaaadio…[/h3] Words struggle to express how awesome the soundtrack in this title is – or indeed, the entirety of the radio. Enjoy the absolute biggest hits of the 80s from the likes of Laura Branigan, Ozzy Osbourne, The Buggles, and countless more. From power ballads to new-wave, the music is absolutely splendid. In case this doesn’t cement its quality, the first song you’ll hear when you enter a vehicle is the sensational “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson. The radio even includes hilarious talk shows and commercials, poking fun at the 80s’ trends and society. Seriously, my only gripe with the radio is that not every vehicle can enjoy it. Emergency services have occasional dispatcher and patrol dialogue, which are still comical, but I wanna hear Gary Numan’s “Cars” again! Phew. Moving on through the sound category, voice acting has received some welcome improvements too, beyond a mere bitrate bump. Big names such as Ray Liotta and Burt Reynolds are among the cast, providing high quality dialogue in and outside of cutscenes. Meanwhile, sound effects are of a good variety, while weapons are notably punchy and satisfying. [h3]Okay guys. Nice and easy, just as we planned.[/h3] The primary gameplay loop has been largely unchanged from [i]Grand Theft Auto III[/i], with only minor tweaks for convenience. The player controls Tommy throughout the city, on-foot and in various vehicles. Driving is much better across the board in this installment, and you have some degree of in-air and post-rollover control, thus letting you salvage botched jumps or stunts. Motorcycles are also introduced, boasting extraordinary nimbleness on the ground, while aircraft such as helicopters are ideal for rapid transportation across the city. Do be mindful of where you park your stuff – your rides tend to disappear if you wander too far away from them outside of garages, which is annoying. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2612982162 Outside of cars, Tommy has access to an even wider array of weapons. Each equipment slot can contain one of at least two weapons for it, so there’s a small tactical choice to be made in certain cases. The reality, however, is that the gunplay is still pretty poor. Even with keyboard-and-mouse controls offering pinpoint precision, attacking with anything has an unpleasant delay as your character must raise the weapon and shoot, usually compounded by zero mobility while firing. One would be wise to take advantage of jumping and crouching to cancel some animation and get back into the fight faster. Dirty tricks or not, these may be required in the more hectic parts of the game. Tommy is highly vulnerable to gunfire, especially when rooted by said unwieldy weapons and standing close to enemies who suddenly switch to burst-fire. He also suffers from some aggravating syndromes: the sprinting endurance of someone with no lungs, and a tendency to dissolve in water higher than waist-deep. The latter is especially tragic, when the game world is surrounded by water. Yet another stupid death. [h3]I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful business relationship.[/h3] When intrepid players are not engaging in wanton chaos and destruction, they might fancy partaking in missions. The objectives are usually straightforward: drive here or there, shoot here or there, and sometimes escape pursuers. While many missions have memorable moments in and of themselves via unique interactions or scripting, the real winner is the approach flexibility. Why drive across the city and struggle to avoid roadblocks and firing squads in a rickety sedan, when you can airlift to safety? All good to know when difficulty is seemingly all over the place, depending on the order you tackle missions in. You may finish a mission after killing the lone target, but on the next you get the police throwing everything they’ve got on you and your extremely frail and stupid escort target – or the other way around! And on that note, the escorted are a pain in the backside, falling behind and getting stuck in the level; not to mention the police, who spawn incessantly whenever you attain more than two wanted stars. [h3]I run this town now. ME![/h3] Most missions reward the player with some amount of money. Fairly generous, until you realize that there are several devious money gates in the game’s third act, and that, by completing only the necessary missions, your funds may be on the limited side. The player is supposed to purchase property – which is only explained twice in easy-to-miss contexts - and do various errands for said assets before it counts towards unlocking the last story arc. Some properties have really tedious requirements, so new players ought to reconsider buying the ice cream factory or strip club. Losing all of your weapons on death or arrest is terribly costly, doubly so when your last save was several missions ago. On the other hand, side-missions in emergency or service vehicles provide exponential monetary rewards if done for long enough in one go, on top of other less-obvious diversions and challenges. Those who can exploit the side content will find money no issue. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2612984022 [h3]You take my self, you take my self control…[/h3] Finishing the story could take some eight to ten hours. Existing side content roughly doubles that play-time. 100% completion – which also provides fun bonuses – can easily eat 20+ hours. There’s also a veritable collection of cheat codes to indulge in, should one fancy an afternoon of even greater silliness. While a full playthrough is fairly long lasting, replayability in itself is limited due to the overall linear nature of the story. [h3]‘Cause when the feeling’s right, I’m gonna run all night, I’m gonna run to you![/h3] [i][b]Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[/b] suffers from its age, as clunky mechanics and poor difficulty scaling show, yet the stellar 80’s atmosphere keep it fresh to this day. Timeless in presentation.[/i]