Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

aka: GTA: Vice City, GTA:VC
Moby ID: 7626
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Tommy Vercetti is a gangster who just got off a fifteen-year prison sentence for not squealing on his friends. Because he didn't rat out his "family", Tommy's sent to work with Sonny Forelli, his old boss. Sonny gives him an easy drug job, but everything goes wrong, and Tommy loses everything. Upon returning to Sonny, he gets mad and wants his money back. Unfortunately, everybody in Vice City, from gangsters and Cubans to bikers and politicians are in his way, and it's up to Tommy to clear a path.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City offers the same free-roaming driving and action gameplay style as its predecessor, but in a new setting based on the city of Miami. The game includes all the features of the previous installment and builds upon them. There are new cars in the game, reminiscent of typical vehicles from the 1980s. Some cars are earlier models of the vehicles from GTA III. A few missions also involve the protagonist navigating a boat.

New to this installment is the ability to drive motorcycles. Tommy can drive a variety of two-wheeled vehicles, from huge Harley-esque bikes to dirt bikes to a standard motorcycle. Flying is also a bigger part of the game, as the player can fly small planes and helicopters, traveling from area to area, landing on helipads on top of towering skyscrapers.

Firearms are for the most part the same as in GTA III, and melee weapons have been added to the protagonist's arsenal. Tommy can use riot batons, crowbars, and a few others. Activities outside of the missions (driving taxis, delivering sick people to hospitals, firefighting, and playing a vigilante policeman) are available as well.

To effectively capture the mood of the 1980s, the soundtrack has been altered to fit the time period. Players will listen to an estimated nine hours of music (nearly three times the amount featured in the previous game) across ten radio stations. The eclectic mix features such noteworthy titles as I Ran by Flock of Seagulls, The Message by Grandmaster Flash, You've Got Another Thing Coming by Judas Priest, and Out of Touch by Hall & Oates.

Spellings

  • 侠盗车手:罪恶都市 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 俠盜獵車手:罪惡城市 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

742 People (690 developers, 52 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 94% (based on 116 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 442 ratings with 14 reviews)

A landmark title worth of critical and popular acclaim - rises above its flaws

The Good
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is one of the games that has helped push video gaming into the mainstream consciousness. While some of the attention has been placed on the game's mature themes, the lion's share has been a positive focus on the unique gameplay (unlike some past "violent games" like Night Trap and Mortal Kombat).

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is not a true sequel to Grand Theft Auto III. Rather, it is a sort of "new campaign" - it uses the same game engine as GTA3, but is not a mere expansion pack. Rockstar has confirmed that not only is there another similar "side-sequel" in development, but there is also a TRUE sequel that will bear the name Grand Theft Auto IV. Therefore, anyone referring to Vice City at GTA4 is incorrect.

Vice City is a free-roaming 3D game in which players cruise a fully-modeled city (patterned after Miami circa 1985), taking on missions from various employers. The game features a somewhat linear storyline, but there are tons of optional side-missions that aren't required to complete the game's storyline. Most players will play through the majority of the side-missions. Best of all, if there's a storyline mission that is just kicking your butt, there's another mission to go play, and you can come back to the hard mission later.

Most people have heard about the basic premise of the gameplay by now. Your character, Tommy Vercetti, gets around town by stealing cars (usually by carjacking unsuspecting motorists), and pedestrians can be gratuitously run over. Vice City law enforcement will pursue those that go on law-breaking sprees (both inside and outside of missions), making running from the police a common theme of the game. Players have a "wanted level" (1 to 6 stars), which increases as one's disregard for the law becomes more blatant. Police officers can be shot and run over, which generally serves to raise the wanted level quickly and make the player's job much harder - on that token, the game discourages cop killing. Yet, most missions involve breaking the law in some form, so VCPD will always be close behind.

With voice actors that include "real" Hollywood talent like Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Tom Sizemore, Bert Reynolds, Luis Guzman, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, and a score of others, GTA: Vice City is helping to usher the days of awkward game voice acting (think Resident Evil) into the past. Though attempts at fusing real actors into video game voice acting roles has not always been successful in the past, Vice City comes out glowing. These actors truly bring the game alive.

Just as good as the voice acting is the music. Drivers in Vice City have a number of radio stations to choose from. Unlike GTA3, Vice City comes with a full block of real 1980s radio hits - from Michael Jackson to Iron Maiden to A Flock of Seagulls. The game's soundtrack has been released on a 7 CD box set, and it is a best-seller with good reason. The music does more than anything else to bring the 1980s vibe alive. Everything old is new again.

The Bad
Vice City's 3D world really pushes the PlayStation 2 beyond its capabilities. The game looks and runs much better on the PC - even Grand Theft Auto III looked much better on PC than Vice City does on PS2. The first thing to do is turn the awful "trails" graphical feature off - they're annoying (to me, at least), and turning them off helps a ton for PS2 players.

Game control could be a little better in the on-foot areas. While the car control is very good, gun combat on foot can definitely be awkward. A number of other 3rd-person games have managed to implement much more natural control schemes. Rockstar would serve themselves well to take note and rip some control ideas off.

Also, the game is not without some bugs. Though they aren't frequent, I had a few crash/freeze bugs hit me during my hours of gameplay. Reports I've read from other people lead me to believe that it's not a unique case of my game copy and/or PS2 hardware.

Some critics have dissed Vice City as being nothing more than a GTA3 rehash. While the gameplay is largely similar, Vice City comes out as a much better game, thanks to all of the production values that bring the city and time period to life. There also aren't a ton of games in a similar style - and most of the others are direct clones of the GTA formula. One must wonder what formulaic archetype the favorite genres of these critics could be reduced to.

The Bottom Line
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is one of the biggest games of the past 5-10 years. It is not a game without flaws, but its status as an instant classic is well-earned. Due to some technical limitations of the PS2, players may opt to play the game on the PC or (soon) on the Xbox. Even still, the PS2 version is where the game gained immediate fame, and it is an excellent game, worth of purchase and many hours of play.

PlayStation 2 · by *Legion* (136) · 2003

When you move to Vice City, you don't move out.

The Good
Grand Theft Auto III was one of the greatest games of all time. That's not a opinion, that's a fact. GTA3 had a distinct gritty crime movie feel, like the Sopranos, and Goodfellas. GTA3 had a real, living breathing city to play around in to cause mass chaos, or deliver fares in. When i first got my copy, i beat it in one sitting. One 18 hour sitting, doing nothing but the story missions, and rarely using the bathroom for any purpose.

It's back.

If Grand Theft Auto III was a take on the Sopronos, then Vice City is a take on Miami Vice. Palm Trees, Cocaine, Fast Cars, Hot Women, and that's just the intro! Vice City is one of the best Crafted Cities i've ever seen in a video game, second only to Mafia. Area's range from neon-lit hotel strips (by the beach, of course) to a skyrise filled downtown area, to the seedy, degenerate filled slums and gang 'palaces'. Citizens range from Cuban immigrants, to ditzy blonde teens, generic thugs, and bums. You've seen this kind of variety in GTA3, but Rockstar has added many more details to make the city even more alive. Instead of the masses just walking around like the living dead at all hours, the local populace will skate around, sit on benches and stairs, or even wait at the bus stop. Rent-A-Cops will shoot at any thug trying to get into gated communities, and resident cops will run down purse snatchers and carjackers. That's right, they'll chase OTHER people, besides you.

The radio stations have gotten better as well. There are now nine stations, including two talk stations, a rock station hosted by Lazlow, and a romance station hosted by everyones favorite romance expert Fernado Martinez, built upon the same themes in GTA3 (rap, pop, techno, new wave, etc.) One of the joys of listening is hearing about these characters. Toni going on and on about old people (who she places around thirty or so) and how they shouldn't try to hold on to their youth, or Maurice Chavez (host of one of the talk station) going over his sad, sad life (you've got to hear it to appreciate all it.) You can even add in your own MP3's and listen to them while running over fat people or running from the law.

As far as gameplay goes, its an all-out fun fest for everyone. You can attempt some of the outrageous stunts around town, drive a cab for some extra cash, or blow up some preps when you pose as an officer of the law. The missions themselves are still very free form and have multiple solutions, and with the addition of a few motorcycles, these mission are much faster paced than the missions of GTA3. For example, i took a mission from a real estate developer to take out a man at a golf course. The problem is that at the entrance to the course is a metal detector that will take all of your weapons, so you have to beat him to death with a golf club... or do you? I looked around to find another way to get in, and i found it. Near the entrance is a small wall i could get over with by standing on a car and jumping over. So i did, and easily took out the target. That was only one of the many memorable moments of the game.

Some the things that can affect a mission is not only motorcycles, but the addition of helicopters, which fly much more easily than the Dodo in GTA3. Yet another factor is your clothing. Clean clothes can knock off two stars on your wanted rating, and what you're wearing helps too. A police uniform can get you into a military base, a suit and tie can can get hookers to your car faster, etc.

The Bad
There wasn't really much i DIDN'T like about the game, with only one exception: If Rockstar wanted a song by Ozzy Osbourn on V-Rock, why not Crazy Train instead of Bark at the Moon? Every other song was a hit except that! WHY?!?

The Bottom Line
This is the best. game. ever. Buy it. Now. Stop reading and buy it.

Windows · by Jason Lee (10) · 2004

A landmark game, not perfect, but in every respect destined to be a classic.

The Good
Realism, size and scope - GTA:VC could just be, the biggest, most detailed and realistic virtual world created in a computer game. Bigger and better than GTA3, Vice City screams 80s from every pore. From the beach to ghetto, from the 80s cars to vesper scooters this game has been well researched, well put together and done with a healthy infusion of humor. It's graphically improved with high poly-counts and more detailed animation and buildings can now be entered and explored. There are more realistic options available - change of clothes, purchasing of property, other outlets for weapons of destruction; this game has a lot of options to get through!

The other stand out feature is the sound. First the acting is top-notch with the likes of Ray Liotta give voice-over to the main characters. Sometimes the script is a little cough hacky cough but for the most part it's heart is in the right place. Second is the soundtrack which includes a whole bunch of 80's radio stations with officially licensed tracks including artists like Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash and the inevitable Michael Jackson. Music ranges from Latino Dance to Rap to Jazz to Pop or Rock. There's hours of radio to enjoy, including chat stations and lots of very 80s advertising. Last but not least there's the sound effects - which are awesome as well. I particularly like the chainsaw.

You'd think adding all this content to the game would be enough work in itself, however Rockstar have also out done themselves by adding a series of sub-games to complete. There are too many to list however they include Remote Control car races, dirt bike challenges, destruction derbies, stealing specific sets of cars, street racing... the list goes on. This game has some serious replay value.

The Bad
Unbalanced difficulty - in GTA3, the missions generally got harder slowly and stayed that way. However in the GTA:VC, the missions ramp up in difficultly much quicker, however there is never any middle ground. At any one time the missions available are either really, REALLY, difficult, or quite easy. This can be frustrating and the really hard missions can take quite a number of attempts to find the winning strategy which means that you spend a lot of the time not feeling like you are progressing.

Frame-rates - although the graphics are a step up from GTA3, you can see the PS2 starting to struggle with the amount of detail displayed. It's not too bad, but if you leave GTA:VC and play something else, the lower frame-rate is immediately noticable. On the upside, it doesn't vary all that much, given more on screen, but is quite low to begin with.

Auto targeting - the auto targeting system does not work at all on large groups of adversaries. I remember a mission early on in the game where you had to blow up two cans of oil in order to destroy a bunch of trucks - the catch was you were in the middle of a violent protest with security guards and disgruntled workmen. The only way to effectively target the the cans of oil before being killed was to walk right up to them. Problem is when they explode - they kill you! There should at least have been a option to disable auto target temporarily for automatic weapons.

The Bottom Line
The most open-ended gaming experience available.

PlayStation 2 · by Tibes80 (1543) · 2002

[ View all 14 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
How to do this stupid the driver mission mohammad asad Sep 21, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Bugs

On the (North American) PlayStation 2 version of this game, memory card data can get corrupted when the game is saved at the Ice Cream Factory.

Commodore 64

The second Rockstar Logo sequence that appears before each game pays homage to the Commodore 64. The blue on blue screen, the quality of the music, and even the load command accurately model the most popular home computer (especially for gaming) in the late eighties.

Controversy

In December 2003, the New York City's Human Rights Commission demanded that Take Two removed the phrase "Kill Haitians" from Vice City after Haitian groups complained about this.

Take 2 responded:

As with literature, movies, music and other forms of entertainment, we have strived to create a video game experience with a certain degree of realism, which we believe is our right. Nevertheless, we are aware of the hurt and anger in the Haitian community and have listened to the community's objections to certain statements made in the game. Accordingly, we will remove the objectionable statements from future copies of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

DJs

Among the connections this 'prequel' has with the original Grand Theft Auto III are the return of younger versions of some of the radio DJs. * Lazlow (whose real life counterpart is responsible for writing a lot of the radio dialogue), the talk radio Chatterbox personality returns as a young DJ starting out trying to convince everyone that he's a hard core rebel on the rock and roll station, V-ROCK. * Toni (Maria Chambers), was Flashback-FM's aging pop groupie DJ in GTA III. In Vice City, she not only sounds younger and naive, but a good chunk of her material plays into her GTA III material (for example, yes, she HAS been on fire). Her 80’s station? Appropriately enough, named Flash FM * And in a twist, Fernando Martinez (Frank Chavez), who ran the pseudo-legal prostitution ring ads euphemistically called 'Fernando's New Beginnings' got his start as a Vice City radio DJ on Emotion 98.3. In between playing emotive records, he’s already begun his pimping ways.

Dundee

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was created by Rockstar North, a division of Rockstar Games. Rockstar North was previously known as DMA Design. DMA Design was originally located in the Scottish City of Dundee. In 2000 the company moved to Leith in Edinburgh.

Located near the airport is a sign mocking Dundee. It has a picture of a ship on it (Called the RRS Discovery) and the word "Dundee" very similar to that used by the local council when promoting Dundee. There is also some text saying something along the lines of "We have a ship that belonged to a loser".

For more information on Dundee try www.dundee.com www.dundeecity.gov.uk

German version

On March 29, 2003, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2) was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS/BPjM indexed games. After the game has been banned in Germany, publisher Take 2 released a new, censored version. Rated 16, you can recognize the edited game by its white edges on the cover.

The changes are: * People on the ground can't be hurt with melee weapons * Blood effects when hurting people were removed * No decapitations * Killed people don't leave money behind * The Rampage missions were removed * Two regular missions were removed: Messing with the Man and Dirty Lickin's

Guinness World Records

As of 2008, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is listed by Guinness World Records as the biggest selling game of 2002 and the best-selling PlayStation 2 game of all time.

Movie studio

In the movie lot located in Prawn Island, there is some set that looks like Broadway. If you take a look, you´ll notice that is the set of Staunton Island (Liberty City) even with the same advertisements.

References

  • In one of the assassination missions you get from the payphones the targets are called Nico Carter and Marcus Hammond which is a nod to the two main characters in the game The Getaway.
  • The remote control helicopter used in the mission 'Demolition Man' closely resembles the helicopter which is piloted in one level of Blood Money, a game developed by DMA Design (now Rockstar North) for the Commodore Amiga computer.
  • In the Malibu Club, the band performing on the stage of the club is an obvious parody on the Village People.

Sales

Vice City was a massive success for Rockstar. Electronics Boutique sold more than 500,000 copies on the game's first day of release, and more 250,000 in the UK.

Soundtrack

You can buy the soundtrack in your record-store. But try to get the German version - it has more tracks on it, than the US-version, due to some copyright difficulties.

Swimming pool

There is a mansion on Starfish Island, by the shore, with a peculiar swimming pool. If you look at it from above (looking south) you'll see that it has the shape of a woman's torso, and some rocks at its bottom look like a bikini.

Telephone numbers

You can call the telephone numbers that are being advertised on the radio or elsewhere. They work.

Weapons

As of 2009, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the only GTA game not to feature the AK-47.

Windows release

Windows version of this game was accidentally put on shelves 5 days before right release date. After that many gameshops put out this game 1 or 2 days before right release date.

Vice Point building

From 23:00 to 00:00 in-game time, near the Malibu Club, the Vice Point Langer building's lit windows form a figure which looks like a penis. Every 15 in-game minutes during this time, a fountain on the top of the building is activated to give the impression the penis is ejaculating.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2002– Best PS2 Game of the Year
    • 2002– Best PS2 Action Game of the Year
    • 2002 – #2 Best PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2002– Best PS2 Action Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2003 – Best PC Game of the Year
  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2004 - #2 Game of the Year 2003
  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Best Music of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2002 – PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Choice)
    • 2002 – Best Music of the Year (PS2)
    • 2003 – #2 PC Game of the Year
    • 2003 – PC Action/Adventure Game of the Year
  • Golden Joystick Awards
    • 2003 - PS2 Game of the Year
  • PC Games (Germany)
    • Issue 02/2004– Best Game in 2003 (Readers' Vote)
    • Issue 02/2004– Best Action Game in 2003 (Readers' Vote)
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 07/2006 - #8 Best Packaging
  • Retro Gamer
    • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #15 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

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Game added by JPaterson.

PlayStation 4 added by Flapco. Android, PlayStation 3 added by Sciere. iPad, Macintosh, iPhone added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Ray Soderlund, Unicorn Lynx, Apogee IV, Corn Popper, paul cairey, ~~, Patrick Bregger, Victor Vance, FatherJack, crysty86, 一旁冷笑.

Game added October 29, 2002. Last modified March 9, 2024.