Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

selling ice cream with narcotics, tommy really did dirty bussiness

the only issue with this game is that you can't swim 🧐

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a huge step forward for the series, providing a much more compelling narrative experience as well as a number of improvements in the gameplay department, as well as the most memorable setting in the series.

Visually it's a much more colorful game, although age obviously shows, but still all 3D-era GTA titles are still easily enjoyable. Vice City is a more condensed location that is also easier to navigate and remember by heart, as well as just being much more enjoyable to explore. Beach, palm trees, bright red sunsets, 80s music blasting with neon signs on the buildings—it's clearly the best setting in the series, and I will die on that hill.

Gameplay-wise, it's also a more enjoyable and fun experience: cars finally don't explode after a few hits, weapons have a bigger variety and are more useful in practice, missions have more personality to them with memorable set pieces and comedic bits, as well as more creative premises, and side activities are more abundant with better variety. Frustration sadly can still be found in the later half of the game, but luckily it is less time-consuming. The biggest problem, though, is how the game in the second half doesn't directly tell you that you need to buy businesses and grind money to do so to progress the main narrative, exhausting the pacing drop-off, especially if you didn't expect it beforehand. Pro tip: spawn a tank and do vigilante missions; they're kind of fun and will get you more money that you can spend. With the benefit of hindsight, just save up and buy the Malibu Club and printing businesses first.

Narrative, luckily, is a big step up in Vice City; the protagonist is actually a character now, and a good one at that, played by a legend—Ray Liotta. He is definitely the highlight: a charismatic, sarcastic prick with a sense of loyalty and not scared to get his hands dirty, but more leaning into a complete psychopath territory of Cloud Speed. Side cast is much better as aswell, characters such as Ken Rosenberg, Ricardo Diaz, and Kent Paul are larger than life and memorable, with some getting proper storylines and some sadly getting the short end of the stick and being left unresolved. The most nonsensical part of the narrative was one character suddenly being not happy with you for no good reason, to the point Tommy was surprised how dumb it was. Poor writing tends to crop up here and there, sadly. The second example is Tommy getting involved with a gang war for...no good or beneficial reason? Doesn't help those were also the hardest missions available. The main villain this time is somewhat decent; it sure helps that you get to speak with him on the phone often, but the fact he barely appears physically doesn't allow him to be that compelling. As I already mentioned, the second part falls off pacing-wise, but luckily, business missions are still pretty memorable and enjoyable, especially the Love Fist band, which I found to be hilarious.

Honorable mention to the soundtrack and more expanded and fleshed-out radio that plays some of the best music of the 80s, banger after banger.

To sum up, Vice City is a much greater and more enjoyable sequel that set up the quality standard Rockstar Games is known for, but some poor decisions and frustrating game design of the early 2000s make it a less enjoyable experience than what I remembered it being, but still a pretty damn good one.

Unpopular opinion: vc is better than sa

Hands down the best GTA game ever made, in terms of story, setting and gameplay. This game can never age

Xnx Lalon Tower, Savar Union,Tetuljhora,Savar,Dhaka,Dhaka,Bangladesh