GTA: Vice City – The sixth installment of Rockstar’s infamous Grand Theft Auto series is one of its finest, polishing and fine-tuning the formula that made Grand Theft Auto 3 such a resounding success. GTA: Vice City is a single player free roam open world experience that puts players in the blue jeans and Hawaiian t-shirt of Tommy Vercetti as he makes his mark on the criminal underworld.
Vice City is yours – it just doesn’t know it yet
15 years is a long time to spend in prison, and for an aspiring criminal kingpin like Vercetti, it’s enough to harden you. Voiced by the charming and intense Ray Liotta, Vercetti is the perfect protagonist for a GTA game: Streetwise, savvy, and ruthless, he becomes a conduit through which the player becomes front and center of the action in a world that promises complete freedom and control. GTA: Vice City delivers on that promise in spades.
Vice City toes the line between gratuitous violence and humor, the latter of which mostly comes from the memorable cast whose personalities amusingly pinball off of Vercetti. These are supporting characters such as Diaz, Ken Paul, or the corrupt lawyer Ken Rosenberg. The plot of GTA 6 is more nuanced than its predecessor, but remains simple at its core: Get revenge, get money, and embrace infamy.
A dynamic, free roam world
The city itself is one of the major characters of the game, and is fully realized with a living, breathing personality of its own, one that cannot be ignored. Vice City takes place before the events of GTA 3, and shifts from the prior gritty urban environment to a bright and colorful coastal city inspired by Miami. This cheerful, thriving atmosphere belies the seedy, sleazy underground that drives the story forward.
As you speed down the road in whichever fancy hijacked vehicle suits your mood, you can observe the city around you going about its day-to-day: Sports cars zip down the roads while, boats parade through the water ways. News copters hover overhead while rival gangs pursue turf wars in the streets. You can choose to intervene, or you can just cruise along and turn up the radio (be sure to check out VCPR for laughs).
The atmosphere is reminiscent of crime drama nostalgia like ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Scarface,’ or ‘Carlito’s Way’, and that’s in large part due to the voice acting work of the cast. Full voice acting was rare back in 2002 when this game was released, and whether you played then or are booting it up now for the first time, the performances and attention to detail are professional quality, even down to the period-correct radio stations.
