Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)

Age and parenthood has given, what I hope to be, a healthy perspective and structure for media exposure.

Which the brings me to a sudden surprise.

How on earth did my parents give me the green light to play GTA at an impressionable age? They must have not understood what it was at first, as my childish guile made sure to maximize the pitch. Still, they must have been continually ignorant if GTA 3 & Vice City could've been so fervently consumed.

While I believe to be a well adjusted and respectable member of society, with the utmost terror of wrong doing and its repercussions, I am curious how GTA or other early internet material formed any part of my phycological understanding of the world, women and masculinity as a whole. Admittedly, other internet flash games and online content comes to mind, which was exceptionally worse than GTA in comparison. Christ almighty.

Browsing this time capsule brings both pangs of discomfort and crippling nostalgia. I can almost feel the warmth of the CRT monitor and the crackle of late 90's computer speakers.

https://classicgtasites.com/

One of the first games I played as a kid and I'm really glad I decided to replay it as an adult. I was definitely too young to appreciate the radio stations and what is probably the best soundtrack in any video game (or media). This, combined with the 80's Miami aesthetics created such a perfect atmosphere and gave me a nostalgic feeling, although I wasn't even born in that decade.

Worth playing just for driving down Ocean Beach, soaking in the neon lights, while listening to 80's bangers like "Billie Jean", "Self Control", "Africa" or "I Just Died in Your Arms".

Played until I 100% completed it but still had a hard time to let it go.

Anyway, on to replaying San Andreas.

Grand theft auto vice city is a 2002 action and adventure game.Rockstar North, the producer of the game, and Rockstar Games, the distributor, have done a great job.The story of the game is as follows.A mafia man named Tommy Vercetti arrives to buy drugs in vice city.The gameplay is as follows.in this game consisting of 21 chapters, you are trying to complete the tasks.The music of the game is beautiful.The graphics of the game are not bad.My rating for the game: 10/10 (y) Good games to everyone 🙂

This game oozes 80's vibes, and I love it. One of the standout setting's in the entire series, a big improvement especially over the drab Liberty City. Really enjoyed the story, characters were well voice acted and the missions had just enough variety but damn I wish they had the option to replay missions back then, that really sucked. The assets were a great addition and gave me added content to keep me occupied when not focused on main missions. Really enjoyed this as I seem to do every GTA I play.

Rating: ★★★★ (Great)

It's quite clear while you play this game that it's the result of passionate people's work. It's a tribute to an era, to the movies, to the TV shows, to pop culture.

The soundtrack contains PLENTY of 80s classics. I think this is the brightest points of this game, alongside the atmosphere. They even managed to "Miami Vicey" some cutscenes by inserting tracks here and there, making certain sections of the story feel very cinematic.

Unfortunately it seems like they didn't have enough time to continue the theming through the game. The first act is an absolute masterpiece. The middle (most of the game) is okayish and the final act is once again back at incredible levels. Some characters were forgotten / underdeveloped in the middle, only to return weirdly in the final.

The cast is full of celebrities, so there's not much to say about acting. It's amazing. The radio commercials and commentary still delivers good laughs, but I think the previous entry did it better. The radio hosts are well written and gives a nice touch to the universe.

Now, I don't want to be rude towards this game. You see, I truly respect a work of passion. But I feel like they missed the opportunity to make a masterpiece. It's somewhere in this game, but it also isn't. I don't know what or who to blame. Maybe the one year deadline. But I feel sorry its potential wasn't fully utilized. Still, they managed to impact the industry and pop culture itself in so many levels. So that's something, eh.

After completion, I have to take 2 stars away from Vice City I guess. It's replayability is limited, if you want completion, half of the game is no fun.

Why so? The mission design in the beginning is quite funny and creative, but over the course of the game the missions become absolutely straight forward and annoying as hell. They are not difficult - agains, this has to be stressed, since they require no skill - they are if anything artificially difficult by, for instance, giving you shitty control over your vechicle. Every mission has to be done several time until you understand what to do or which possible mistakes to make because it's not explained enough.

That wouldn't be a problem at all, if I could start the mission right away - but you have to drive back, start again, go there again etc. That's absolutely tedious outdated game design and makes the game overy many hours barely enjoyable. As I stated in other reviews, it's okay to be difficult (Vice City is not skillfull though). But it's not okay to punish the player by wasting his time by having to rewalk the way from before. Even with nice music in the cars.

Occasionally, you would go from one place to the other to do the missions and the game almost gets into a flow, just to annoy you with another absolutely stupid mission. Playing through Vice City never has a flow - and that's a terrible thing to say about such game. There's always obstacles of missions that are only difficult because they are not explained well.

I thought it's one of the best games of all time, but the outdated artificial dificulty of many missions really kills the vibe and makes it not age well.

I replayed this after so many years, and while the graphics do seem a little outdated, the gameplay is still pretty solid. Best thing for me has been: the missions are fairly short and all very peculiar and different. Chasing somebody on a golf court or startig a workers riot feels totally unique and amazing.

The strongest point about Vice City like in all GTAs is that you do not mind movig around a lot. You do not move to make missions, you make missions to have a reason to move around. GTA is about thefting cars and driving them, and while the driving itself feels pretty good, it's the radio stations that make these games, and more as all others Vice City, amazing.

Honestly, the radio in Vice City is even better than I remembered it. There is no retro synthwave or anything else nostalgically refering to the past, it's just straight up pop hits from the 80s, and not those that you know. The 80s have been yet the era with the best mainstream pop music ever, and Vice City takes advantage on that.

Even more than that, I love the radio conversations in this game. This is something I overlooked back in the days, because of my bad teenage English, I guess. They are all just 100% brilliant nonsense and satire on social, economic or culutral issues, and even do require some background knowledge on Florida stereotypes, us american libertarianism etcpp. Especially talking about the latter, Vice City implements criticism of capitalism and american's lack of welfare system.

Including this critique as another typical feature of this form of digital art, Vice City is the definitive Vaporwave game. If someone is to hold a lecture about vaporwave as contemporary retrofuturism, the presentation literally has to start with Vice City. Macintosh Plus holds reference to this game, the whole pink-purple 90s technology synthwave hype has to hold credit to Vice City. Vice City is Vaporwave avant la lettre, and as such so enjoyable because it does not know that it is and it doesn't want to be, so the whole look is more discreet and subtle than other contemporary outputs.

TL;DR: GTA Vice City is the definitive Vapor Wave game and has founded an own current of aesthetics. It will be talked about in decades and centuries.

For me, this remains the most memorable Grand Theft Auto experience. I mean, the soundtrack has been hyped to death but it really is one of the greatest of all time. Vice City just nails the sleazy drug-fueled 80's crime saga vibe perfectly. From the neon color pallet to the glittering synths and hilariously irreverent script, this is a terrific playground of mayhem and debauchery.

By giving the main character a voice, Rockstar also made a clear delineation from what came before. Not only were they interested in perfecting open-word game design, they also wanted to tell sweeping crime-epics with deeply complicated protagonists at the center. This is the beginning of all of that.

Grand Theft Auto has been an important part of my life since my childhood. I have so many fond memories regarding this masterpiece of a franchise. For me, the throne of GTA is shared between San Andreas and GTA V, but Vice City will always have a special place in my heart. It is the perfect playground for the criminal lunatic Tommy Vercetti, who is a likable and charismatic protagonist. The virtual Miami still feels fresh and colorful, and it offers a fair share of freedom for those, who like to wreak havoc once in a while.

The Good:

• Tommy Vercetti is a badass, who starts fresh from the bottom and becomes a mob boss
• The setting is based on some classic gangster movies
• You can own businesses with their own set of missions
• Various gangs, with different relations to Tommy
• I really like the bullet dynamics with the visible shot patterns
• Made me listen to Michael Jackson (and 80's music)
• You can survive some serious falls
• The cops are not always at your neck when you do something bad (although they should get glasses or something, because i can steal a bike 3 meters from them and no one bats an eye :D )
• Played a lot online with VCMP, made some friends back in the day
• Sonny is a good villain, does a great job trying to make you hate him

The Bad:

• The map is not very well designed at some places
• The Haitians are annoying and the map is crawling with them
• The campaign is short in my opinion, some characters only give 2-3 missions
• The relations between the main characters could have been explored better, not just with some phone calls in between missions (like rampages with Lance, bike riding with Mitch, etc.)
• The antagonists should offer more of a challenge
• Runs great on Android, but the controls are just bad

Playthroughs: 4 times

В 2019-м году я впервые прошел GTA Vice City от начала и до конца и это было... хорошо.

Буквально всё сделано лучше, чем в GTA 3. Завезли какой-никакой сценарий. Да, он слизан с «Лица со шрамом». И персонажи по-прежнему карикатуры. Но тут эти карикатуры хотя бы используются для забавных сценок, а не просто говорят тебе, что надо делать.

В GTA Vice City дохулиард важных и нужных геймплейных улучшений. Улучшили езду (машины не норовят перевернуться на каждом повороте), стрельбу (разброс не такой бешенный), управление лодками (больше нет ощущения, что едешь по трясущемуся желе). Добавили мотоциклы и вертолеты. Дали возможность заходить в некоторые здания и покупать недвижимость, чтобы сохраняться.

Но самое главное изменение — разнообразие в миссиях. Игра больше не состоит из одних поездок: стрельбы и езды теперь приблизительно поровну. Миссии стали структурно сложнее. Например приехал, поучаствовал в перестрелке, а потом - в погоне. Да здесь даже есть ограбление банка есть! По сравнению с ограблением в GTA 5 здешние задания для ограбления смехотворны по всем параметрам, но по сравнению с GTA 3 — это охуенный шаг вперёд.

Во второй половине игры, когда нужно захватывать бизнесы, игра немного сдаёт. По большей части миссии становятся односложными: взорви 3 такси, убей курьера и привези чемоданчик, и тому подобное. Но всё же задания стараются оставаться разнообразными, и играть не надоедает.

Жопа у меня горела, адски полыхала прямо, только на миссии с самолётиком. Да, оказывается вертолётик это хуета, которая проходиться с первой попытки. А вот радиоуправляемый самолётик, который умеет сбрасывать бомбы - вот это порождение дьявола! Пройти это дерьмо я смог только с помощью хитрости, подсмотренной на ютюбе. Оказывается, если не прилетать к кубинцам, а подъехать на этом самом самолётике, то они на него не реагируют и их можно передавить. После этого уезжать на лодках будет некому, а взорвать стоящие на месте лодки намного проще. Но даже так я прошел эту миссию раза с 3-го, потому что этот ебучий самолётик управляется как кусок говна!

Помимо всех перечисленных улучшений Vice City тупо удобнее GTA 3. Тут на карте сразу отмечены магазины и гаражи перекраски. Показаны переулки, где можно срезать. Если умираешь на миссии, то обратно к началу задания тебя отвезут на такси. А еще на карте стрелочкой показывают, если нужный предмет или точка задания находится выше или ниже игрока. Это пиздец как много нервов мне сберегло.

В целом, GTA Vice City ощущается как тотально улучшенная GTA 3. И в отличие от предыдущей части, вполне проходит проверку временем, чтобы по праву считаться классикой.