Game Review: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Written 18.07.2009 - Uploaded 30.09.2009

For some undefined reason I have successfully avoided the phenomenon called Grand Theft Auto for quite a while. I mean I did play the first two games, but they're pretty far removed from what the game series is today. Actually I got really interested in the series only after reading reviews of GTA4 and playing it for a while at a friend's place. So I finally decided to take a break from Japanese RPGs and try out what I've missed for all these years. Turns out it was surprisingly much. The review is a bit shorter than the ones I usually write – after all, I'm out of my usual turf.

I guess anyone reading this article already knows what Vice City is all about. Stealing cars, shooting people, and other kinds happy criminal activity. But you know what? I think the game is actually about cruising around without a purpose while listening to the radio. Cheaper than in real life, and the radio stations, being humorously scripted, have much better content. On the negative side, it starts to repeat itself but not very soon if you change channels every once in a while. Besides, it was playing stuff I listened to when I was a kid. What's not to like?

Okay so maybe it's not all about the radio and cruising but that's what makes the game definitely much better. It's actually interesting, since it's such a small detail. I guess it goes to show how much detail you need to think through when aiming to make a great game. Overall, I have to admit Rockstar has their production values up there - much of the game is top-notch quality. In addition to the radio, there's a bunch of memorable characters, all with great dialog. The city area while a bit small, really is interesting. I'm not such a big fan of random vandalism so I didn't really do much of that, just played the missions and cruised around most of the time, enjoying my virtual life.

Immersion in the game is on okay level but some small things did bother me. For one, I think days go by a bit too fast, much like in the original Sims. Granted, in this game it doesn't really matter that much, or indeed at all as such, but somehow I felt like the sun was going its rounds a bit too fast. Also, something that again goes to show how one should pay attention to detail, I think the game would have greatly benefitted from a speed limiter of some kind. Here's why: it is insanely hard to drive at a constant traffic speed with a digital gas button. It's pretty hard to chill out when you're going much faster than rest of the traffic.

Curiously, Vice City is not all that great as a game. Trouble begins with controls. Most of the time the controls do what you'd expect them to, but Tommy's movements in firefights are not very smooth. On foot the camera sometimes lags. The controls aren't the biggest problem though – far from it. Mission design in this game is all too often purely frustrating. Don't get me wrong, I like hard missions and challenge, but in Vice City, the difficulty typically comes from simple unfairness. Some of the missions were cool but most of the time even the okay missions were ruined with unrealistic timelimits. I mean come on, you don't need to put artificial time limits on missions where there actually is no hurry at all. Most of the better missions in this game were unsurprisingly those where there was no timelimit.

My only other beef with the game is the amount of dialog. There could be a lot more, especially considering its high quality. It parodies the 80s and legendary criminal movies and television vigorously, and almost always hits the mark. Plot scenes are actually pretty short, just a few lines typically. What makes this even more tragic is the fact that the main character is one of the best I've seen in games. Ruthless bastard who takes no shit from anyone - altogether a complete asshole who would bite a bullet fast if he wasn't so tough.

Put together, there isn't really much wrong with the game. It did have its frustrating moments, but somehow I always got back to it anyway, gritted my teeth and passed the missions. Then it was happy cruising time again, some better missions until another annoying-as-hell one came up. Without all the frustration this game could really shine and be one of the best games ever. Now it was mostly a very pleasant experience and made me want to get a PS3 or Xbox360 just so I can play GTA4. Although I hear it has its share of annoying missions, it does seem to have more written content.