Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Posted Dec 29, 2002 by TBO.com

Updated Sep 7, 2007 at 01:42 PM

System: Sony PlayStation 2

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Reviewer’s rating: A-

ESRB rating: Mature

Game type: Action/adventure

Kind of like: ” Grand Theft Auto III” (2001)

Best feature: You can listen to nine different radio stations while driving, each featuring hours upon hours of ‘80s favorites (everything from hair metal to new wave).

Worst feature: The game’s mature theme (violent crime) isn’t for everyone.

The bottom line: “GTA III” was a revolutionary title, an impossibly seamless integration of nearly every game genre in existence (racing, fighting, shooting, role-playing and strategy) balanced perfectly between linear exposition and open-ended exploration. Despite its unrivaled depth, the game oozed effortless style, dropping the jaws of hard-core and casual gamers alike.

So if its sequel is just more of the same ... so what?

“Vice City” plays like a heavily tricked-out version of its predecessor. You still take the role of a small-time crook looking to make a name for yourself in a sprawling, corrupt metropolis. This one’s set in the 1980s in a glamorous South Florida beach city (think “Miami Vice”). Gameplay is primarily mission-based: You do dirty work for the city’s major players (mostly drug barons and mob bosses) to build up your finances. Missions range in difficulty from simply playing chauffeur to blowing up a construction site by dropping bombs from a hijacked helicopter.

Vice City is less populated than Liberty City (from “GTA III”), but there are at least as many cops and they’re more tenacious than ever. The police swarm after you and constantly shoot out the tires on your vehicle.

The “GTA” series, of course, takes its name from the driving aspect of the game. There are countless car models to steal and speed around in. Each vehicle has its own unique physics, and they’ve added motorbikes, boats, seaplanes and helicopters.

Side missions are still included if you steal a cab, ambulance, fire truck, police cruiser or (this one’s new) pizza delivery moped.

Unlike previous installments, you eventually get powerful enough to start running your own missions instead of doing odd jobs for other kingpins. Key to this is the ability to purchase property around town. You’ll buy a cab company, film studio, strip club and car dealership, all of which keep the cash flowing for your more illicit projects.