Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – PC – Review

The
Grand Theft Auto series returns to the platform it originated on as the latest
installment, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, finally hits the PC.  Vice City has
all of the deep gameplay and excellent atmosphere of its PS2 big brother, but
improves upon it by featuring improved graphics and a host of great new
features.  If you’re a PC gamer who hasn’t already taken a trip to Vice City,
book yourself on a flight now.

In
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, you play as Tommy Vercetti, an ex-con trying to get
back in the hoodlum game.  Your boss sends you down to Vice City; a Miami-style
town where the prime trades are tourism and crime.  You’re in the middle of a
drug deal, when suddenly everything goes awry and you are out both your drugs
and the money you were to receive for them.  This doesn’t please your boss, who
basically says either you get him his money or he’ll take it out of you.  In
order to get him back his money, you must run odd jobs for various different
people until finally you’ll be able to run the town yourself.

The
missions in the game (for those who are unfamiliar with the structure of the
Grand Theft Auto series) are quite varied, ranging from knocking off a
loudmouthed informant or strong-arming some people on a jury to boat racing.
Vice City gives you a very wide range of vehicles to use as you see fit.  You
start out being able to drive a wide range of cars and motorcycles, and later on
you’ll have access to speedboats and even helicopters.  Another great thing
about Vice City is just how non-linear and open ended the game is.  The main
missions will keep you busy for a very long time, but just in case you get
bored, the game is full of little mini-quests, like running “Vigilante” missions
if you commandeer a police car or “Rampage” missions, in which you simply kill
as many gang members as possible with whatever weapon you are given.

Grand
Theft Auto: Vice City takes place in the 1980’s, and everything in the game
manages to exude this atmosphere.  The vehicles, clothes, characters, even the
radio stations stick religiously to the eighties motif.  Vice City showcases
eighties excess so satirically well it’s almost too real.  The game’s level of
immersion is doubled by the huge city over which you have free roam.  Vice City
is larger than Liberty City (from Grand Theft Auto 3) and allows you to have an
unprecedented level of areas to explore.

The new
control scheme works great on the PC.  The finicky auto-aim from the PS2 version
has been removed, and now aiming is done manually with the mouse and an
on-screen targeting reticule.  The controls are completely customizable, and you
can either configure the mouse for driving or use the keyboard.  While the
mouse-driving controls are a little tough to grasp, the keyboard works just
fine.

The
already-great graphics have been largely improved from the PS2 version, and the
results are amazing.  Vice City on the PC has new and improved textures and
32-bit color support, which means that the game’s “pastel” color scheme is as
full and vibrant as it could possibly be.  With support for resolutions up to
1600×1200, you can see an incredible amount of detail in the game that you never
could see on the PS2, like worn-down walls on buildings, luster on cars, and
even the seams on your denim blue jeans.  Plus, the draw-in distance is
fantastic.  Even at the default draw-in setting (which isn’t even half of what
the game is capable of) you can see the city for a long way.  For a real treat,
max out the draw-in and take a helicopter for a ride over the city (it’s really
breathtaking).

As if
the amazing gameplay and fantastic graphics weren’t enough, the sound in Vice
City is probably some of the best out there.  The game’s radio stations (each
with their own unique formats, like rock, rap, or new wave) make use of more
than 100 licensed tunes from the eighties.  Being a child from the era, hearing
tunes like “Obsession” by Animotion or “Sister Christian” by Night Ranger almost
brought a nostalgic tear to my eye.  Even if the great eighties tunes aren’t
your cup of tea, you can import your favorite MP3s to the MP3 subdirectory in
the Vice City folder and listen to them during your criminal shenanigans.

The
voice acting is also superbly done.  The game features quite a bit of star
power, with the voice talents of famous actors like Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper,
Tom Sizemore, Burt Reynolds, and Gary Busey (the list goes on and on…).

Vice
City is a real treat: a game that combines excellent graphics and sound with
stellar gameplay.  Some may find the violence level to be too much for the
squeamish, and that’s not unfounded.  Vice City features a great deal of
violence akin to the other installments in the series.  Therefore, I can’ t
recommend this title for children or anyone with a real adversity to video game
violence.  However, if you are okay with all of this and you haven’t already
experienced Vice City on the PS2, this is the version to get.

Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 9.5
Vice City offers
up an unparalleled level of immersion for an action/adventure game.  The city
itself is humungous and sprawling, and the missions are diverse and very
addicting.  The new controls are great and very easy to grasp.  However, the
violence level is certainly not for the squeamish.

Graphics: 9.3
The game’s
environments look incredible.  The huge city has an amazing level of detail, and
the vehicle models look much better than those on the PS2.  Cars will damage
realistically depending on what you do to them, and they have luster and shine
that simply wasn’t present in the PS2 version.  The character models look pretty
good, although they still are made up of very few polygons and look a little
blocky.  However, with support for 32-bit colors and resolutions up to
1600×1200, Vice City on the PC is the best-looking Grand Theft Auto game yet on
any platform. 

Sound: 9.8
Vice City
features some of the best sound in any game out there.  The game features over
100 licensed songs from the eighties, with tracks from artists like Judas
Priest, Frankie goes Hollywood, Run DMC, Michael Jackson, and many more.  If you
aren’t a big fan of eighties music (or would simply like to see some more tunes
that weren’t in the game), just import your favorite MP3s to the MP3 folder, and
voila, you’ve got a brand new radio station.

The
voice acting is also excellent.  The game has a huge list of celebs lending
their voice talents to the game, like Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Hopper,
and Bill Fitchner.  Hey, it’s even got Tubbs (Phillip Michael Thomas) from Miami
Vice!

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 9.5
Vice City adheres
to it’s eighties theme wonderfully.  The storyline is fascinating and feels like
something out of an eighties action flick, and everything from the cars to the
clothing to the music adds to the excellent atmosphere and provides an amazing
level of immersion.

Overall: 9.5
Vice City is one
of those rare games that effortlessly combines atmosphere, engaging gameplay,
and great graphics and sound to make a truly unique gaming experience.  The
violence level is a little high, but those who don’t have a problem with video
game violence will undoubtedly enjoy Vice City.  If you haven’t already played
it on the PS2, then grab a copy of Vice City on the PC ASAP.