RETRO REFLECTIONS: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is my favorite child in a long list of fun and loveable bastards. So when the opportunity to revisit even a facsimile of that world with new adventures came around, I realized it was something I wanted immensely. As Rockstar giveth, they taketh away though, when I learned that the new romp down in Florida would only be released on the PlayStation Portable handheld system. Thankfully, a PlayStation 2 port would be released one year later in 2007 that I could dive into. Now with the hopes that GTA VI will head back to Vice City—and maybe even the 80s or 90s if we are lucky—I’m revisiting this title.

The original GTA:VC (2002) painted a beautifully violent picture of 1986 with its protagonist Tommy Vercetti, but he spent time in jail before that. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories takes place two years earlier in 1984, where a ripe and prosperous landscape sees the player take on the role of Lance Vance’s brother, Victor. He’s probably the only protagonist in the series that actually feels like he starts out as a genuinely good guy without some huge violent past or regrets. Vic’s motivations are good as well as his distaste for certain illegal activities, but his hand is forced after being wrongly kicked out of the military. This leads to his new life of crime and rise in the ranks of the underworld. It is a little odd playing as / getting to know a character we know died at the beginning of the last game, but I want to like him.

I hate that the interesting parts of the story end there and the attempt to give the main character in a GTA title more of a personality was essentially a failure—though the writing lets some of the side characters shine in a few brilliant moments—the ending is mediocre at best and squanders the potential. I don’t think any of the blame can be put on the voice cast. Each of these actors seemed to embrace their role as well as ham it up when appropriate.

Dorian Missick (Luke Cage, and the underrated Lucky Number Slevin) took on the role of Vic Vance, who was re-imagined and expanded upon—minus an accent—from the original Vice City. Several talents returned to reprise their roles from the original: Philip Michael Thomas (Tubbs from Miami Vice), as Lance Vance, Gary Busey as Phil Cassidy, Danny Trejo as Umberto Robina, and Luis Guzman as Ricardo Diaz all help add to the crazy fun. Phil Collins is also in the game, providing the voice for himself, who has the distinction of being the first real-life person to appear in a GTA cutscene. The mission where I had to save Phil from attackers while he sings In the Air Tonight stands out as an awesome moment.

This fits though because Vice City takes a huge inspiration from the show Miami Vice, which I recently learned Phil Collins was in an episode of, and the hit song also played a major role in the opening of the pilot episode. Vice City Stories even has a character that is modeled off of Sonny Crockett.

If that first track is any indication, it isn’t hard to imagine that this game has an incredible soundtrack that rivals the original. Hearing almost any song on the list out in the wild instantly reminds me of playing GTA. For a game that excels in its action, sometimes my favorite moments are driving from mission to mission and listening to the radio, whether it’s a song, talk show, or a wacky commercial.

Rockstar always offers a neat map with these games and an actual game manual, something consumers aren’t guaranteed in recent years, but even RDR2 continued that trend. This particular offering is vibrant and dressed up to look like an issue of the Vice City Inquirer complete with colorful ads and fun little inside references. It seems small but makes me glad this one is still in my collection.

Unless portability is a huge selling point, the PS2 version of this title is the way to go. This port has been graphically enhanced and tweaked to take advantage of the hardware. There are activities that have been added in to make up for the loss of the limited multiplayer the PSP version offered. Both suffer from pop-ins and other small visual issues, whereas I personally ran into occurrences of invisible cars / NPCs and one game crash during a mission.

“I’m so good I’m bad!” –Lance Vance

GTA: VCS was the tenth game in the series and made some improvements over its immediate predecessors. Adding intelligent targeting was a huge step, meaning Vic would target enemies first instead of whichever poor sap was simply closest to him, rewarding quick reflexes. This new feature didn’t take away the ease of creating carnage when the player decides to wreak havoc on the civilian population. The hand-to-hand combat has been improved slightly, with the introduction of holds and throws, but this is still one of the toughest aspects of the combat. When an enemy gets too close, the options are limited and this is what gets players killed the most.

Vice City has excellent waterfront property, so it is cool that we can finally go swimming here. There is property to buy as well, businesses that are upgraded to start a personal criminal empire. I hate that the missions to boost them become so tedious though, and the late game sees these holdings constantly being attacked. Like a good crime boss though, Vice City Stories allows the player to bribe cops and hospitals to keep their weapons after being busted or wasted—if the player wasn’t already using cheat codes, of course.

The missions themselves aren’t bad, but in typical GTA fashion, there are one or two that stand out as being truly annoying or tough. For me, it was the warehouse mission in the early game, where I kept dying in the fire as all of the moonshine blew up. The difficulty level is quite inconsistent and all over the place in the early game and how little they payout is painful, but at least there are other fun ways to make up for it.

That is exactly what this game is, a fun revisit to an old familiar place with tweaked gameplay that was already fantastic. It is better than the previous offering, GTA: LCS, and is worth playing for fans of the series at any level. GTA: VCS is also considered the last entry in what is called the 3D Universe for the series and this reminded me I kind of miss when the stories were less serious and the experience a bit more ridiculous. That period went out with a bang and brought back a lot of good memories.