SANDBOX FUN! - Part II: "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City"

No, I did not intend to take these chronologically. Anyway, despite my gripes for the shift to "realism", I actually enjoyed a great deal about GTAIV. The presentation was solid, it was huge and fun and in the end, it just left off with some memorable moments and emotions. The only other GTA game that I recall doing that was "Vice City".

"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" was the fourth -or 'second 3rd'- installment of the series. What does that mean? It's one of the... beauties... of free market to milk something until its tits turn blue and fall off. So, after Rockstar saw GTAIII becoming an unexpected, HUGE success, they thought, why take a few years and release a GTAIV, when they can re-release GTAIII, only with different levels? Enter "Vice City".

With the exact same engine and mechanics as its daddy, "Vice City" takes us away from the New York-esque Liberty City and takes us south. Set in Vice City, a small city modelled after Miami, it tells the story of former-mafia-member Tommy Vercetti, who just came out of jail and has to make a name for himself. GTAVC, set in the unforgettable and over-the-top '80s (1986, to be exact) is also the first GTA game to feature not only a solid story, but a main character with a distinct personality, as all previous installments had the player control a mute, unmotivated criminal, probably for purposes of immersion. The game itself takes a lot of its cues from the movie Scarface, from the city design, to the feel; in fact, it rips off the idea from the movie so much so, that a certain mansion that Tommy acquires is almost an exact replica of that of Al Paccino's screen character.

And with GTAIII's success, Rockstar could go on and hire big name actors for the voices. So Tommy is voiced by (underrated, IMHO) actor Ray Liotta, William Fichtner (who now holds the acting fort in "Prison Break" alone with Robert Knepper), Jenna Jameson (who is not a big-name-actress, but how many people had the balls to have an actual porn star voice a polygon pornstar back in the beginning of the decade) and many, many more. Though the story isn't deep and the characters aren't well rounded, the bad-movie gang dialogue in coordination with the voice acting make the characters very well liked and allows their story to have impact. It's, in some ways, an ingenious little trick.

Vice City itself is the pinnacle of an in-game, 1980s city. Palm trees all over, people with roller-skates on the beach, neon lights everywhere; even the colors of the sky during the day-night cycle add to the atmosphere. The city isn't nearly as big as IV's Liberty (though much closer to III's Liberty). You can drive from one side to the other in a very short time. It actually doesn't detract from the game much; there could've been a little more space for exploring, but there is something oddly fullfilling about learning how to navigate around the city without relying on your compass all that much. To get to Escobar Airport, you take the first left from Viceport and head straight. Or take the first left and then a right to go to Sunshine Autos. And other neat things like that.

I have particularly warm feelings toward Vice City, for several reasons. One, it just so happens that it's the game I played the most right after I graduated from high school- that's connected with finishing school, with going out of the high school overdrive and much more. So, yeah, I'm biased. Then, it's also because the game's set in the '80s. And while that's bias as well, it's undeniable that Rockstar managed to pull off a near-perfect job with the game's atmosphere.

The usual stuff's there; car driving, bike riding (I believe it was implemented in VC for the first time in the series), lots of guns, running over pedestrians, blowing up police and lots of nutty and memorable missions. But unlike GTAIV, which presents itself as so serious it almost forces you to obey traffic laws, VC just doesn't give a crap. There's very little serious about the game; the car physics are insane. Running over pedestrians is actually fun; they flatten on the ground comically and their bones breaking sound like pills cracking in a bottle. Headshots blow their heads up and severing limbs causes ketchup-looking blood flying all over. And there are all sorts of weird pickups around- KILL FRENZYs, health, armor, bribe pickups (to lower your wanted level), bullet-time and so on and so forth. Why didn't any of that pass on to the new-gen GTA?

VC still features the best radio program to-date. Sure, the '80s were superficial as hell, but that's also why it produced some of the most memorable things in entertainment to date. And that includes '80s music. Rock, pop, romantic pieces, all quality stuff, with hilarious DJs and even more hilarious commercials in-between. Not to be forgotten, the two talk-show stations with all sorts of oddballs making for genuinely funny programs. The radio itself, is one of the main reasons "Vice City" does so well in terms of atmosphere in fact.

Only bleak spot? The goddamn difficulty. All sandbox game developers that I'm familiar with seem to get a hard on from making their games impossible, but Rockstar seems to want to lead by being arguably the worst. GTAVC pits you up against some impossible odds much of the time. Missions like the bank mission, which sends you up against SWAT teams, especially in the era of no auto-aiming or cover system can be brutal. But the game won't stop there; take for example that mission, "The Driver". Where you have to win the race against another driver, who is equipped with a much better car, faster and indestructible, who can't be driven off-the road easily and who is an AI driver (which instantly means that he can take sharp turns freakishly fast). All while there are cops on your ass, who seem to dislike you, but not him. If you don't believe me about how much of an ass-mission we're talking about, have a look here (search for 7.7.4.3). See that Rockstar? A gazillion different strategies is not a good thing for a game for a broad audience. You know how I beat the race? Same way I did four years ago; I spawned a tank in front of him before the race started. Apparently, I was the only one who could drive around it. That's not a good thing either, Rockstar.

But if we get past the issue of the difficulty (which in PC, it's fortunately manageable, thank you kind people who make trainers), the game still is every bit as great fun as it was back then. It's fun, it's atmospheric, it's got great music, it's got Taxi missions (I stand by my position about the awesomeness of the taxi missions... with the Zebra Cab... replaced by a KITT model... after unlocking the cab's "jumping" ability). Considering I played it right after GTAIV, it's impressive how well it holds up to its newest incarnation and how easy it was to get immersed into, despite the inferior mechanics and (tech-wise) visuals.

Those who have played it know what I'm talking about. The All-Seeing Eye seems to be dead, but I think you can still play VC's version of MTA. Those of you who haven't played it yet, what the hell are you waiting for? It's cheap and not as hard to find as one would think. There was a PSP/PS2 follow-up, called Vice City Stories. It takes place two years prior to "Vice City" and stars Lance Vance's older brother Vic, who was killed by Diaz by the time the original VC takes place. It was the first game I tried after GTAIV, but I didn't get around to doing much. The PS2 version lacks any sense of optimization and looks -and sounds- like crap and the mechanics are dated and unfitting for a PS2 controller, while the difficulty remains considerably high. Still, the radio stations remain top-notch and Vice City itself is very much similar to that of the original.

HINT#1: If you have both versions or looking to buy one, always prefer the PC version. Aiming with the mouse is better, visuals are better, driving is worse, but not by much. And it usually goes cheaper and is easier to find. Plus you get mods and trainers.
HINT#2: The game has issues with newer hardware. Set compatibility to Windows '98 (because it has issues with dual-core processors and Win98 compatibility forces the game to use one core), set frame-limiter on (otherwise you'll get wacky car physics) and on occasion you might need to use a No-CD crack, even if you own a legitimate copy. Refer to GTAForums.com for more tech help.