You're out of touch
I'm outta time
But I'm outta my head
When you're not around
I was going to call this a review, but seeing as I'm not really experienced enough nor really enter into too many details, I'll just call it like it's called now.
I was thinking for some time to do a kind of marathon of my opinions on this series, but since I haven't played/completed some of them, I think it's better to leave them out. So for now, I'm just gonna do entries on:
- GTA Vice City
-GTA San Andreas
-GTA IV (& Episodes of Liberty City)
- GTA Chinatown Wars
- GTA V
While I did play III, I have never beaten it, and last time I played it was more than 10 years ago which means my memory isn't exactly too trustworthy, and I haven't played GTA I, London '61/'69, 2, Advance, or whichever other game I may not remember at the moment. So let's begin
Plot
Let me get this out of the way, while Vice City does have a plot and a very fun one at that, it's not complex in the least. Since explaining the whole story would take some time, I'm just gonna do a brief summary and put my take on it.
In the year 1986, the Forelli family are trying to see what to do with recently out-of-jail Harwood Butcher, Tommy Vercetti. Put in between bars for killing 11 people in an assasination mission turned ambush. They decide that leaving him running around Liberty City would heat up things considerably, so they decide to get him to Vice City to oversee a deal to introduce the family in the place.
However, things turn out for the worse.
A random party attacks the deal and leaves Tommy Vercetti alive, but with no money and only his hawaiian shirt and jeans. Feeling himself up to the neck with troubles, he promises Sonny Forelli his money, and climb the criminal ladder to secure a place for himself in Vice City. Joining him are amoral and cocaine addict lawyer Ken Rosemberg and the brother of one of the murdered victims in the deal, Lance Vance. (Victor Vance, said dead brother, is the protagonist of Vice City Stories, set 2 years before this game).
The plot is a very classic styled story of someone climbing the criminal ladder, with doses of betrayal, friendship and a lot of violence. If this reminisces you of Scarface... you wouldn't be that far away, hell, one of the costumes is reminiscent of Tony's suit in Scarface and the mansion you can get in one half of the game speak for themselves. However it keeps being entertaining all the way through and one of the reasons for this is the protagonist.
Tommy is a very sarcastic man, snarking after several initial cutscenes, and also in them. he's a very entertaining character. However he isn't the only one in the story that's very fun to see, the game is filled with very good characters that can get a giggle out of you.
Gameplay
As a classic GTA game, most of what you will do, as expected of a GTA game, is driving and shooting,, the missions are generally pretty fun to play, however there are few that will probably take a few tries and enfuriate you to no fucking end (I look at you, RC Missions). Despite that, Vice City is a very fun game, full of many a wonderful and funny moments that will carry on throughout the game, and full of many details like Ken Rosenberg's voice telling that "Tommy Vercetti is an innocent man" after being Busted or a ball you can play on the beach (of the which the score is actually registered in the Stats screen). Point is, Vice City is a fun game, period. It may not be as entertaining as other games in the franchise, but it's not bad either.
Shame you can't swim in a city that's full of beaches though
Graphics
Believe it or not, one of this game's selling points to me is the graphical quality, not specifically how good it looks but how great of an aesthetic it managed to create. The game is set on the 80's, which means there's a lot of neon lights at every path and the lightning is superb. I still think there's no other GTA game that has a city as beautiful as this one, although that might be just me and my 80's aesthetics whore coming out, but I still think this game looks fantastic and it's one of the main reasons I still play it to this day. I ain't too keen on returning to GTA III because the bleak cityscapes of Liberty City, while amazing in scale the day it came out, and respectable for what it managed to achieve, just aren't my cup of tea. This game is just full of color and, specially at dusk, is full of scenaries that are just too pleasant to the eyes. However, the 3D models, while decent, needed a little bit more work with the glued fingers, I still think they work well however.
Music and Sound Direction
When I speak of music in a classic GTA game, I mostly speak of the radios. And while music is very subjective, I still think this game has one of the best radio selections in any GTA game in existence. With songs like Billie Jeans, 99 Redballoons, Self Control, Broken Wings, Out Of Touch, etc. It definitely gives the game the 80's vibes it wants to give and I'm very grateful for it.
I think the voice-work is very, very good. Special regards to Ray Liotta as Tommy Vercetti, as he makes the character feel very real with his constant snark and commentary. There's also William Fichtner as neurotic lawyer Ken Rosemberg and Phillip Michael Thomas giving the voice of charismatic Lance Vance, two key characters in the game that they make a good job of representing. Almost every other character is also very nicely detailed in voice, and have their own quirk, like Kent Paul or Umberto Medina. They all make for a very good cast of characters that make this game highly enjoyable.
In short, I still recommend this game. It may have some years, but the plot, the fun missions and specially the 80's aesthetic really sell it even after all these years.
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