I gave GTA3 an 8 a little better than a year ago and after reading the reviews for Vice City was actually excited about playing it, I was finishing it's Grandfather at the time Mafia. I have just finished the game and have these final thoughts.
G/S - GTA3 got a 7.5 from me a year ago, but that was a year ago. I see little to no change in the overall graphics or sound of this game, sure it has the neon blue and pink everywhere and I like the light trail on the headlights but it also suffers from completely unconvincing headlight lighting and shadowing (I can't see shi# at night). It seems to me the sound has less ambient sounds than GTA3 so for that reason alone it gets marked down. Overall 6.5
Gameplay - I read many reviews saying how this wasn't GTA3 again, huh? Maybe the rest of the game will change my thoughts but so far it is exactly the same gameplay as GTA3 but now you can ride bikes whoopie.... It has the same crappy save system, the same hookers trying to give you health the same stupid crime lords and has hidden packages and rampage missions. Nothing new here overall 7
Bang for $ - Lots of gameplay, a ton of missions and god forbid if you do something stupid during a mission you get to redo it again from the top.... yeah can't wait for a hard mission that really tests my patience. Overall 9 (higher than GTA3 because I now recognize that Morrowind isn't the average length of game but Hitman 2 is closer to the truth).
Personal View - Having just finished the game I reread my first draft review and don't really have anything new for those sections but my personal view has changed. I wanted this game to end, I got bored with it and if it wasn't for the console save system (not even any checkpoints) the game was easy. I read numerous times how difficult the final mission was, 2 tries and done and honestly would have finished first time but I waited for the 'enemy' to come to me instead of going to him. The nice thing about GTA3 was I wasn't forced to finish extraneous missions, this time I felt that I was, why? Why.... because I was forced to purchase additional 'assets' and forced to finish missions when I was bored with the game. Sure I enjoyed a number of the missions, but to many mission were etremely easy except one portion, an example 'The Job' (Final Malibu Club Mission) only the escape is difficult but the fact that I had to redo the first 5 minutes over and over because Phil or Cam would get lost or stuck during the escape was just idiotic. Why else.... it was the same game as GTA3, GTA3's final mission was significantly more difficult, this did feel like an expansion pack. Motorcycles, helicopters and assets are the difference notihng new the story is just there to get you missions, if it had no story and the same missions it wouldn't detract from the game. I should have listened to my instincts, I was just finishing Mafia and as much as I liked the story I got bored with the actual gameplay and thought to myself I should skip Vice City if only because I had just played Mafia (a very similar game), but No I didn't listen and pushed thru the final portion of the game only because I don't like just quitting and not because I was exited to get to the end.
Overall 5.5
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