While Grand Theft Auto: Vice City isn't my first foray into the grand theft auto franchise, it is my first experience with GTA on playstation 2. I was very impressed with this game initially, but it wore off about halfway through the game, where many ugly problems reared their heads, and because of these problems, everything seemed to become an exercisein frustration.
The graphics are very lackluster in this game. Everything is poorly detailed, many of the "Filler" buildings are incredibly cookie cutter, Lens Flare is OVERLY abundant, to the point of being in the way, and pedestrians are too much alike. I can't tell you how many times i killed "Gang member #6". I think rockstar could have done a much better job in this aspect. The character models can at times be truly appaling. When there's some sort of a cutscene where there's supposed to be scantily clad women, it almost turns me off to the idea of skimpy clothes in videogames. These "Stripper" or "Prostitute" character models are VERY poorly designed. I bought a strip club to add to my evil money making empire, only to find out that there weren't any missions involved with it, but i could walk into a back room and get a lapdance from something that appeared to be a stripper. I really wasn't sure though.
The gameplay is rock solid for the most part. The cars handle incredibly well, firing weapons is easily done, though the targeting can be finicky, and everything else is just so well done. EXCEPT...here it comes...the camera. I can't tolerate the horrible camera in this game! I can't tell you how many times i've been in a building, or tried to go up some stairs, and ended up running in circles because the camera couldn't make up it's mind as to where it needed to be. It's truly frustrating.
One of the best things that Vice City has going for it, is the sound track. Go steal a car, change the radio stations, and i guarantee that you'll find a station that you'll constantly listen to. There's over 90 LISCENSED songs for you to listen to, from artists like Micheal Jackson, and...well, there's plenty others, but i'm not a big '80's buff. Even the non-music radio stations are great to listen to. The chat stations always have incredibly funny interviews, infomercials, and entertaining commercials. This is truly one of the best aspects of the game.
GTA: Vice City offers a lot of things to do outside of the normal missions, however, the majority of things you can do are either boring, or nonprofitable. One of my favorite "Side missions" was delivering pizza. I wasted 30 minutes of my life to make less than $100. I had way more fun doing that in real life, and i'd make a lot more real life money in one night than i could earn "fake money" if i spent an hour on this game. I found myself just trying to complete the fun, and varied missions to advance the story. Undoubtedly my favorite mission was where i had to steal a tank from the military, who was transporting it through town. I had to repeat that mission over and over again, until i figured out how to take the tank by force. My younger brother played that same mission a few days after i completed it, and he got it on the first try by just running up, and repeatedly trying to get in the tank. That's another thing i like about this game. There are a variety of ways to complete each mission. While you find one way to complete it, there's someone else who'se discovered 5 different ways to take on the same mission. It's actually quite refreshing.
All in all, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a great game. Unfortunately, it has numerous, massive, unforgiving flaws that just tainted the experience for me. I suppose that if you're just getting into this game for the sheer visceral rush of committing crimes and running from the cops, you'd love it. For me, it was a good title, but not great. So i'll break the scores down for ya:
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