|
|
|
XGD > Xbox > Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Information
Additional Files
Reviews Miami Vice steps into the GTA world., October 23, 2005 Rating: 7.0/10 By Mitch When the Double Pack for the XBOX was released, it's not like anyone didn't have a clue what to expect. Grand Theft Auto is a phenomenon, and at the time, GTA: Vice City was more recognized than any other game in the series, and was highly considered much better (in THEIR own opinion) to be much better than GTA3. Everyone knew what they were in for: bikinis, bright colored suits, and palm trees, all in 1086. Oh, were they right.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City obviously plays off of Miami Vice in many, many ways. For one, Vice City is based off the City of Miami, and in the game, it's been mentioned many times that Vice City is actually apart of Florida. That makes it the first and only Grand Theft Auto game to be apart of a real, nonfiction state. Rockstar Games had a good plan that never failed: take players out of the dark, seedy, gloomy streets of Liberty City and throw them down south in a tropical metropolis. Seeing as we're now given Miami as an open-ended playground to use at our own leisure, why not also use key elements of Scarface, which also took place in Miami? The story has some Scarface elements, revolving around the drug trade, as well as taking out an important Cuban criminal that has control over the cities criminal underground. In the beginning, the story is simple. Tommy Vercetti is fresh out of prison, after his arrest in Liberty City. From what we understand, Sonny Forelli, Tommy's current and former boss, send the young gunman to Harwood in order to assassinate one man. Needless to say, the job went all wrong, and they knew he was coming. Tommy ended up doing 15 years hard time, and now he's out, back in the business. Sonny Forelli has now sent Tommy Vercetti and a few other handymen to Vice, in order to oversee a cocaine trade at the docks. As the deal is carried out, it soon goes sour, and three heavily armed gunmen manage to take out everyone who was in the deal… except for Tommy. Escaping without an injury with his driver, Tommy later makes a phone call to Sonny, explaining the situation. Now, he's in a deeper hole than he thought he'd be in. Vice has become his playground and workspace to find out who screwed up his deal, and get the money and coke.
GTA: VC works off the same game play elements as 3. In fact, it's rather a let down. I don't consider Vice City a new, different game. In fact, I'd rather call it an expansion pack. I'll take the time to explain what has changed in this review, and give my own opinions.
Vehicles: Everyone saw this one coming. Vice City has a wider range of vehicles compared to Liberty City. Old ones return as well, and the most interesting factor about this is that some of them have changed. Downgraded rather, as GTA: VC takes place in 1986, 15 years before Grand Theft Auto 3. Some have drastic changes, and are complete unrecognizable. Others have tiny, small changes or even none, such as different grill or light models. However, the biggest addition to VC would be the ability to drive motorcycles, as well as fly helicopters. Motorcycles, really, don't make the hugest difference. They're incredibly fast compared to cars, but make the slightest wrong move and up flying ten feet in the air and crashing into a brick wall. Helicopters on the other hand, are fun to fly and you can get to areas much faster by the time you unlock them and make them available. In the vehicle department, Vice City is much better than Liberty City.
Weapons: There are many different weapons compared to GTA3's rather small and pathetic selection. Now, we have different ones, all of each type. For example, there's two different pistols, two different assault rifles, etc. For this, we can only carry one of each type, so you might have to replace your Tec 9 with a Mac 10 or Uzi sometimes to fire something different. Also, there are now many more melee (hand to hand combat) weapons available. In fact, this is the GTA with the most melee weapons to date. Provided you have a few dollars, you can head over to the hardware store, and get anything from a screw driver to a chainsaw, or even a katana to a machete.
Police: The AI is still embarrassing, but the Vice City Police Department can come at you with enough with force to scare you off. The star system has remained the same, except this time they don't try to punch at you with a one star wanted level; they now carry batons which you can also use after killing them off. A new addition, which I personally don't enjoy, is their tendency to use spike strips at three stars. Now, in GTA: VC, tires can either be shot out or blown out with spike strips, which can be very, very annoying, but also more realistic which adds to the challenge of avoiding the ruthless cops. SWAT not only come in their vans at four stars, but also repel from helicopters, which doesn't make too much a difference, just adds on to their numbers. In fact, it's rather fun shooting them off of their ropes before they touch down.
Interiors: GTA3 features only two interiors: the Ammunation gun store and the toilet block of the park in which you take missions from Ray Machowski. Vice City features some building interiors, but sadly, they are all very low quality. For example, in the early stages of the game, Tommy Vercetti ends up acquiring a massive mansion on a small island. The mansion from the outside looks realistic with its small pools and mazes, but the interior is nothing more than a stairwell and empty hallways.
Graphics: Even on the XBOX console, it seems as if the graphics have been downgraded heavily. Considering this is based off of Miami Vice, a lot of the colors are very bright, but the graphics engine displays them as extremely, blindingly bright, Vice City almost looks like it's a cartoon.
Actors: I think it's safe to say Rockstar Games has a collaboration of the most impressive voice actor list in history, which may never be outdone. Here is a small list of just SOME of the voice actors in Vice: Ray Liota (Tommy Vercetti), Burt Reynolds, Luis Guzman, Danny Trejo, Gary Busey, hell, even Miss Cleo has a roll in this game. Some of them are recognizable, others are not. Ray Liota as the main character in fact hardly ever sounds like himself, and it's hard to catch his normal voice at times.
Music: GTA3 in the music field obviously had a tight budget, and barely had any big name artists on their track selection. Vice City is the complete opposite, and has well over 80 tracks from the 1986 era on their play list, which equals out to over 260 minutes of play time. In addition, there are TWO talk radio stations for us to listen to, which are both very comedic and seem to never get old. They both insanely add up to over 200 minutes of dialogue.
GTA: VC is indeed a great game, possibly one of the greatest game ideas in history. Its story is far better than GTA3; however, the game play is not. The new additions don't seem to hide the fact that the graphics have been downplayed and there haven't really been any differences. Want to have some fun? Buy the Double Pack.
Similar Games
Buy It
From eBay:
From Amazon
|
|
|
|
|
Add to Collection
