Is GTA Vice City WORTH playing in 2023,2024

 at the turn of the Millennium Rockstar

Games was taking huge risks by

developing video games for a more mature

audience while this would be more

mainstream in the future most video

games up to that point were really aimed

towards young children and teens with an

emphasis on fantasy and color generally

avoiding violence Grand Theft Auto was

set out to change this by incorporating

a grittier art style within their games

and incorporating real life elements

with a good mix of satire to really sell

these games while I personally haven't

played the first three titles pretty

obvious that the turn to 3D Graphics

were really successful for Rockstar in

fact GTA up until GTA 3 was seen as a

mediocre fetch Quest by most critics at

the time but the first two games only

selling 5 million copies combined

Rockstar persisted though and were met

with critical Acclaim with GTA 3 selling

14 million copies GTA Vice City the

second game in the 3D Trilogy was even

more successful improved to fans that

Rockstar Games you what the fans wanted

now I know most people who played Grand

Theft Auto games have probably played

Vice City at some point and it's been

over 20 years since this game has come

out but I never owned the PS2 growing up

wasn't allowed to play them for obvious

reasons so I decided to get it and I'm

currently still playing my copy of Vice

City on the pcsx2 emulator that's right

I haven't finished the game yet the plan

is to play the game to get familiar with

it and let you know if it's worth

playing in the modern era is it worth

playing well let's start with the story

your Tommy Vercetti a former prisoner

from Liberty City was bailed by the

Mobsters according to GTA fandom you

take a flight to Vice City a fictional

version of Miami Florida to be the

muscle of the drug industry because it's

1986 Miami and cocaine is basically

running the streets when you go to do

your first drug deal however it is

ambushed and you're the lucky one that

survives the incident after the incident

you are sought out to repay the dawn

family for the Lost assets and make it

your mission to become the biggest

badass in Vice City now I haven't gotten

to the part where I have to buy

businesses yet and truth be told I don't

plan on going too deep into the story in

this review as this game has been

scrutinized and reviewed more in depth

by other YouTubers however from what I

played it has that classic GTA comedy

Rockstar puts in all of their titles to

enhance the story Rockstar also put a

lot of effort into the setting itself

Vice City is honestly my favorite part

about this game I could tell the

Developers put a lot of time into this

part in fact Rockstar themselves were

really big fans of the 1980s they all

grew up at that time the Hauser Brothers

based a story off of classic films such

as Scarface and Miami Vice along with

real world events such as the rise of

cocaine and drugs Cuban and Haitian gang

violence and much more this further

added to the immersion of the story Vice

City told before development for Vice

City the team would go out to do

research in Miami to capture as much

information as possible about the

location before they would go work on

the game when they'd finished

researching they'd go out to bars party

and get wasted anyway you can really

tell the developers put a lot of time

into making the player feel like they

were actually there Dunn was the gritty

art style of GTA 3 and what we got was a

map with fluorescent neon colors and an

awesome soundtrack as nerdy as this may

sound hearing Billie Jean play in Ken

rosenberg's car for the first time legit

give me goosebumps this along with the

MPC interaction and dialogue realistic

and at times dumb traffic make Vice City

feel like a fully realized version of

80s Miami

okay I may be exaggerating a little bit

before PS2 game in the early 2000s you

gotta admit this was unlike anything

people had seen up until that point and

to this day I still think the art style

looks Superior now you look at the map

from the overhead view and it's

obviously not as big as something like

GTA 5 or even its sequels San Andreas

but I think I might prefer this map size

because unlike GTA 5 you don't have

checkpoints within a mission meaning you

can only save on certain spots on the

map which make longer missions a lot

more difficult at least if you fail one

you get a taxi GTA San Andreas I don't

even bother using the taxi like I just

use a safe State instead since I'm

playing on the emulator but if I was

playing on the console itself I would

have greatly appreciated the taxi

feature the smaller Map size eliminates

all those fetch Quest missions that

would arrive in later titles this along

with the fact that you actually have a

map to look in the main menu unlike GTA

3 makes the game a lot more enjoyable

than the other titles with the only

challenge being within the mission

themselves ammunition stores return

along with pay and sprays restaurants

side quests and item pickups scattered

throughout such as the health item

pickup adrenaline pills body armor and

bribes which lower your wanted level

these particularly handy if you're

rampaging there's also some weapon

pickups scattered throughout the map

that you can use in missions however

buying a weapon before a mission is

better because you can't buy weapons

once you enter a mission and once you

run out of ammo you're forced to use

whatever the enemy drops and some

weapons are just an absolute chore to

use now I know Vice City is the second

title in the 3D Trilogy of games but

seriously the biggest thing that this

game struggles with is its controls even

on the pcsx2 emulator the frame rate is

locked to 30. the movement is very

touchy almost like your character can

only move four directions when your

character's stamina is just hopeless

vehicle controls are better though each

vehicle has its own stats like some blow

up easier than other the controls are

actually better than San Andreas weirdly

but I guess that can be attributed to

the fact that I'm playing on an emulator

which may eliminate some of the input

lag you'd get playing on a console this

also applies to golf cart boats planes

or any other vehicle it feels very

intuitive for a game released in 2002

however what's not intuitive are the

game's shooting mechanics now there are

quite a few weapons in Vice City however

I feel like I can only use the d-scoped

weapons because the scoped controls for

controller players are so bad I don't

even bother anymore for starters you aim

with the left stick which is already

weird to begin with but the main issue

is that the default dead zone is set way

too high meaning you're constantly

having to over correct your aim because

the game is not registering that you're

moving your joystick at all and similar

to your movement you can only turn your

camera in four directions instead of

having omnidirectional movement while

aiming something even I take for granted

playing shooter games nowadays

now I'd say this is really only an issue

on missions where you have to use a

scoped weapon or that one turret Mission

but what I really hate is that I have to

avoid an entire subclass of weapons just

to be able to be competent in missions

yeah I'm sure this issue would be

resolved on the PC versions where you

can use a mouse and keyboard to aim the

actual lock-on aiming can be a little

bit dodgy like sometimes it locks onto

targets that you don't want to aim at

period but overall the controls are fine

once you get used to them and you avoid

the dreaded scoped weapons but if you're

used to GTA 5 these controls will take a

lot of time to get used to now this

leads me to the end of the road is this

game worth playing in 2023 well if you

like the 80s a satirical colorfully

bright lit City with what might just be

the most awesome soundtrack of all video

games and are willing to push through

the controls yes I'd say it's worth

playing is it the best one

well let me put it this way it's

definitely the most artistically

developed and iconic so if that

resonates with you then I guess it might

be as for an actual answer that'll be

for future video