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
