Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" (2002)

***** stars (out of five)

With an all-star voice cast that includes Ray Liotta (Goodfellas, Hannibal), Dennis Hopper (Speed, True Romance), William Fichtner (The Perfect Storm), Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down), Fairuza Balk (The Craft), Luis Guzman (Traffic), Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon), and Danny Trejo (Spy Kids, Con Air), how could this game be anything but a game? "Vice City" has so many elements of a major Hollywood production, that you almost forget that your playing a video game. This is heightened by the fact that there is a movie script floating around Hollywood right now and I'm seriously hoping Liotta gets the lead part.

Ray Liotta plays Tommy Vercetti, an ex-con who has just returned to the streets after doing a fifteen year stint in prison. The family sends him to Vice City, a hell hole that is actually WORSE than Liberty City. How could Vice City be worse than Liberty City you say? Well for one, no one really cares about Vice City. The place is also crawling with drug dealers and corrupt city officials that keep the city properly unsafe for anyone to live.

Anyways, from the start, problems arise for Tommy. A drug deal goes wrong and only quick thinking and some fast driving by his lawyer friend Ken Rosenberg (Fichtner) gets them out alive. As it turns out, this mess leads to missing money, missing drugs and dangerous crime bosses including a corrupt land developer named Avery Arrington (Burt Reynolds) and a rich gangster (Guzman), the latter who Tommy eventually has to deal with. Tommy decides right away that he is going to own this town and so begins his odyssey into Vice City...

"Vice City" is such an amazing improvement over "Grand Theft Auto III" that it is almost impossible to describe it. You basically take Liberty City's worst qualities and multiply them by ten. Everything that was in "Grand Theft Auto III" is here, including the insane jumps, rampages and hidden packages. The missions are a lot harder too. But they are more varied and have a much greater significance in the end.

There are plenty more cars too, but there are boats and helicopters as well. My personal favorite vehicle so far is the Sabre. The helicopters are from what I've seen so far, the only vehicles available that enable flight. Probably my favorite new feature so far, is the fact that with the right amount of money, you can actually buy up real estate. I also forgot to mention that this game is a hell of a lot bloodier than any other previous "Grand Theft Auto" titles.

The leading actors are amazing in this game, especially Liotta as Vercetti. He has a lot of charisma here and it shows in his character. The other voice actors are great as well.

"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" is so far the most anticipated and best reviewed game to come out for the Playstation 2 this year.

GTA:VC is the best video game I've ever played. Its more like a movie and has some really interesting (and sometimes hilarious) characters. Ray Liotta is PERFECT as Tommy Vercetti, a guy who's so badass, you learn to like the guy. I think GTA III was very good, but Vice City, for me is a masterpiece. The radio stations, the weapons, the cars, the boats, the motorcycles, the graphics, the nostalgia, its awesome. I can't wait for San Andreas. At this point, I don't think Rockstar can go wrong. Some people prefer GTAIII, and people have their own opinions, but I've never gotten bored with Vice City. A

(This review refers to the PC port.) This game is a much needed breath of fresh air. It's incredibly fun, and like Grand Theft Auto 3, it's very easy to pick up and play. You can easily play this game for hours on end, but you don't hours to be able to play. From the moment you start, it's seamless to start doing your thing and simply have fun.

The missions are quite fun. They're better than before, cooler, and just plain entertaining. I thought not being the nameless thug would be annoying, but it's better than ever. The story is perfect for a game of this type, and the game's atmosphere is flawless. Don't be surprised if you find a love for 80's music after playing this game.

The only downsides are like GTA3, there's bugs left in that really should have been taken care of. Also, it's rather obvious it's a PS2 port as the game's memory is rather short. You can clearly see a car coming, turn around so it's out of sight, and poof... gone. "Out of sight, out of mind." And like GTA3, after awhile the fun may wear thin and things may get repetitive depending on your tastes.

• Rirath_com

GTA: VC is nothing short of a masterpiece. The cast, the theme, the play. It all fits so well, the closest a game has come to being a complete life replacement. I had only played this in limited amounts when it first came out and wasn't really hooked, I then bought San Andreas for PS2 and decided to back track to Vice City for PC. Low and behold it contains an aura that San ADreas does not. The soundtrack fits the game like a glove, the map is quiet a lot like Miami and the fashions and vehicles available just made it near perfect. One thing different from San Adnreas is that Tommy Vercetti is a winner, he is respected, whereas Carl in San Andreas is always battling for it for some reason, Tommy just seems to be a tougher character, and his rise and rise throughout the game confirms this.

I guess there is a fault with this game, it came to an end, eventual I suppose, but it did not look open for a sequel, perhaps Rockstar can throw us back to the 70's?, imagine it, GTA: San Francisco

I'm thirty-five and recently married. I hadn't played a video game since the late eighties--in fact, I hadn't even given them a second thought. Then everything changed. I watched my brother-in-law play GTA:VC one afternoon on his PS2. I was transfixed. I was appalled. I was, in a word, hooked. When it came out on XBOX, I bought a used copy at Blockbuster and haven't looked back.

First of all, the gameplay is phenomenal. The fact that you can freely roam the large Vice City map is worth the price of admission by itself.

Second, the voice acting is amazing--especially the commercials. Ray Liotta. Gary Busey. Burt Reynolds. Phillip Michael Thomas. Lee Majors. Robert Davi. Dennis Hopper. Luis Guzman. Fairuza Balk. Jenna Jameson. Danny Trejo. These are just a few of the names that make appearances. The radio material is so well produced, I can drive around all day listening to nothing but VCPR or KCHAT. The radio commercials are witty, sarcastic and spot-on.

Third, the story is great. You start as a nobody, recently released from jail. You finish (if you really ever do finish) as a Tony Montana-esque criminal psychopath.

Fourth--this is probably the most immoral game ever created... and it's beautiful. It's sick, sick, sick! Apart from the usual "waste him" missions, tasks include delivering drugs from an ice-cream van and driving a humvee drunk while avoiding the cops. I mean, one mission has you carving up a guy with a chainsaw! In addition, there are dozens of "rampage" icons throughout the game. When you run into one, you have two minutes to kill a certain amount of people a certain way (e.g. "kill 20 gang members in two minutes with a meat cleaver") It's never boring.

Conclusion: GTA:VC is the sickest, funniest, most engrossing and immersive video game ever made. It looks and plays better on the XBOX, but it's a blast on any platform. Rockstar's next GTA release, San Andreas, has immense shoes to fill.