Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

The panic is almost total, but I have to be careful. I know the spray shop is just ahead, but one more wanted star and I'm in big trouble. The FBI kind of trouble, the "just shoot him, and don’t worry about the questions" kinda trouble. Careful, avoid the roadblock, without running over any more cops, four already is really too many. A cop bribe token would be great, but that means going down the alleys or onto the top of buildings, and I can't really stop. There it is, line it up just right, I'm in! Quick, a different colour Lemmy, anything, just start spraying! Welcome to the world of Vice City, the most ugly, seedy hellhole ever to be placed on the earth. Welcome to your new home!

The Infernus, VERY fast, Very expensive. But you never pay, you just take!

The original Grand Theft Auto was a top down affair that ran in DOS and boasted 3DFx support! It was excellent (and is freely available for download from the Boomtown download section, here ), as was it's sequel, GTA 2, which introduced the concept of gangs and rivalries. Then Rockstar made the jump into 3D with GTA3, and that too was excellent. Actually it's even better because of the 3D, like a natural evolution of the series rather than just making it 3D to make it different to GTA2.

Then, rather than simply create GTA 4, they took the game to another location, Vice City, and with it a whole host of new features and smartened up graphics. GTA: Vice City has been available for the PS2 for just over a year, and now it's arrived on PC. Lets have a look and make sure it's more than a simple conversion.

Goodfella's have got nothing on you!

Boats provide an alternate method of transport.

Initial presentation is superb with a nice 2CD flip-out box, map, little sticker and a nice guide to Vice City. Based on some sort of non descript 80's Florida city, complete with tacky pastel shade suits, enhanced chests and impossibly small bikini's, it's rife with crime and low lifes. Here, you can get involved in everything from prostitution, racketeering, and protection to drugs. It's a good job you don't play a cop, you'd never get anywhere…

Roller Skating girls in Bikini's. I like this town!

The initial intro sequence details why you're in so much bother. Somebody decided to interrupt the drugs deal you had a part in and now you've lost a huge amount of cash and an equally valuable amount of drugs. Your friends back in Liberty City (Where the first three games were based) are not happy chappies, but you say you can at least get the money back, while of course issuing a little payback too. Your boss gives you a lead, a slimy lawyer with fingers in every deal going down. He gives you jobs and introduces you to people who you can also accept jobs from after you've gained their trust.

Mission: Impossible?

There's a storm brewing, and when it rains, it REALLY rains!

This is the main meat of the game, accepting jobs and completing them to gain trust and money, which you can then use to buy weapons or even buy whole businesses. The businesses then act as save points, like home base where you keep all the different clothes you collect throughout the game. Should your heart desire, you can even buy businesses and these will make you money throughout the day. It certainly beats picking up the strange people of Vice City in a taxi! One of the best things about this game is the sheer scope of the landscapes and the choices available to you. You don't even have to do the jobs as you get them, you can decide to do something else instead. See a bus? Car/bus jack it and then run the route, collecting money from the passengers. Carjack a taxi and collect fares. Steal an ambulance and then find injured people and deliver them to the hospital. It even works for the police and the fire service!

Yellow Triangle pointing up means your target is on a higher level. Get a move on!

There are also little sub games about. Drive onto the beach and climb in to a van and suddenly you're racing this little RC car around a sand dune track, racing for cash. Accept one of the early jobs and it turns out to be a deadly RC helicopter with which you have to deliver explosives to a construction site across the road. Sounds simple, but there's a time limit and the bombs have to be placed on different floors, and the only way up is via the stairs! Security guards and construction workers will try to damage your helicopter, but it can withstand quite a bit of damage. Drop the bombs in the right place and BOOM, the construction site is nothing but a pile of rubble. It's little parts of the game that feel very different to the usual driving part and chasing someone that make this game so refreshing, so different to many games out there at present.

The Chase is on

It's dark, it's raining, I don't have a coat and I'm a wanted man. Wonderful!

There's the usual "find him and persuade him not to do this or that" and "find Mr. xxx and kill him" but these also have a nice variation throughout the game. One mission has you doning plus fours and garish sweater as you find a nasty man at the Golf Club. Guns are not allowed so you have to make do with your melee weapons, bats and handy golf clubs and the like. This is actually a fun mission as you get to ride in the golf carts, and they're really fab. Easy to throw about and untippable. Your target also jumps into a golf cart leading to a deadly game of bumper carts. It's excellently designed and variation appears to be the key here, and it works brilliantly. There's no feeling of staleness or boredom, each mission is subtlety different in execution and this keeps the fun factor going.

Driving test? What's that?

The PCG 600, VERY fast, good for doing stupid jumps and getting cash bonuses

All manors of transport types are available, and it's easy enough to find something fun to drive. Just run into the road and they'll obligingly stop so you can pull them out of their car/van/bus and you can take over. All the vehicles handle as you'd expect. 4x4's are really top heavy and wobbly, sports cars corner well and are almost too fast, but motorbikes are by far the most fun. Motorbikes make a new, and very welcome appearance on the streets of Vice City. Not only are they the fastest things on the roads, you can even pull wheelies and use them for jumps, giving you an insane stunt bonus cash award.

The bikes range from little scooters to full on sports bikes that are difficult to keep under control and they are just SO fast, often you're tapping the gas rather than holding it open. They are good for catching up with targets or getting across town quickly though. The trade off is that it's very easy to fall off in even a minor collision, costing you health points.

This is the thanks I get? Pah!

All the vehicles can be damaged but some can take more abuse than others. It's easy to see what sort of state your car is in, but if you see it smoking or even burning it's best to ditch it as there will be a rather big explosion coming soon. Other vehicles make an appearance later in the game and you can now pilot planes and helicopters round the city, making commuting to your next victim fast and hassle free.

City life sucks here

The view from above is really nice... note the two stars to the top right, that's your wanted level

Other traffic behaves realistically and there are plenty of pedestrians to run over if you're not careful. This usually isn't a problem unless a policeman sees you or you mow down several at a time. This has the effect of increasing your wanted level, indicated by several stars at the top of the screen. A 1 Star offence is relatively minor and can be "removed" by a change of clothes or even just keeping out of the way from a few minutes. 2 Stars invites the cops to find you and attempt to arrest you. 3 Stars or more and things start to get hairy, cops then have a shoot first approach, even more stars can have the army or FBI after you, and they pretty much don't care who gets caught in the crossfire!

Higher wanted levels can be cleared with police bribes that are dotted around the map, often down alleyways or on top of buildings. Another option of a car respray at the many paint shops will also clear your wanted level. Unfortunately there's no Haré Krishna's to run over for a combo bonus as in GTA 2 though (and that's a shame).

Guns and weapons are often dropped by defeated targets or the occasional civilian and can also sometimes be found on top of buildings or down alleyways so it's worth staying off the main roads sometimes, you never know what you're gonna find. Ammo shops are also dotted around and guns can be bought for cash. Some missions rely on heavy explosives and cars can be loaded with explosives at the bomb shops in the city, although there are fewer of them than ammo and spray shops.

Do you believe in re-incarnation?

There are 100 hidden packages in Vice City. Collect them to get weapons and other neat stuff

If you "die" and lose all your health points you wake up outside the hospital, a few dollars lighter and with no weapons. The same goes for being arrested. The cops will lighten your pocket as a bribe, the amount depending on your wanted status and take away your weapons too. It's not really possible to die completely and fail the game unless you're really stupid, as your character can't swim at all. Running car into the water with you in it or jumping into the water will kill you instantly.

The graphics are wonderfully detailed, the roadside shops have relevant signs and the shop windows have the correct look about them, the cars and bikes are excellently detailed and you can tell the difference between them too, so if you have a personal favorite it's easy to find it. The city itself feels as a city should, living and breathing with civilians milling about. There are even the ladies on Roller skates, just like on the TV.

Acting the fool

You can even buy your own strip bar and relax a little with the finer arts...

The sounds and the music? Well, what can I say? Officially licensed cheesy 80's tunes are all there, ABC, Tina Turner, Bryan Adams, some songs even I can't remember! Each different vehicle is tuned to a different radio station and there's even a talk radio station too. The best thing is the stations very rarely repeat themselves, making it more believable. The in game sounds are also excellent, gunfire sounds realistic and the speech is clear and easily understandable. Rockstar have also managed to get proper actors. For example your character, Tommy, is voiced by Ray Liotta, who happens to be an Oscar nominee, and Dennis Hopper and Burt Reynolds provide voices, too. There are a great many other "proper" actors, and this just shows the size (and importance) of the game.

I *KNEW* NASA's Moon landing was a fake

I LOVE this game, it's just so utterly fabulous. The graphics are wonderful and smooth as silk, there's no slowdown at all, even with lots of cars on the screen, the complete freedom to explore the city, and the sheer size of the city itself is just totally overwhelming. The music is just great, it's just so in keeping with the feel of the game itself. Does the game have any faults?

Well, I did find one little fault in that I had to unplug my USB steering wheel as it made me run backwards all the time. Sounds minor, but when the USB port is on the back of the PC underneath my desk, it's not so easy. Although there's no multiplayer support, the game doesn't really suffer because of it. There's always something to do, be that a mission or even just putting out fires with the fire truck or running taxi fares throughout the city. BUY this game, sell your granny if you have to, but it's just an essential purchase!