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Grand Theft Auto Vice City



         


Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (released 2002) is the third sequel to the hit video game Grand Theft Auto. It is a Rockstar Entertainment production, available for PlayStation 2 and PC. In November 2003, it also became available for the Xbox. It uses the same game-engine as its precessor, Grand Theft Auto III, and similarly presents a huge cityscape, fully populated with buildings (from hovels to skyscrapers), vehicles (cars, bikes, boats, and planes) and thousands of people.

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Setting

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

The game is set in the fictional "Vice City, Florida," which is roughly based on Miami. The game's look, and the clothing and vehicles shown, reflect (and sometimes gently parody) its 1986 setting. In contrast to the gritty urbanism of GTA-III, Vice City is (mostly) clean and classy, with golden beaches, waving palm-trees, and beautiful purple sunsets.

Vice City is a loose prequel to the preceeding game in the series, Grand Theft Auto 3, which took place in the present day at the time of its release (2001). Although the main character is not the same as the one in Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City contains a few characters from GTA 3 at an earlier point in their lives. Donald Love, a business tycoon in GTA 3, makes an appearance as an apprentice to real-estate mogul Avery Carrington. Lazlow, the host of the talk radio station in GTA 3, is the DJ for the hard-rock station in Vice City. Also, Toni, the female DJ of the 80's music radio station in GTA 3 also appears as a DJ in Vice City's pop music station.

The player takes the role of Tommy Vercetti, who has recently been released from prison and has to re-associate with mafia elements to earn a living while gaining revenge on those same associates who betrayed him. Much of the action concerns Vercetti's burgeoning criminal empire, spanning drug trafficking, murder for hire, counterfeiting, and protection. The player must progress through the game narrative by performing a series of missions, most of which involve criminal activities, in order to achieve ultimate success. This takes him from being a small-time hood in a cheap apartment to being the city's crime kingpin.

Many themes are borrowed from the Brian De Palma movie Scarface and from the 1980s hit TV show Miami Vice. Vercetti's opulent mansion, and the climactic battle which takes place in it at the game's end, is very similar to their counterparts in Scarface. Most of the characters wear the then-fashionable white or pastel baggy cotton suits and, like Miami Vice, much of the action takes place in mansions, on speedboats, or in other glamorous settings.

Various radio stations can be received on radios in most vehicles in the game; one is an interview and chat station (KCHAT), another (VCPR) consists of the public access debate show Pressing Issues, and the remainder are music stations which cover particular musical genres such as rap music, rock and (most predominantly) pop music. The tracks are for the most part licensed works from various real-life artists such as Blondie, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Mr. Mister, and other artists that fit the retro 80s theme. The multi-CD soundtrack to the game was an instant best-seller. The game's story also featured a fictional band called Love Fist.

The game features dozens of characters, most appearing only in cut scenes which describe each mission. The voice-talent includes Ray Liotta as Vercetti, Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds, Luis Guzmán, Miami Vice star Philip Michael Thomas, Danny Trejo, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, Fairuza Balk, and porn actress Jenna Jameson. The voice of the taxi controller is played by Blondie singer Debbie Harry.

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Gameplay

The gameplay is very open-ended (unlike most games) and although missions must be completed to finish the game, the player is able to drive around and visit different parts of the city (once "unlocked") and otherwise do whatever they wish if not currently working on a mission. Various items such as hidden weapons and packages are scattered throughout the landscape, and certain buildings can be bought by the player and then used as save points or sources of revenue.

Players can steal vehicles (cars, planes, boats, motorcycles, and helicopters), become involved in drive-by shootings, and generally create chaos. However, doing so generally attracts unwanted and potentially fatal attention from the police (or, in extreme cases, the FBI and even the U.S. Army).

Unlike previous games in the franchise, the player can also purchase a number of properties distributed around the city. Some of these are additional hideouts (essentially locations where weapons can be collected and the game saved). There are also a variety of businesses which the player can buy. These include a pornographic film studio, a dance club, a taxi company, an ice-cream delivery business, and a printing works. Each commercial property has a number of missions attached to it, such as eliminating the competition or stealing equipment. Once all the missions for a given property are complete the property provides an ongoing income, which the increasingly-prosperous Vercetti must periodically uplift.

Various gangs make frequent appearances in the game, some of whom are integral to story events. These gangs typically have a positive or negative opinion of the player and act accordingly by shooting at the player or following him. Shootouts between members of rival gangs can occur spontaneously and several missions involve organised fights between opposing gangs.

One is also able to carry out productive and (mostly) non-violent activities in the game such as pizza deliveries, driving injured people to a hospital with an ambulance, extinguishing fires with a fire truck, and much more, usually with a monetary reward. Although these activities often result in unique rewards, they are not integral to the main thrust of gameplay.

In addition, a wide array of guns and arms become available to the player as he or she completes more and more missions. Guns may be purchased at fictional firearm store Ammu-Nation and other types of weapons (such as baseball bats, hammers and chainsaws) at various fictional hardware stores.

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Controversy surrounding the game

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has been labeled as violent by many special interest groups, and is considered highly controversial. Some suggest that parental supervision is necessary when young people play this game. The ESRB rated this game Mature. In Australia, it was heavily modified to comply with current Australian censorship laws. Prostitutes and pimps were removed allowing the game to be given an MA15+ rating. In the UK, where most games are regulated by the BBFC, Vice City received an "18" certificate.

On December 3, 2003, Cuban and Haitian groups met in Florida, to form a protest against this game, alleging the game invites other citizens to harm people from those two nations, in particular due to a series of missions which require the player to kill members of each group at the other's behest. Rockstar Entertainment issued a press release to the context that they understood the concern of Cubans and Haitians, and that they believe those groups are blowing the game's actions out of proportion.

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Characters

Here is a list of main characters from the game.

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See Also

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