Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Immediately after beating Grand Theft Auto III for this little marathon of mine leading up to the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, the biggest and most noticeable change Vice City brings to the table is its focus on story and character. Compared to the blank slate of Claude from the previous game, Tommy Vercetti is infinitely more interesting with minimal effort. Sporting his iconic bright Hawaiian shirt and brought to life by the legendary Ray Liotta, Tommy has a defined personality, a past, and a voice. Even with rumors that Liotta was a bit of a diva who didn't care much for the role, his performance instantly draws you into the narrative. Having a protagonist with actual motivations allows you to feel attached to the character, making it easy to understand exactly why he does what he does as he builds his empire.

The game is heavily themed after the Miami Vice aesthetic, bolstered by pastel colors, an eighties setting, and on-the-nose references to its source material. The original PS2 release captured a wonderful atmosphere, ironically aided by hardware limitations like aggressive LOD, fog, and simplistic shapes that gave the world a distinct, abstract vibe. Unfortunately, the Definitive Edition neuters a lot of this magic. By using completely different lighting, shading, and materials, the characters end up looking like plastic dolls, and many of the original visual effects are entirely lost. While later patches somewhat improved these aspects, the remaster still fundamentally fails to capture the authentic, neon-soaked vibe of the original release.

Despite the visual downgrades in the remaster, the audio experience remains incredible, making it easy to get sucked into the game just to drive around and soak up the atmosphere. Michael Jackson's Billie Jean is the absolute epitome of this game and served as the pitch-perfect introduction, though it is a massive shame that licensing issues forced it to be cut from the Definitive Edition. Still, cruising around to stations like Flash, Wave, and Emotion is a joy. The synthpop and synthwave tracks perfectly encapsulate the time period and setting, elevating the simple act of driving around doing nothing into an immersive, time-traveling experience.

As you progress, you unlock the ability to purchase properties, which provides new sources of income and some smaller stories with a handful of cutscenes each. However, the system feels like a missed opportunity for meaningful gameplay expansion. Buying the taxi company, for instance, seems like it should naturally unlock a real fast travel system, but it does not. What makes the property system even more tedious is the baffling decision to make players manually drive to every single location just to collect their individual revenue, rather than funneling the cash directly to your mansion. This chore drastically disrupts the pacing of the game, and that isn't even the worst part of this system.

This pacing issue causes the game's momentum to come to a grinding halt during a mandatory, heavily obfuscated portion of the late game. At a certain point, the story missions just stop appearing, leaving you with no phone calls, no map icons, and no clear direction. I actually had to search online to see if I had reached a credits-free ending, only to discover that you are required to purchase businesses to "take over the city." You have to buy at least six of these asset businesses, complete their missions, and specifically ensure one of them is the Print Works. Doing that unlocks the final two missions of the game, but the game completely fails to convey this information. Unless you have endless free time (and patience) to accidentally stumble into the solution, this complete lack of explanation is poor game design that relies on an internet guide to overcome.

When it comes to the core gameplay, the gunplay and driving handle about the same as they did in GTA3, which is to say they are fine. The Definitive Edition does bring improved controls and menus, alongside a GPS system that is a nice quality-of-life addition, even if it arbitrarily breaks during certain missions still. Navigating without GPS isn't a dealbreaker for anyone familiar with the PS2 originals, but it is annoying when you know the feature is there and works otherwise. The in-game map is also remarkably inefficient at marking missions, items, and purchasable businesses which could help with that late-game asset purchase slog.

Mission structure in Vice City is noticeably more complex and multi-step than before, which desperately highlights the need for mid-mission checkpoints. The Definitive Edition mercifully adds pre-mission checkpoints, but during longer assignments, the punishment for failure is brutal. One specific mission involving a boat ride to a mansion to clear out goons caused numerous frustrating deaths; without mid-mission saves or starting armor, getting sent all the way back to the beginning of the assignment was an exhausting experience. My biggest takeway in the gameplay department, however, is that it's just fun. Missions and objectives vary enough to remain interesting throughout, and the core loop is just flat-out strong.

On a more positive note, the inclusion of motorcycles adds a great new dynamic to navigating the city, and tools like katanas and chainsaws make the combat loop delightfully gruesome. It is incredibly odd, however, that Tommy still cannot swim given how much water surrounds him at all times. While falling into the water near boats thankfully just respawns you next to the water with reduced health instead of giving you a full game over, simply making the protagonist non-water-soluble feels like an obvious quality-of-life improvement that the remaster completely ignored.

Ultimately, it is a game that successfully transports you to a neon-drenched decade of excess, even if the remaster occasionally forgets to pack the sunscreen.