Nostalgia Sunday: Grand Theft Auto Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

This has to be one of my favorite games of all time. I had it for the Playstation 2 and a friend of mine had it too, so it was always the first thing to do, when we met. Playing till you die and then it was your friends turn. Fun as hell. Storywise and Soundtrackwise an instant classic. This was and still is definatly a must have.

The Story:

The player takes on the role of Tommy Vercetti, a member of the Liberty City mafia released from prison in 1986 after serving only 15 years for killing eleven men. Tommy's old boss, Sonny Forelli, fears that Tommy's presence in Liberty City will heighten tensions and bring unwanted attention to his organization's criminal activities. To prevent this, Sonny promotes Tommy and sends him to Vice City under the guardianship of Mafia lawyer Ken Rosenberg to act as their buyer for a series of cocaine deals. During Tommy's first deal, an ambush by an unknown party results in the death of Tommy's bodyguards and the cocaine dealer. Tommy narrowly escapes with his life and loses both Forelli's money and the cocaine.
Here starts the story. You basically have to get the money and the cocaine back, that you lost on the deal. You help different people, get money, get known and get respect. After a while you become the biggest drug dealer in town, which Sonny Forelli obviously doesn't like. So while handling your own business you have to deal with Sonny too, which escalates in a final showdown.

The Game:

The game basically consists of completing missions, or doing whatever you want. It's a classic sandbox style game, where only your mind limits the experience. When you're not doing missions, you're finding and collecting new weapons, buy assets, or just start a rampage, which of course gets the attention from the local police and later from the military. Another thing that really stands out is the music. There are several radio stations, which all play classic songs from the 80's and before. The Soundtrack is so memorable, that you can suddenly find yourself in a car on the beach just listening to the music.

Prequels and Sequels:

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the successor to Grand Theft Auto 3, which was the first title in the series, that introduced 3d graphics. The first two GTA games had a top down view. After GTA Vice City, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, which had a more "Gangster" feel to it and added more Sandbox elements, like Body Building or tuning your car. GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas used the same game engine, so there was time for a change. 2008 Rockstar Games released GTA IV, which used the new Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE). It took place in Liberty City, a rebuild New York. It looked better, had more minigames and sandbox elements, but lacked story and characters, even though it was praised by critics with flawless 10/10's. To this day I haven't beat it. On the 2nd November of 2011 Rockstar released a Trailer for the new GTA V. It will take place again in Los Santos, which was introduced in GTA San Andreas.

I still think GTA Vice City is the best in the series, because of the fond memories I have of it. I still have the PC version, which I play through from time to time and it still holds up today.