izigame.me

Classic butchered by corporate greed


Just 9 months after the release of the revolutionary GTA 3 we are taken to the 1980s, to Vice City. Bright lights, pastel suits, excess and funky hair all contribute to the charm of this sequel. Powered by the legendary performance of Ray Liotta, this is a love letter to the 80s and movies like Scarface. What isn't a love letter to fans is the package this Definitive version came in, beaten up and thrown at you for GTA III's 20th birthday.

Technical Aspect

Another port of a mobile port?! No it can't be.... right?

Of course, much like GTA3 and SA, this is also based on the mobile port from more than a decade ago. It's not as bad as San Andreas DE because Vice City's mobile port was not *that* bad when it came out. There are still some bugs introduced in it that were not fixed for DE, some texture issues and the usual stuff.

Unreal and RederWare together forever

The classic Definitive edition recipe! Using Unreal Engine 4 for rendering and leaving all RenderWare code from 20 years ago for physics, logic and everything else. It's this unpleasant mix of old and new that just doesn't work well. We have marginally better lighting here thanks to Unreal, which unlike in San Andreas, is implemented a bit better. There are some lighting issues in cutscenes, of course, and in a few places around the map but generally the game looks good when driving around. The same can't be said about animations since they are the same ones from 20 years ago and don't fit well with the new graphical engine.

Bugs and unacceptable cuts (bugs are mostly the same as the ones seen in GTA 3)

60 FPS baby

The "hardworking professionals" at Grove Street Games, in their infinite wisdom, decided to lock all 3 games to 60 FPS physics. Everyone should know by now that the 3D era GTAs were not meant to be played on anything more than 30. In Vice City you get the same bugs caused by FPS as in GTA 3 (since VC is 3 reskinned), which are actually not *that* many. You will occasionally collide with a car and send it flying down the road, maybe fling an NPC off of their bike with great momentum, BUT you will be able to play the game from start to finish. Take that San Andreas!

Flying on keyboard and mouse is a pain

Another trend you'll notice with the Definitive Editions, questionable control schemes. It basically gets worse with each game. GTA III being the most limited one, controls are alright since you are not meant to fly there and there aren't many minigames or "special" things outside of regular driving and shooting gameplay. Vice City is basically GTA 3 so this applies there too, apart from when it comes to flying. Proper flying was introduced here and GSG had a proper brainfart moment. Left and right click are used to go up and down and you can maneuver the helicopters by clicking WASD. It might not sound too bad on paper, but trust me it's annoying in-game, especially when the original had proper flying controls. Don't even get me started on SA controls...

Beloved 80s radio is butchered

Vice City is THE game when it comes to original trilogy radio. I would say it's even the second best radio in the whole franchise, right after Vice City Stories (the better VC btw). Starting with the mobile port, Rockstar cut out a big chunk of radio and thus some of the game's best songs were lost. I won't mention them one by one, just know that the ICONIC "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson no longer plays when you enter your first vehicle after starting a new game. They weren't satisfied still... the "MP3 player" station was also removed in DE. That station allowed you to add your own .mp3 files to a folder and then play them on the radio in-game.

Art Direction

The atmosphere of Vice City Definitive is actually not that bad. This is because they made all 3 games bright and colorful now, which coincidentally makes sense for VC. The lighting paired with this is decent and driving around, especially at night, feels good. The "Play-Doh" characters are still here though to ruin the vibe. AI upscaled textures used as usual and the result is meh.

OG, OG, OG

As per the arrangement you should try to get the original Vice City. PS2 version is recommended but you can't go wrong with PC either. Sail the high seas, pay Rockstar $30 to get it in their Launcher or buy a physical copy online. Just make sure you get a proper version and experience the 80s nostalgia in this wonderful game.

You can check my GTA 3 DE review here if you are interested.
SA DE review here if you are interested.