Over the subsequent few months, I’m going to be having a look again at every of the core Grand Theft Auto video games and replaying them within the lead-up to the arrival of Grand Theft Auto 6. What we’ll be placing collectively received’t be conventional re-reviews, and so they received’t include any new IGN rating, however they may re-examine what made every GTA exceptional upon the time of its launch. By the top of the mission, utilizing GTA’s beforehand six-star needed stage, you need to be capable to get an concept of the place every of those video games roughly rank in my long-term love for this collection.
Right now it’s time to take these damaged wings and study to fly once more in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is emblematic of a long-extinct period. I’m not really speaking about its well-known Nineteen Eighties setting, although; I’m speaking concerning the video games business at massive. Whereas we’ve needed to patiently wait greater than 12 years between GTA V and GTA VI, 2002’s Vice City arrived first on PlayStation 2 a mere 12 months after the genre-defining GTA III. Nothing nearly as good as Vice City occurs this quickly anymore. And make no mistake – it is vitally, superb.
Vice City introduces a pile of recent automobile varieties and weapons, and its missions are instantly extra imaginative and diverse than its predecessor. It additionally embraces a noticeably completely different method to its storytelling, benching the mute protagonist idea for a totally voiced lead character, giving him the power to have way more entertaining interactions with a significantly extra memorable supporting forged of allies and antagonists. Above the whole lot, nevertheless, it oozes unrivalled persona and magnificence because of its ’80s backdrop, and is elevated to untouchable heights by its sonically unmistakable soundtrack. I really like this sport. It grabs me by the crotch and shakes me round till I’m not positive if I’m a person or a girl. Then I keep in mind I’m Luke Reilly – Mister Luke Reilly – and that is Rockstar North with GTA: Vice City.
Realistically, Vice City might have been little greater than one other serving of the system that had simply fully revolutionised open-world video games and it nonetheless would’ve bought truckloads. Certainly, for a quick spell, it started life as precisely that. After finalising GTA III on PC, the very first thing the crew behind it did was start eager about what autos, weapons, and missions might doubtlessly go right into a mission pack for his or her blockbuster crime sandbox. Nevertheless, after realising there was an excessive amount of content material to squeeze into an growth, the subsequent chapter within the GTA saga turned a totally fledged sequel as an alternative.
I suppose, strictly talking, the choice to brush apart the current day and place Vice City’s motion in 1986 really makes it a prequel. No matter you wish to name it, it was astounding – and it stays so in the present day.
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
Whereas GTA III modified the trajectory of the GTA collection eternally – and set the stage for a complete ecosystem of open world motion video games to comply with – Vice City is notable because the GTA that correctly launched the broader spectrum of auto selection we anticipate from the collection in the present day. Bikes made their first reappearance for the reason that top-down period, and we might now successfully pilot plane – together with choppers, and a seaplane with a whole set of wings. It additionally introduced in outfit modifications, property purchases, and even an in-game map (though it nonetheless got here with a paper one, too).
Importantly, nevertheless, Vice City additionally launched a protagonist with a voice of his personal. In GTA III, dialogue sometimes consists of one-sided monologues – or characters merely barking a batch of mission directions at you. Vice City is totally completely different. Due to main man Tommy Vercetti having a voice of his personal – offered by iconic Goodfellas star Ray Liotta himself – Vice City is way nearer in tone and spirit to the basic crime motion pictures and TV that impressed it within the first place. It’s funnier, snappier, and filled with a lot extra persona because of Tommy’s potential to chew again, categorical emotion, and provides voice to his ambitions. Tommy’s ambition is definitely a extremely necessary a part of the equation, too, and one thing that additional distinguishes Vice City from GTA III. That’s, whereas GTA III is about survival as somewhat fish in a giant pond, Tommy Vercetti is right here to turn out to be Vice City’s nice white shark. Vice City is just not about scraping by; Tommy is right here to take over this entire city.
Rockstar has since largely pivoted away from casting GTA characters with high-profile movie actors, however throughout Vice City the apply was nearly at its peak. Alongside Ray Liotta, Vice City options Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds, William Fichtner, Robert Davi, Luis Guzmán, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, Danny Trejo, Danny Dyer, and even Philip Michael Thomas as Lance Vance. Sure, Miami Vice’s legendary Ricardo Tubbs was tapped for a key position in Vice City. Vice City is nothing if not hilariously unapologetic about its reverence for traditional Miami crime dramas like Miami Vice and Scarface. It’s definitely no accident that Diaz’s mansion virtually nonetheless has Al Pacino’s butt print within the workplace chair, or – in case you get your needed stage as much as three stars – you’ll be set upon by plain garments Vice Squad detectives who present up in Cheetah sports activities automobiles.
Cum On Really feel the Noize
In 2002, Vice City absorbed me instantly. I used to be obsessed and couldn’t cease taking part in it. In 2026, I’m hooked yet again. I’d truthfully forgotten how nice it was to have a look at, definitely by PS2 requirements. I really don’t know what appears to be like higher: the evenings, or the sunrises. I additionally love all of the little thrives embedded in it – from the glinting ocean chop to the refined means Tommy’s garments flap as he whips by means of the air on a motorbike. Bikes are such a superb addition and really feel nice to experience, and I actually dig the way in which they’re tuned to allow you to slide them aggressively into corners with out abruptly gripping up and high-siding Tommy excessive of them. Automobiles deal with extra sharply than GTA III, too, and have a greater sense of weight, which is such an important a part of open-world motion video games for me.
The fight? Properly, I’m nonetheless in a love/hate relationship with the overall blasting. Sure, the auto concentrating on is efficient in locking on and slicing down your opposition, however solely when it’s locking onto your precise opposition – and never your literal allies who you drove to the shootout personally. I simply want it knew the cops straight in entrance of me are an even bigger menace than the distant motorcyclist attempting to flee the scene, and it stays an annoying idiosyncrasy of this period of GTA, significantly when it causes me to fail a mission. There are nonetheless no mid-mission checkpoints in Vice City, but it surely does introduce useful, automated taxi rides again to the beginning of missions you have been simply wasted on. By slicing down on repetitive journey, Vice City is just not solely extra respectful of our time, I additionally suppose it reduces the danger of gamers rising to resent explicit stretches of the map they in any other case may’ve been pressured to drive back and forth throughout one too many instances.
That stated, it’s arduous for me to develop bored with being in a automobile in Vice City because of the soundtrack, which weaponised licensed music so efficiently it single handedly reinvented the etymology of many of those songs in my mind. Are you able to hear Mister Mister’s Damaged Wings with out considering of Fernando Martinez? I can’t. Maybe essentially the most spectacular facet impact of getting a soundtrack this huge, memorable, and expertly curated is the way in which it flavours the missions in numerous methods for various playthroughs. Nearly 1 / 4 of a century after taking part in it for the primary time, I discovered myself in a dirtbike chase by means of the again alleys of Washington Seaside to the pop strains of 99 Luftballons. Not a tune I might’ve thought of for a frantic, high-speed chase – and but the uptempo pop jam labored a deal with. The truth that you could Child Driver your self to an unexpectedly good little bit of backing music is without doubt one of the GTA collection’ best strengths, and Vice City is arguably absolutely the acme. So far as I’m involved, it’s not simply the very best soundtrack of the GTA collection – edging out San Andreas and Vice City Tales – it’s among the best soundtracks in video video games full cease.
By no means Too A lot
Vice City occupies a particular spot within the historical past of the collection as the primary sport out of its then-newly rechristened improvement crew, Rockstar North – though it needs to be famous the studio did have considerably of a operating begin. The operation had initially been established because the Edinburgh arm of authentic GTA creators DMA Design, however DMA’s authentic Dundee department had been shuttered shortly after. In different phrases, the prehistory of Rockstar North stretches again to the founding of DMA within the ’80s – so it’s coincidentally fairly becoming its first official mission turned gaming’s most quintessential tribute to that decade.
To be honest to among the GTA collection’ most memorable style friends, Vice City wasn’t the primary open-world motion and driving sport to make use of the previous as a backdrop. The funkadelic Driver and Driver 2, set in an undefined second sooner or later within the late ’70s or early ’80s, rolled again their very own clocks some years earlier than Vice City. On prime of that, the unique Mafia took us on a journey again to the Thirties, through the closing chapter of the US’ Prohibition period. Nevertheless, there’s simply one thing richer and extra particular about the way in which Vice City transports you again to the beachside, neon-drenched extra of 1986.
There are a mix of parts all working in live performance with one another to crank up the environment to irresistible heights. The massive fleet of angular unique supercars and boxy American land whales on the roads, glinting because the beaming solar catches their windscreens. The pedestrians strutting the sidewalks in leather-based jumpsuits that appear like they’ve been peeled straight off Michael Jackson. A shiny, sun-kissed cityscape that’s so completely different to the dense, dirty greys of Liberty City, and which sits atop a seedy underbelly of chainsaw carnage, cartel chaos, cocaine, and low cost porn. The pastel pants, the palm-lined streets, the pulsating soundtrack – all of this in unison made Vice City a magically immersive time capsule like no different sport on the time, and like few others since.
I’ve seen it argued that the extremely profitable Vice City served as the first catalyst for the tidal wave of ’80s nostalgia that adopted – floor zero for an exploding obsession with this pastel-powered decade – however I’m not fully bought on that idea. Don’t get me improper, Vice City was a real cultural juggernaut – however I feel it’s higher seen as one vital a part of a wider image. In any case, the again stretch of 1997’s Boogie Nights leaned closely into the early ‘80s, and The Wedding ceremony Singer very famously and efficiently transported us again to 1985 when it was launched in 1998. 1999’s 200 Cigarettes, 2000’s American Psycho, and 2001’s Moist Sizzling American Summer time additionally all wound issues again to the ’80s previous to the arrival of Vice City. Nostalgia has been highly effective and bankable for a very long time. Again within the ’90s and 2000s, if we weren’t being whisked again to the ’80s, it was the ’70s, by way of The Marvel Years, Dazed and Confused, 54, That ‘70s Present, and Detroit Rock City.
No: Rockstar didn’t uncover the retro lens with Vice City, nor did it invent ’80s nostalgia. Nevertheless, all these examples above are motion pictures or TV exhibits. Vice City is neither. Vice City is a online game, and I in all probability don’t want to elucidate to you why that units it aside. Vice City wasn’t only a window into the previous we have been restricted to passively peering by means of for a predefined operating time. Relatively, it turned a residing, respiration portal to the previous that permit us really discover, expertise, and inhabit a long-ended period.
Verdict
To today, the opening moments of GTA: Vice City stay one in every of my most memorable gaming experiences ever. After moving into your first automotive, you’ll instantly hear the unmistakable bass line of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. It’s a small however significant second that immediately plunges you into the previous and seems like a cheerful accident, but it surely wasn’t – it was engineered to at all times be Billie Jean. Everybody heard it. Or, at the very least, they did till later re-issues and remasters of the sport sadly trimmed it from the soundtrack. Both means, I used to be fully enchanted by Vice City from that second. In 2026? I nonetheless can’t get sufficient of it. With its vast number of autos, weapons, and missions, its stacked forged of recognisable voices, and its unmatched environment, Vice City might have gone backwards in time – but it surely was an enormous stride ahead for the collection and one in every of my all-time favourites.
For extra reflections on the unimaginable Grand Theft Auto collection, you possibly can learn our new Legacy Evaluations of Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2, and Grand Theft Auto III, with extra to comply with over the approaching months.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN opinions crew. You’ll be able to observe him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him issues about stuff.