Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

"Familiarity breeds contempt"

Vice City Stories takes gamers back to the familiar locale of the 80s, two years before Tommy Vercetti steps foot onto its soil. In this installment, Vic Vance deals with corruption, drug use...you know, the usual. The usual also encompasses plenty of missions that constantly walk the line between being fun and tedious. Which side of the line you fall on depends on whether or not you're tired of the formula or feel like you're up for one last ride before GTAIV's release.

One thing that has changed is the way the story is told. Cutscenes are pretty long prior to and between missions. They also border more on the serious side than ever before. This works to its credit more often than not, but there are some times where I felt a little uneasy with the content, especially early on in the game. Oddly enough, it's when Rockstar tries to be funny early on that things don't go so well. This works its way out once you're done with one person's string of missions, and thankfully, things pick up from there.

What does work well from start to finish is the radio. Once again, a good selection of 80s music from multiple genres as well as the return of VCPR, a public radio station, will keep you rocking or laughing from its constant sarcastic nature. And while we're on the subject of sound, many familiar voices return to make cameos in this one. Philip Michael Thomas (Lance Vance), Gary Busey (Phil Cassidy), and Luis Guzman (Ricardo Diaz) all reprise their roles from Vice City. Just as was the case in Liberty City Stories, the main protagonist was given a new voice actor. In this case, that works out extremely well as Dorian Missick does a great job at voicing Vic and the ongoing moral dilemma he faces throughout this title.

The dysfunctional Vance family has a lot of stuff to do before they can claim any stake in this city, and you'll soon see that there is plenty to do even from the start. Hidden packages are replaced by red balloons that you'll have to shoot, street races, off-road time trials, and many other side missions will make sure you'll get your money's worth out of this title, but that isn't to say that it's all fun. While Rockstar has made certain side missions easier by adding checkpoints after levels 5 and 10, many of them have a "been there, done that" feeling. To be specific, there are three different types of Paramedic missions in this game. When you're spending around three hours doing the same type of mission, it becomes tedious. The Paramedic copter mission is the worst. You'll fly all around Vice City for fifteen levels. No matter how good you are with a helicopter, this will most likely take you anywhere up to two and a half hours to fully complete. Why they didn't make this like the fire copter and only five levels, I'll never know.

Another side mission that works its way into the main storyline is the Empire system. This is the main way of making money throughout the game and plays out as a combination of turf wars from San Andreas and business acquisitions from Vice City. You shoot your way through to take control of the company then go through a series of missions of six types to bring in the bacon. Once you take over an empire, it's yours for good, but that doesn't mean that your rival gangs are going to be doing nothing about it. They can tear you apart if you try to take over too many businesses at once. It's a nicely executed addition that most people will enjoy.

As for the game itself, it's hit and miss. The odd vehicle missions that are a pain to control, the ones where you're being hounded by gang members' cars that spawn out of nowhere, and so on. At times, I felt like I'd rather being playing the other titles in the series than this one, but there was enough fun to be had here overall to warrant at least one playthrough. GTA: Vice City Stories is the game that tries to be great but ends up falling a bit short of the level set by even LCS. For the most part, the story and its characters keep you hooked in while certain segments of the gameplay do their best to take you out of the experience. While there is plenty to do here, not all of it is fun. This series is really starting to show its age in a couple departments. I just don't feel as if enough effort was truly put into this title to make it the gem that it could've been.

Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 5
Sound: 8
Entertainment: 6

Overall: 6

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/23/07

Game Release: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (US, 03/05/07)