Miami Vice: The Game

"Miami Vice. No Rules."

Miami Vice: The Game is the brand new game out from Sierra to go along with the release of Miami Vice: The Movie starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, and to take a dig at the game right now would be to state there is no voice acting from the two actors or even likeness.

Now, singleplayer, you choose Crocket or Tubbs and are sent on a mission. If you've ever played Cold Fear, Resident Evil 4, then you'll be used to the aiming, for the majority of the game, you'll be running along mansions, airfields, docks, container ships, nightclubs, industrial complexes, trailer parks and then thats it. Add in two boat levels and that's your game. Yeah, it's short.

Gameplay where your on foot involves killing bad guys, avoiding the damn CCTV, finding drugs, find RAM to hack later and health packs to boost your final score which is dictated by accuracy, amount of enemies you killed and reputation. The former part of the gameplay can be aided by Freddie Luz, a snitch, who before a mission, if you have the drugs, and if you've just completed a mission then which you always do, you can pay for information, the location of drugs, cctv shutdown, RAM, enemy locations and first aid packs to appear on your map when you press select. RAM, cctv and drugs are especially useful to complete your mission with cctv meaning less guys you have to kill, drugs to earn you more money when you deal with junkies and RAM to get the upgrades when you hack them.

Boat missions are repititive and simple. Drive with X, steer with the analogue and hold down the trigger when you get near other boats, it auto aims for you, what could be simpler?

Now, reputation, the core of the game, finish a level using only your pistol?, reputation boost, still have all your first aid packs when you finish? reputation boost, kill all the bad guys? reputation boost. There are also outfits you can choose before you go out, your original, which has almost half reputation boost to your final score but no protection for the level, the armour outfit, the SWAT uniform which can be upgraded to take more damage or the reputation outfit, all reputation bonus but no armour. When your using the reputation, you really do have to be wary about when you move because you'll get taken down like nothing else by a guy with a shotgun.

Hacking, the most god awful useless pointless ruins the goddamn game minigame. I can't express more how I hate this damn mode. And I'm going to explain it so you don't have to suffer what I did, but you still will when you go for the higher upgrades. There's squares and your an arrow, charge up your arrow as much as you can before a star or square hits you and detonate and try to link up the stars, if they hit another square it'll destroy it an leave the circle for you to pick up. Hacking does though, unlock upgrades for your gun, when you can then buy from the gunshop, it also unlocks drug barons who you can sell their specific goods to, to make a nice profit, all that ensues is a minigame where you have to balance/keep the bar in blue until time runs out, there are prompts which can give you more reputation, but just make it that bit harder to keep the balance.

Long review, I know what your thinking. Miami Vice is an awesome game, I love it and it'll always be in my collection, explosions, rag doll effects, upgradeable guns, the graphics/textures are really impressive while some characters won't look the best, but it's the PSP, not the 360! Has to be an addition to your collection.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/06