"Ladies and Gentlemen....Let's Pop!"

Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories is part two of the popular series on the PSP. If you compared this game to it's brother from the same mother (Rockstar) Liberty City Stories, you will find this game to be much more appealing than the previous. So now let's cut the talk and get straight to the review of GTA: VCS.

Story: 10/10
The story is simple. Your name is Vic Vance. If you've played Vice City on the PS2 you might remember Lance Vance. Vic is a very serious individual while his brother...well, let's just say he's a cocaine addicted moron. He is constantly getting Vic into trouble. You were part of the army until you got booted out and now you have to tag along with your brother trying to earn some money around the corrupt Vice City. Along your way you will meet many allies as well as many enemies but after every mission you get payed so what do you have to worry about? So that's basically the story of VCS. Short, sweet and to the point.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay is very good although since this is a review for the PSP version the way you play may be a little hard. The reason why is because the PSP is small. Now if you've been those kind of people that have been neglecting your PSP for a while, I suggest you get the PS2 import of this game. But if you've spent most of your time playing games on PSP then you will feel very comfortable. Remember, this is the PSP review but it's basically the same as the PS2 review. Just play whichever one feels more comfortable to you. The learning curve would take oh I don't know about maybe 3 minutes because the PSP and PS2 controls are different. If you've played Liberty City Stories then it probably won't take you very long to get acquainted with the controls because they are the same. If this just happens to be the first time you've played then it really won't take you long. Maybe 3-4 minutes. But otherwise it's really easy to get used to after 30 minutes of gameplay.

Sound: 10/10
Just like it's big brother on the PS2, (Vice City not Vice City Stories on the PS2) this game has great music. You tell me where else can you get all the hit music from the 1980's? This game has plenty of different radio stations and different songs for everyone to enjoy. From the nerds at your school to your boss at work, I guarantee everyone will find one song in this game that they enjoy. The voice acting is good but because Vic seems sorta emo he barely has any expression in his voice. Lance Vance, however, has the same annoying high pitched voice that we've all come to know and sorta love. The gunshots do sound realistic but they could've done better with the pedestrians because you will hear them say the same things a lot.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics aren't too bad. In fact they are actually good. Like above how I mentioned about the pedestrians. They could put more effort into how the pedestrians dress because just like hearing them say repeated things, I can also see triplets of the same person walking up and down. Other than the pedestrians, the graphics in this game live up to the expectations but IMO I think they should have worked on the pedestrians a little bit. Rockstar, please. Make this game more realistic.

Features: 9/10
In this game you can actually swim! Yes, take that LCS! Although if your swimming bar depletes you will die, even if you aren't underwater. That's why I try to stay away from the water unless I have floaters on.

Not a whole lot has been changed in VCS. Everything still looks the same like it did in Vice City. The only difference is you can swim. You can also ride bikes but that's mainly in missions. I'm not sure if you can ride for fun because every time I rode a bike it was generally for some mission. That really lowers my fun meter.

One thing I don't like is the pastimes. They are great and there are a lot of them but they all really suck. I mean, what happened to all the cool little mini games you could do in San Andreas? If they can do that in San Andreas, I'm pretty sure Rockstar is capable of doing it on VCS as well. But on the other hand, they may not be great IMO but they are pretty fun and they are good time wasters!

If you've played San Andreas you can do one thing and that is take over something. In SA you were able to take over territory while in this game you basically take over businesses. In SA you would get a bunch of gang members to help you. You would drive to the designated area and start shooting your rival gangs until a gang war stared. Survive the waves and you have gained that territory. This game however works a little differently. Here you just do a drive by on the car that is there until it blows up. When that happens, the gang will rush out and ambush you. Kill all of them and enter the building. Kill everyone in there and destroy little crates to gain the area. You can then go outside and go by the sign and choose to build your empire. Make it a small one or make it a big one. As long as you have money. The businesses range from prostitution to protection rackets to more things. Gangs will attack you but the only way to get rid of them is to take over all of their businesses. If you get bored feel free to take over the whole city before even beating the game. It might even give you an advantage to the final mission. When you build your empire, you can choose to go inside and do missions or upgrade it. Now all the other features might not have been good but I have to say this is the a great addition to the game. Without this, my score would have probably dropped lower to maybe a 7.

Overall: 9/10
Overall the game is pretty good. If you are a hardcore GTA fan like myself I highly recommend you buy it but if you are a beginner then I suggest you rent it first in case you don't like it. Don't waste money on a game that you aren't gonna play. So after all those long paragraphs, Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories gets a wonderful 9 gang wars outta 10...That's a lot of Gang Wars.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/03/07