O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
While Grand Theft Auto has existed since 1997 and a lot of its basic structure and ideas remained the same to this day, Vice City was an important milestone in its development. Still full of crazy arcade-style elements, this was the first game to try focusing on a story, interesting characters and gameplay that was “grounded enough”. The second game of the “3D era”, a considerably smaller in scope follow up to GTAIII, it used to be my favorite entry in the series. And while revisiting it with the updated and extremely flawed Definitive Edition, I was glad that it didn’t age that poorly.
To start, I want to say that I was considering revisiting even the earlier GTA entries. The original, the sequel and the first 3D entry still have lots of fun elements to them and amazing soundtracks too, mostly written specifically for the games. But, at least for my tastes, they didn’t age well. The first game and London expansions are too wacky and arcade like, if you manage to make them work at all. GTA2 had really cool non-linear systemic approach to progression, but is still too chaotic for my tastes. I gave GTAIII, in the Definitive Edition form, several hours and got to the second island, but the game simply didn’t age well. It’s messy, unbalanced and more often than not unfun to the point that it amazes me just how many hours I spent with it back in the day.
But then came Vice City. More focused, more condensed, more balanced, stylish with a character who speaks and has a personality to fit the gameplay. Based on Miami and set in the 80s, the game was first in the series to heavily invest in licensed music. Rockstar also got lots of famous actors to voice the characters. It was primitive and still somewhat arcade-like, nothing like Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, that was already out and getting lots of (deserved) praise for its storytelling. But it was extremely fun and entertaining. Still is.
Most of the game, with its sandbox open world structure, followed the rules already set in GTAIII, the rules that are still mostly the same in modern open world titles that follow the GTA formula. And it kept some of the restrictions from its predecessor too. You still could not swim, access to the second half of the world was limited via story events, missions had no checkpoints, people and car on the streets could behave extremely erratically and get in the way while the 6-star police system was almost unchanged. But at the same time, many things got more accessible and fun, side-missions and unlocks were better, mission structure was often well done and memorable. The last third of the game is completely non-linear too and has a lot of side story content that is mostly good. This is probably the easiest, fastest and most fun GTA to 100% and I did it with the original PC version many years ago to my own surprise.
Definitive Edition brings its own share of improvements and nice elements. You can now restart any mission you’re on if you fail it for any reason, instead of having to manually go to the mission start every time. After many updates and the return of the lighting system that’s closer to the original games, the game can look very good too. Still messy and far from the best it could be, but quite good. Controls can be customized to not follow the classic scheme and be closer to more modern third person shooter approach (though it has some bugs of its own). Some missions seem to have been slightly tweaked to be less annoying and handling of some vehicles feels better – falling off bikes is considerably harder now than it used to be. Autosaves are also a great addition, though it’s still beneficial to go back to the save points. And the map now features more modern elements, including a navigator and custom waypoints.
Really, apart from some poor design decisions and missions that are not as great as the most, the biggest issue with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition is that it doesn’t feel very “definitive”. Not even because of some licensed music tracks missing, but rather because even with the genuinely good updates to the game visuals and performance, the remastering work feels half-arsed. And that’s before we remember that Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories were not included in this “definitive” collection.
I was happy to replay Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It’s still a very good game, even if it is showing its age. It’s probably the best entry point into “older” GTA titles for people who have never played them and in most ways I still prefer it over San Andreas or GTA IV. Shame “The Definitive Edition” doesn’t live up to its name, though, but it is an, in general, better way to experience the classic than the original version.