Pros: A real treat for 80's nostalgists. Great radio stations and sountrack. A real guilty pleasure.
Cons: Quests a tad tough at end. Occasionally unrealistic physics. High violence may turn some off.
The bottom line: A wild ride and a welcome bit of reminiscing for folks who were teenagers in the 1980s. A massive guilty pleasure with some great tunes and thrills and spills.
You know that extra special feeling when you discover something you have eschewed something all your life, only to discover at a later date you had robbed yourself of some great experiences? There's the initial "WTF was I thinking?" followed by the delight in experiencing what was previously a personal taboo. My life has been replete with experiences like that. I steadfastly refused to try Chinese food until I was 14, and there's a particularly excellent pea and ham soup that my mother makes (from an old family recipe) that I wouldn't touch until I graduated high school. For years the band ACDC was "bogan (check the wikipedia definition) music" and something to be avoided. Fifteen years later..... well, colour me flannelette, when You shook me all night long comes on the radio I am rocking along with the best of them.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series is a classic, and probably the latest, example of this trait of mine. The previous games always seemed like the "inane garbage console kiddies liked". I'd read reviews about the violence and seeming shock value of the games and feel they got by simply on those cheap ploys. I avoided the games like the plague.


Curiosity is Piqued

Before I went back to university, and during for that matter, I worked in charge of a group of late teens/earth 20's supervising nightfill in the dairy section at a suburban supermarket. Id constantly be appalled at the music they chose to bring in, and they would be similarly gagging at my selections from the 80's. Ah the stories I could tell over the battles for dominion over the CD player. Anyway, one day I was forcing my music on my work mates, when something bizarre happened. Tempted by Squeeze happened to be on my mix CD for the night and to my great surprise all the kids in the dairy aisle knew it and loved it! I soon discovered the song was part of the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack. We spent the rest of the evening discussing the game. Hmmmmm, maybe I should check this thing out........


Epiphany

When I first ran GTA:VC and Mr Mister's Broken Wings played in the background during a meeting of local crime lords, I knew I was going to at least have a good time. Not that I was a particularly huge fan of the song, and maybe I wouldn't like the game play, but just the setting and them 80's theme the music invoked sent me hurtling back to the days at Rollerdrome Balcatta - a local roller rink where I would blow my weekly pocket money (that's "allowance" to our American friends, and come to think of it, thanks to TV, probably to our Australian friends under 25 too) on the "spacies" (arcade coin-op games) they had there. Games of Donkey Kong and Scramble with Blondie or Human League in the background. Ah... heady days indeed.

Once the game got up and running I was pleasantly shocked to discover it was actually a heck of a lot of fun. Everything about it was so retro and kitchy - I was hooked. Oh what I had missed for all these years!


The Game

GTA: Vice City takes place in a fictional city of the same name which might be Miami. The player is cast in the role of a small time gangster who has been shuffled off to an obscure part of the country to avoid complications to "the business". Starting with nothing but a few bucks, a seedy hotel room and the shirt on your back, the player is unleashed on the unsuspecting city to partake on a spree of empire building crime like it has never before seen.

The game marries driving action with 3rd person shooter play, and quest-based adventure gaming in what is truly a remarkable hybrid. It is quite a departure from being squeaky clean "good guy" that I am used to portraying to being the sort of character who jacks cars and indiscriminantly runs over pedestrians. The game play isn't particularly thought provoking or deep, but it is one hell of a guilty pleasure as you work your way through the quests and rise to prominence as the eminent underworld identity in Vice City.

Graphically the game is pleasant without being stunning. Cars look good and the use of colour makes the city pleasant to drive around. There is nice distinction between the wealthy areas and the more slummy parts of town, and for a game which isn't primarily a shooter, the actual gunplay is fairly decent - Obviously it is nothing on a real shooter, but it does the job nicely.

Sound is where Vice City really gets going. In addition to decent sound effects and reasonable voice-acting, there is the soundtrack. The soundtrack is simply outstanding and a true delight for anyone who grew up during the 1980s. There are literally dozens and dozens of full songs from 80's staples of differing genres. This is brilliantly implemented through the use of the car radios and the variety of different stations each catering to a specific audience. Theres the new wave channel, and the rock channel just to name a couple. These radio stations all come complete with commercials and DJ chatter - literally hours worth. There's even a talk station of nothing but talkback radio! This is the single element which makes GTA:VC a real winner. The game is fun overall, but the ability to hop into a car and flip through the channels for music you like, while coasting through an 80's themed environment creates for a really pleasant and nostalgic experience.

The in-game quests aren't bad either. Some are very simple, such as delivering a pizza, but others are "jobs" given by a variety of the dominant crime lords in the area. One even involves the procuring of a new design of tank which is being transported to an army facility in the city. As you complete quests and gain reputation, you'll also pick up some cash which can eventually be used to purchase legitimate businesses in town which provide you with benefits such as money, or extra special cars not available on the streets (if you own the car dealership).

The game is filled with fun little features, such as the various stores, or re-spray services which allow you to change the colour of your stolen car and elude police suspicion. It is even possible to become a vigilante with a stolen police vehicle and put down petty crime in the city, or even do quests for the hospital or fire department in appropriate vehicles. This sheer variety and freedom of game play makes Vice City a real winner, which coupled with the excellent music and setting had me addicted for months.

My only real complaint about the game is the difficulty level of some of the very last quests - they just get silly and I find it hard to believe anyone completed them without frequent - and I mean frequent saves and reloads. There's also the occasional bit of physics that is utterly, utterly unrealistic, though these occasions feel more like programming glitches than intentional ridiculousness.

Five Thumbs Up

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a real hoot. I can't put it any plainer than that. I know a lot of people might say it isn't a big change from the previous game, but hey - I never played it, and if it didn't have the 80's music and theme it probably isn't for me anyway. Rarely have I been so surprised by a game. Perhaps I should try some Pokemon games - maybe I have been wrong about them for years too.