Gta Vice City is a popular action and open world game. Everyone must have either played this game on the computer in childhood or heard about it for sure. Today we are going to know about GTA Vice City in detail and how to install GTA Vice city on phones.
About GTA Vice City –
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the first entry in the Grand Theft Auto series since 2001’s Grand Theft Auto III. Set in 1986 within the fictional Vice City, based on Miami, the game follows mobster Tommy Vercetti following his release from prison. After he is caught up in an ambushed drug deal, he seeks out those responsible while building a criminal empire and seizing power from other criminal organisations in the city.
The game is played from a third-person perspective, and its world is navigated on foot or by vehicle. The open world design lets the player freely roam Vice City, consisting of two main islands. The game’s plot is based on multiple real-world people and events in Miami such as Cubans, Haitians, and biker gangs, the 1980s crack epidemic, the Mafioso drug lords of Miami, and the dominance of glam metal. The game was also influenced by the film and television of the era, including Scarface and Miami Vice.
Much of the development work constituted creating the game world to fit the inspiration and time period; the development team conducted extensive field research in Miami while creating the world. The game was released in October 2002 for the PlayStation 2, in May 2003 for Microsoft Windows, and in October 2003 for the Xbox.
Upon release, Vice City received critical acclaim, with praise particularly directed at its music, gameplay and open world design. However, the game also generated controversy over its depiction of violence and racial groups, sparking lawsuits and protests. Vice City became the best-selling video game of 2002 and has sold over 17.5 million copies. Considered one of the most significant titles of the sixth generation of video games, and one of the greatest video games ever made, it won numerous year-end accolades including Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications.
Since its release, the game has received numerous ports to many gaming platforms. An enhanced version was released for mobile platforms in 2012, for the game’s tenth anniversary. Its successor, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, was released in 2004, and a prequel, Vice City Stories, was released in 2006.
Gameplay –
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. The player controls criminal Tommy Vercetti and completes missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story.
It is possible to have several active missions running at one time, as some missions require the player to wait for further instructions or events. Outside of missions, the player can freely roam the game’s open world and has the ability to complete optional side missions. Composed of two main islands and several smaller areas, the world is much larger in area than earlier entries in the series. The islands are unlocked for the player as the story progresses.
Gameplay screenshot of the player character driving a motorcycle through a busy city street.The player can drive motorcycles in Vice City, unlike its predecessor.
The player may run, jump, or drive vehicles to navigate the game’s world. The player uses melee attacks, firearms and explosives to fight enemies. The firearms include weapons such as the Colt Python, an M60 machine gun and a Minigun. The game’s three-dimension environment allows a first-person view while aiming with the sniper rifle and rocket launcher. In addition, the game’s combat allows the player to commit drive-by shootings by facing sideways in a vehicle. The game provides the player a wide variety of weapon options—they can be purchased from local firearms dealers, found on the ground, retrieved from dead enemies, or found around the city.
In combat, auto-aim can be used as assistance against enemies. Should the player take damage, their health meter can be fully regenerated through the use of health pick-ups. Body armour can be used to absorb gunshots and explosive damage, but is used up in the process. When health is entirely depleted, gameplay stops and the player respawns at the nearest hospital while losing all weapons and armour and some of their money.
If the player commits crimes while playing, the game’s law enforcement agencies may respond as indicated by a “wanted” meter in the head-up display (HUD), which increases as the player commits more crimes. On the meter, the displayed stars indicate the current wanted level, and the higher the level, the greater the response for law enforcement. (for example, at the maximum six-star level, police helicopters and military swarm to lethally dispatch players)
PLOT –
In 1986, mobster Tommy Vercetti is released from prison after serving a fifteen-year sentence for murder. His boss Sonny Forelli, seeking to establish drug operations in the south, sends Tommy to Vice City following his release, to oversee an important drug deal alongside crooked lawyer Ken Rosenberg.
However, the deal is ambushed by unknown assailants, with Tommy and Ken barely escaping it. Angered upon hearing the news, Sonny orders Tommy to recover the drugs, alongside the money he gave, under threat of consequences. Seeking information, Ken points Tommy towards Colonel Juan Garcia Cortez, who helped set up the exchange. Expressing regret for the ambush, Cortez promises to find out who masterminded it.
While investigating, Tommy meets with several people who offer him help: music producer Kent Paul, who maintains connections with the city’s criminal underworld; Lance Vance, who aided in the deal and lost his brother in the ambush; Texan real estate developer Avery Carrington, who asks Tommy for help on several deals; and drug kingpin Ricardo Diaz, who also employs Tommy, but treats him as nothing but a lackey.
Eventually, Cortez begins voicing his suspicions that Diaz organised the ambush. After Lance attempts and fails to kill Diaz upon learning of this, resulting in his capture, Tommy finds himself forced to save Lance and kill Diaz before he can retaliate against the pair.
As a result, he takes over and forms his own organisation, distancing himself from the Forellis. To solidify his empire, Avery recommends him to force businesses to pay him protection money and buy out nearly bankrupt companies to use as fronts for illicit businesses. At the same time, Tommy establishes partnerships with several gangs after assisting them with their personal problems, and helps Cortez leave the city with stolen military equipment.
Eventually, Sonny discovers that Tommy has gained complete control over Vice City’s drug trade without cutting the Forellis in. Enraged at his independence, Sonny sends mobsters to forcefully collect money from Tommy’s businesses. In response, Tommy kills Sonny’s men and severs his ties with him. Later, learning Sonny is coming to Vice City to collect what he believes he is owed, Tommy prepares to pay him tribute with counterfeit money.
However, Sonny reveals that he was responsible for Tommy’s arrest fifteen years prior, and that Lance has betrayed him and allied himself with the Forellis, having felt inadequate in his presence since his rise to power. A shootout ensues in Tommy’s mansion, during which he prevents the Forellis from stealing his money and kills Lance for his betrayal, before finally killing Sonny in a tense standoff. When Ken arrives at a scene of carnage, Tommy quickly reassures him that everything is now fine, as he has finally established himself as the undisputed crime kingpin of Vice City.
Development –
Rockstar North began to develop Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in late 2001, around the time of Grand Theft Auto III release. While initial development only involved creating 3D models, executive producer Sam Houser said “it really kicked off at the beginning of 2002” and lasted about nine months. After the release of the Windows version of Grand Theft Auto III, the development team discussed creating a mission pack for the game that would add new weapons, vehicles, and missions. Upon further discussion, the team decided to make this concept a stand-alone game, which became Vice City.
The game was announced on 22 May 2002, during the Electronic Entertainment Expo. It was Rockstar North’s most expensive game at the time, with a budget of US$5 million. On 5 September 2002, the company announced that the release date of 22 October had been postponed until 29 October to meet product demand. By 15 October 2002, development of Vice City stopped as the game was submitted for manufacturing. The game was added to the Rockstar Games Launcher in September 2019.
Story and characters –
The team spent time “solving [the] riddle” of a speaking protagonist, a notable departure from Grand Theft Auto III silent protagonist Claude. Ray Liotta portrayed protagonist Tommy Vercetti. Liotta described the role as challenging: “You’re creating a character that’s not there before … It’s so intensive”. When recording the role, the team used blue screen in order to allow Liotta to visualise “how it’s gonna move”. The team ensured that the player felt “real affinity” for Tommy, making the narrative a key development interest. Dan Houser described Tommy as “strong and dangerous and prepared to wait for the right opportunity to arrive”.
Director Navid Khonsari recalled Liotta frequently complaining on set and found him difficult to work with as a result. “In some sessions he was … into it, but then sometimes … he was very dark and couldn’t work”, said Sam Houser. Following the game’s success, Liotta reportedly complained that he was underpaid for the role. The majority of the game’s animations were original, with only a few borrowed from Grand Theft Auto III. For the characters, the team used motion capture and stop motion animation techniques; cutscenes use the former, while gameplay movements use a combination of both techniques. The team encountered difficulty in animating motorcycle animations, due in part to the variety of models.
Pedestrian character models use skins in Vice City, allowing the artists to produce more realistic characters. There are 110 unique pedestrian models throughout the game world alongside roughly 50 story characters; each character is rendered using twice the amount of polygons and textures found in Grand Theft Auto III.
This also impacted the character physics, improving gameplay aspects such as weapon-hit accuracy. Some character models and scenarios were inspired by films such as The Godfather (1972), and the game’s presentation was inspired by action television shows of the 1980s. The interplay between Tommy Vercetti and Lance Vance was crafted to be similar to the relationship of Miami Vice’s Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs.
Sales –
Within 24 hours of its release, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City sold over 500,000 copies. Within two days of its release, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City sold 1.4 million copies, making it the fastest-selling game in history at the time. It was the highest-selling game of 2002 in the United States; by 2004, the game had sold 5.97 million units, and by December 2007 it had sold 8.20 million. By July 2006, it had sold 7 million copies and earned $300 million in the United States alone.
Next Generation ranked it as the highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country, beating Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In February 2005, it was re-released as part of PlayStation’s Greatest Hits selection, indicating high sales.
In Japan, Vice City sold about 223,000 copies in its first week and over 410,000 by January 2008. The game earned a “Diamond” award in the United Kingdom, indicating over one million sales. By March 2008, the game had sold 17.5 million units worldwide, making it one of the best-selling PlayStation 2 games.
Mobile version –
When Vice City was released on mobile devices in December 2012 it received “generally favorable” reviews. Metacritic calculated an average score of 80 out of 100, based on 19 reviews. Reviewers liked the enhanced visuals, but criticism was directed at the touchscreen controls.
The port’s visuals were well received. Destructoid’s Chris Carter felt that they “[suit] the neon and bright pastel veneer”, and wrote that the “new lighting effects and smoothed-out engine really allow the game to pop like it never has before”. IGN’s Justin Davis praised the updated character models, lighting, and textures, and Touch Arcade’s Eric Ford noted that the “visuals are improved but not in a drastic manner”.
NowGamer found that the mobile display improves the visual enjoyment of the game, despite the issues with the original game.
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