Review

While it’s tough to argue about the sheer wealth of things to do in San Andreas, for me, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City still stands out as the pinnacle of the series. It marked the point when Rockstar North got everything right: story, setting, humour, structure and atmosphere. More than any other game, I keep returning to it for five minutes of fun whenever I get the chance.

Originally released on the PSP last October, Vice City Stories is set one year before the arrival of Tommy Vercetti. If you’ve explored every inch of this city in the past then there will be many incidental pleasures to be discovered: recognisable buildings under construction; subtle references to events yet to happen; and characters unaware of their fate. Key among these is Victor Vance, the game’s central character, who didn’t even survive the opening movie of Vice City!

One of the biggest errors that Rockstar Leeds made with Liberty City Stories was beginning the game in the same area as its PS2 counterpart. Here, the story begins on the far side of the city, in an area that was inaccessible when you first loaded up Vice City. In fact, this has the best start of any GTA game to date: your first three missions take place when Vic was still in the army and upon completing them you find yourself dishonourably discharged and out on your own.

Ultimately, VCS is GTA by numbers, as you drive to locations, shoot a few thugs and drive back again, but this isn’t necessarily as bad thing. The 80’s setting once again brings with it a cheese / cool factor that no other game can touch. When having to repeat a mission, the “journey skip” option is a very welcome one; the new beach patrol mode is a great laugh but the most interesting new element is Empire Building.

This expands on your ability to buy property as you can now use these buildings as a base of operations for all manner of illegal businesses. You can even take over rival firms by force, assaulting the building with automatic weaponry and killing everyone inside and out. Once the business is up and running you can return to it at you leisure to choose addition missions to undertake, or defend it from rival attacks. Or you could just ignore it completely and stick to the storyline, one of the reasons GTA, as a whole is as good as it is.

For £20 of anyone’s money, Vice City Stories is a great investment, the price reflects that there’s not really anything new about the set-up and hopefully this is the final title for GTA in this form, but crucially, it’s nowhere near the lazy cash-in that Liberty City Stories felt like.

About the Review

Platform

Sony Playstation 2

Developer

Rockstar Leeds

Publisher

Rockstar Games

Released

9th March 2007