Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) (VG)

Director:

Navid Khonsari

Writers:

Dan Houser (written by) &
James Worrall (written by) ...

Release Date:

8 November 2002 (UK)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

Welcome to Vice City. Welcome to the 80s.

Plot:

After being released from jail, Tommy Vercetti left Liberty City for Vice City--a city overrun by the mob. Now, Tommy is out to make the Vice City his home.

Plot Keywords:

Mafia | Drugs | Cocaine | Corruption | Criminal

Awards:

6 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Ray Liotta	...	Tommy Vercetti (voice)
William Fichtner	...	Ken Rosenberg (voice) (as Bill Fichtner)
Tom Sizemore	...	Sonny Forelli (voice)
Dennis Hopper	...	Steve Scott (voice)
Burt Reynolds	...	Avery Carrington (voice)
Luis Guzmán	...	Ricardo Diaz (voice)
Philip Michael Thomas	...	Lance Vance (voice)
Robert Davi	...	Colonel Juan Garcia Cortez (voice)
Danny Trejo	...	Umberto Robina (voice)
Gary Busey	...	Phil Cassidy (voice)
Lee Majors	...	'Big' Mitch Baker (voice)
Fairuza Balk	...	Mercedes Cortez (voice)
Danny Dyer	...	'Kent' Paul (voice)
Kevin McKidd	...	Jezz Torrent (voice)
Deborah Harry	...	Delores (voice)

Also Known As:

Grand Theft Auto IV (USA) (working title)
Grand Theft Auto: Miami (USA) (working title)
Vice City (USA) (short title)

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-18 | France:-16 | Germany:16 | Ireland:18 | New Zealand:R18 | Sweden:18 | UK:18 | USA:M

Filming Locations:

Miami, Florida, USA

Company:

Rockstar North

Trivia:

When released on the computer, many people complained about the difficulty of a mission involving a remote-controlled toy helicopter. The player is supposed to pilot the aforementioned toy into a building with explosives. Many keyboards could not handle as many simultaneous button presses as the controls required the player to press, causing them to crash the helicopter. Many game-modifying programs ("Trainers") were designed exclusively to make the mission easier to complete.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: One of the assault rifles appears as an "M4" in the game, but the M4 wasn't developed until 1994. On the other hand, the gun more closely resembles CAR-15 which would be more accurate within the time period

Quotes:

[being driven to the hospital while drunk]
Phil Cassidy: He's come for me boy!

Movie Connections:

References Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Soundtrack:

Mambo Gozon

The cast line-up of all time - "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City"

"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" (2002)

***** stars (out of five)

With an all-star voice cast that includes Ray Liotta (Goodfellas, Hannibal), Dennis Hopper (Speed, True Romance), William Fichtner (The Perfect Storm), Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down), Fairuza Balk (The Craft), Luis Guzman (Traffic), Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon), and Danny Trejo (Spy Kids, Con Air), how could this game be anything but a game? "Vice City" has so many elements of a major Hollywood production, that you almost forget that your playing a video game. This is heightened by the fact that there is a movie script floating around Hollywood right now and I'm seriously hoping Liotta gets the lead part.

Ray Liotta plays Tommy Vercetti, an ex-con who has just returned to the streets after doing a fifteen year stint in prison. The family sends him to Vice City, a hell hole that is actually WORSE than Liberty City. How could Vice City be worse than Liberty City you say? Well for one, no one really cares about Vice City. The place is also crawling with drug dealers and corrupt city officials that keep the city properly unsafe for anyone to live.

Anyways, from the start, problems arise for Tommy. A drug deal goes wrong and only quick thinking and some fast driving by his lawyer friend Ken Rosenberg (Fichtner) gets them out alive. As it turns out, this mess leads to missing money, missing drugs and dangerous crime bosses including a corrupt land developer named Avery Arrington (Burt Reynolds) and a rich gangster (Guzman), the latter who Tommy eventually has to deal with. Tommy decides right away that he is going to own this town and so begins his odyssey into Vice City...

"Vice City" is such an amazing improvement over "Grand Theft Auto III" that it is almost impossible to describe it. You basically take Liberty City's worst qualities and multiply them by ten. Everything that was in "Grand Theft Auto III" is here, including the insane jumps, rampages and hidden packages. The missions are a lot harder too. But they are more varied and have a much greater significance in the end.

There are plenty more cars too, but there are boats and helicopters as well. My personal favorite vehicle so far is the Sabre. The helicopters are from what I've seen so far, the only vehicles available that enable flight. Probably my favorite new feature so far, is the fact that with the right amount of money, you can actually buy up real estate. I also forgot to mention that this game is a hell of a lot bloodier than any other previous "Grand Theft Auto" titles.

The leading actors are amazing in this game, especially Liotta as Vercetti. He has a lot of charisma here and it shows in his character. The other voice actors are great as well.

"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" is so far the most anticipated and best reviewed game to come out for the Playstation 2 this year.