Plot. A tough mobster named Tommy Vercetti is released from prison after completing a 15 year sentence, and is back on the streets in Liberty City. His old boss, Sonny Forelli is afraid that Tommy might be working his way to the top, so he agrees with the other bosses to send him down south, and supervise a deal. But not everything is smooth in the sun-washed, glamorous avenues of Vice City. The deal was jumped, and Tommy is left with nothing. Sonny wants his money back, but the only thing standing in Tommy's way, are the biker gangs, Cuban gangs, Haitian gangs, and the corrupt politicians. The only way to survive, is for Tommy to fight back, and take over the city himself.
Concept. Like it's predecessor, players must guide Tommy throughout several missions by helping crime lords, crooked lawyers and cops, and so on. Also, Tommy can take over various businesses such as nightclubs, print works, a cab company, and even an ice cream factory. When the money reaches it's peak in a taken business, players can take the whole money, earning a lot easier than before. Tommy can also buy some small apartments, in order to make saving data a lot easier as well, but most of these homes are expensive.
Design. Vice City is a sandbox-style action-adventure game with 3D graphics and environments. Liberty City is modeled after New York City, while Vice City is modeled after the glamorous, sun-washed metropolis of Miami, Florida. The game takes place in the 1980's, a very special time in terms of movies, television shows, music, outgoings, and so on. The logo of Rockstar North in the game, is reminiscent of the Commodore 64 BASIC command prompt, which was common during the time the game was set.
Music. The music is comprised of songs of the 1980's with singers such as: Michael Jackson (R.I.P), A Flock of Seagulls, Blondie, Tito Puente, Kate Bush, Foreigner, Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, and so on. My favorite radio stations are V-Rock, Espantoso, Flash FM, Emotion, Wave 103, and K-Chat, an 80's version of Chatterbox, and funny too.
Voice Acting. Hollywood movie stars once again voice the characters of the game. Ray Liotta provided the voice of Tommy Vercetti, since the character was modeled after him. Ray is remembered for playing Henry Hill in the 1990 mafioso movie, Goodfellas. Other notable stars include: William Fichtner, Tom Sizemore, Robert Davi, Danny Trejo, Fairuza Balk, the late Dennis Hopper, and even former porn star Jenna Jameson.
Movie References. This game has a lot of movie references such as Red Dawn, Scarface, Miami Vice, Carlito's Way. Ken Rosenberg resembles the crooked lawyer from Carlito's Way, David Kleinfeld, which was portrayed by Oscar Winner, Sean Penn. The Malibu Club resembles the Babylon Club, from the 1983 cult film, Scarface. The Ammu-nation radio ad is named Red Dawn, a reference to the propaganda war film of the same name.
Rantings. As you know, the police are still a bugger in this game, I really can't stand them. Also, what I forgot to say last time, another thing that bothered me, is that Tommy cannot swim either just like Claude. I mean, it's Vice City for crying out loud, people are supposed to go swimming. The final battle was pretty rough as well, it's like if Sonny was wearing a body armor. My other bother out of this game, is that people protested against the game, and Jack Thompson once again had to open his big mouth about games inciting violence, it angers me that people like him blame everything on video games. For Christ sakes, video games DON'T ENCOURAGE VIOLENCE! Man, I hate conservative video game hating morons!
Good Aspect. I really liked the game better than GTA 3 because, it has so many things that the last game was missing like; riding bikes, piloting helicopters and planes for a longer time, and even more weapons. Also, what I enjoyed was that many movie stars who previously played in mafia and gang films provided their voices. Danny Trejo was hilarious as Umberto Robina, he always made me laugh. I could call Danny Trejo, the Mexican Clint Eastwood. I think Fairuza Balk and Jenna Jameson made a great job voicing the sexy women of Vice City, the Colonel's daughter Mercedes Cortez, and pornstar Candy Suxxx.
Overall. Vice City is one of my favorite PS2 titles, and it's the best of the GTA 3 era in my opinion. My final score for this game is a 10 out of 10