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Offers a huge amount of gameplay, with something for everyone. Be prepared to lose dozens of hours to this game without even noticing.

OK, let’s get this out of the way first. GTA:VC fully merits its “Mature” rating, which means it shouldn’t be played by kids sixteen or under. Having said that, there’s nothing here which you wouldn’t see in a gangster movie: except that many movies look far less professional than this highly-polished work of art from Rockstar Games.

It’s 1986, and you’re Tommy Vercetti, a mobster sent down to Vice City, Florida (a thinly-disguised Miami) to supervise some deals. Everything goes wrong, and you have to start afresh.

Initially this involves stealing vehicles and running errands for various criminal factions. As you gain money and influence, you move into buying businesses and making them profitable by fair means and foul. Well, no, always foul. Eventually there are scores to be settled with your old outfit.

The missions are very varied, and laced with an offbeat sense of humor. As the game proceeds, you’ll have to master driving cars and motorcycles, shooting, and flying helicopters, seaplanes and even lethal remote-control model vehicles.

Due to the number of sub-plots and factions, you’ll normally be able to choose between several different jobs at any given time. In fact, GTA:VC plays like three or four games in one, and all of them are great.

When not working for others, or trying to get a business up and running, you’re entirely free to wander Vice City at will. Cruise along, listening to the radio. Rob stores and pedestrians, if that’s what you want; and if you think you can, evade the police! Run taxi, ambulance, fire-truck or vigilante missions.
Search for the bonus parcels hidden all over the map. Attempt insane vehicular acrobatics. The city lies at your feet, with a helpful radar of your immediate vicinity and a separate map screen for planning longer trips.

Even listening to the radio is surprisingly good fun. There are nine stations (two of them talk shows) which can be heard whenever you’re in a vehicle, and each has about an hour of material! For the music stations, these are (nearly) all authentic eighties hits, which is a great touch. The talk shows raise many smiles first time through, but obviously don’t live up to constant repetition.

Similarly, the voice acting is superb throughout. Rockstar Games has raised the bar, by hiring an entirely professional cast who never break the illusion for a moment. You’ll probably need the subtitles for the Scottish rockers Love Fist: note that their dialogue has been Americanized for the written text!

The graphics are gorgeously smooth, and resolution and draw distance can be adjusted to suit your system. Everything is crystal clear, with some spectacular lighting effects. Each district of the city has a distinctive look and feel, reflected not only in the static buildings but also the type of citizens and vehicles found there.

Most of the game is played from a third-person view. When driving (or flying or sailing), different camera views can be toggled, and some weapons allow a switch to first-person for added accuracy in aiming. It can be very difficult to control helicopters and boats at first, but practice makes perfect.

For such a complex game, there are remarkably few bugs. Sometimes a key would ‘stick’, leaving me moving in circles: but selecting Pause and then Resume would clear the problem. Once every few hours, the sound stuttered for a few seconds. And that was all that I found.

So, what’s not to like? There’s a bottleneck at the assignment “Death Row” – before that, everything is fairly straightforward. In that mission and afterwards, things get very difficult. But if you’ve played that far, you’ll likely want to push ahead and keep on trying until you succeed.

That could be many, many attempts. Vice City only allows you to save at certain locations – although as you expand your empire you get more save points – and it can be tedious to get to the start point and listen to mission briefings over and over. (Some briefings can be skipped, some can’t.)

But that’s quibbling. If the game didn’t get more difficult, there’d be no challenge for the serious gamers; and if it didn’t start off gently, casual gamers would fall by the wayside. As it is, there’s something for everyone who enjoys action gaming (everyone seventeen and older, that is). Even if you don’t think it would appeal to you at all, I urge you: try it. You’ll be surprised.

Review by Marc Read.