Gameplay
Gameplay
History of the Grand Theft Auto series
The original GTA back in the 90’s was splashed all over the front cover of the news papers and magazines for being an ultra violent, reckless, anti-social, politically incorrect beast of a game that was turning out kiddies to drugs, deviancy and many other unsavoury habits. Then most people realised that games were not to blame for this and perhaps we should be blaming other people like the government, TV shows, parents etc. Putting all that aside the game was bloody great fun to play! With its mission based structure and the fact you could tackle several these different missions when you liked was welcomed by many, as was the freedom to just drive around killing stuff or doing silly stunts.
Successful PC games often spawn sequels and expansion packs, this was no exception with a mildly amusing GTA: London and the rather disappointing GTA: 2. These games were still the traditional top down affair and played a bit like a cross between Micro Machines and Smash TV.
Then finally came along GTA 3. The game was in glorious 3D 32 bit colour loveliness and had all the great features of the original backed up with a Godfatheresque story line. Coupled with fantastic radio station features and absolutely hilarious skits in the form of chat shows and radio commercials this title won many an award and has been hailed by many as possibly the best game made to date. Then came Vice City, which is not exactly a sequel technically, nor an expansion pack, but more of the same game in a different outfit.
The 80’s truly sucked!
Your name is Tommy Vercetti and you’re partial to a bit of drug dealing and small time crime. When a deal turns into a bloodbath where you’re the only survivor you decide to go off looking for the backstabbers who are probably a few steps away from feeding you to the fishes.
Vice City is a big place (although seemingly smaller to Liberty in GTA3) and in it are the worst kind of scum, scum with lawyers and fast cars who can buy and sell you in the blink of an eye. Your task is to get to the bottom of your bungled deal by any means possible. You start of by performing tasks for people, and after you complete them more of the plot unfolds, and a story which evolves from your initial badly failed deal… but I don’t want to spoil that for you.
If you aren’t at all familiar with the GTA games I will run through how the game plays. On foot you can run, jump and shoot your way through Vice City and do pretty much what you like, although if you want to do more then you have to take part in missions with various contacts you make during the game. To get to these contacts quickly then it is usually advisable to steal a vehicle, anything from a clapped out old banger to a helicopter. This is where the game improves over GTA3, with the variety of vehicles you can now control being upped (I’ll go into that a little more later on). On your way to the various missions you can also try performing stunts to gain some extra cash. Oh yes, did I mention cash? It makes the world go round and for each mission you complete you are rewarded with some extra pocket money so you may buy more guns and even new buildings to live in!
Much as in the real world money can also buy you out of trouble. For example if your low on health pop into the local fast food joint and replenish at a small charge, for you see unlike the real world Vice City’s burgers plug up bullet holes. Need to get to a contact in double quick time, but don’t want the hassle of stealing a car? Pay for a cab to take you there if you fancy.
It’s intricacies like these that make the GTA world now so enjoyable to play in.
Mission Impossible
When you make a contact you have to find them on your radar and drive around Vice City to meet them just like in GTA3. When you get to them you are treated to a cinematic that usually seems to a spoof of the classic film Scar Face. These scenes can be hilarious but the missions can sometimes be far from comical. Some seem downright impossible! Persevere however and you will get more and more contacts and missions, build up more and more cash and become even more powerful than some of the gangland bosses and drug barons you’ve been working for earlier.
If you fail a mission you can try it again and again as much as you like until you get it right. There was a big problem people had with GTA3 where if you died on a mission you where placed by the hospital or police station or wherever you failed the mission, meaning you’d have to go all the way back to the contact who set it to attempt the mission again. This made for some tedious time wasting. In Vice City however there is the option to take a cab back to the previous contact who set the mission you were on. Although this solution is far from perfect at least time is cut dramatically.
If you have played GTA3 then you will start to realise that all the things you found to moan about in that (and lets face it, it couldn’t have been much) are rectified here, except perhaps the save system. On a Playstation 2 it was understandable but on the PC it seems strange not being able to save wherever you want in the game. Instead you have to plod back to your hotel and save there each time, and with the dying if you failed a mission issue I just mentioned you can’t save during missions. It also would have been nice to have some sort of auto-save feature so that when a mission was completed you didn’t have to go find a save point. Many a time have I quit the game just to realise I never saved the mission I was on.
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