Here is a senior player's opions about this game.Hope you enjoy it!
In my review for Liberty City Stories, I didn't have a game that I could fairly compare it to, as the home console exclusive Grand Theft Auto games have natural advantages over a PSP port. Luckily, now that I've played through Vice City Stories, I have a much better scope on the entire situation. Oddly enough, the two games manage to be polar opposites in a number of ways, which means both good and horrendously bad things for VCS.
Now, to the meat of the issue: How good is Vice City Stories? To answer that, we'll need to look at various parts of the game individually, as there are some drastically differing quality issues in some areas.
The Bad:
Weird Glitches: While nowhere near as prominent as many initially made them out to be when the game first came out, there are definitely a few glitches in this game that lower the fun factor of certain missions. For example, when a rival gang attacks one of your empires, they sometimes begin to drive away from your position for no good reason, forcing you to wait over a minute for their car to disappear and another car to spawn out of nothingness in front of the building being attacked. I can't imagine a play tester not noticing this, but based on some aspects of the game, there are signs of rushing.
There's also the much complained about "cars disappearing" glitch. This happens when you enter a building for whatever reason then return back outside to find your car missing. Personally, this doesn't seem like a glitch since it happens pretty consistently and I've never seen it happen when entering/exiting Ammunation. If anything, the car still being there may be the glitch. While I have no idea why they would decide to do this, it's easy enough to deal with. If you want to save your car, put it in a garage. If you save at one of your empires, a car automatically spawns outside for you anyhow.
Mysterious Spawns: While this isn't such a bad problem that it adversely affects the game too much, it still happens often enough that I'd like to cover it here. Every once in a while cars, people, and other objects will load late, causing you an unavoidable accident that never would have happened otherwise. Luckily, this only tends to happen with parked cars, and there are only a few areas that spawn them on the side of the road, so memorizing where these areas are isn't too difficult a task. Still, when you're in the heat of the moment, it sucks to lose ten minutes of battling the odds to a magically appearing object.
Finally, there's the traffic not appearing glitch. This one can certainly be a pain, especially during missions where you absolutely HAVE to jack a car, but it's a rare occurrence (I only ran into it about five times in eighteen hours of gameplay). Other than these three, the glitches are generally minor and don't affect the enjoyment of the game enough to bother mentioning.
Outfits: Outside of the initial clothes and an assorted suit or two, most of the outfits seem more like inside jokes than something you're meant to wear around. They're so oddly designed that you'd feel like a complete fool letting your character out of the house in them. Though some may appreciate the apparent humor element more than I do, the outfits are still somewhat of a letdown considering how much you have to spend or accomplish to receive them.
Gang Attacks: Gang members are no joke in VCS, often being equipped with long-range automatic weapons and deadly accuracy. However, what can really get under your skin is their significantly increased fire power while in a vehicle. Now, enemy gang members can fire forwards, backwards, sideways, over the top of the car, and all with near perfect precision. Simply passing an enemy gang car can have the black smoke pouring out of your vehicle. During attacks on your empire, gang members that roll up in cars can cut you down without even needing to exit the vehicle, making empire defense very tedious. While this can be seen as a step up in some ways, it's rare that it is ever advantageous to you, making it have a primarily negative impact on your playing experience.
No Manual Aim: I was lenient with this in LCS because it's potential uses were rare, but it's inexcusable that this feature didn't make it into VCS. When you consider that you have the 99 Red Balloons that you need to aim at in order to hit and that can't be locked on to, you're left in a situation where you either have the necessary weapon to destroy them or you don't. Also, and far more annoyingly, you can stand two feet away from a car and completely miss it. The manual aim feature for every weapon in San Andreas was like a god send, it didn't decrease the necessity of the sniper rifle or mini-gun at all, it simply made fending off attackers and taking out enemy cars far more convenient. In my book, this is one of the biggest blows to this game, as there are numerous situations where you'll find yourself dying simply because your aim is slightly too high or too low to hit an object.
Voice Acting: The voice actors for the characters from the original Vice City are still as on point as they were then, it's most of the other characters that leave a lot to be desired. Vic Vance's voice acting is often full of inappropriate and even lazy tones, making Vic even more unlikeable than the storyline makes him. Some of the new characters have superb voice acting, but the ones that don't (especially those in the beginning of the game) drag the rest of the cast down kicking and screaming.
You Can Swim, Ya*gargle*: Yes, you can swim, but only for a limited amount of time. Apparently Vic is allergic to water, as it slowly poisons him to death if he stays in it too long. Unlike San Andreas where you had to be under the waters surface in order to die (which makes sense because you can only hold your breath for so long), in VCS just being IN the water makes a gauge begin to slowly decrease. If it reaches the bottom, you die. While being able to swim at all is nice, having this ridiculous limitation ruins it a bit.
First Half of the Storyline: Horrible. Simply awful. Borderline unbearable at times. LCS had a basic but engaging storyline, making it worth playing the game just to discover what happens to the main character. In VCS, Vic Vance is made out to be such a bland, malleable wuss that it's nearly impossible to enjoy playing the game as him. I liken the initial build of Vic's character to a wet rag thrown against a wall; it's drippy, odd, unpleasant, and eventually falls off into a confused pile of whatsit.
But, unfortunately, Vic is the standout character in the beginning of the game and also the most tolerable. The people you work for and the people you work against are so mind numbingly, nerve gratingly worthless that I can't say I blame any of the people that quit the game soon after they start it. It's hard to find anything worthwhile in the early game missions and the storyline surrounding them just further degrades the experience. It even makes wandering around aimlessly unenjoyable, as you have to stare at the back of Vic Vance, someone you'll quickly come to care less about, in spite of his supposedly noble intentions.
If you can tough out the beginning of the game, things change for the better later on. Some may not find the initial storyline that bad, but being someone that has built up a high tolerance for offensive and mundane content over the years, even I could barely stand to watch this garbage unfold. The worst part is that none of it is even coherent, with a few lines of dialog being thrown together to progress some meaningless storyline in some barely there attempt at creating purpose. Ignore the fact that this guy is scum, won't pay you well, and blatantly has nothing good in store for you, work for him blindly anyhow, because that's what the story says needs to happen.
The Good:
Weapons: In general, there is a nice variety of weaponry for which to toast your opponents with. In fact, certain weapons seem to have increased in effectiveness for this game, making them all the more devastating to wield. Unfortunately, the chainsaw went from being the greatest melee weapon known to mankind in San Andreas to completely useless in VCS. Still, considering melee weapons find little use other than trashing buildings, it's an overlookable offense. Still, most all of the series most acclaimed weapons return yet again, meaning hours of mayhem await for those with a vivid (and twisted) imagination.
Second Half of the Storyline: You may find it odd that I would break up the storyline into two halves, but trust me, if you play this game you'll understand why. While the storyline is never particularly gripping, it does become more genuinely amusing and entertaining in the second half of the game. The missions that come about in the second half truly are a lot of fun, leaving you to end the game on a high note. If you thought Rockstar was out of clever ideas, there are certainly a few missions that prove otherwise. Also, you almost begin to like Vic Vance, in spite of the taint left from the beginning of the game.
Graphics: One of the parts that is in direct contrast with Liberty City Stories, the graphics for Vice City Stories are up to par with what we've all come to expect from the Grand Theft Auto series. The style is far more similar to San Andreas than to the original Vice City, which may be a positive or a negative depending on your view, but there's no question that the detail in VCS is far better than in LCS. Where LCS was a glitchy mess, with poor drawing distance, VCS fixes those problems...for the most part anyhow.
Empires: An idea that has been asked for, begged for, and speculated over since GTA3, you can finally start your own business empire as well as take over rival empires. While the implementation is somewhat basic, there is still plenty enough to do as you increase your reputation in each business through special missions and try to expand your influence into rival territories, until the rival territories are no more.
Music: The music stations are back up to par after falling off the wagon in LCS. The rock songs keep you pumping your fists in the air as you lay waste to a rival gang members car and the chat stations keep alert as you make yet another long drive for a mission. As always you'll find yourself eventually muting the in-game music in favor of your own, but the game offers a strong compilation of songs to keep you amused for quite a while.
Ninety-Nine Red Balloons: This is certainly a unique take on the hidden packages idea, as you now have to destroy 99 balloons scattered throughout the city. Unfortunately, you need a sniper rifle, grenades, or a car to blow up in order to destroy them. This isn't too big of a limitation and certainly won't stop the more adventurous types from seeking them all out.
Driving Mechanics: Another contrast with LCS, the driving mechanics are far more like San Andreas, meaning smoother rides, better odds of saving a flipped car, and few collision detection issues. While some the roads can be really cramped, that just comes with the territory, and generally you can navigate through at high speeds with minimal damage. The racing missions are also pretty enjoyable in this game, but ironically they make up considerably less of the side missions than in LCS (where the driving conditions are horrible).
You Can Swim, Yay!: Finally, after the step back of LCS; where you drowned on impact with water; the main character is able to swim. This makes anything involving a boat far less of a gamble, as you no longer have to worry about accidentally falling into the water when trying to enter/exit one, because now you can just climb back up. Some of the animations for this seem to be new as well, which is nice to see.
You Can Fly, Yay!: While the game won't win any awards for being a realistic flight simulator, at least you have the option to take to the sky. LCS dropped the ball in this area in it's rush to make it to market, luckily VCS fixed this by making flying missions an important part of the game. Whether you're using a giant magnet to carry crates from point A to point B or terrorizing people on the ground with death from above, it's refreshing to take a cruise around the air without needing to worry about all those obstacles (i.e. other drivers) getting in your way.
Buy Back Your Weapons: Finally, after all this time, you have the option to buy back your lost weapons when you are either wasted or busted. This means you don't have to worry quite as much about getting killed after a difficult mission and having to redo it. Granted it costs $2000 to regain them, but money isn't as hard to come across is VCS as it has been in past incarnations.
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