This isnt what I expected to discover when I returned to Rockstars most beloved setting last month.
It’s not exactly breaking news that a video game from 2002 doesnt hold up.
As does Morrowind, also from 2002, and many older games from other genres.
That Vice City feels rudimentary, embryonic and nothing more, was a genuine surprise.
I should offer appropriate context, which means talking about Vice City’s predecessor.
Grand Theft Auto 3 was released in 2001 and seemed, at first, impossible.
Fast forward… basically no time at all.
Played today, Vice City mostly feels small.
Partly thats because the combat is terrible, even in the recentdisastrous(andsince fixed) Definitive Edition re-releases.
The friction means that Lost Heaven feels real whatever the polygon count.
Tommy Vercetti speaking - as compared to GTA 3’s silent protagonist, Claude - does help.
Losing belief in Vice City as a world has side effects.
It means I found no motivation to play in the world outside of those missions, for example.
I didnt even want to snipe the cars!
Yesterday, Rockstar revealedGTA 6and itsmodern day Vice City setting.
Although they should definitely put A Flock Of Seagulls in again.
