(part 2 of 3)
Eventually you get even more cool weapons, like the bazooka and the M4. The M4 is one of the few machine guns that can be used in first person, so you can target individual things like windows (you can shoot through car windows in this one!) and tires. That�s right, tires can be shot out in Vice City, but you�re not the only person that can do this. Police shoot out your tires during chases, and can even lay out spike strips to destroy your tires. This makes chases more interesting, not to mention the realism that it adds to the scene.
The AI is mostly outstanding. The police are quite smart, they will hide behind their cars and they never work alone. The police get more aggressive depending on how you have broken the law. Shooting pedestrians could earn you one star, shooting a cop will earn you two stars, but things could get worse if you continue your actions. Eventually, the SWAT team will fast-rope from choppers, and pound you good. The FBI shows up from time to time�and if it gets too extreme, the Army will show up. You don�t want to be around when a tank is around.
I said that the AI is �mostly� outstanding simply because the police seem to always know where you are, even if you are hiding inside of a building and they are outside on the ground. They won�t stop firing, no matter what is in their path. Usually it�s a wall. Sometimes it�s a whole building. Police seem to like to waste their ammo by shooting the wall repeatedly, which tells me that the game was slightly rushed in this regard. However, I�ll be nice and say that it�s hard to program a game of this size. You�ve got a huge city with a lot of interaction. A simple thing like this could have been avoided if a few more weeks were put into the development, but I think that the overwhelming demand for this game was quite strong. DMA Design had no choice but to rush it.
As with any Grand Theft Auto game, the sound is top-notch. Crank this one up when you play it, and for the biggest pleasure: Play it in surround sound. Everything from the excellent �80s soundtrack to the highly impressive voice acting was done so greatly that there are no flaws anywhere.
Let�s break it down: First, you have the impressive cast. Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds, Gary Busey, and most importantly: Miss Cleo! (LOL!) Games don�t get more impressive than that, folks. The actors play their roles remarkably, and add an unprecedented edge to the script that is quite overwhelming. The cutscenes in Vice City alone deserve an Oscar. These are scenes that could be pulled from any well-done Hollywood flick. There is a certain seriousness between the actors, and the whole experience just seems so mature that it is quite believable. When Tommy was betrayed in the whole drug-dealing scheme, I felt like I was actually witnessing this. Kudos to the script writers and actors that were involved in Vice City.
I�ve said it so many times, but most people don�t believe me: Vice City has the best soundtrack to ever grace a video game, or any form of entertainment for that matter. It gives you all of the songs from the �80s that you love and also features some hilarious commercials and chat stations. If there ever was a perfect soundtrack, make it Vice City. The CDs to all of the radio stations can be purchased separately at stores such as Wal-Mart if you are really interested, which you should be. The soundtrack is the most important part of GTA: Vice City: It not only takes the player back in time, but it does it with serious style. Even if you�re not a big fan of the era, Vice City will still please you.
The visuals in Vice City are also quite pleasing. The pastel colors and the fluorescent lights give the game a noticeable visual edge, and the textures are crisp and clean. There are little touches such as raindrops and even blood splatters on the camera lens, similar to what we witnessed in MGS2 but not as pretty. The water physics have gotten a noticeable upgrade, and that�s good because GTA3 had the worst looking water ever. This water sparkles, moves very realistically, and is clear! No more oily looking crap that we saw in GTA3. The pedestrian models have doubled in variety, and the limbs do not look like they were pasted on. Vice City has a lot of sun, so you can count on seeing a lot of glare from things such as windshields and windows on houses. In general, Vice City looks very well.
The framerate moves by at a bearable and standard 30 frames per second, but you will occasionally notice a dip in framerate when there is a lot of action going on. If you have a high wanted level rating, prepare for some often unbearable framerate issues if you are next to the police. The engine just can�t handle all of the gunfire, helicopters, cars, and explosions going on in the game, so you will see some heavy framerate drops. But it�s not bad at all. Most of the time the game runs at 30 fps, like I said earlier, so you�ll feel great most of the time. Motion sickness victims beware.