Vice City Stories

Oct 31, 2006

Grand Theft Auto is synonymous with a genre. It's a big name that's been attached to some great games and no small amount of controversy. In fact, the game is as likely to be associated with picking up hookers, having sex with them, and beating them to death with a baseball bat as it is with free-roaming "sandbox style" gameplay. While recent titles like Saints Row and Scarface have been able to hold a candle to and even improve upon the not-quite-patented GTA formula, the series has had the PSP all to itself with the semi-sequel Liberty City Stories and now Vice City Stories. There's honestly nothing on the PSP that can compete, but is VC Stories really a great game?

Like the original Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, VC Stories features a character with a fully developed personality rather than a blank slate character the series used in pre-Vice days. The main man here is Vic Vance, a man who is faced with some serious family obligations, including a sick brother, a no-good brother (Lance Vance, a returning character), and a mother with an expensive drug problem. You begin the game on a military base where your corrupt commanding officer starts you down a path to dishonorable discharge and a life as a career criminal.

Your new job involves a lot of driving and a lot of killing people in a big, densely populated, busy and interesting Vice City that's nearly identical to what we saw in the original PlayStation 2 title. For a portable title, the graphics and scope of the environment are very impressive and defy comparison. There are a few technical hitches -- objects popping up suddenly, moments of janky jerkiness -- but overall the technical package is extremely impressive. The city is huge, the load times in between scenes are for the most part no sweat, and the sound is incredible with a solid cast of talented voice actors and a licensed soundtrack that captures the essence of the 80s in an extremely broad range.

There have been notable efforts to improve the game over the short and somewhat sparse Liberty City Stories. The game seems to be longer, for one. There are more complex multi-part missions, more collectables, and an expanded empire-building aspect that was touched on in the original Vice City. After a certain point in the story, which moves as you complete missions for various individuals willing to pay cash for carnage (or the prevention of carnage), Vic becomes a crime boss and can take over certain buildings and turn them into brothels, loan shark outfits, and other illegal operations that get you paid in cash money at the beginning of every day.

Building a criminal empire is a nice diversion and gives you the feeling that you're out for yourself, but for most of the game you're obligated to perform morally questionable tasks for the ignorant, contemptible scum of Vice City. Unfortunately the humor and clever (if a bit rough) satire the series is known for seems to slip a bit here, and the story just isn't quite up to par. The main character is likable enough, and things are at least kept interesting, but you may just feel trapped with no other options than to keep doing what the game tells you to unlock the entire city and get to some kind of conclusion. Like Liberty City Stories, the game just isn't as satisfying as its console big brothers -- and simply isn't quite as playable without a second analog stick to manually correct the troublesome but basically functional camera.

So it's not quite on the level of the original game, VC Stories hasn't bothered to shrug off what is now becoming a real issue with the series as a whole. The driving is fine, made just a bit more difficult with the PSP's analog nub, but the shooting is very problematic thanks to the twitchy and unreliable lock-on system the series has become famous for. Getting in close is even more unpredictable, and although you have the new ability to grab guys before you pound them it never really feels like you have complete control during a fight. The lack of an adjustable camera makes things worse, and at times missions are set up in such a way that you feel that luck is a huge factor.

It's true that shooting isn't impossible, and that the GTA games have always had a chaotic and unpredictable feel, but it's the go-anywhere do-nearly-anything gameplay (running story missions, finding collectables, repossessing cars, working as a taxi-guy, fireman, or vigilante in a cop car) and sprawling cities that can be explored by land, sea, and air that make the game what it is. A few new vehicles are offered, notably jet skis and ATVs, and though the driving is a bit twitchy you do get a good feeling of speed and you can really tell the difference in handling between one vehicle and another.

One thing the handheld versions of the game do have going for them is multiplayer, although there's still no true online play. What you need is two to four friends in the same area as you, all with PSPs of their own and enough copies of Vice City Stories to go around. The game modes range from a simple battle royale to more interesting modes like planting a bomb at your opponents base while defending your own, protecting/defending a VIP character, and a few racing modes. There are a couple of game types that don't work so well, and the shooting is still iffy, but personal preference will come into play here and there's at least a respectable variety. The huge maps really aren't suited for two-player games, so the more the merrier.

Vice City Stories isn't exactly an ideal handheld game, but does an incredible job in recreating the famous GTA experience on a portable platform. There's just no other way to get a similar experience on a handheld platform, so if you're a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series who can't owns a PSP and can't get enough of the free-roaming, car-jacking, beating-hookers-with-baseball-bats-to-get-your-money-back-gameplay (optional), you'll have a hard time passing on this game despite its problems.