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The best reason to own a PSP since Liberty City Stories. Last year’s portable Grand Theft Auto surprised everyone by cramming a full-fledged, console-quality game onto a single UMD. Vice City Stories improves on its predecessor’s formula to become one of the most impressive games available on Sony’s platform.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories takes place in Vice City two years before GTA: Vice City. Rockstar Games has always been good at providing gamers loyal to the franchise with enough references and inside jokes to provide continuity between games while having stories that stand on their own. The story in Vice City Stories isn’t quite as gripping as previous games—and certainly can’t compare to the Scarface inspired Vice City—but you’ll find a number of interesting characters with plenty of humor that make the cutscenes worth watching.
Taking a cue from Saints Row, Vice City Stories lets you take over around 30 businesses around the city. Once you take over these businesses which range from repossession houses to brothels you’ll earn a daily cash amount. If you have enough cash you can upgrade the businesses to earn even more money. This ties into Empire missions which increase the business’ influence in the city. These missions aren’t quite as in-depth as a typical story mission since you’re usually tasked with a simple objective. For the brothels, you’ll have to escort prostitutes to her various clients or steal vehicles for the repossession houses.
Vice City Stories has a few new gameplay mechanics. Chief among these is the ability to fly helicopters. GTA fans will remember that flying isn’t particularly innovative in the console GTA games but it works very well on the PSP. You’ll use the face buttons to control speed, tilt with the analog stick, and turn with the triggers. It sounds more complicated than it is in practice. The game includes swimming, which was sorely missed in last year’s Liberty City Stories, and a variety of water vehicles—including new jet skis—to go along with this.
Vice City Stories still has a full-fledged multiplayer mode. You’ll find modes that make use of the new vehicles (like the helicopters) or the new empire missions (where you’ll try to take out someone’s base by planting explosives) or a version of capture the flag (in the form of taken for a ride).
The game’s graphics have been noticeably improved in the last year. Liberty City Stories was notable for streaming a living world but it sacrificed detail, texture quality and a stable framerate at times. Vice City Stories has more detailed characters, vehicles and locales and textures that stream quicker than before. You’ll also see a more stable framerate even as you cruise down the streets at high speed or take flight in a helicopter. The game has visibly less pop-in than LCS too.
The game’s audio is as spectacular as ever. The Grand Theft Auto franchise is known for its splendid soundtracks and Vice City Stories is no different. You’ll find a rocking, totally-80s soundtrack that fits the game very well. The voice acting is superb, as is the dialogue, which helps make the story seem better than it really is. The sound effects are great too.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories won’t make you a believer in the franchise if you didn’t understand why people play Grand Theft Auto so avidly. However, for the millions of us that do, having a new story and an excuse to spend more time in Vice City is more than enough. Despite its flaws, it’s hard to have more fun than you could have with Vice City Stories. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Nov 3, 2006
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