Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - The Definitive Edition - PS5 Review

Following on from the success of Grand Theft Auto III, GTA Vice City takes players back in time to a new Miami-inspired location with bright neon lights, an incredible 80's soundtrack and some even more larger-than-life characters. You play the role of Tommy Vercetti, a man sent to Vice City by the mob 'up North' to earn some extra money through a secret drug deal, however nothing goes to plan and as a result of being ripped off and losing both the money and the drugs, Tommy is forced to work for a bunch of power hungry crime bosses as he climbs the ladder looking for revenge with plans to take over.



New additions in Vice City from GTA III include motorcycles, helicopters, a sea plane (with wings that can actually fly properly!), an increased number of weapons and the ability to rob stores. There are also a number of buildings which you can enter which was a new feature improving on the mostly outdoor world of GTA III. A lot of the existing side missions remain such as the Paramedic, Vigilante, Firefighter and Taxi Driver sub-missions, however another new addition are Pizza Boy deliveries where you'll lob pizza boxes at customers for financial rewards. Vice City also introduces the ability to purchase multiple safehouses and eventually businesses which each unlock their own mission strands and generate money on a daily basis when completed.



For the Platinum trophy, you're going to need to gain 100% completion which means everything in the game must be done including all of the emergency vehicle sub-missions, all of the collectables, side missions, races, checkpoint grabbing challenges and the whole story so you'll be looking at around 30 hours of gameplay. In addition, there are a few miscellaneous trophies which may require additional work, such as attaining the 'Godfather' Criminal Rating, and listening to all radio stations which should be straight forward, but seems to be glitched. Somehow I was able to get 100% completion before the game credited me with listening to all of the radio stations so you may need to pay special attention to make sure that trophy pops.

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Overview

• Release Date: 11th November, 2021
• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Developer: Rockstar Games, adapted by Grove Street Games
• Date Started: 14th November, 2021
• Date Completed: 23rd November, 2021
• Version Played: Digital
• Price: £54.99 (GTA Trilogy PS4 & PS5 Bundle)

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The Good

• If you buy the digital version, you'll get 6 games for your £55 - GTA III (PS4 & PS5), GTA: VC (PS4 & PS5) and GTA: SA (PS4 & PS5) which means there are 6 Platinums up for grabs if you've got the time to earn them.
• Vice City has one of the best musical soundtracks of any game ever. Admittedly, some of the original songs are missing from this one as their licenses have expired, but it's still the best of the 80's with some enjoyable chat shows also thrown into the mix.
• Graphically it looks great and the neon lights really stand out in a higher resolution.
• Other improvements follow those seen in GTA III Definitive Edition with improved controls and auto-saving.

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The Bad

• Although not as bad as GTA III, there were still a few occasions where the game crashed randomly and I lost progress. A patch has since been released which may fix a few of these issues but it's still important to manually save often.
• The menu again uses the GTA San Andreas sound effects which takes away from the immersion when you pause the game.
• A few of the trophies are either bugged, or just not very easy to obtain without starting a new game. In order to get the 'Godfather' criminal rating, it's best to exploit the 'Cone Crazy' mission to get loads of money, and to listen to all of the radio stations, the best advice seems to be to start a new game and listen to each station for 5-10 minutes before switching to the next one which is a bit of a waste of time given the 25-30 hours I'd already spent driving around listening to all of the different stations.

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Hardest Trophy

• Take the Cannoli - Earn the Godfather criminal rating.

To unlock this trophy, you essentially need to earn $100 million, which can really only be feasibly done using a slight exploit in the checkpoint grabbing mission 'Cone Crazy' and is probably easiest right after starting a new game as it can be found on the roof of the multi-storey car park behind the hotel. Each time you complete the mission with an improved time, your financial rewards will be doubled, starting at $100. After 20 improved times, you'll earn over $52 million which will push you over the $100 million goal and should pop the trophy. Initially this trophy was completely broken and wouldn't unlock at all, but it's now fixed in the latest patch.

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Helpful Tips / Bugs / Glitches / Exploits

• There are quite a few useful exploits, including getting to the other island right at the start of the game which will allow you to grab all of the hidden packages, rampages and purchase all of the safehouses before even entering the hotel. This isn't really necessary as the story progresses quite quickly and you'll unlock all of the islands in 5-10 hours anyway.
• Money-wise, the best tip is to exploit 'Cone Crazy' which I've sort of explained above.
• Complete the Paramedic missions as soon as possible for infinite sprint and the Pizza Boy missions for 150 max HP.
• If you can steal a Hunter (apache helicopter) from the army base, use it for the Vigilante missions for lots more money and 150 max armor.

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Platinum Difficulty Rating - 3/10

It may be because I've played it quite a few times before, but I found it easier than I was expecting it to be. The new controls obviously help but a lot of the missions which I used to find challenging were fairly straight forward. The hardest part was probably just ensuring enough enemies spawned to complete some of the rampages.

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Platinum Time - 30+ Hours

There were quite a few issues which made the Platinum time a bit longer, namely the Radio Station trophy not popping naturally for some reason and the requirement to essentially start a new game to pop the Godfather trophy via an exploit, however finishing the main story with 100% completion should be doable in under 25 hours.

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Platinum Enjoyment Rating - 8/10

I enjoyed playing through everything again but the game and trophies didn't flow as naturally as GTA III. I was hoping to hit 100% and pop the Platinum but sadly it required a few more hours of messing around to pop the miscellaneous ones.

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Overall Game Rating - 9/10

Vice City is probabably the most visually improved game of the Definitive Edition and looks incredible with the new lighting effects. It plays well and crashed a lot less than GTA III but it felt like something was missing with a few of the songs no longer available on the radio. It's a brilliant game and a lot of people's favourite with a bright setting and lots of new vehicles to utilise, including the ability to fly which opens up a whole new world to the gameplay. The story is quite short but there is plenty to keep you busy post-game and taking in everything it has to offer is definitely time well spent. Enjoy a selection of my screenshots below!

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Platinum #739

Here are my most recent Platinum Trophies up to and including this game.

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