Over the subsequent few months, I’m going to be having a look again at every of the core Grand Theft Auto video games and replaying them within the lead-up to the arrival of Grand Theft Auto 6. What we’ll be placing collectively received’t be conventional re-reviews, and so they received’t include any new IGN rating, however they may re-examine what made every GTA outstanding upon the time of its launch. By the tip of the undertaking, utilizing GTA’s beforehand six-star needed degree, it’s best to be capable of get an thought of the place every of those video games roughly rank in my long-term love for this sequence.
Right now it’s time to take these damaged wings and study to fly once more in Grand Theft Auto: Vice Metropolis.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice Metropolis is emblematic of a long-extinct period. I’m not really speaking about its well-known Nineteen Eighties setting, although; I’m speaking in regards to the video games trade at giant. Whereas we’ve needed to patiently wait greater than 12 years between GTA V and GTA VI, 2002’s Vice Metropolis arrived first on PlayStation 2 a mere 12 months after the genre-defining GTA III. Nothing nearly as good as Vice Metropolis occurs this quickly anymore. And make no mistake – it is vitally, superb.
Vice Metropolis introduces a pile of latest car varieties and weapons, and its missions are instantly extra imaginative and diverse than its predecessor. It additionally embraces a noticeably completely different method to its storytelling, benching the mute protagonist idea for a completely voiced lead character, giving him the flexibility to have way more entertaining interactions with a significantly extra memorable supporting solid of allies and antagonists. Above every little thing, nevertheless, it oozes unrivalled character and magnificence because of its ’80s backdrop, and is elevated to untouchable heights by its sonically unmistakable soundtrack. I really like this sport. It grabs me by the crotch and shakes me round till I’m not positive if I’m a person or a girl. Then I bear in mind I’m Luke Reilly – Mister Luke Reilly – and that is Rockstar North with GTA: Vice Metropolis.
Realistically, Vice Metropolis may have been little greater than one other serving of the formulation that had simply fully revolutionised open-world video games and it nonetheless would’ve offered truckloads. Certainly, for a short spell, it started life as precisely that. After finalising GTA III on PC, the very first thing the workforce behind it did was start occupied with what automobiles, weapons, and missions may doubtlessly go right into a mission pack for his or her blockbuster crime sandbox. Nonetheless, after realising there was an excessive amount of content material to squeeze into an growth, the subsequent chapter within the GTA saga grew to become a completely fledged sequel as a substitute.
I suppose, strictly talking, the choice to brush apart the current day and place Vice Metropolis’s motion in 1986 really makes it a prequel. No matter you need to name it, it was astounding – and it stays so as we speak.
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
Whereas GTA III modified the trajectory of the GTA sequence perpetually – and set the stage for a complete ecosystem of open world motion video games to comply with – Vice Metropolis is notable because the GTA that correctly launched the broader spectrum of car selection we anticipate from the sequence as we speak. Bikes made their first reappearance because the top-down period, and we may now successfully pilot plane – together with choppers, and a seaplane with an entire set of wings. It additionally introduced in outfit modifications, property purchases, and even an in-game map (though it nonetheless got here with a paper one, too).
Importantly, nevertheless, Vice Metropolis additionally launched a protagonist with a voice of his personal. In GTA III, dialogue sometimes consists of one-sided monologues – or characters merely barking a batch of mission directions at you. Vice Metropolis is totally completely different. Because of main man Tommy Vercetti having a voice of his personal – offered by iconic Goodfellas star Ray Liotta himself – Vice Metropolis is way nearer in tone and spirit to the traditional crime motion pictures and TV that impressed it within the first place. It’s funnier, snappier, and filled with a lot extra character because of Tommy’s means to chew again, categorical emotion, and provides voice to his ambitions. Tommy’s ambition is definitely a extremely vital a part of the equation, too, and one thing that additional distinguishes Vice Metropolis from GTA III. That’s, whereas GTA III is about survival as somewhat fish in an enormous pond, Tommy Vercetti is right here to turn out to be Vice Metropolis’s nice white shark. Vice Metropolis isn’t about scraping by; Tommy is right here to take over this complete city.
Rockstar has since largely pivoted away from casting GTA characters with high-profile movie actors, however throughout Vice Metropolis the apply was nearly at its peak. Alongside Ray Liotta, Vice Metropolis options Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds, William Fichtner, Robert Davi, Luis Guzmán, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, Danny Trejo, Danny Dyer, and even Philip Michael Thomas as Lance Vance. Sure, Miami Vice’s legendary Ricardo Tubbs was tapped for a key function in Vice Metropolis. Vice Metropolis is nothing if not hilariously unapologetic about its reverence for traditional Miami crime dramas like Miami Vice and Scarface. It’s actually no accident that Diaz’s mansion virtually nonetheless has Al Pacino’s butt print within the workplace chair, or – in case you get your needed degree as much as three stars – you’ll be set upon by plain garments Vice Squad detectives who present up in Cheetah sports activities automobiles.
Cum On Really feel the Noize
In 2002, Vice Metropolis absorbed me instantly. I used to be obsessed and couldn’t cease taking part in it. In 2026, I’m hooked once more. I’d actually forgotten how nice it was to have a look at, actually by PS2 requirements. I really don’t know what seems to be higher: the evenings, or the sunrises. I additionally love all of the little thrives embedded in it – from the glinting ocean chop to the refined method Tommy’s garments flap as he whips by the air on a motorbike. Bikes are such a wonderful addition and really feel nice to journey, and I actually dig the best way they’re tuned to allow you to slide them aggressively into corners with out abruptly gripping up and high-siding Tommy excessive of them. Vehicles deal with extra sharply than GTA III, too, and have a greater sense of weight, which is such an important a part of open-world motion video games for me.
The fight? Effectively, I’m nonetheless in a love/hate relationship with the final blasting. Sure, the auto focusing on is efficient in locking on and chopping down your opposition, however solely when it’s locking onto your precise opposition – and never your literal allies who you drove to the shootout personally. I simply want it knew the cops immediately in entrance of me are a much bigger menace than the distant motorcyclist making an attempt to flee the scene, and it stays an annoying idiosyncrasy of this period of GTA, notably when it causes me to fail a mission. There are nonetheless no mid-mission checkpoints in Vice Metropolis, nevertheless it does introduce useful, automated taxi rides again to the beginning of missions you have been simply wasted on. By chopping down on repetitive journey, Vice Metropolis isn’t solely extra respectful of our time, I additionally assume it reduces the chance of gamers rising to resent explicit stretches of the map they in any other case may’ve been pressured to drive back and forth throughout one too many occasions.
That mentioned, it’s exhausting for me to develop bored with being in a car in Vice Metropolis because of the soundtrack, which weaponised licensed music so efficiently it single handedly reinvented the etymology of many of those songs in my mind. Are you able to hear Mister Mister’s Damaged Wings with out pondering of Fernando Martinez? I can’t. Maybe probably the most spectacular facet impact of getting a soundtrack this huge, memorable, and expertly curated is the best way it flavours the missions in numerous methods for various playthroughs. Virtually 1 / 4 of a century after taking part in it for the primary time, I discovered myself in a dirtbike chase by the again alleys of Washington Seashore to the pop strains of 99 Luftballons. Not a music I’d’ve thought of for a frantic, high-speed chase – and but the uptempo pop jam labored a deal with. The truth that you possibly can Child Driver your self to an unexpectedly good little bit of backing music is among the GTA sequence’ biggest strengths, and Vice Metropolis is arguably absolutely the acme. So far as I’m involved, it’s not simply the most effective soundtrack of the GTA sequence – edging out San Andreas and Vice Metropolis Tales – it’s probably the greatest soundtracks in video video games full cease.
By no means Too A lot
Vice Metropolis occupies a particular spot within the historical past of the sequence as the primary sport out of its then-newly rechristened growth workforce, Rockstar North – though it must be famous the studio did have considerably of a operating begin. The operation had initially been established because the Edinburgh arm of unique GTA creators DMA Design, however DMA’s unique Dundee department had been shuttered shortly after. In different phrases, the prehistory of Rockstar North stretches again to the founding of DMA within the ’80s – so it’s coincidentally fairly becoming its first official undertaking grew to become gaming’s most quintessential tribute to that decade.
To be honest to among the GTA sequence’ most memorable style friends, Vice Metropolis wasn’t the primary open-world motion and driving sport to make use of the previous as a backdrop. The funkadelic Driver and Driver 2, set in an undefined second sooner or later within the late ’70s or early ’80s, rolled again their very own clocks some years earlier than Vice Metropolis. On high of that, the unique Mafia took us on a journey again to the Thirties, in the course of the closing chapter of the US’ Prohibition period. Nonetheless, there’s simply one thing richer and extra particular about the best way Vice Metropolis transports you again to the beachside, neon-drenched extra of 1986.
There are a mix of parts all working in live performance with one another to crank up the ambiance to irresistible heights. The massive fleet of angular unique supercars and boxy American land whales on the roads, glinting because the beaming solar catches their windscreens. The pedestrians strutting the sidewalks in leather-based jumpsuits that appear to be they’ve been peeled immediately off Michael Jackson. A brilliant, sun-kissed cityscape that’s so completely different to the dense, dirty greys of Liberty Metropolis, and which sits atop a seedy underbelly of chainsaw carnage, cartel chaos, cocaine, and low-cost porn. The pastel pants, the palm-lined streets, the pulsating soundtrack – all of this in unison made Vice Metropolis a magically immersive time capsule like no different sport on the time, and like few others since.
I’ve seen it argued that the extremely profitable Vice Metropolis served as the first catalyst for the tidal wave of ’80s nostalgia that adopted – floor zero for an exploding obsession with this pastel-powered decade – however I’m not completely offered on that concept. Don’t get me mistaken, Vice Metropolis was a real cultural juggernaut – however I feel it’s higher seen as one important a part of a much wider image. In spite of everything, the again stretch of 1997’s Boogie Nights leaned closely into the early ‘80s, and The Marriage ceremony Singer very famously and efficiently transported us again to 1985 when it was launched in 1998. 1999’s 200 Cigarettes, 2000’s American Psycho, and 2001’s Moist Scorching American Summer season additionally all wound issues again to the ’80s previous to the arrival of Vice Metropolis. Nostalgia has been highly effective and bankable for a very long time. Again within the ’90s and 2000s, if we weren’t being whisked again to the ’80s, it was the ’70s, by way of The Marvel Years, Dazed and Confused, 54, That ‘70s Present, and Detroit Rock Metropolis.
No: Rockstar didn’t uncover the retro lens with Vice Metropolis, nor did it invent ’80s nostalgia. Nonetheless, all these examples above are motion pictures or TV reveals. Vice Metropolis is neither. Vice Metropolis is a online game, and I most likely don’t want to clarify to you why that units it aside. Vice Metropolis wasn’t only a window into the previous we have been restricted to passively peering by for a predefined operating time. Moderately, it grew to become a residing, respiration portal to the previous that allow us really discover, expertise, and inhabit a long-ended period.
Verdict
To today, the opening moments of GTA: Vice Metropolis stay one in all my most memorable gaming experiences ever. After entering into your first automotive, you’ll instantly hear the unmistakable bass line of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. It’s a small however significant second that immediately plunges you into the previous and seems like a cheerful accident, nevertheless it wasn’t – it was engineered to at all times be Billie Jean. Everybody heard it. Or, at the very least, they did till later re-issues and remasters of the sport sadly trimmed it from the soundtrack. Both method, I used to be fully enchanted by Vice Metropolis from that second. In 2026? I nonetheless can’t get sufficient of it. With its huge number of automobiles, weapons, and missions, its stacked solid of recognisable voices, and its unmatched ambiance, Vice Metropolis might have gone backwards in time – nevertheless it was an enormous stride ahead for the sequence and one in all my all-time favourites.
For extra reflections on the unimaginable Grand Theft Auto sequence, you possibly can learn our new Legacy Evaluations of Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2, and Grand Theft Auto III, with extra to comply with over the approaching months.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN opinions workforce. You may monitor him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him issues about stuff.