I think the biggest selling point for this is just the fantasy of becoming a crime lord. Most missions where kinda meh for me (with some exceptions), and while you do buy properties and I can only think of 2 meaningful improvements these give you (fast cars and a helicopter). I may be asking for a lot but I feel like adding more substantial gameplay changes as you gain more control of the city could've made progression feel much more satisfying. Safe havens don't really do anything since escaping the police is always piss-easy.

However, I did find myself enjoying the simple story, as well as just Vice City as an environment (driving around to get to know the city was great). I also don't think the graphics are that atrocious, but they aren't good. If I had the opportunity to play the OG on PS now I would've done that instead of playing this one. Thankfully I didn't experience any major glitches, despite these definitive editions supposedly being known for them.

Overall GTA: Vice City was an enjoyable experience, but it left me expecting more. Hopefully San Andreas or other more recent entries can satisfy me.

The most enjoyable of the trilogy!

Yes, some of the character models and textures aren't great but I had a lot of fun with this one. The submissions were actually doable without wanting to rip my hair out lol. It's the best-paced of any of the games not feeling too long or too short along with plenty of homages to 80s pop culture.

Vice City also has one of the best soundtracks of all time for any video game. Arguably the greatest. Virtually every track is a banger.

A very natural evolution from GTA III in pretty much every way. The world looks more inviting and interesting, there are more weapons, they introduced motorcycles, they went CRAZY with the music licenses (best licensed music in a game ever?) and the ability to buy buildings which in turn give a steady income and unlock new missions finally gave all your hard-earned money a purpose. Something they never achieved again from what I remember.

It's funny how much this rips off Scarface though. Something I never realized as a kid ... because I didn't know the movie yet. Fun time! Honestly can't complain about the port, not sure if they fixed it that much or if I'm just not sensitive to the flaws.

Please note that this "review" isn't necessarily about the remaster effort. I think the definitive edition is fine, the game looks quite appealing most of the time and I didn't run to any game breaking bugs. I also appreciate the quality of life improvements, like the new driveby controls. I do miss the hazy look that the OG game has.

This game holds up quite well, especially compared to GTA III that came not long before it. The missions are quite varied, and while the classic GTA chaos is still out in force, the game doesn't ruin your moment as often as it did in III, resulting in a less frustrating experience overall. The gunplay is barely functional, as is the case with the other PS2-era GTA games, but it's not detrimental enough to the game's fun factor. Also, the handling of most vehicles can be slippery and unruly as heck. All of this feeds to the aforementioned chaos, as the game's system of AIs and scripted events can really throw you off in many missions, leading into intermittent spikes of intense action, for better and worse.

Vice City is perhaps the most fun GTA city to be in. The late 80s Miami-inspired vibes is sublime. I will never forget the first time I played this game, and driving on the neon-soaked street on my way to Ocean View Hotel, as the beach across me welcomes a newcomer to its midst with a gentle, hazy stare. The city's atmosphere is still unmatched by 99% of other video game open world city. Plus, the radio stations here has some of the best music selections of any GTA.

I can't say I enjoyed the main story/plot since it kinda loses track of itself early on, but I do enjoy the more loose pace of the main story in the middle act, mostly because the game just lets you off the hook for a bit and tasks you to build your crime empire by buying out important assets, like a film studio or money counterfeiting factory. While not all of them have fun stories to get into, the ones that do are quite memorable. The film studio arc has some of my favorite missions in any GTA game. They would do this assets collecting mechanic again in San Andreas, but it never felt as impactful compared to its implementation here. Unlike VC, that game can be too big for its own good.

To close it out, I have a confession to make. I have started Vice City across 5 different gaming systems since about 16 years ago, and this is the end the road. It feels like closing a chapter of my life. I can't say that I regret taking so long to finish this, because I think this is actually the right time for me to finish it, and I just stumbled into it. Tommy Vercetti said that he lost 15 years of his life, waiting to be freed. Sorry it took me this long pal, at least nobody rules over you anymore.

Vice City will always be my favorite GTA game, this version however is far from the best way to play it.

Visual aside the game is lacking in both a handful of missions and a good chunk of the music; in any other game I'd say that not so bad, but for GTA games and especially Vice City its a big problem. Not only was it some of the best music to be in a GTA game, but it also added so much to the game, it literally made this brightly colored neon 80's map come alive getting you sucked into this world Rockstar created.

With the music mostly gutted and the map missing a lot of the original game's aesthetics, it feels very empty. It fittingly enough makes it feel more like an early PS2 game than the actual PS2 game.

Oh yeah they also removed mission for censorship reasons, so yeah no fuck this remaster.

i'm just gonna cut to the chase and say that i think Vice City, while okay, is very overrated and while i respect the things it brought to the franchise, it fails to amount to more than the sum of its parts for me. it's fun enough for what it is but isn't as rewarding or coherent narrative-wise as III. doesn't help that this remaster takes away defining characteristics of the original's atmosphere such as the vibrant lighting and isn't up to par in other areas either. gameplay can still be really frustrating in certain missions (Cop Land and Bombs Away come to mind) and it's just far from the "definitive" way to play the game.

Reviewed for Budgetgaming.nl

Where this Grand Theft Auto trilogy, over the years, has amassed a legendary status, Rockstar unfortunately manages to put an end to it all at once with this so-called definitive edition. The games are very sloppy and seem to be stuck together behind the scenes with duct tape. The many crashes, bugs and glitches make the games almost unplayable at times. Someone who really wants to relive their youth with these classics will find enough to love with a big pair of rose-tinted glasses, but any other player should better leave this trilogy for now until Rockstar has thrown a lot of patches over it.

Read the full review here (Dutch):
https://www.budgetgaming.nl/game-review/grand+theft+auto:+the+trilogy+-+definitive+edition_ps4.html

Retracted half star due to the poor quality of the 'definitive edition'.

I was honestly surprised by this GTA title. I really struggled to get into GTA 3, so I moved onto this one straight after. What I didn't expect was how fast paced and management orientated it would be. Granted, the management of your various businesses is as deep as the pools of water that WON'T kill your character. I liked the story of this one but honestly far too much of the story happened off screen and was left to your imagination.

I loved the world of this though. The open world isn't very big but it's crammed with detail. The missions are quite varied too, with a few frustrating missions thrown in to make me suffer.

I'm honestly going to rank this as one of my favorite GTA games for now. I'm going to check out the rest of the series soon so maybe that'll change?

Rejugar estos títulos tantos años después te hace darte cuenta de lo bien que han vivido en la memoria colectiva. Los considero juegos buenos y disfrutables aún en 2022, pero sí creo que no están ni de lejos a la altura que se les pone normalmente. Me parecen juegos muy superados (es normal) pero también excesivamente simplones, como cualquier Grand Theft Auto al fin y al cabo. De la remasterización de 2021 ya he completado este y GTA: San Andreas y con ambos he tenido la misma sensación, aunque con San Andreas en muchísima menor medida. Con el segundo sí creo que su memoria le hace justicia.

En otro orden, las remasterizaciones sigue siendo muy pobres pese a las actualizaciones que han ido metiéndoles. Es una lástima que no hayan aprovechado para hacerles finalmente una puesta a punto que no les vendía nada mal.

Remaster played surprisingly well, despite the following, initial problems:

1. The fact that this was a Unreal Engine port from the original (Rockstar stopped using RenderWare, as it had been bought out by EA) means that some of the bugs from the original were never patched. They were eventually fixed, but only after being taken off of shelves.

2. Licensing issues with the music results in nonsensical stops and starts because they lost the code (I think) to transition songs. This is a problem for all GTA games, because their licenses were only for a limited time. However not doing anything more involved to make it less noticeable is regrettable.

Visually, the remaster resulted in Vice City looking real nice, though flying is a bit more stiff than it was in the real game. A shame the remaster didn't add much original to the plate, but I guess it's because of the workload.

Once again I am blown away by the state I've found this in. This time I did encounter the rare visual bug here and there, but like GTA III: TDE before it this is fully functional and entirely playable. Meaning that either the devs have done a TON of patching or the Switch port of this compilation simply did not release with the same issues as it did on other systems. Whatever the case, I was able to thoroughly enjoy the experience as a result and with the added features like checkpoints it truly lives up to its title as the "definitive" version of Vice City.

As far as the actual game itself goes, mechanically and in terms of how it plays it isn't any different than GTA III. Pair that with how length-wise it's more of an expansion than a true sequel and it's easy to see why Rockstar didn't slap a IV on this. That isn't to say improvements haven't been made. In fact, my opinion is that it is undeniably the superior entry. The missions feature better design, balance, and variety which can make it very hard to put down. Where the biggest strides have been made though is undoubtedly in the storytelling, with the protagonist now being fully voiced. I did feel like something was a bit off with how the writing delivers (or fails to) a few crucial plot developments, but overall I can't complain too much about the tale.

Honestly, the only thing that really bugged me is how you're required to buy and complete side-quests for various businesses before you can unlock the final missions. On top of that not being communicated to the player at all naturally leading to some confusion, it just comes off as padding meant to extend the runtime by forcing you to grind for cash. Although, it does come with the bonus of taking you to corners of the map you might not have visited otherwise. Which is great because the titular city is a blast to drive around in and explore as it's chock-full of '80s style.

Admittedly, I can't really call myself much of a Grand Theft Auto fan. What little of the legendary series I've played beforehand that I didn't straight up abandon early on left me underwhelmed by the time the credits rolled, with the exception of III. This however is easily the most enjoyment I've gotten from the franchise to date, and may be one of my new personal favorite open-world adventures. In no small part due to the various improvements and modernizations brought about by this remaster that remove frustrations which would have prevented me from appreciating it as fully back in the day. Therefore this is hands down the best way to play Vice City.

9.9/10

I have such a soft spot for Vice City, it being the first GTA game I ever truly played and finished - and probably has the most play time of a GTA game from me (next to San Andreas) the “Definitive Edition” is an interesting choice of wording for this version however.

Now, it plays pretty much the exact same as the original, it’s had maybe a few graphical updates to it but nothing really noticeable besides reflections and lighting, and weirdly smooth character textures - oh and everything is shiny now for some reason.

They seem to have set ‘Traffic is always aggressive’ to on as well because jesus christ do cars turn corners hard and smack right into you - or they dont turn and just speed right into you. Either way, your car will explode during a mission because of AI being made worse.

There’s so much that could’ve and should’ve been fixed or “modernised” in this “definitive edition” that just wasn’t. Everything that has been touched isnt even a bonus to the game annoyingly.

I did however, manage to have some fun with it - so that’s a plus.