Vice City's vibe is fucking immaculate right from the very first minute of gameplay. I don't think any of the intros to these games, even the later newer ones, can beat out driving through the city at night on a scooter to your hotel room while Billie Jean plays on the radio, and that wild cozy feeling and vibe is something that emanates across the entire game. There's clearly so many learned lessons from GTA 3 present here as well, with noticeably better feeling guns as well as a bigger variety of them, the car handling is more refined and at least slightly more forgiving than 3 was, and having Tommy Vercetti being an actual character who has goals of his own compared to the yes man that Claude was does the story and side missions so many more favors in terms of personality.
But on the other hand, the middle portion of the game is such a slog to get through. It's really blatantly clear after a good 8 hours or so when the story missions suddenly halt themselves in favor of the asset missions that the rushed development time of less than a year really begins to show itself, and Vice City still doesn't really resolve my biggest problem with GTA 3 in that regard. There's still too many missions here that pull dickish shit on the player in a way that they will never be prepared for on a first run around, and it never feels satisfying when you pass one because you happened to get lucky on a run because of something like a car spawning in a way that conveniently blocks enemies from pursuing you or completely throwing off an opponent during a race that lets you easily win. Combat still feels like hot garbage, whether you're stuck with the original game's atrocious manual aiming that feels awful on controller or with mods that carry over San Andreas's lock-on mechanic but in a game that clearly wasn't designed for it in mind.
I love the vibe and sheer oozing personality of this game. Frankly it has probably my favorite set of radio stations across any of these games, and just driving through town and learning all the shortcuts and routes to your destinations feels good and satisfying more than 3 ever really did for me, and getting to the end of the story was still entertaining even if the ending is noticeably rushed through. But after playing through the newer games and even parts of San Andreas directly after this, it's still just too rough of a game for me to really thoroughly enjoy going back to. It's a decent game that had a hell of a lot more potential if Rockstar could have been given the time to do so.
But on the other hand, the middle portion of the game is such a slog to get through. It's really blatantly clear after a good 8 hours or so when the story missions suddenly halt themselves in favor of the asset missions that the rushed development time of less than a year really begins to show itself, and Vice City still doesn't really resolve my biggest problem with GTA 3 in that regard. There's still too many missions here that pull dickish shit on the player in a way that they will never be prepared for on a first run around, and it never feels satisfying when you pass one because you happened to get lucky on a run because of something like a car spawning in a way that conveniently blocks enemies from pursuing you or completely throwing off an opponent during a race that lets you easily win. Combat still feels like hot garbage, whether you're stuck with the original game's atrocious manual aiming that feels awful on controller or with mods that carry over San Andreas's lock-on mechanic but in a game that clearly wasn't designed for it in mind.
I love the vibe and sheer oozing personality of this game. Frankly it has probably my favorite set of radio stations across any of these games, and just driving through town and learning all the shortcuts and routes to your destinations feels good and satisfying more than 3 ever really did for me, and getting to the end of the story was still entertaining even if the ending is noticeably rushed through. But after playing through the newer games and even parts of San Andreas directly after this, it's still just too rough of a game for me to really thoroughly enjoy going back to. It's a decent game that had a hell of a lot more potential if Rockstar could have been given the time to do so.