“GTA” spin-off fails to impress

In the history of “Grand Theft Auto” games, one of the fan favorite cities has been Vice City, not only because Vice City has such a different feel from Liberty City or San Andreas, but also because Vice City embodies a special time in America’s history – the 1980s. The music, the fashion, the coke – the 80s almost seems to be too perfect a setting for a video game about virtual gangsters, which is partly why I was so excited to see that Rockstar, the developer of the “GTA” series, was releasing an all new adventure set in the digitized version of Miami that is Vice City. Unfortunately, “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories” doesn’t live up to its older brother’s legacy.

“GTA: VCS,” which takes place roughly two years before the original “GTA: VC,” follows the misadventures of Vic Vance, the older brother of “GTA: VC” second banana, Lance Vance. Though most “GTA” protagonists are already criminals or social miscreants, Vic is quite the opposite. Vic starts out the game in the army but eventually gets caught up with all sorts of seedy characters that lead him to a life of crime – which he makes very vocal that he is not happy about. While it was an interesting aspect of the game for the main character to be against virtually all facets of the criminal underworld, it also makes for Vic to be quite uninteresting, boring, and quite frankly, annoying.

“GTA: VCS” for the Playstation 2 is a port of a Playstation Portable (PSP) game and after playing the game for only a few minutes, it is painfully obvious that Rockstar didn’t spend much time in porting this game from the PSP to the PS2. Unlike Rockstar’s earlier PSP to PS2 port of “GTA: Liberty City Stories,” which was a very solid port, “GTA: VCS” falls flat on its face in many, many areas.

Traditionally, “GTA” game’s graphics have never been visually stunning, but the graphics in this game are far below average. Buildings and people look jagged and the colors are too muddy and too bright. The controls in this game have also taken a step backward from the slick controls of “GTA: San Andreas.” The controls are so clunky that I often found myself fighting with Vic to get him to perform even the most basic of actions. The targeting system in this game also needs a lot of work for it to even be called competent. Too often when I tried to lock onto enemies who were an immediate threat, I found the game targeting whoever happened to be around, rather than who I need to eliminate. The camera also seemed like it had a mind of its own and would regularly be exactly where I didn’t need or want it to be.

Rockstar also tried to add a lot of new gameplay features but these new features ended up hindering the game more than they helped. For instance, the X button was added into the fighting mechanism to allow for combos but the fighting is so awkward and clunky to begin with that the added depth doesn’t add fun. New side missions, such as the ability to buy property and turn them into fronts for illegal operations, feel more like a chore that must be accomplished rather than an exciting new feature that I actually wanted to complete. The main missions themselves aren’t anymore exciting than the side missions, as they get pretty repetitive and boring before the game really even gets started.

The one area where this game truly shines is its amazing soundtrack. Once again, Rockstar went above and beyond to deliver an incredible array of radio stations which perfectly sets the mood of the 80s. The DJs of these radio stations also deliver plenty of laughs which provide for decent diversions from the sub-par gameplay. From the hair metal goodness of V-Rock, the funky 80s rap beats of Fresh 105, to the off-color humor of VCPR (the talk radio station), the soundtrack of “GTA: VCS” is about this games only saving grace. “GTA: VCS” also features many celebrity voice actors and one would think that with professional voices, the dialog would also stand out along with the radio stations – too bad this isn’t the case. The dialog is lame and the jokes most characters make aren’t on par with the humor of many of the previous “GTA” titles.

Granted it is understandable that Rockstar wouldn’t spend much extra time porting this game from the PSP to the PS2 as they are hard at work on creating their newest next-gen masterpiece, “GTA IV.” But as a gamer and big fan of the “GTA” series, I’ve come to expect a lot more from Rockstar than this game presents, especially after playing through their last excellent PSP to PS2 port, “GTA: Liberty City Stories.” Even though it is a port and only costs $20 on the PS2, I’d recommend that only hardcore fans of the series check out this title as casual gamers may be put off by the obvious lack of effort put into this game.