GTA VCS fighting system

[Ratt Pakk]

GTA Vice city stories had one of the best fighting systems in the whole series. The hand-to-hand system was awesome. I’ve played this game for years & know nearly everything about it. I’ve played both versions on PSP & PS2. The PS2 version had more features & was better at all so I’m going to describe the PS2 version. 

Here are all the fighting moves available in the game:

#1 Punching while moving: You could punch while walking or/and running. It’s very normal & is more like throwing hand.

 

#2 Punching while standing: A normal punch like the previous one that has the same strength.

 

3# Punching while sprinting: When you sprint, you can throw some punches at the same time. It deals more damage than the previous ones. Can’t be done when having Brass Knuckles.

 

#4 Guarding : In this position you can do the move “left, right, uppercut” & then kick in the belly.

Another thing you can do in this position is punching in the left kidney. 

You can also grapple the person & choose to punch in the face, punch in belly, heavy punch or/and throw. You can also “Block” in this position.

 

#5 hitting while enemy is on the ground: When the enemy is fallen on the ground for any reason, e.g. kicked in the belly, thrown, hit by a car, hit by shotgun( the npcs that have body armor won’t die by one shot of shotgun), an explosion, etc

you can stoop & punch or heavy punch in the face or/and kick when standing( two different kicks).

Also you can grapple the person again in this position.

 

#6 Grabbing from behind: You can grab the person’s neck & choose to punch in the face, at the back of the head & in the kidney. You can also hit his/her left kidney with knee & finally the move that everyone likes in the fights: “Snapping Necks” .

If you snap sb’s neck, he/she will die immediately.

 

Merely for informing: The person that you have grappled or grabbed from behind will unleash if you don’t do anything after that for awhile or being shot or hit by anything or an explosion.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Ratt Pakk

[Guest]

Good to know about all the various melee options and combos of the game.VCS has the best melee in the 3d era imo, the grapple and punch combos felt visceral and satisfying. And of course the brutality of snapping necks. I wish VCS had the counters from IV included, imagine countering the Cholos baseball bat attacks against them. 

[ZeyadProGamerCod Legend]

Gta VCS is one of my favorite gta games it's in my top 5 in the 3d era it had the best fighting system just like sa

 

[SanFierroTriad]

Yeah the fighting system was amazing in this game! The grapple move was innovative and I'm surprised it wasn't in either of the HD games. There was definitely more variety as far as fist fighting. I just didn't like how locking onto a person had Vic go immediately into "fight mode" and he shouts a threat. I wish it was more like San Andreas, where you locked on, then when you attacked your character goes into fight mode and starts making threats.

Edited May 9, 2020 by DJToni

[Pink_Cheese]

imo the Chinatown Wars kung fu moves were better for me but i still enjoyed fist fighting in VCS. It kinda sucks that they didn't use the fist fighting mechanics moves more often in the game, you're practically going t forget they ever were there after you get far enough in the game. Maybe they shouldhave out in specific missions were you needed to fight off people with your fists.

[KGBeast]

Agreed that the combat system in this game overall was incredible, I think IV's system was better overall because of its counters, disarms, combos, etc. but there were a lot of things here that were great we've never seen again. Being able to grab people from behind and move them around, then snap their neck, blew me away back in the day. Would be great to see that return in some form, maybe in conjunction with mugging like in The Warriors. 

 

I do have one annoyance with it though. When you're being hit by an enemy the game locks you in place, even if you turn and start walking away, if they hit you, you snap back to that locked position. The hitstun was also obnoxious, often preventing you from hitting back for several seconds. I've failed the melee Rampages many times because of that. 

[Ratt Pakk]

On 4/15/2020 at 4:22 PM, KGBeast said:

Agreed that the combat system in this game overall was incredible, I think IV's system was better overall because of its counters, disarms, combos, etc. but there were a lot of things here that were great we've never seen again. Being able to grab people from behind and move them around, then snap their neck, blew me away back in the day. Would be great to see that return in some form, maybe in conjunction with mugging like in The Warriors. 

 

I do have one annoyance with it though. When you're being hit by an enemy the game locks you in place, even if you turn and start walking away, if they hit you, you snap back to that locked position. The hitstun was also obnoxious, often preventing you from hitting back for several seconds. I've failed the melee Rampages many times because of that. 

Yeah I agree the problems in locking on sb still had glitches on PS2 version & R* didn’t fix it

[Guest]

It is the best among the 3D era. You can grab a pedestrian, snap their necks, punch them on the ground, etc.

Hope we see a game with a fighting mechanic like this.