Was GTA VCS a downgrade or an upgrade from GTA San Andreas?

[BennyGod]

Share your opinion.

[GTAFanLuca]

It was indeed an upgrade, and as I put it in another topic on this board, ''the greatest way Rockstar could have put an end to the 3D Universe". 

 

First of all, the empire building feature that is so heavily praised (and for good reason!) made its first and only appearance in the GTA series. It is the most elaborate and intricate way of ''developing a business empire'' and no other GTA has reached this level of detail (don't tell me about GTA 5 where you can just buy some assets and perform some management missions). In GTA VCS, you actually take over the city by taking over all of those empires and ensuring that Victor Vance is on top of the city criminals (ironically against his own will!). Yes, cities are taken over in other GTAs too, but mostly throughout elimination of antagonists. Take for example the gang wars in San Andreas. Yes, fun, but you know... kind of basic as a principle. Whereas the empire building mechanism in Vice City Stories is indeed a nice touch and much more developed.

 

Secondly, all those new vehicles brought new life to the game, and some of them were never seen again in the series, so they made their only appearance in this title. Vehicles like the Polaris V8, a nice muscle car, or the Little Willie helicopter, the Splitz-6 ATV camouflage car (although it is quite slow), the wonderful JetSki through which the speed could really be felt, those emergency choppers (the Air Ambulance and the Armadillo) and the fast Cholo Sabre and Gang Rancher. The hovercraft in this game, the Bovver '64, also seems to have a more realistic structure than the Vortex in San Andreas.

 

Last but not least, those unique and creative side-missions that the game featured, such as taking tourists across the city by air, or rescuing people with the help of a helicopter winch (although this one is way too long and can get tedious after some time), putting out fires with a bucket of water that is dangling from a helicopter and those water trials that would only be featured later on in GTA V. This game managed to add some interesting and unique side-missions into the GTA series (just like its PSP predecessor, Liberty City Stories), instead of featuring those very used "go into checkpoint and drive" missions we got accustomed to.

 

All in all, this was a great game and definitely an upgrade from San Andreas. Yes, Victor cannot go under the surface of the water and the height limit for helicopters is quite low, but all these flaws are not to be considered when you take into account the whole picture.

[Mgueeel]

For me, GTA Vice City Stories is the definitive game of the 3D era 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[xSapphirePlayz]

VCS does its role perfectly, being the culmination of the 3D universe, taking stuff from all 3D era GTAs and improving it. It also served as a transition to the HD universe since some brands like Imponte and eCola could be seen in advertisements.

[Guest]

Yep. It was definitely an improvement. It's added so many things from the gameplay pov that I can't list them all.

Edited July 12, 2021 by OH76

[CynicalMexican]

From a technical standpoint yes absolutely. It's the most polished game of the 3D Universe by a country mile.

[T_o_r_e_n_o]

Size wise a downgrade. Upgrade in other areas.