Does anyone else find this game overrated?

[FewPoleCat42]

Now, I know how much of a controversial opinion this is (mostly because I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Vice City) but hear me out: I don't like Vice City. Its easily my least favorite GTA game and here's why I think that:

 

1. Missions aren't just hard like in other games in the 3D era, they're arcade difficult to seemingly pad out the game. I understand the game was rushed, but it's not that short, we don't need to die fifty times saving Lance Vance in order to have a long GTA game. For example, in the Distribution mission, which is a mission you not only have to pay for by grinding money but also a mission that is required to complete the game, you have to sell fifty times in the cop infested, gang infested city without leaving your vehicle once. This means no getting out to defend yourself, no getting out to fix the broken peds that get stuck on your truck every two seconds, no getting pulled out of your car by anyone regardless of how easily they sneak up on you or if you were already driving away when they tried to take you out, you can't leave. It's so tedious that it made me stop playing for a month and switch to San Andreas. This isn't the only mission like this, far from it. These missions are meant to be frustratingly hard so that you keep failing, expanding the lifespan of the game.

 

2. Lance's betrayal at the end of the game, while expected eventually, is terribly done. He receives no proper death despite being a major character in the entire story and he betrays you at the last possible minute. Probably for shock value, but I just find it a little.. anticlimactic. Sonny Forelli is also a pretty bland antagonist, I honestly preferred Diaz for literally just being a rich, crazy asshole that you take over. Reminds me of Tuco Salamanca but more pathetic, it was really satisfying to kill him, especially alongside Lance. Oh wait, in that mission Lance gets stuck on everything and you have to push him around to get his AI to work.. yeah, this game hasn't aged well.

 

3. The combat is ass. Complete ass. If you're too close to someone and getting ganged up on, too bad for you, your health is gone because you couldn't aim at your target. Got pulled out of your car and are now getting shot to sh*t? Too bad, enjoy the brutal gunfire destroying you by one of the gangs in town. The best thing you can do in this game is ran so far away and hide, equip any sub machine gun and pray you don't get gunned down when you leave cover. Tommy dies far too quickly no matter how much health he has and every shooter in the game is pitch perfect. People complain about GTA V Online mission shooting, which I agree Online's shooting is jank as hell, but Vice City missions are on par with the marksman level shooting of that game, the difference is that outside of the missions they're nowhere near as good. That's probably why everyone remembers this game fondly, nobody wants to play the bullsh*t missions, they want to get into a car, run people down and listen to Flash FM. Can I blame them? No, not at all, but that's just not what I like to do when I play GTA. It's fun, but I love story in these games, and this one just doesn't want to be played. Playing around with a tank is fun at least and drive by's are pretty satisfying admittedly.

 

4. Driving is not fun. This one goes out to you, bikes and boats. The boats in this game have the worst vehicle controls I have ever experienced in video games. I'll give 3 the benefit of the doubt, considering it was their first time, but no, they did not do anything right with boats here. Any mission with a fast boat is pain. Just drive the slower ones, they might be slower but at least they don't move like butter covered shopping carts on soap water. As for the bikes, it's a bit more excusable. It's easy to get knocked off even with little bumps and turning is a nightmare, but I actually find it to be a guilty pleasure. Bikes are fast, they feel cool to drive, so I often get one over a car. Problem is they're atrocious and often lead to falling off ninety times anyways. 

 

5. Grinding for money in a GTA game before San Andreas introduced drug dealers and betting shops is a mistake. Vice City has an entire section dedicated to the mandatory buying of seven properties on the map, some costing well over fifty grand. You need money, but there's no more missions to do, so what do you do? Farm revenue from the Vercetti Mansion and any other property you own of course! What you thought there would be side jobs that don't pay you less than three nickels? Get outta here. It's especially frustrating when this is mandatory, it's not like these missions are side missions or anything, they're required for completion of the story so you have to play the stupid boat challenge eighty times and the deliverance mission one thousand times in order to get anywhere. 

 

6. Tommy is a weakling. He takes five hit points of damage from running up and down stairs. He can't swim. He can't jump out of his car (why would the game punish you for this mechanic??) He can't jump and roll. He is beyond weak. I'm pretty sure you could breath on him and he would die. He's just insanely lucky that he ended up ruling Vice City.

 

7. Love Fist hogs way too much of the game. For seemingly being side characters, they sure do get a lot of attention. They're not even really funny in a stupid GTA way either, they're just extremely generic stereotypes, which to be fair is a big problem with most of Vice City's cast and GTA 3's unless your name is Catalina or Asuka. Regardless, they get one of the longest cutscenes in the game and yet Lance gets a betrayal at the last possible moment. Stupid. 

 

8. Lastly, some of the animations just look dumb. I'm talking about Tommy running like Woody from Toy Story of course. It's funny, but it's also really goofy and unbecoming of such a seriously dangerous character that I usually just laugh whenever I see it. At least he's faster than the cars?

 

You can disagree with my points or add onto them. I'd love to hear what other people think.

[AkshayKumar]

25 minutes ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

I'd love to hear what other people think.

Its fair enough imo, different strokes for different folks but it would be boring to leave it at that so I'll talk about what I feel about the points you raise 

 

28 minutes ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

(mostly because I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Vice City

maybe its because Vice City is my favourite so I tend to notice criticism more but I've seen more and more people say Vice City isnt that good these days, often in the unpopular opinions thread you see it being compared unfavourably to Vice City Stories which is fair, but you're certainly not alone in thinking this! 

 

36 minutes ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

For example, in the Distribution mission, which is a mission you not only have to pay for by grinding money but also a mission that is required to complete the game, you have to sell fifty times in the cop infested, gang infested city without leaving your vehicle once. This means no getting out to defend yourself, no getting out to fix the broken peds that get stuck on your truck every two seconds, no getting pulled out of your car by anyone regardless of how easily they sneak up on you or if you were already driving away when they tried to take you out, you can't leave. It's so tedious that it made me stop playing for a month and switch to San Andreas.

The mission is brutal but the good thing about the assets is you dont need to buy all of them, I think just six out of 8 is enough(?) to progress to the climax so you didnt need to stop playing for a mointh could have just tried out the other asset missions  unless you were going for 100% completion

 

38 minutes ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

2. Lance's betrayal at the end of the game, while expected eventually, is terribly done. He receives no proper death despite being a major character in the entire story and he betrays you at the last possible minute. Probably for shock value, but I just find it a little.. anticlimactic. Sonny Forelli is also a pretty bland antagonist, I honestly preferred Diaz for literally just being a rich, crazy asshole that you take over. Reminds me of Tuco Salamanca but more pathetic, it was really satisfying to kill him, especially alongside Lance. Oh wait, in that mission Lance gets stuck on everything and you have to push him around to get his AI to work.. yeah, this game hasn't aged well.

To me Lance's betrayal was shocking I really liked him and young me didnt see it coming lol. Sonny was kind of average maybe but I liked him sort of, he felt like the menacing shadow always hanging around Tommy, he seemed the only one Tommy was somewhat intimidated by (till the end atleast), just as you are doing big things in Vice the way he would remind you of his presence with threatening calls now and then, and then the climax when his goons arrive in Vice and the final mission felt intense af and challenging to me. Not really refuting you here just contrasting my experience with yours hehe

 

46 minutes ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

3. The combat is ass. Complete ass. If you're too close to someone and getting ganged up on, too bad for you, your health is gone because you couldn't aim at your target. Got pulled out of your car and are now getting shot to sh*t? Too bad, enjoy the brutal gunfire destroying you by one of the gangs in town. The best thing you can do in this game is ran so far away and hide, equip any sub machine gun and pray you don't get gunned down when you leave cover. Tommy dies far too quickly no matter how much health he has and every shooter in the game is pitch perfect.

Ya combat takes some getting used to in GTA III and Vice City, stuff like the aiming and not able to move while crouching in VC doesnt make for an easy time.

 

50 minutes ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

That's probably why everyone remembers this game fondly, nobody wants to play the bullsh*t missions, they want to get into a car, run people down and listen to Flash FM. Can I blame them? No, not at all, but that's just not what I like to do when I play GTA. It's fun, but I love story in these games, and this one just doesn't want to be played. Playing around with a tank is fun at least and drive by's are pretty satisfying admittedly.

I enjoy the story,  love how the story has you take over the city's entire criminal underworld, most GTAs have you work as part of a gang/for the mafia/as a hitman but Vice City and Vice City Stories were the only ones i think to have you build your own 'empire' and it felt great I hope VI returns to this working for yourself to become the biggest player in town concept

 

Missions were nice too IMO. theres the odd nonsense mission but most I liked. I recently learnt that Two Bit Hit can be completed in six odd ways so still learning new things about its story

 

1 hour ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

4. Driving is not fun. This one goes out to you, bikes and boats. The boats in this game have the worst vehicle controls I have ever experienced in video games. I'll give 3 the benefit of the doubt, considering it was their first time, but no, they did not do anything right with boats here. Any mission with a fast boat is pain. Just drive the slower ones, they might be slower but at least they don't move like butter covered shopping carts on soap water. As for the bikes, it's a bit more excusable. It's easy to get knocked off even with little bumps and turning is a nightmare, but I actually find it to be a guilty pleasure. Bikes are fast, they feel cool to drive, so I often get one over a car. Problem is they're atrocious and often lead to falling off ninety times anyways.

I'm not the biggest fan of bikes in this game either and you summed up why

Cars are okay though I prefer them to GTA III driving

 

1 hour ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

Grinding for money in a GTA game before San Andreas introduced drug dealers and betting shops is a mistake. Vice City has an entire section dedicated to the mandatory buying of seven properties on the map, some costing well over fifty grand. You need money, but there's no more missions to do, so what do you do? Farm revenue from the Vercetti Mansion and any other property you own of course! What you thought there would be side jobs that don't pay you less than three nickels? Get outta here. It's especially frustrating when this is mandatory, it's not like these missions are side missions or anything, they're required for completion of the story so you have to play the stupid boat challenge eighty times and the deliverance mission one thousand times in order to get anywhere. 

You can get millions from grinding the Cone Crazy side mission, its not that easy for me atleast but its a high paying side mission atleast

 

1 hour ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

6. Tommy is a weakling. He takes five hit points of damage from running up and down stairs. He can't swim. He can't jump out of his car (why would the game punish you for this mechanic??) He can't jump and roll. He is beyond weak. I'm pretty sure you could breath on him and he would die. He's just insanely lucky that he ended up ruling Vice City.

Tommy is kind of weird he can fall of buildings and not die but he also gets hurt falling from stairs.

Think of it this way, despite all these limitations he still took down all Vice City threw at him and won, he got big cojones or what

 

1 hour ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

 

7. Love Fist hogs way too much of the game. For seemingly being side characters, they sure do get a lot of attention. They're not even really funny in a stupid GTA way either, they're just extremely generic stereotypes, which to be fair is a big problem with most of Vice City's cast and GTA 3's unless your name is Catalina or Asuka. Regardless, they get one of the longest cutscenes in the game and yet Lance gets a betrayal at the last possible moment. Stupid.

I liked Love Fist but fair. Atleast they arent necessary for the story so you can ignore them unless you're a completionist

 

1 hour ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

8. Lastly, some of the animations just look dumb. I'm talking about Tommy running like Woody from Toy Story of course. It's funny, but it's also really goofy and unbecoming of such a seriously dangerous character that I usually just laugh whenever I see it. At least he's faster than the cars?

Lmao I wish they have that running thing return in the remastered edition too  I see what you mean though

 

Also I noticed this is your first post in the four years you had this account, well worth the wait eh 

[FewPoleCat42]

2 hours ago, Wayne Kerr said:

Also I noticed this is your first post in the four years you had this account, well worth the wait eh 

I really thought your points were great, but I wanted to reply to this specifically because I found it funny. Yeah, this was an account I was going to use during my stay at the hospital, ended up only reading and never replying to anything and got into other things after. GTA has always been one of my favorite franchises though so I'm happy to start posting.

[ChubbyB0b]

Your points are spot on but I think I know where the issue is here. Vice City was supposed to be a DLC until they changed their minds and released it as a separate game. It was rushed, best example of this is other island. Downtown and Little Haiti are best examples, first island is much better. Lack of swimming was due to limitations at a time but they have no excuse not do add it now, but it's unlikely that they will. Other issues are due to physics in gta games overall (it makes no sense at all sometimes). Even with those flaws It's my favourite, I love 80's era, soundtrack (best in the entire series) and just overall look of 1980's Miami. 

Honestly and on the side note, I find GTA SA overrated.

[doktorfuxx]

VC > SA

[King Vercetti]

Hey, you’re not alone! And Vice City is my favorite of the 3D era games, but it’s not perfect, and most of your criticisms are perfectly valid! I think because the game means so much to me, I’ve learned to accept a lot of its flaws because when I play it these days, it’s more about the mood and nostalgia for me, driving down the road listening to the radio, etc. 

 

But I agree with almost everything you said. The controls are ass, no doubt about it, and the writing is pretty weak (at the time, Rockstar was pretty much just aping popular movies after all lol) so I do think they made some odd choices like how Lance’s betrayal was handled. I definitely think they got a lot better at writing and character building since those days. RDR II for example is I believe one of the best written games ever made. 
 

Overall, I love the game and doubt any other GTA will replace it in my heart because it’s such a big part of that period of my life. But it’s flawed and far from perfect. I do hope at least some of this is improved in the remasters, at least things that can be like the vehicle controls and stuff like that. I know that doesn’t fix the crappy writing but eh, I’m still excited to play it again

[Mindshower]

Vice City and Vice City Stories are my favorite GTA games, both have unique flaws that might be considered deal breakers for some. It's not really talked about enough how much of an enigma Vice City is, to halt linear progression for business missions, the celebrity cameos. It's absurd how amazing the game is factoring in the short development.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Mindshower

[CynicalMexican]

I always thought the ending was kinda lamesauce. It just suddenly transitions to Tommy gunning down everyone. No last speech by Vance or Forelli, they're just dead. It's so awkward.

[Neon-Noir 198X]

For sure, and I'm saying this with VC as my favourite title.

 

Helicopters and bikes are great and all, but you've only got a tiny, flat, half-baked map to utilize them on.

 

Vice City's a vain bitch. It is quite literally all about image, and the image it created for itself is unparalleled. The entire game is just a whimsical love-letter to the 1980s. Underneath that image, it's just a slightly different, prettier GTA III.  The real improvements came with San Andreas.

[DODI3OG]

2 hours ago, Komosexual said:

For sure, and I'm saying this with VC as my favourite title.

 

Helicopters and bikes are great and all, but you've only got a tiny, flat, half-baked map to utilize them on.

 

Vice City's a vain bitch. It is quite literally all about image, and the image it created for itself is unparalleled. The entire game is just a whimsical love-letter to the 1980s. Underneath that image, it's just a slightly different, prettier GTA III.  The real improvements came with San Andreas.

First of all, the thing with being overrated and underrated is that there's no system to reflect how bad or good the game has aged. There's no system to lower or increase the score as standards change.

 

GTA VC was the thing for me before I played GTA San Andreas. I was still playing GTA VC by the time San Andreas came out. Everything changed when I played GTA San An on PC in 2006. I played it for days on end with my cousin until about 2012.

[Collibosher]

I've been thinking about this too, but I've kinda speculated, that VC may come out as a bit "overrated", because it's fans are maybe a bit more vocal or/and they have more opportunities to embrace it right due to speculations about the GTA 6 being set in VC? For example at these GTA forums "I have noticed" people often mentioning specifically VC as their favorite, which used to gave me the impression that it's most GTA fans' favorite, but actually based on polls etc. here and outside, I don't think it's that popular/adored/highly rated really. (I have to admit that VC is my least favorite, so maybe all the pro VC posts just stand out me more or something) 

 

I'm not that into GTA VC for many subjective reasons for sure, like for it's setting and themes, but trying to be a bit more objective and why I would call it "overrated" and many ways worse than other GTAs, while trying to be unbiased;

 

-The story takes a lot inspiration from specific films and TV, which can make the story and overall style feel unoriginal. Of course parodies and satire is part of GTA, but shouldn't you create satire mainly from real life events, not really from other similar popular culture products? I mean GTA VC is an 18+ video game and Scarface is an 18+ film, both similar entertainment media products and released "only" 20 years apart? I don't really get it, GTA in-game films should be the ones parodying real life films and GTA story itself should be a parody of real life, right?

 

-This goes to all 3D era GTAs, but the character models were outdated already at the time. In the case of VC they appear as even worse, due to more bright and high contrast lighting & aesthetics. They definitely don't stick out as much in more darkly lighted GTA 3 and SA. Some cutscenes are horrendous watch tbh, even by someone who is totally used to the style of these games.

 

-A small rendition of a florida city is not really an efficient or suitable setting of choice for an open world game with diverse range of vehicles. You end up with a map that is flat with large percentage of "wasted space" because you have to include a beach too. I always defend the inclusion of "large empty areas" (fields, beaches, etc) in games for offering realism and immersion, but they do become a problem if your overall map size is greatly limited like in VC. Personally, I think GTA 1's VC map actually "works" a lot better.

 

[SquoniX]

To add to this, both 3 and VC pale in comparison to SA when it comes to geography quite heavily and I think that's the biggest difference:

 

 

Land size comparison:

 

GTA III (Land Area) = 1.69 sq miles = 4.38 sq km

 

GTA:VC (Land Area) = 2.17 sq miles = 5.62 sq km

 

GTA:SA (Land Area) = 12.18 sq miles = 31.55 sq km

 

[AkshayKumar]

I don't know why I assumed GTA III was bigger than Vice City, it felt that way to me for some reason. I wonder how much the beach contributes to VC being bigger

 

Kind of funny to me that San Andreas is bigger than (VC and III combined) * 3 according to those numbers. 

[CynicalMexican]

6 hours ago, Komosexual said:

For sure, and I'm saying this with VC as my favourite title.

 

Helicopters and bikes are great and all, but you've only got a tiny, flat, half-baked map to utilize them on.

 

Vice City's a vain bitch. It is quite literally all about image, and the image it created for itself is unparalleled. The entire game is just a whimsical love-letter to the 1980s. Underneath that image, it's just a slightly different, prettier GTA III.  The real improvements came with San Andreas.

 

Vice City's map definitely kinda sucks ass. So much beach, not enough land, and the entire Mainland is a clusterf*ck and the roads are a pain in the ass to navigate. My least favorite city in the 3D Universe.

[CHER0KEE]

18 hours ago, FewPoleCat42 said:

Now, I know how much of a controversial opinion this is (mostly because I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Vice City) but hear me out: I don't like Vice City. Its easily my least favorite GTA game and here's why I think that:

 

1. Missions aren't just hard like in other games in the 3D era, they're arcade difficult to seemingly pad out the game. I understand the game was rushed, but it's not that short, we don't need to die fifty times saving Lance Vance in order to have a long GTA game. For example, in the Distribution mission, which is a mission you not only have to pay for by grinding money but also a mission that is required to complete the game, you have to sell fifty times in the cop infested, gang infested city without leaving your vehicle once. This means no getting out to defend yourself, no getting out to fix the broken peds that get stuck on your truck every two seconds, no getting pulled out of your car by anyone regardless of how easily they sneak up on you or if you were already driving away when they tried to take you out, you can't leave. It's so tedious that it made me stop playing for a month and switch to San Andreas. This isn't the only mission like this, far from it. These missions are meant to be frustratingly hard so that you keep failing, expanding the lifespan of the game.

 

2. Lance's betrayal at the end of the game, while expected eventually, is terribly done. He receives no proper death despite being a major character in the entire story and he betrays you at the last possible minute. Probably for shock value, but I just find it a little.. anticlimactic. Sonny Forelli is also a pretty bland antagonist, I honestly preferred Diaz for literally just being a rich, crazy asshole that you take over. Reminds me of Tuco Salamanca but more pathetic, it was really satisfying to kill him, especially alongside Lance. Oh wait, in that mission Lance gets stuck on everything and you have to push him around to get his AI to work.. yeah, this game hasn't aged well.

 

3. The combat is ass. Complete ass. If you're too close to someone and getting ganged up on, too bad for you, your health is gone because you couldn't aim at your target. Got pulled out of your car and are now getting shot to sh*t? Too bad, enjoy the brutal gunfire destroying you by one of the gangs in town. The best thing you can do in this game is ran so far away and hide, equip any sub machine gun and pray you don't get gunned down when you leave cover. Tommy dies far too quickly no matter how much health he has and every shooter in the game is pitch perfect. People complain about GTA V Online mission shooting, which I agree Online's shooting is jank as hell, but Vice City missions are on par with the marksman level shooting of that game, the difference is that outside of the missions they're nowhere near as good. That's probably why everyone remembers this game fondly, nobody wants to play the bullsh*t missions, they want to get into a car, run people down and listen to Flash FM. Can I blame them? No, not at all, but that's just not what I like to do when I play GTA. It's fun, but I love story in these games, and this one just doesn't want to be played. Playing around with a tank is fun at least and drive by's are pretty satisfying admittedly.

 

4. Driving is not fun. This one goes out to you, bikes and boats. The boats in this game have the worst vehicle controls I have ever experienced in video games. I'll give 3 the benefit of the doubt, considering it was their first time, but no, they did not do anything right with boats here. Any mission with a fast boat is pain. Just drive the slower ones, they might be slower but at least they don't move like butter covered shopping carts on soap water. As for the bikes, it's a bit more excusable. It's easy to get knocked off even with little bumps and turning is a nightmare, but I actually find it to be a guilty pleasure. Bikes are fast, they feel cool to drive, so I often get one over a car. Problem is they're atrocious and often lead to falling off ninety times anyways. 

 

5. Grinding for money in a GTA game before San Andreas introduced drug dealers and betting shops is a mistake. Vice City has an entire section dedicated to the mandatory buying of seven properties on the map, some costing well over fifty grand. You need money, but there's no more missions to do, so what do you do? Farm revenue from the Vercetti Mansion and any other property you own of course! What you thought there would be side jobs that don't pay you less than three nickels? Get outta here. It's especially frustrating when this is mandatory, it's not like these missions are side missions or anything, they're required for completion of the story so you have to play the stupid boat challenge eighty times and the deliverance mission one thousand times in order to get anywhere. 

 

6. Tommy is a weakling. He takes five hit points of damage from running up and down stairs. He can't swim. He can't jump out of his car (why would the game punish you for this mechanic??) He can't jump and roll. He is beyond weak. I'm pretty sure you could breath on him and he would die. He's just insanely lucky that he ended up ruling Vice City.

 

7. Love Fist hogs way too much of the game. For seemingly being side characters, they sure do get a lot of attention. They're not even really funny in a stupid GTA way either, they're just extremely generic stereotypes, which to be fair is a big problem with most of Vice City's cast and GTA 3's unless your name is Catalina or Asuka. Regardless, they get one of the longest cutscenes in the game and yet Lance gets a betrayal at the last possible moment. Stupid. 

 

8. Lastly, some of the animations just look dumb. I'm talking about Tommy running like Woody from Toy Story of course. It's funny, but it's also really goofy and unbecoming of such a seriously dangerous character that I usually just laugh whenever I see it. At least he's faster than the cars?

 

You can disagree with my points or add onto them. I'd love to hear what other people think.

Nope I don't find it overrated but I respect your opinion

[FanEu7]

3D Era GTA games have flawed stories, Rockstar really improved with timke. VC at least was a major step up from GTA 3's story which was as bland as it gets with a mute protagonist and forgettable characters. Tommy had real charisma and interesting motivations, the side characters were more memorable (Lance, Ken Rosenberg, Phil etc.) and the ending was satisfying.

But I think it loses focus once you kill off Diaz and Lance's betrayal could have been build up better.

Gameplay wise it has aged really bad, just like GTA 3. I really hope the remaster improves on the combat, new fans will not enjoy the games otherwise

Edited November 8, 2021 by FanEu7