As ever, the game’s structure, whilst being totally free-form (you can explore the city, and generate havoc to your hearts content at any time, should you choose), also encourages you to complete missions for the subsequent benefits available. Cash garnered can be used to makes purchases in Vice City of the property variety, allowing your character, Tommy Vercetti, to begin building a criminal empire of his own.

The beautiful and downright inspired side of all this, is the well-crafted plots and characters that link all the missions and events of the game together. On this front, things have improved considerably from the original, with some amusing dialogue during cinematic-sequences that at times is worthy of The Soprano’s. This is helped along immensely by voice acting talent featuring the likes of Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds and Dennis Hopper, which just demonstrates the attention paid to creating a seamless, and believable story to bind everything you do together.

Switching your criminal allegiances will become a frequent option as you discover and penetrate deeper into the underworld of Vice City, with your character arriving having left prison to get to grips with the drugs of the city. Of course, should you find all this story nonsense a little on the restrictive side, you do of course have the option of creating anarchy through the city, or alternatively ‘go straight’ as a Pizza delivery chap. On this front, the games physics have been improved, as has the detail of the damage that can be done to cars, which all adds to the already staggering detail of this game.

On the graphical front, things haven’t moved on in leaps and bounds, though some nice special effects do impress, as does the detail of Vice City as a tangible place in general. The camera angles can, very occasionally annoy, and a few small clipping problems are also noticeable every so often, but given the overall appeal of the games unique and ‘cool’ stylising, to moan too much would seem decidedly unfair.

Which leads me on to the audio, yet another ‘not-so-hidden’ depth you’ll discover is a joy in GTA: Vice City. Not only can you switch between numerous 80’s inspired radio stations while cruising the city streets, the game does in fact include some nine in total. Artists such as Blondie, Kate Bush, Kim Wilde, Spandau Ballet, Run DMC, and Ozzy Osbourne all feature to get you into that 80s groove. It’s a small inclusion, but once again adds further to the richness and depth of this immense game as a whole.

All in all, the trappings of immense international success appears to have done little to dent the creative spirit of Rockstar, with Vice City proving every bit as compulsive as the original; perhaps more so. I think the element that impressed me most was the ability of the game to blend a feeling of immense freedom, with a tightly-knit and believable plot, which offers the goals and rewards so essential in a game. How many developers have found this aspect a stumbling block?

All in all, not a revolution from the original, nor entirely perfect (can any game be?), but without question one of the finest releases of the year, and, one must suspect, one of the PS2’s finest games to date. A veritable tour de force of design richness and diversity.

93%

By Luke Guttridge