Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Review

Vice City is the series' best mood piece and its creakiest game. The 1986 setting does enormous work: pastel suits, Flash FM, helicopters over neon, and a Tommy Vercetti arc that lifts liberally from Scarface and De Palma yet lands as its own power fantasy, which is why story runs a tier ahead of everything else here. The problem is what is under the vibe.

Built in roughly a year on GTA III's bones, it inherits every one of that game's frictions: mushy auto-aim gunfights, missions failed by one clipped pedestrian, and a protagonist who famously cannot swim in a city built on water. Property acquisition was a smart addition and the bike handling still feels great, but moment to moment this is GTA III with better sunglasses. As a cultural artifact it is an S. As a thing you replay in 2026, B is honest.