Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 2002
open world action-adventure video game developed by
Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design) in the United Kingdom and published by
Rockstar Games. It is the second
3D game in the
Grand Theft Auto video game franchise and sixth original title overall. It debuted in North America on October 1, 2002 for the
PlayStation 2 and was later ported to the
Xbox, and
Microsoft Windows in 2003. It was made available on
Steam on January 4, 2008, and on the
Mac App Store on August 25, 2011.
[2] Vice City was preceded by
Grand Theft Auto III and followed by
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Vice City draws much of its inspiration from 1980s American culture. Set in 1986 in
Vice City, a fictional city modeled after
Miami, the story revolves around psychotic
Mafia hitman
Tommy Vercetti,
who was recently released from prison. After being involved in a drug
deal gone wrong, Tommy seeks out those responsible while building a
criminal empire and seizing power from other criminal organizations in
the city. The game uses a tweaked version of the game engine used in
Grand Theft Auto III and similarly presents a huge cityscape, fully populated with buildings, vehicles, and people. Like other games in the series,
Vice City has elements from
driving games and
third-person shooters, and features "open-world" gameplay that gives the player more control over their playing experience.
Upon its release,
Vice City became the best-selling video game of 2002. In July 2006,
Vice City was the best-selling PlayStation 2 game of all time.
Vice City also appeared on Japanese magazine
Famitsu's readers' list of the favorite 100 videogames of 2006, the only fully
Western title on the list.
[3] Following this success,
Vice City saw releases in Europe, Australia and Japan, as well as a release for the PC.
Rockstar Vienna also packaged the game with its predecessor,
Grand Theft Auto III, and sold it as
Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack for the Xbox.
Vice City's setting is also revisited in
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, which serves as a
prequel to events in
Vice City.
Plot
Tommy Vercetti,
a member of the Liberty City mafia, has been just released from prison
in 1986 after serving only 15 years for killing eleven men.
[4] Tommy's old boss,
Sonny Forelli,
fears that Tommy's presence in Liberty City will heighten tensions and
bring unwanted attention to his organization's criminal activities.
[5] To prevent this, Sonny ostensibly promotes Tommy and sends him to
Vice City under the guardianship of Mafia lawyer
Ken Rosenberg to act as their buyer for a series of
cocaine deals.
[6]
During Tommy's deal with the Vance Crime Family at the docks, an ambush
by an unknown party results in the death of Tommy's bodyguards and the
cocaine dealer, Victor Vance (the main character of
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories). Tommy narrowly escapes with his life and loses both Forelli's money and the cocaine.
[7]
When Tommy informs Sonny of the ambush Sonny loses his temper and
threatens Tommy with the consequences of attempting to cheat the Mafia.
Tommy promises to retrieve the money and the cocaine and kill whoever
was responsible for the ambush.
[8] Towards this end, Tommy meets up again with Ken Rosenberg, who leads Tommy to mid-level drug dealer
Juan Garcia Cortez.
Cortez expresses regret about Tommy's bad deal and promises that his
own lines of inquiry are being made. Tommy also meets Cortez's daughter
Mercedes, who becomes Tommy's confidant shortly thereafter.
While Tommy waits for the outcome of Cortez's investigation he meets British record producer
Kent Paul, real estate mogul
Avery Carrington and local free-lance criminal
Lance Vance.,
[9] the brother and business partner of the dealer who was killed in the ambush, who is also seeking revenge.
[10]
As time passes, Tommy befriends Cortez and begins to do regular work
for him as an errand boy and hitman. On one such job Tommy provides
protection for drug lord
Ricardo Diaz
during a deal which is ambushed by a gang of Haitians. Tommy saves
Diaz's life, leading Diaz to begin hiring Tommy for his own agenda.
Tommy takes this work because it pays well, in spite of his distaste for
Diaz's character.
Tommy learns from Cortez that Cortez's own lieutenant,
Gonzalez,
was partially responsible for the ambush on Tommy's cocaine deal, and
Cortez asks Tommy to kill Gonzalez as a favor. Afterwards Cortez lays
suspicion for the ambush on Diaz. Tommy initially continues the status
quo to prepare for his attack, but his hand is forced when Lance
attempts to take revenge by himself and fails, forcing Tommy to rush
across the city and rescue him. With the die cast, the two move quickly
to raid Diaz's mansion and execute Diaz. With Diaz dead, and Colonel
Cortez fleeing the country to escape arrest, the established drug
empires in Vice City quickly crumble and Tommy and Lance personally take
over, becoming Vice City's cocaine kingpins.
Tommy becomes the head of his own organization, the Vercetti crime
family, and the more powerful and rich Tommy becomes, the more Lance
begins to exhibit
paranoid and
sociopathic behaviors, to the point that he begins to abuse his own bodyguards and constantly calls Tommy in states of hysteria.
Tommy makes alliance with
Umberto Robina's Cubans against
Auntie Poulet's
Haitians, even though he is at the same time hypnotized by Poulet's
voodoo into helping the Haitians. However after Tommy and Poulet part
ways Tommy and the Cubans sneak explosives into the Haitian drug factory
disguised in Haitian gang cars and blow it up, effectively ending the
conflict.
As his drug business expands, Tommy buys assets in nearly bankrupt
companies such as a car lot, a cab depot, a strip club, a night club, a
boathouse, a print shop for counterfeit money, an ice-cream company, and
an adult film company, all of which he turns back into competitive
businesses. He also becomes a personal bodyguard to a rock band, an
honorary member of a biker gang, and pulls off a major bank heist.
Eventually the Forelli family discovers that Tommy has taken over
much of the action in Vice City without sending a cut to Sonny as
required. Sonny sends collectors to force money out of Tommy's assets,
but Tommy disposes of them. An angered Sonny Forelli arrives in Vice
City with a small army of mafiosi, intent on taking their tribute by
force. When Sonny and his henchmen arrive at the Vercetti Estate, Tommy
attempts to give them their tribute in counterfeit money. However,
Lance, resenting Tommy's substantial share of their profits, makes a
back-room deal with the Forelli's to topple the Vercetti family, and
informs Sonny that the tribute money is counterfeit. In the game's
climax, Tommy stands alone as Lance, Sonny, and Sonny's henchmen raid
Tommy's Mansion.
Tommy first chases, ridicules, and finally kills Lance then storms
downstairs where he faces off with Sonny. During the gunfight, Sonny
admits he is the one who set Tommy up fifteen years before, sending him
to kill the eleven men who were expecting him. Tommy eventually kills
Sonny in the main hall of his estate. With his enemies vanquished, Tommy
establishes himself as the undisputed crime kingpin of Vice City.
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