Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — The Definitive Edition

Is it worth playing it in 2026?

More than 20 years after its original release, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City remains one of Rockstar’s most beloved games. It refined the structure and became one of the most defining games of the early 2000s. But did the new Definitive Edition manage to refresh one of the most influential games of its era? Today, we dive into that, and what made the game special.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is one of the most influental game of the 2000s — Own picture from gameplay

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was released in 2002, as the 2nd part of the 3D universe’s trilogy. Nearly two decades later, it returned as part of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition, which was developed by Grove Street Games and published by Rockstar Games.

THE GAME’S SPECIALITY

The game takes place in 1986, in the sunny and vibrant Vice City, which is based on Miami, Florida. Vice City itself is one of the reasons the game is special. The vibrant colors and music of the 1980s give the city a unique atmosphere. It makes you part of its time, not just a bystander who watches a screen and a game on it.

Tommy Vercetti is memorable compared to Claude — Own picture from gameplay

The protagonist of the game is Tommy Vercetti, an Italian-American mobster, and ex-enforcer of the Forelli Family. In the opening cutscene we get to know that Tommy has been released from prison after serving a 15-year sentence. When he gets released he gets picked up from Escobar International Airport, Vice City’s airport, by Ken Rosenberg. A drug-addicted legal counsel. He is then taken to the docks to cut a deal with the Vance Crime Family. However, the deal was ambushed by hitmen, causing the money to be lost, and Tommy with Rosenberg barely escaping. For the remaining of the game, Tommy is trying to get the money back he owes the Forelli Family and Sonny Forelli, the game’s main antagonist, while building up his empire.

Another reason the game stands out from its predecessor is because of Tommy himself. Tommy is the first protagonist to be fully voiced. He is voiced by the late great Ray Liotta. His performance brought Tommy Vercetti to life, giving him a distinct personality, and making him a far more memorable protagonist than the silent Claude from Grand Theft Auto III. The game utilizes this to add new details and features to the game. Since Tommy can speak, he can have dialogues with other characters throughout the story of Vice City, making the game feel realistic and alive. He is the first protagonist to be accompanied by other, memorable characters. The game also gives Tommy a telephone, which is used for phone calls, so that he can take missions indirectly, from others, while in its prequel, the notifications from the phone popped up in the top corner.

The game uses a similar structure as its prequel. It splits up the game into islands. This time, it uses 2 islands with little passable islands between them. At the beginning of the game the radio tells the player that the bridges between the islands are closed down due to storm warning. Later it will unlock, but for that, story progression is required.

IT EVOLVED FROM ITS PREDECESSOR

Vice City doesn’t use the side content like GTA 3 did. Many activities were redesigned to be less frustrating and more rewarding, making completion more enjoyable than in its predecessor.

This is especially noticeable in the vehicle missions. Paramedic, for example, changed a lot, making it easy to complete. The vehicle handling is now stable, making the accidental rollover nearly impossible, combining that with the difficulty scale change. The lack of gang presence on the first island also removes one of the biggest frustrations that players encountered in GTA III.

Other vehicle missions got adjusted too. Firefighter is the other that received a notable change. Instead of using the previous game’s fixed extinguished fire per island, now it uses the same 12-level mechanic as does other vehicle missions too. The reward changed, granting Tommy fire immunity rather than providing a flamethrower.

Beyond the vehicle missions, Vice City also reworked some other side activities from its predecessor. Payphone missions, for example, are no longer presented for the player all at once. Instead, now they are unlocked through story progression, making it more structured. The game also brings back tailing missions, although it is sporadically used. In addition to that, Vice City introduces first-person style missions, adding variety to how certain missions are experienced.

Finally, the game expands its side content by introducing property management, courier missions, RC toy missions, and stadium events, among others. The most influental of these is the property management. After reaching a certain point in the main story, the game let go of the player’s hand, and allowing them to buy properties. These properties gives missions to the player to complete, resulting in money which is crucial for the story’s main objective. This feature laid down the foundation for future Grand Theft Auto titles, like GTA V.

Properties can be bought, and they can make money — Own picture from gameplay

Courier missions are used in a similar way. They are delivery-based missions, where the player has to deliver an amount of packages or pizzas to the designated locations. While the structure is simple, it opens up another money making way for the players, and used in later entries in the Grand Theft Auto series, like San Andreas.

RC missions are introduced as an experiment rather than an actual mission type, where you have to race and completing the objectives with remote-controlled vehicles like helis, and cars. While it is creative, they are challenging due to its controls, and offers little rewards compared to other activities. This idea would appear later in other GTA titles in different forms.

Lastly, the stadium events. They offer a structured, arena-style challenges, with different objectives. Completing these events rewards the player with cash, and unique vehicles. While it is not the same experience as the other side contents, they add additional variety, and were later used by Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

GAMEPLAY IMPROVEMENTS

Vice City introduces new animations, weapons and vehicles which refine the overall experience compared to GTA III.

The game adds new movement options, like crouching, which was not present in the previous entry. It also introduces new mechanisms, like vehicle ejection, which allows the player to bail out from burning vehicles, adding an extra layer of control during tense situations.

Weapons variety is also expanded. The game introduces new melee and ranged weapons, while also using some from the prequel. Overall, the combat feels more responsive, with improved aiming controls that make shooting easier to manage compared to GTA III. The ability to shoot out vehicle tires is another small but impactful detail that later became a staple of the series.

Vehicle gameplay expanded too. Motorbikes are introduced for the first time in the series, alongside improved handling for air vehicles such as helicopters and planes. This makes driving more varied and accessible than in the prequel.

ORIGINAL AGED WELL, DE NOT

Unlike the prequel, Grand Theft Auto III, this game in general aged well. But since this is a Definitive Edition, we have to talk about that too. I mentioned earlier, it uses Unreal Engine which aims to modernize the original game. Unlike its predecessor, Vice City already looked much better back in 2002 than GTA III, which gave a stable foundation for the new engine to work with. The face movements were nice in general, while the cars look exactly the same as in the original. Unfortunately, it also had a bad reputation at launch with its technical issues such as the weather effects. The other issue is when you look from one side of the island into the other island, you can basically see the whole map. It takes away that fog weather and feeling the original games had. This is present in all three games in the Definitive Edition, so I will also call it back during San Andreas.

Thankfully a lot of these issues got patched and fixed, but some major issues are still part of the game nowadays.

Tommy himself has a different design approach. Compared to Claude, he is his complete opposite. Claude has a very punishing gameplay style, while Tommy‘s gameplay style is more forgiving. He also cannot swim, which thankfully didn’t return in the next entry.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, this game is still great. It learnt from its predecessor, and built its foundation on it, which later got improved by other titles in the franchise. To this day, Vice City is one of the biggest games from the early 2000s for its groundbreaking features, and the way it captures the feeling of the 1980s has rarely been replicated in games since then. This game is total worth it in 2026, no matter how you look at it. If you have the original one, or the Definitive Edition, it doesn’t matter, it is great.