The Popular Video Game Set In The Late 1980s Remains A Classic All These Years Later

GTA Vice City has turned 20 years old, first being launched as a PlayStation 2 exclusive on the 29th of October 2002.

The game takes place in Vice City (A spoof of Miami, Florida.) in the year 1986, and is heavily based on both the 1983 gangster thriller Scarface and the TV show Miami Vice which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1990.

The plot of the game involves newly released mobster Tommy Vercetti (Played by the late Ray Liotta), who following a 15 year sentence in a maximum security prison is sent by Liberty City (Based on New York City, New York.) crime boss Sonny Forelli (Played by Tom Sizemore) to lay the ground work for a cocaine empire for the Forelli Family.

Vercetti is then met by the Forelli Family's crooked lawyer Ken Rosenberg (Played by William Fichtner), both are ambushed at the drug deal by unknown gunmen, and it's up to Tommy to track them down.

Along the way he forms contacts with British music producer Kent Paul (Played by Danny Dyer), Ex-Army serviceman turned cocaine baron Colonel Juan Garcia Cotrez (Played by Robert Davi), drug kingpin Ricardo Diaz (Played by Luis Guzman), Texan business tycoon Avery Carrington (Played by the late Burt Reynolds), and the drug dealer ambushed during the deal gone wrong Lance Vance (Played by Phillip Michael Thomas who also appeared as Ricardo Tubbs on the aforementioned Miami Vice).

After a series of unfortunate events, it's uncovered by Lance and Vercetti that Diaz was the one who set them up.

Whilst Lance wants to go in and gut Diaz like a catfish right then and there, Vercetti on the other hand wishes to covertly infiltrate Diaz's ranks doing various jobs for Mr Coke until he's close enough to get the drop on him.

After Lance gets captured and Vercetti is forced to rescue him, their cover's blown, and they then decide to storm Diaz's mansion to kill him.

After taking over Ricardo Diaz's drug empire, Vercetti begins buying up various businesses and fronts for his cocaine smuggling ring, which doesn't go unnoticed by Sonny Forelli and his crime family back up north.

After Lance sells Tommy out for undercutting him, Vercetti is then forced to kill him and his boss.

He is later found by Ken draped in blood, after which the two vow to rule over Vice City together as the Vercetti Family.

If fans were already in love with the setting and elite cast of Vice City, then they were over the moon with the soundtrack.

The soundtrack for Vice City is like a time capsule from the 1980s, featuring artists like Toto, The Human League, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Alcatrazz, Grand Master Flash, The Pointer Sisters, Michael Jackson, Roxy Music, Quiet Riot, Mötley Crüe, and so much more.

Vice City was also a hit with the critics, scoring a whopping five stares from AllGame.

It also received a rating of 95/100 from Metacritic, 8/10 from Edge, 10/10 from Eurogamer, and a 9.7/10 from IGN.

The game was also given a grade of A by GameRevolution in 2003.

In 2012, Vice City was released on Steam, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, the Google PlayStore, and on IOS devices via the App Store to celebrate the game's 10th anniversary to acclaim by fans.

But the same positivity wasn't present from critics and gamers, when it was included along with GTA III and GTA San Andreas in the GTA Definitive Edition three game pack on the 11th of November 2021.

The Definitive Edition was a mess from day one with glitches galore reported by gamers and critics, but Vice City was arguably the least affected by the bugs before it was patched. 

If you ignore The Definitive Edition remaster of Vice City, the game is an absolute masterpiece unmolested by time.