Review of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition

There has been a lot of talk lately about Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, and little has been positive. The legendary gangster trio has been reworked and players have been keeping a close eye on the end result. We also recently released a review of the first part of this trilogy, GTA III, and now let’s look at the legendary second part. In advance, I should note that this review of the Vice City remaster took place on the Switch and the final decision is based on this.

• Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch (review), PC
• Publication date: 11/11/2021
• Producer: Grove Street Games (USA)
• Genre: urban open world event
• Czech location: Not
• Multiplayer: Not
• Game time: 20+ hours
• Availability: 18+
• Sales version: digital and box
• Price: 1599 crowns (complete trilogy, Xzone)

First on the best side

History I don’t have to introduce Tommy Vercetti for long. So only marginally for those who haven’t kissed Vice City yet. The year is 1986 and Tommy Vercetti is working for the Forelli mafia family. The head of the family, Sonny Forelli, sends Tommy to Vice City to negotiate a drug deal. But everything goes awry, the business is robbed, and Tommy is left without money and drugs. And, of course, he knows that without money or drugs, he will definitely not be able to return to his boss. The famous video game from the Grand Theft Auto series is the second 3D game in this series, which was released in 2002. Compared to the previous installment, Vice City already offered a number of improvements, such as helicopters and motorcycles, the possibility of a treat in a pizzeria or the purchase of real estate. So he’s 20 years old, and this part is still pretty popular, thanks to the wild 80s setting, fancy costumes, and Cutting Crew songs.

First, let’s look at the pros. I have to appreciate the great features that we know from GTA V, like the weapon selection menu or the radio station. Similarly, I welcomed the improved aiming of some weapons and the navigation minimap if it worked. Perhaps the biggest source of positive elements is undoubtedly the soundtrack, which has the only drawback in its beauty compared to the original game in the form of the absence of several songs (Goodbye Michael Jackson and Ozzy Osbourne).

As you can probably judge for yourself, that’s really a small number of positives to look out for. GTA: Vice City – Definitive Edition they did a hilarious remaster. There are so many negative reviews that they do not fit into one review. It is difficult to say whether the authors were counting on the nostalgic power of the game, but for today’s remaster mode it is clearly not enough.

Half gas through vice city

The stylization itself is not bad. On the contrary, the cartoonish look is quite suitable for Vice City. The problem is that the whole remaster looks like the authors are only playing at half throttle. While the main characters look quite solid, the side and non-player characters are more reminiscent of the Chernobyl accident. The environment is just as bad. Bad and jumpy textures, blurry images, cars appearing just a few meters in front of you, or countless bugs and glitches. While the PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5 versions have also received nice lighting settings, the Nintendo Switch version has replaced them with a resolution that doesn’t look great (although you won’t have to watch the rain on the Switch). If you’re new to Vice City, you’ll no doubt be surprised at how outdated the controls are today.

A separate chapter is the frame rate, when the game runs at a “stable” 15-20 FPS, and you meet 30 FPS as a holiday that lasts only a few seconds. This is especially annoying when driving, which I would at one time compare to a task worthy of Hercules. In a way, the game forces you to stick to an imaginary maximum allowed speed, because the higher the speed, the lower the FPS. There are also attractive load times that will give you enough time to look at yourself in the reflection of your Switch and wonder if the €60 could be used differently.

Constant slowdowns, loading, slow response to control, all this makes the game uncomfortable to the point that it becomes disgusting. The game seems to constantly discourage you from playing it. And this is the paradox. I dare say that the remaster of Vice City is really not enough to carefully step on the brink of unplayability. The game also loves to crash, which only adds to the bad gaming experience. The sounds in the menu, the same as in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, are also great.

So is it worth it?

All of these issues are present in both portable and docked mode. In the case of the docking station, the problems with the PDA are twofold. While the portable mode may at least partially hide some unfortunate things, the docking station will show you them in full. Unfortunately, after some gathering of information, I must conclude that this is not just a Vice City problem, but a whole trilogy. The whole Vice City remaster looks more like a really bad port for mobile phones, and since the remaster really needs to look at mobile phones as well, I have no idea what it will look like there.

It seemed like a great idea. Three legendary games in one package and on a platform that you can comfortably pull out on the train and start racing through the neon streets. But this is really the next step. So if you’re thinking about buying Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition for Nintendo Switch, you’d better consider buying it. The problem, however, is that the original games are not available in online stores, so players and fans of the Grand Theft Auto series, as well as complete newbies, rely on the remastered trilogy. We can only hope that some kind of update will be released and improve the current version.