Format: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Developer: Rockstar
Grand Theft Auto III when it was released on the Playstation 2 over a decade ago wan an absolute game changer. And while I do have very fond memories of that game. It is the sequel Vice City that always springs to my mind when I think of Grand Theft Auto. A memory that s burned into my gaming brain is the first time I played Vice City. When you sit in your first car and you are greeted to Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. the game was fantastic and I will go as far to say my favourite in the series. So I was really interested to see how the game would translate to my iOS devices.
The presentation of this game is what makes so it iconic. For the two people who do not know let me explain. Vice City is set in the 80’s so we have 80’s cars, music and fashion and it works so amazingly well and makes for a very memorable game. The game been touched up a little bit from its Playstation 2 debut and it does look shinier, but at the end of the day there was only so much they could do with a game that is the better part of a decade old. Still though all that charm is still here especially the sound track. One of the most fun things you can do in this game is just listen to the various radio stations that are on offer. The story is just as crazy and interesting as it was when I first played it. It is heavily influenced by things like Scarface, Carlito’s Way and even a little Miami Vice as well.
As far as the game play goes Rockstar have done a couple of things that I actually think make the game easier to play than the original. The first thing that I have to mention is the way you shoot people. The auto targeting in the original Vice City could sometimes be a royal pain in the butt, but here thanks to being able to use the touch screen it is easier than ever to take down people who you actually want to instead of innocent bystanders.
Vice City is a game that mad use of the majority of the buttons on the Playstation 2 controller. But a great job has been done here to make the game play as close to that as possible. First of all the amount of on screen buttons may very well seem daunting to some people. But Rockstar have cleverly made it so you can position these buttons anywhere you like on the screen. Also to keep the clutter to a minimum so buttons will only appear when you need them. I think this was a great idea by Rockstar and it does work incredibly well.
Now the only downside I had with the controls was the virtual joystick. Sometimes when you want to make those really precise movements it is just not up to the job. Now to be fair this is really not anything the developers did wrong. It is just really hard to get good accurate movement in a 3D game with a virtual joystick. It is not game breaking by any means and when you are just cruising around the streets its fine, but in the heat of a shootout with some bad guys it can be problematic.
Overall though I would say that this is a great port of one of my all time favourite games. I really do not know what they could have done to make this game better. And for people who have never played it before let me just say you are in for a real treat because your first play through of Vice City is one that you will never forget. I actually envy you guys who get to experience this game for the first time that is how awesome it is.