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Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has turned 23 years old today.
Following the breakout success of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001, Rockstar found inspiration in the glitz and glamor of the 1980s to tell a new story in their version of Miami.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City first released on the PlayStation 2 in the US on October 29, 2002, and then PAL regions the next month. It then came to Windows and Xbox in 2003.
The Story of Tommy Vercetti
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City gets the classic 1980s drug lord story, with an uncharacteristic good ending. Tommy Vercetti, a mobster for the Forelli family, is ambushed after a drug deal goes awry.
While his boss Sonny Forelli demands Tommy retrieve the drugs and money, his mentor Juan Garcia Cortez encourages him to act more independently of the Forellis.
In the course of the game, Tommy makes friends and works with other crime groups. He eventually builds his own criminal empire, in the build up to a final confrontation with Sonny himself.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City boasts an all-star cast, with Ray Liotta playing Tommy, and Tom Sizemore cast as Sonny. Other big stars in the game include William Fichtner, Robert Davi, Burt Reynolds, Luis Guzmán, and interestingly, Philip Michael Thomas.
Recreating A Mythical 1980s
Even gamers who didn’t play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City remember the pastel color aesthetic of the game. It immediately evokes 1980s NBC crime drama Miami Vice, but fans who saw Brian de Palma’s Scarface remake will see its inspiration as well.
The brightly colored buildings of Vice City itself reflect how Miami Vice showrunner Michael Mann planned the look and feel of his show (no earth tones!). But the mansion Vercetti later owns in the game is the spitting image of Tony Montana’s mansion in Scarface.
Both Mann and de Palma often leaned into a glamorous vision of Cuba’s drug scene, with an ugly underbelly beneath it. Rockstar eschews that classic ‘crime does not pay’ messaging in their game, and that’s where Grand Theft Auto: Vice City splits from its inspirations.
The Real-Life Controversies of Vice City
The infamous Jack Thompson took legal action against Rockstar, trying to pin the studio and their games to violent crimes perpetrated by people who played their games. But we won’t talk about that here.
Because Grand Theft Auto: Vice City built a simulacrum of a cultural hub in 1980s Miami, Rockstar risked offending actual minorities with their depictions in the game.
It wasn’t Latin Americans but Haitian-Americans who expressed their objections to their depictions as criminals. This issue was serious enough that Rockstar gave out a rare, but real, apology to Haitians.
Rockstar acquiesced even further when New York mayor Michael Bloomberg demanded they remove a line in the game that offended Haitians. This is all forgotten today, but Rockstar agreed to remove the line as well.
This all ultimately points to the success and legacy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, to the point that Rockstar broke through to the mainstream.
