I've been an avid fan of the GTA franchise since the days of the original 2D environments. When GTA III introduced us to a living breathing 3D Liberty City, I suddenly became sick with a cold and let my boss know I wouldn't be in for a couple of days. When Vice City came out I found myself in the throws of a terrible flu that just wouldn't let up until I had built Tommy Vercetti's criminal empire. San Andreas, arguably the most expansive title in the series, had me lined up on release day, but seemed to lack a lot of the character of Vice City. To this day I rest at 60% completion, mainly due to the sheer amount of content in that game, but more than that, it just felt like it was missing that special immersive quality that designers seemed able to infuse into VC so effortlessly. I've always believed that Rockstar's decision to set that GTA in the materialistic decade of the 1980's was nothing short of genius, mainly because it tickled the nostalgic bones of the game's key demographic. What could be better for a male gamer in his mid-twenties than committing vehicular homicide with Flock of Seagulls blaring on the surround sound? For me it stands out as the best GTA title to date if you simply take into account that it was so fun to play and so immersive. Vice City Stories retains all of the character of the original Vice City, while introducing some gameplay innovations that add some depth to the game over and above its core content. While I may not have called in sick to play this one, but it's a drastic improvement over Liberty City Stories, which pretty much left me opting to go into the office on weekends.

This game is very much a GTA title from the standpoint of presentation. Vice City Stories gives up nothing in terms of quality in comparison to it's console predecessors, and simply blows away Liberty City Stories for content. LCS was very much a GTA title, but the lame story and music simply fell short. The story in VCS doesn't too fair much better, but it's passable, and easier to accept in light of the things Rockstar got right this time around; namely atmosphere and gameplay.

Players assume the role of Vic Vance, brother of Lance Vance, who most will remember as Tommy Vercetti's partner from the original Vice City. VCS is set a couple of years before the events of VC, where Vic finds himself penniless, left to fend for himself on the streets, discharged from the military after getting caught stashing dope in his barracks for a crooked officer. Vic has a sick relative who, of course, needs a fat wad of cheddar to cure his illness. So our buddy Vic then resolves, reluctantly, to work his way up VC's criminal ranks, supposedly cringing with every drive-by and squashed pedestrian on his way to raise some dough for his ailing bro. The play for empathy by the narrative comes in the form of the its incessant need to convey that deep down, "Vic is just a good guy in a desperate situation..." Yeah, that's the ticket. I flat out didn't buy the whole "reluctant criminal with a heart of gold" angle. It's absurd to me that Vic, who is apparently this honorable person caught between a rock and hard place, who could be so conflicted about transporting a truck full of dope to its destination, then has absolutely no reservations about the body count he racks up getting it there. It was during these moments that couldn't help but wish that the protagonist was some mobster fresh out of the joint, or some nameless mute like in past titles. Thankfully, Vic's role as a martyr and the story's disconnect in logic ends pretty early on, but never quite goes away. Pretty soon, for the most part, Vic ends up as just another badass working his way up the ranks. I didn't love the characters, but they were way more interesting than those in LCS and certainly within the envelope of what you'd expect from GTA. As usual, you'll run into familiar faces from other games like the, aforementioned, Lance Vance, and Phil Cassidy, the redneck military drop out who befriends a freshly discharged Vic in the first missions of the game. It's somewhat of a passing novelty to see early events in the lives of characters from other GTA games, but none of this carries much weight. Gameplay innovations, on the other hand, really help this game stand out as one of the better titles in the GTA series.

Before I get to the good stuff, I'll hammer out the not so good stuff. There are glitches a plenty in this one. There are glitches with graphics, collision detection, audio, gameplay, you name it. Pop up, where objects don't appear until you've essentially crashed into them, has always been an issue with a game of this scope on more powerful platforms, but on the PSP they're far more frequent and pronounced. It just seems like the PSP becomes frequently taxed by the sheer amount of content it has to deliver on screen at once. Textures for roads, structures and vehicles pop in and out frequently regardless of the pace of the game action. Many times during the course of this game I hit invisible fences that would fade in long after I'd hit them. Vehicles in particular sometimes appear in front of me, leaving no time to react. It seems almost like the draw distance for vehicles would drop as the pace of the action increased, but I can't be sure. I adopted a sort of lowered pace to the game in order to preserve the frame rate and draw distance. Appearance wise, the graphics are quite good, in the context of this being a GTA game on the PSP, comparable to those of Vice City on the PS2. One thing I noticed was that characters have defined fingers now so it doesn't look like a bunch of humanoid gangster lobsters walking around. Even little details like the rims on certain cars and the animations of the NPC's in the game seem to have been refined. The neon lights are fantastic, the sunrise and set are fully intact.