Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories – Initial Impressions

 

Got a few hours down into GTA:VCS today. So far, it’s pretty good:

• You can change the control scheme to use the dpad for movement and aiming instead of the analog nub. THANK GOODNESS.
• There’s some hints that they’ve listened to critiques about the GTA series (in general) and maybe have taken from Saints Row (though given the release of that with the development time, I’m guessing they had similar ideas). When you end up at a hospital, you have the taxi to take you back to the last mission (as from GTA:VC), as well as the option to buy back the weapons you had before you entered the hospital for a ‘small fee’. There’s several facilities that you want to take over; to do that, you need to do several missions for them which will increase your reputation with that facility, and will earn you more cash on a daily basis (no more running between all the properties you own to collect this as well).
• You start near the airport (effectively the complete opposite side of the city), so you get to explore this area more. Unfortunately, the entire map is not open at the start, but save for going into or out of buildings, I’ve yet to hit a loading screen while just driving around.
• Most of the missions have been the same-old, same-old. Nothing yet really ‘new’.

Still got a ways to go on the game, but so far no annoying accurate aiming missions yet like an early one in GTA:LCS.