History VideoGame / GrandTheftAutoViceCity

* HypocriticalHumor: A good chunk of the guests on VCPR's "Pressing Issues" flat out contradict themselves.

--> '''Barry''': My mother understood I was special! She made me wear a bonnet as a child. And when I demanded to go to school naked, she was fine with it! After social service moved me she was still right to me. I still remember when she kissed me goodbye.

--> '''Barry''': My mother understood I was special! She made me wear a bonnet as a child. And when I demanded to go to school naked,
she was fine with it! After social service moved me she was still right to me. I still remember when she kissed me goodbye.

* BankRobbery: The focus of the Malibu Club missions is to recruit a safecracker, marksman, and getaway driver, who are each a little... [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits eccentric]], in order to pull a heist on a local bank. [[ItsUpToYou They contribute absolutely squat to the actual heist.]]
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: After Tommy decides to set up a lucrative business relationship with the Cuban gang, Auntie Poulet; a matriarch of the Haitian gang [[MobWar (which is at war with the Cubans)]] manages to get a hold of him, [[HollywoodVoodoo drugs him with some strange voodoo potions]] and has him perform hits on the Cubans against his will.

* FlashbackToCatchphrase: We learn the origin of Donald Love's "Nothing brings down real easte prices like an old-fashioned gang war" koan.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: InUniverse and PlayedForLaughs. Radio commercials for the Ammu-Nation gun stores refer to RedDawn [[DaydreamBeliever as a documentary]].

* CoolBike : The very first GTA III-era game to feature them. [[hottip:*:Also, the first to feature [[CoolPlane accessible helicopters, or indeed, any useful air transport]], not counting the barely-airborne and aptly-named Dodo in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII''.]]

*** That or the RedScare was in full effect during [[TheEighties the game's setting]].

* LivingLegend: Tommy Vercetti was sent to Vice City because, as "The Harwood Butcher", he was too hot for Liberty City.

* NoodleIncident: Tommy's 'Harwood Butcher' incident.

* LetsPlay: Done by your [[http://www.freelanceastronauts.com/games.php?id=2 friendly neighborhood]] FreelanceAstronauts.

* AbandonShip: The first ''GrandTheftAuto'' game to feature the ability to leap out of a moving vehicle. Especially useful when heading [[CarFu into a crowd of enemies]], nearing [[SuperDrowningSkills a body of water]], or escaping [[EveryCarIsAPinto from a burning car]].

* ChildHater: The owner of the ice cream factory. Which is funny considering the lack of children in any ''GTA'' game.

* TheNapoleon: Ricardo Diaz. Seeing as he's also Vice City's most prolific drug lord, [[spoiler: (before Tommy kills him, that is)]] this also overlaps with MisterBig.

* PhonyVeteran: It's in this game wherein [[AscendedExtra Phil Cassidy]]'s military past (among other things, like his tax returns) is revealed to be a fraud.

* RetCon: Phil Cassidy loses his arm in a different way than he said he lost it in ''III'', and he couldn't have been ''that drunk''. Not a "hard" Ret Con since Cassidy is shown as being a military fanatic who turned an embarrassing story into another aspect of his fantasy.

** The game's biggest reference to {{Scarface}} aside from {{Expy}} Tommy Vercetti has got to be the [[CoolHouse lavish Diaz Mansion]]/[[spoiler: Vercetti Estate]], mirroring Tony's mansion in the film. The final mission, a shootout that takes place in it is pretty much a reenactment of the film's finale, [[spoiler: except Tommy doesn't die]].

** In Tommy's hotel room at the start of the game, there is a poster of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' protagonist Claude. When Tommy finally meets Candy Suxxx, teaser posters of her films are added to his room's wall, revealing them to be [[ParallelPornTitles porn ripoffs]] of ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' and ''{{Close Encounters Of The Third Kind}}''.
** Triggering a Vigilante Mission inside a [[DeathFromAbove Hunter]] [[CoolPlane attack helicopter]] changes the text prompt informing you that you've started a Vigilante Mission to an announcement saying [[Film/{{BlueThunder}} Brown Thunder]]!

* TakeThat: One mission has Tommy being hired to kill a group of would-be bank robbers whose names resemble those of the protagonists from rival crime-sandbox games like ''[[{{TrueCrimeStreetsOfLA}} True Crime: Streets Of LA]]'', ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Getaway_(video_game) The Getaway]]'' and the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver_(series) Driver series]]''.

* VanInBlack: Starting with this game, once you reach five wanted stars, the FBI no longer chase you with flimsy, poorly-handling sedans, but with supercharged all-black Chevy Suburbans, [[LightningBruiser which are as fast as they are durable]] and will easily rip you to shreds if you're cruising the streets in anything less than [[TankGoodness a tank]]. They have since only made a return in ''[[GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'' and ''[[GrandTheftAutoChinatownWars Chinatown Wars]]''.

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: So, you've taken down that sleazeball Ricardo Diaz, avenged Lance's brother, gotten Tommy's money back, and taken over Diaz's coke empire? Great! Now you're ready for the second half of ''Vice City''.

* OnlySaneMan: Tommy, ''relatively'' speaking, seeing as how he's still a ruthless killer.

** Triggering a Vigilante Mission inside a [[DeathFromAbove Hunter]] [[CoolPlane attack helicopter]] changes the text prompt informing you that you've started a Vigilante Mission to an announcement saying [[{{BlueThunder}} Brown Thunder]]!

A year after ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' tore up the gaming world, Rockstar topped it with the sequel, ''Grand Theft Auto: Vice City''. Unlike its predecessor, ''Vice City'' features a full-fledged protagonist in Tommy Vercetti; Tommy is a {{Mook}} who was too hot for Liberty City, having spent fifteen years in jail for killing eleven people during a job to assassinate one man in the neighborhood of Harwood (earning him the nickname "The Harwood Butcher"). The Forelli family knows he'll make trouble again if he's allowed to roam Liberty City unchecked, so they send him down to [[OnlyInMiami Florida's Vice City]] to keep him out of the way -- and to get into the new "businesses" growing there.

Things don't turn out well on Tommy's first job. He's betrayed by one of the Vice City bosses; left without any money (or the cocaine that he had been sent to purchase), and has Sonny Forelli breathing down his neck for the failure. Tommy's new mission is to get even with those who set him up...and possibly carve out a criminal empire of his own.

''Vice City'' takes place in 1986, and Rockstar did its best to capture the look and feel of that time -- or at least [[HollywoodHistory how it looked in]] ''MiamiVice''. (It helps that the game had [[AwesomeMusic a killer '80s soundtrack]] to go with it.)

!!Distinct tropes of this game:

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: On top of what you can normally do in the series, once you establish your big hideout [[spoiler: by taking down Ricardo Diaz and taking his mansion for your own]], you can have a RedshirtArmy of {{mook}}s for yourself. [[BadBoss Which you can kill]] for a [[RewardingVandalism quick cash boost and pistol ammo]]. The game will [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment punish you]] if you kill enough of them by bumping up your wanted levels, just at a slower pace compared to other targets of your trigger happiness.

----

''Vice City'' takes place in 1986, and Rockstar did its best to capture the look and feel of that time -- or at least [[HollywoodHistory how it looked in]] ''MiamiVice''. (It helps that the game had a killer '80s soundtrack to go with it.)

** In Tommy's hotel room at the start of the game, there is a poster of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' protagonist Claude. When Tommy finally meets Candy Suxxx, teaser posters of her films are added to his room's wall, revealing them to be [[ParallelPornTitles porn ripoffs]] of ''{{Jaws}}'' and ''{{Close Encounters Of The Third Kind}}''.

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: So, you've taken down that sleazeball Ricardo Diaz, avenged Lance's brother, gotten Tommy's money back, and taken over Diaz's coke empire? Great! Now you're ready for [[XenSyndrome the second half]] of ''Vice City''.

* ChildHater: The owner of the ice cream factory. Which is funny considering the lack of children in any ''GTA'' game. Thank goodness.

* HeroicSociopath: Tommy Vercetti is a very pure example.

A year after ''GrandTheftAutoIII'' tore up the gaming world, Rockstar topped it with the sequel, ''Grand Theft Auto: Vice City''. Unlike its predecessor, ''Vice City'' features a full-fledged protagonist in Tommy Vercetti; Tommy is a {{Mook}} who was too hot for Liberty City, having spent fifteen years in jail for killing eleven people during a job to assassinate one man in the neighborhood of Harwood (earning him the nickname "The Harwood Butcher"). The Forelli family knows he'll make trouble again if he's allowed to roam Liberty City unchecked, so they send him down to [[OnlyInMiami Florida's Vice City]] to keep him out of the way -- and to get into the new "businesses" growing there.

* CoolBike : The very first GTA III-era game to feature them. [[hottip:*:Also, the first to feature [[CoolPlane accessible helicopters, or indeed, any useful air transport]], not counting the barely-airborne and aptly-named Dodo in ''GrandTheftAutoIII''.]]

** In Tommy's hotel room at the start of the game, there is a poster of ''GrandTheftAutoIII'' protagonist Claude. When Tommy finally meets Candy Suxxx, teaser posters of her films are added to his room's wall, revealing them to be [[ParallelPornTitles porn ripoffs]] of ''{{Jaws}}'' and ''{{Close Encounters Of The Third Kind}}''.