History VideoGame / GrandTheftAutoViceCity

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: If you're expecting the dialogue to be littered with [[ClusterFBomb F-bombs]], you're one game too early. The word is never used in dialogue, although it can be heard on a song and appears in some posters around the city.

* TooSlow: If you're too leisurely in chasing Diaz's traitorous employee on the rooftop, the youth will shout, "Too slow, grandad!" before shooting explosive barrels on your way and then leaping into his car.

* TheVamp: Not surprisingly, Candy Suxxx (voiced by famous porn star Jenna Jameson).

* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: The Flamethrower has stiff competition with other choices in your heavy weapon slot as it slows you down noticeably, lacks the range of the other heavy weapons, and may send your targets running at you on fire though getting set on fire yourself is not a problem if you complete the Firefighter missions for the fire-proof bonus. However, the need to waddle into range of {{mooks}} with more practical guns isn't good for your health, and it can't even destroy vehicles at a respectable rate like other weapons.

** The Chainsaw is a {{downplayed}} example. If you're in a heavy fire fight, normally you may want something with range and power like M60 or (if aiming it with keyboard and mouse) the Minigun because they can match the chainsaw's power at longer range and the Minigun has an absurd rate of fire. However, if you find a suitable vantage point where you can force enemies into melee, chances are, they'll wander right into your blade thanks to ArtificialStupidity, letting you have some fun with your chainsaw.

** The "super cop", a glitched police officer that has the ability to jump straight to the door of whatever vehicle you're driving in order to attempt an arrest, regardless of your location or speed. It doesn't matter if you're doing 70 on the street or flying in a helicopter, if the super cop spawns, he will fly to your location like Superman to arrest you. This can result in an instant arrest if you are missing a door or starting a chopper, though thankfully the guy gets tossed off as long as you've got momentum. A fun game is to find a really secluded area and run around in circles. You can catch the game spawning a super cop out of thin air into an area he couldn't have possibly gotten to if you're quick enough.

* DemotedToExtra: During the mission "The Party", all the characters that Mercedes introduce to Tommy will either give him missions and/or have a role in the plot later, the only exception is Pastor Richards, who is never seen again. It is implied that he would have been more proeminent in the storyline, but his voice actor died during the game production.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: 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 through the phone, and has him perform hits on the Cubans against his will after offering him a "cup of tea" which makes him lost his mind.

* BigBad: Sonny Forelli is the main antagonist of this game. You first find out [[spoiler:after he's pissed about you gaining businesses in Vice City and sends "tax collectors" to take a slice.]]

* BigBad: Sonny Forelli is the main antagonist of this game. You first find out [[spoiler:after he's pissed about you gaining businesses in Vice City and sends his henchmen in an attempt to destroy your empire]]

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: ...because of how the in-game time works (1 real minute is 1 hour in-game), Tommy actually takes up to 5 InUniverse hours to do the job. That's right, a single objective has both gameplay/story integration ''and'' segregation ''at the same time''.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: Though still challenging at spots, it's a much more forgiving game than ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII''. It's much easier to get around the map due to the addition of bikes and helicopters, the missions are generally more fair and the open-ended structure means that many of the ones that do qualify as ThatOneLevel can be skipped, [[ScrappyMechanic gang hostility]] is greatly toned down, and [[PermanentlyMissableContent there's no circumstances where missions or sidequests can disappear or become impossible to complete]], making OneHundredPercentCompletion much, much easier. %%invoked

** Although Tommy didn't explicitly sell or use drugs barring the "Adrenaline" powerup (which works more like a CaffeineBulletTime), the "Checkpoint Charlie" mission, where Tommy have to quickly collect white packages through series of checkpoints, is implied to be a drugrunning via boat. There is also the "Ice Cream" dealing, where the lady owner outright states that "we distribute other, non-dairy products", and any time "Ice Cream" was sold, gangs and the police will be hostile to you.

* 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. They did nothing but doing inane conversation and only very rarely had shoot-outs against police, security guard, or the Haitian Gang at the Kaufmann Cabs. [[BadBoss And you can kill them]] 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.

** Whenever Tommy purchases a new business, no matter how innocuous it seems on the surface, it ends up being a front for illegal activity. An ice cream factory? They use it to sell drugs. A cab company? They're in a literal war with a rival cab company. A printing press? The printer is a counterfeiter. Tommy only finds out about all of these after he buys the business. Note that, in the last example, Tommy actually ''wanted'' to run a legitimate business since his father was a printer and it reminded him of his childhood; the owner, an old friend, convinced him that counterfeiting was more profitable.

** Whenever Tommy purchases a new business, no matter how innocuous it seems on the surface, it ends up being a front for illegal activity. An ice cream factory? They use it to sell drugs. A cab company? They're in a literal war with a rival cab company. A printing press? The printer is a counterfeiter. Tommy only finds out about all of these after he buys the business. Note that, in the last example, Tommy actually wanted to run a legitimate business; the owner, an old friend, convinced him that counterfeiting was more profitable.

* AnachronismStew: Several cases of this happen in Vice City.

* TheDragon: [[spoiler: Lance Vance]] to Sonny.

** The Malibu crash (for lack of a better name), exclusive to the PC version (and possibly the [=PS2=] version as well), causes the game to immediately crash when nearing the vicinity of the Malibu. It's not known what causes it, but it causes the game to crash, saying "Error reading the Grand Theft Auto Vice City DVD."

* HardCodedHostility: After finishing the Cuban-Haitian gang war subplot, the Haitian gang will, four times out of five, attack you on sight. Fortunately they're confined on the Little Haiti areas and only armed with pistols.

* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: It's debatable how moral Tommy Vercetti was. But he definitely get one of these moments in the mission "Messing With The Man", killing civilians and causing destruction in the city.

* BigBad: Sonny Forelli.

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

* GaidenGame: Vice City (as well San Andreas and other future games until GTA IV, which rebooted the series) is not really a sequel to GTA III, but a side story to it. The reason for Vice City becoming this is most likely because it was initially planned to be an Expansion Pack to GTA III, with early game magazines announcements calling it "Grand Theft Auto III: Vice City".

** If you hadn't figured out that you need to press L3 (press down on the left analog stick) to turn on the ice cream truck's music by the time you attempt to do the "ice cream" selling side mission, you will pull your hair out trying to figure out how to get people to buy your goods. The controller scheme on the pause menu does not show this feature, nor does the game ever tell you this is what you need to do.
*** Even then, you have to sell 50 units in one sitting to unlock revenue, which the game never hints at. By then, most players give up on the mission and try something else thinking that they're missing something.

* HardCodedHostility: After finishing the Cuban-Haitian gang war subplot, the Haitian gang will, four times out of five, attack you on sight. Fortunately they're confined on the Little Haiti areas and only armed with pistol.

* HotterAndSexier: Of all the GTA sequels, this was the first to have girls with bikini on the beaches. And even one of them appears on the game poster.

* LoopholeAbuse: Due to the way checkpoints and the like work, some missions could be performed in unintended vehicles. For example, the "G-Spotlight" mission expects you to use a motorcycle to jump from roof to roof, but these same stunts can be done with a helicopter, making the mission a lot easier.

* ObviousRulePatch: After how easy it was to evade the police in VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII by merely respraying your vehicle, beginning in this game, your wanted level gets suspended after a respray. Any crimes committed whilst it's suspended will reinstate your wanted level.

* PermanentlyMissableContent: One of the locations where you can get a Katana for free becomes unavailable after the mission "Cop Land"; it's hidden inside a cafe that gets destroyed as part of that mission. One still spawns inside the garage next door to the mansion on Starfish Island, though.

* SequenceBreaking: Using a helicopter to land on the markers in "G-spotlight", as well as [[spoiler: skipping the part where you have to chase Lance up the roof if you shoot him with minigun.]]

* VideoGameCaringPotential: Several times when walking or driving by you may notice cops chasing perps who aren't you for once, and you can even help them catch the guy. Not only is it the only time you won't be penalized for punching someone in front of a cop, you'll even be rewarded for aiding them.

* VillainProtagonist: Tommy Vercetti is arguably the most violent and sociopathic protagonist in the entire [=GTA=] series (at least until the arrival of Trevor Phillips in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA V]]'').

* ExpyCoexistence: Despite the titular city being heavily modeled after the city of Miami, a billboard reading "Move over, Miami!" appears in the game, suggesting that the real life Miami, Florida still exists in the game's universe as a separate city. This also makes the references to Miami in ''Grand Theft Auto III'' less jarring.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: If you're expecting the dialogue to be littered with [[ClusterFBomb F-bombs]], you're one game too early. At no point does the word get used.