History YMMV / GrandTheftAutoViceCity

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: Conservative Christians. [[CorruptChurch Pastor Richards]] preaches to his flock that [[GreedyTelevangelist "selfishness is a virtue"]] (a parody of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_gospel "prosperity gospel"]] preached by many televangelists), has a harem of five mistresses, and is using donations sent by his listeners to build himself a mansion in UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}. Alex Shrub, meanwhile, is a corrupt congressman who is targeting the "[[MoralGuardians Puritan vote]]" and supports legislation to crack down on pornography, [[StrawHypocrite while secretly engaging in crossdressing and an affair with a porn star]].

** The original PC version features improved camera controls, allowing the standard WASD/mouse combo instead of the awkward "stand-still, auto aim" of the console version.

* EvilIsCool: Tommy Vercetti, who else? He is one of the few GTA protagonists who doesn't mind committing crimes, knows exactly what to do at almost any given moment, is an incredibly badass mobster, and doesn't let anyone stand on his way.

*** GoodBadBugs: In rare instances, a glitch may occur within your save file that gives you ''unlimited ammo'' for this gun, which can make breezing through enemy laden levels a cakewalk.
** The SPAS-12 Auto-Shotgun is no slouch either; It is able to empty its 7-round magazine in just over [[DescriptionPorn 1000 miliseconds]] allowing one to mow down a group of people, or [[MadeOfExplodium detonate a non-bullet-proof car]] in one magazine or even less. It isn't as versatile as the aforementioned riffle-class weapons, but damn is it still deadly.

* MisBlamed: There are some fans that disliked how Tommy had treated Lance and felt he was being selfish and not giving Lance a fair share while claiming the entire business as his own when in reality, Tommy had always treated Lance with loyalty and only berated him in one cutscene in "Bar Brawl", and that was only because Lance was lazing around instead of assisting Tommy with the job, as Lance was even expecting everything to be handed to him without actually earning it.

---> '''Tommy''': Hmm... Nice bike.
---> '''Biker''': No, my bike!

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: Conservative Christians. [[CorruptChurch Pastor Richards]] preaches to his flock that "selfishness is a virtue" (a parody of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_gospel "prosperity gospel"]] preached by many televangelists), has a harem of five mistresses, and is using donations sent by his listeners to build himself a mansion in UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}. Alex Shrub, meanwhile, is a corrupt congressman who is targeting the "[[MoralGuardians Puritan vote]]" and supports legislation to crack down on pornography, [[StrawHypocrite while secretly engaging in crossdressing and an affair with a porn star]].

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: Conservative Christians. [[CorruptChurch Pastor Richards]] preaches to his flock that "selfishness is a virtue" (a parody of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_gospel "prosperity gospel"]] preached by many televangelists), has a harem of five mistresses, and is using donations sent by his listeners to build himself a mansion in UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}. Alex Shrub, meanwhile, is a corrupt congressman who is targeting the "[[MoralGuardians Puritan vote]]" and supports legislation to crack down on pornography, [[StrawHypocrite while secretly engaging in crossdressing and an affair with a porn star]].

* BadassDecay: Lance Vance gradually becomes less chill and more {{Wangst}}y the more he appears in the game.
* BestLevelEver:

* IdiotPlot: The entire Malibu bank heist plotline. Not only are the people you hire for this job practically useless (except for Phil Cassidy, who later supplies high-powered weapons not available in Ammu-Nation stores), as Tommy would've been able to singlehandedly hit the bank, but for no reason at all, Tommy has to challenge Hilary, who is driving a muscle car, with a sedan (without any explanation), despite having a personal (technically it's Lance's) sports car ever since Tommy got the mansion and, by owning the far cheaper car showroom and running a car theft ring, having easy access to sports cars (even Hillary King's personal Sabre Turbo)!
** Not to mention how, by proving you can beat Hilary in a race with an inferior car, you're essentially proving you don't even need him in the first place! Sure enough, you end up having to do his job anyway.

* Porting Disaster: The Trilogy Definitive Edition... On the one hand, it backported the aforementioned Polished Port features to all console and PC versions of the game. On the other hand... See the YMMV page for the whole series for details.

* EvenBetterSequel: While ''GTA 3'' was already revolutionary when it came out, this game cranked everything UpToEleven; A larger map, the introduction of motorbikes, controllable helicopters and planes, more weapons, a more colorful setting, improvement to graphics, gameplay, actual high quality 80's music fills the radio, and a more coherent plot with one of the series' most memorable protagonists (who, [[HeroicMime for the first time]], actually ''had'' a personality).

*** Some view Tommy Vercetti as a [[PsychoForHire needlessly callous, cold-blooded maniac]]. He absolutely feels no remorse for killing Sonny Forelli, who is portrayed almost like a family figure for Tommy. He has a KickTheDog moment when he smugly accepts [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Mitch Baker's]] challenge to go on a rampage across downtown, meaning the [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential shoot-outs the player embarks on outside of missions]] are completely [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration in-character]] for the guy. Tommy's ruthlessness makes later protagonists like CJ and even Niko Bellic seem LighterAndSofter by comparison. That is, until [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Trevor Philips]] was introduced, who is every bit as psychotic as Tommy is, if not more so. The crucial difference between the two, however, is that Trevor is genuinely mentally ill. Foes it excuse the things he does? No, but Tommy does all that without that slight AlasPoorVillain air that Trevor's broken mind does.

*** Some view Tommy Vercetti as a [[PsychoForHire needlessly callous, cold-blooded maniac]]. He absolutely feels no remorse for killing Sonny Forelli, who is portrayed almost like a family figure for Tommy. He has a KickTheDog moment when he smugly accepts [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Mitch Baker's]] challenge to go on a rampage across downtown, meaning the [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential shoot-outs the player embarks on outside of missions]] are completely [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration in-character]] for the guy. Tommy's ruthlessness makes later protagonists like CJ and even Niko Bellic seem LighterAndSofter by comparison. That is, until [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Trevor Philips]] was introduced, who is every bit as psychotic as Tommy is, if not more so.
*** The crucial difference between the two, however, is that Trevor is genuinely mentally ill, does it excuse the things he does? No, but Tommy does all that without that slight AlasPoorVillain air that Trevors broken mind does.
** Lance Vance -- a {{jerkass}} who betrayed Vercetti simply because he was a greedy bastard? Or, perhaps, his tragic life and drug use made him feel compelled to betray his comrade, with Tommy dressing him down publicly before "Bar Brawl" and giving a BackhandedApology afterwards not helping matters? Given the kind of person he was in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories'', it's most likely a case of both, since while he did deal with a lot of problems in the aforementioned game, a lot of them were kickstarted by him because of his stupidity.

** "Death Row", which is easily the most hated mission next to racing Hilary. To explain, you now know that Diaz is the one that messed up your deal at the beginning of the game. Tommy is content to wait it out, but Lance, like an idiot, [[LeeroyJenkins jumps the gun and gets himself captured]]. You have to rescue him before he's beaten to death. You have to do this starting at the Malibu, while Lance is being held at the dump on the other side of the map. His remaining health [[TimeBomb is your timer]], and starts right away. Sounds annoying yet? Good, because [[FromBadToWorse it gets worse]]. The dump is barricaded by mooks armed with automatic rifles and high-powered machine guns which will chew through even an armored Tommy or a helicopter if you do a flyover. They're positioned high up on cover to make killing them harder and more time-consuming. Once you rescue Lance, you have to get him to the hospital, which is when three sports cars with goons decide to chase you down. If you blow them up, a fourth comes along. It also respawns (albeit slowly). On top of ''all of that'', there's literally no reward. You don't get paid jack for one of the hardest missions in the game. Perhaps to make up for it, Diaz's mooks drop the largest amount of lootable money, the next mission gives you the most powerful assault rifle in the game, and is practically a cakewalk unless you're criminally incompetent thanks to not only Diaz's gang guarding the mansion are less frequent, but [[ArtificialStupidity they often fail to notice you if you far enough as well as having trouble navigating certain pathways to get to you]].

** Vice Street Racing (which you are eligible after purchasing the ownership of showroom), does not prohibit use of weapons. Also before even the racing starts you can blow up the competitors cars! And you can bring any car! Heck even without using weapons the rival cars have difficulty navigating the narrow and dense roads of the city and the separate car collection rewards is sufficiently fast to outrun the competition.

* EvenBetterSequel: While ''GTA 3'' was already revolutionary when it came out, this game cranked everything UpToEleven; A larger map, the introduction of motorbikes, controllable helicopters and planes, more weapons, a more colorful setting, improvement to graphics, gameplay, actual high quality 80's music fills the radio, and a more coherent plot.

* UncannyValley:
** Tommy Vercetti suffers from this during gameplay unlike in the cutscenes. When a cutscene plays, [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/gtawiki/images/a/ae/TommyVercetti-GTAVC.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100627123509 you'll see a higher-quality model of Tommy complete with facial expressions and blinking.]] But during the gameplay, [[http://www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Tommy-Vercetti-GTA-Vice-City-Ray-Liotta-1.jpg we'll have a low-poly version of Tommy]] which looks like it's recycled from Claude, the main protagonist of VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII, but [[NightmareFuel even more zombie-like.]]
** While all three of the ''[[CompilationReRelease Definitive Editions]]'' games' graphics [[BrokenBase are divisive among fans]], ''Vice City'' has it the worst in the eyes of the people who dislike them, claiming that characters look more like plastic dolls in its remaster than the other two.

** While all three of the ''[[CompilationReRelease Definitive Editions]]'' games' graphics [[BrokenBase are divisive among fans]], ''Vice City'' has it the worse in the eyes of the people who dislike them, claiming that characters look more like plastic dolls in its remaster than the other two.

** Patrol Invest Group members ([[FunWithAcronyms PIGs]] for short) can be quite the nuisance when doing the "Ice Cream" selling side missions. If they spot you, they will run up to you, pull you out of the vehicle and the mission will automatically end, forcing you to go all the way back to the Ice Cream factory and start the mission again, and to add insult to injury they begin shooting you when you are out of your vehicle. You are way better off avoiding Starfish Island for those sidequests.

** Love Juice. You start at the [=VRock=] HQ and have to head to a nearby location to meet a drug dealer. Upon meeting him, he then takes your money and runs, while a cutscene lets him escape on an incredibly fast PCJ-600 bike, while the game expects you to chase him down. If you aren't aware this is going to happen, you might not even be facing the right way, and you have about five seconds to follow him before the game declares the misison a failure. Once you take out the dealer, you get a call telling you to go and pick up Mercedes from her apartment to bring her to the gig before the band start playing. Once you pick her up, the game gives you an absurdly strict timer of only 1 minute and 20 seconds to get to the gig location. If you fail it (which you will if you don't know what's coming next), you do it all again. Chase down the dealer, pick up Mercedes, and drive like crazy to make it on time.

** Love Juice. You start at the [=VRock=] HQ and have to head to a nearby location to meet a drug dealer. Upon meeting him, he then takes your money and runs, while a cutscene lets him escape on an incredibly fast PCJ-600 bike, while the game expects you to chase him down. If you aren't aware this is going to happen, you might not even be facing the right way, and you have about five seconds to follow him before the game declares the misison a failure. Once you take out the dealear, you get a call telling you to go and pick up Mercedes from her apartment to bring her to the gig before the band start playing. Once you pick her up, the game gives you an absurdly strict timer of only 1 minute and 20 seconds to get to the gig location. If you fail it (which you will if you don't know what's coming next), you do it all again. Chase down the dealer, pick up Mercedes, and drive like crazy to make it on time.

** Petstuffers is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljnTwF64_y0&ab_channel=AnimalPlanet now a real thing]], thanks to Xtreme Taxidermy, the company documented on the AnimalPlanet series "American Stuffers".

* TheScrappy: Hilary is a major one for fans, not just for being a [[ThatOneLevel pain in the ass to recruit]], but ultimately failing in his mission by getting killed mere minutes into the heist and rendering his tedious level '''completely pointless'''.

** The race against [[TheScrappy Hillary King]]. You have to race him in the normal variant of the Sentinel while he uses a special version of the Sabre that is much faster. You can't steal a better car, assuming you could even find one, because the sedan is mission-critical. Even if it weren't, in the time it takes to stop your sedan and jack another vehicle, Hilary will either catch up to you and pull ahead (if you're fortunate enough to be in the lead) or put even more distance between the two of you. The VCPD try to arrest you, and ''only you'', for street racing. Assuming you get ahead (or fall behind), Hilary actually drives even better because game mechanics only spawn NPC traffic in relation to your car (the road is functionally empty from his POV). Finally, there's a glitch on the bridge near the end of the track that can happen on the [=PS2=] version which can cause you to clip through and fall to your watery death. This one mission has singlehandedly spawned countless pages of text on Website/GameFAQS consisting of ''nothing'' but every method and theory in the world to win it.

** Love Juice. You start at VRock HQ and have to head to a nearby location to meet a drug dealer. Upon meeting him, he then takes your money and runs, while a cutscene lets him escape on an incredibly fast PCJ-600 bike, while the game expects you to chase him down. If you aren't aware this is going to happen, you might not even be facing the right way, and you have about five seconds to follow him before the game declares the misison a failure. Once you take out the dealear, you get a call telling you to go and pick up Mercedes from her apartment to bring her to the gig before the band start playing. Once you pick her up, the game gives you an absurdly strict timer of only 1 minute and 20 seconds to get to the gig location. If you fail it (which you will if you don't know what's coming next), you do it all again. Chase down the dealer, pick up Mercedes, and drive like crazy to make it on time.

** Any enemy armed with a shotgun, as they can stun Tommy. Particularly the female gang guarding the plate Tommy needs to steal in one of the Print Works mission.

** After completing "Dirty Lickin's", Auntie Poulet cuts all ties with Tommy and thus the Haitian gang turns hostile to him. If they spot you they will begin to shoot you, whether that be on car or by foot. They are not difficult to take out by any means, but dealing with them also means taking the risk of gaining a one or two-star wanted level. If you are doing any Taxi Driver, Vigilante or "Ice Cream" selling side missions, you are better off avoiding Little Haiti and its surrondings unless you want to deal with these gang members and the subsequent police officers.

* IdiotPlot: The entire Malibu bank heist plotline. Not only are the people you hire for this job practically useless (except for Phil Cassidy, who later supplies high-powered weapons not available in Ammu-Nation stores), as Tommy would've been able to singlehandedly hit the bank, but for no reason at all, Tommy has to challenge Hillary, who is driving a muscle car, with a sedan (without any explanation), despite having a personal (technically it's Lance's) sports car ever since Tommy got the mansion and, by owning the far cheaper car showroom and running a car theft ring, having easy access to sports cars (even Hillary King's personal Sabre Turbo)!

** A prominent political figure having an affair with a porn star. [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump Now, why does this sound familiar]]?

** "The Psycho", Love Fist's LoonyFan, has just two scenes (one of which is entirely off-screen via a recording) but his LargeHam performance makes him easily the most memorable minor villain in the game.
---> I'll see Love Fist burn! Love Fist ruined my life!

* OneSceneWonder: The random biker who Tommy steals a bike from on his way to the yacht party at the start of the game. The hilariously blunt dialogue in that scene remains one of the game's most quoted moments, and the biker himself has a MemeticLoser reputation among fans.
--> '''Tommy''': Hmm... Nice bike.
--> '''Biker''': No, my bike!

* HarsherInHindsight: Tommy's deaths in the game have become this as his voice actor Ray Liotta died in May 2022.

* TakeThatScrappy: When Tommy kills [[spoiler:Lance]] for [[spoiler:betraying]] the former, hell yeah!