This review is for people still on the fence.
Features of Vice City. Keep in mind that I haven't finished this game yet. I've put in about 20 hours, have access to both sides of VC, and own all potential business locations except one.
-Vic Vance now has grab moves including a throw and a neck snap. They're mostly useless against more than one enemy, but better than most of the melee weapons.
-Vic can swim, but only for a limited amount of time at first. When you get to the second island (the first island in the original) you can do Beach Patrol missions for endless stamina in the water. You can't dive.
-Empire mode is the biggest new addition, you can read about it more in depth in most other reviews. This mode gives VCS a stonger criminal element than the other GTA games, being that all of your business ventures require criminal activity. This mode is extremely violent and can turn your city into one giant warzone if you start pissing off the other gangs. More on this later.
-Sunshine autos is back in smaller form. Over the course of the game you will be able to buy vehicles here and participate in races. You do not get to own this property this time around.
-Hyman Memorial Stadium is back advertising a few events including a Phil Collins concert.
-There more indoor areas in VCS than in VC. Most are small stores that you will only decide to visit when it comes to your Protection Racket business. You can't buy anything (except at gun stores) but you can smash a few things before you leave. You can't hold up the store like in VC, but I did manage to scare $100 out of one owner.
-All your favorite radio stations are back with the exception of The Fever (funky dance music) which was replaced by Vice City for Lovers (R&B). All of the "white" stations have between 15-17 songs each (VROCK, Wave, Emotion) while the "minority" stations have between 8-11 (Espantoso, VCFL, Fresh). I was really hoping a more balanced tracklist being that the stations with the fewest songs are (and have always been) my favorites. Paradise is a new station featuring disco, it makes for great racing music. Vice City Public Radio is all talk and funny as ever. Overall I'd say this is the third best soundtrack in the series and would've been the second best (only to Vice City) with a balanced tracklist.
-The amusement park is mostly run down, but does have have a working ferris wheel at night. -Jet Skis are in VCS and are fun. So far, they have been pretty hard to find though. You can't do any tricks, nore can you nose dive or hop. VCS has a lot of water ways that you wouldn't have noticed in VC because they were not interactive. It definitely gives you a new perspective on the city as far as sightseeing.
-Helicopters are in and control well. The "little wille" will be available at one of your safehouses and comes equipped with machine guns. The air ambulance missions are fun, and give the helicopters some purpose other than just flying around. If you jump out of the helicopter, you WILL NOT have a parachute. As far as I know, there are no parachutes in VCS.
-The mall is back with many stores to roam about in. I've tried, but haven't been able to destroy any merchandise in the mall. There is no car on display as in VC, but there is a BMX bike . You can't take any vehicles in from outside.
-The club from VC is back, but you can't enter. There is not a strip club to be found. If you buy the High Roller Protection Racket business it will have one girl pole dancing. There are no bars that you can enter (outside of missions) and no casinos. Which means, no gambling or pool.
-I haven't been able to play any games at the golf course yet.
-Hidden packages are back in the form of red balloons. When you find one, shoot it. This makes them a lot easier to search for, being that you don't have to actually run over them to collect.
-Taxi cabs, ambulance, and vigilante missions are all back. This time around you won't have to do as many missions to get your reward (most of them top out at 15). There are check points for every 5 missions so you can come back and complete them later. This makes these modes a lot more accessible, so you don't have to be a total masochist to complete them.
There are some glitches in the game, here are the ones I've encounted. Keep in mind I haven't finished the game, and I've put in about 20 hours.
-Music will skip at times. -Vehicles will vanish at times when you go inside a building. One scooter I found (which I haven't been able to find since them) and put into my garage was gone.
-Your radio will inexplicably shut off.
-Menu navigation will put you somewhere you didn't select.
-Pop up generally isn't a big issue but I have ran into a tree that wasn't there, have seen people fall from the sky, and had trouble getting into the trailer park cause the fence wasn't visible.
-Empire related areas have difficulty loading. Sometimes you'll be ready to start a war and the rival gang's vehicle won't spawn. Or you'll need to either head inside your business, take a vehicle, or recruit some of your goons while it's all loading leaving you a sitting duck. One time my robbery business loaded up around me, trapping me in the pavement while one of my businesses was being attacked. I had to free myself with grenades. Also, you'll have a rival gang member get caught in place you can't reach (their blip on your map will flash) meaning you'll have to restart that mission.
-Two times I've had the game lock up on me to the point where I had to reset my PSP. Both times were coming out of sleep mode. My advice? Do not go in reverse (in a vehicle) directly coming from sleep mode.
-The framerate will be shaky at times, but it takes a dive in some indoor areas. You'll definitely see some slow down in the mall.
-Two times my game has slowed down (along with the framerate) to almost slow motion bullet time speed. It took a minute for it get back to normal.
I've heard a lot of gripes on the story, the on foot shooting, and the camera. The story arguments I've heard are completely invalid. Yeah, he was a good guy. Yeah, he's a bad guy now. Is that so unbelievable? Vic Vance is a great character (though not as good as Tommy or CJ) and the supporting characters are funny. The on foot shooting works well for the most part. When I'm taking over a business, it has no problem targeting gang members instead of random pedestrians. The camera can definitely be a problem though, as it tends to get wild when enemies get close to you, and when you're going up or down stairs.
Hopefully this will help any of you still deciding whether to buy this one or not. There's a lot of talk about the next PSP GTA game being set in San Andreas. I'd recommend that they set the next one in Las Venturas. Why? With all of the indoor areas available in VCS, I think Rockstar can use that space to make Las Venturas come alive. Complete with multi tiered themed casinos, bars, clubs, live shows.....anyone who's been to Vegas will know that the possibilities are endless. Also they could take some time to make more casino games available, like having different types of videopoker (deuces wild) or more modern slot machines. With The Warriors coming to PSP in December, it feels like my prayers have been answered once concerning Rockstar's choices. Let's hope GTA:LVS happens too.