Never gets old...
Vercetti is tasked with retrieving the money and cocaine and killing whoever was responsible for the ambush.[7] Towards this end, he follows leads of Forelli lawyer Ken Rosenberg and contacts mid-level drug dealer and ex-military Colonel Juan Garcia Cortez, British record producer Kent Paul, real estate mogul Avery Carrington and a local criminal named Lance Vance.[8] Vance is eventually revealed to be helping Vercetti as his brother and business partner was the dealer killed in the ambush, and he too is seeking revenge.[9] Vercetti subsequently begins to do jobs for Cortez before being hired by Ricardo Diaz, a Colombian Drug Lord.[10]
Suspicion for the ambush ultimately falls upon Diaz. Vercetti initially plans to continue the status quo to prepare for his own attack, but his hand is forced when Lance Vance attempts to take revenge himself. The two proceed to raid Diaz's mansion and kill him in his office. With Diaz dead, his empire quickly crumbles. Tommy and Lance personally take over Diaz's businesses becoming Vice City's cocaine kingpins and seizing the assets of several near-bankrupted companies.
Tommy becomes the head of his own organization, the Vercetti Gang. The more powerful and rich Tommy becomes, the more Lance begins to exhibit paranoid and sociopathic behaviors, to the point that he begins to physically abuse his own bodyguards and constantly calls Tommy in states of hysteria.
The Forellis find out that Tommy has taken over crime in Vice City without sending a cut to the don as required. The Forellis send collectors to force money out of Tommy's assets, although Tommy disposes of them. An angered Sonny Forelli arrives in Vice City with a small army of mafiosi and street thugs, intent on wiping out Tommy once and for all. When Sonny and his henchmen arrive at the Vercetti Estate, Tommy attempts to bribe them with counterfeit money. However, Lance, having come to resent Tommy's substantial share of their profits, betrays Tommy and allies himself with the Forellis. In the game's climax -- a pastiche on the end of the Brian De Palma film Scarface -- Lance, Sonny, and Sonny's henchmen raid Tommy's mansion. Tommy kills Lance on the roof and storms downstairs where he faces off with Sonny. Sonny reveals he is the one who set Tommy up and had him kill the eleven men who were expecting him. Tommy faces off against Sonny in a large, climatic gun battle, eventually killing him as well. His enemies vanquished, Tommy establishes himself as the undisputed crime kingpin of Vice City, with Ken Rosenberg, who has worked with Tommy throughout the events of the game, as his right-hand-man.
[edit] Themes and inspiration
Many themes are borrowed from the films Scarface and Carlito's Way, along with the hit 1980s television series Miami Vice. Vice City also parodies and pays tribute to much of 1980s culture in the cars, music, fashion, landmarks, and characters featured in the game. After much advertisement of the game, the song "I Ran (So Far Away)" by A Flock of Seagulls became the known signature theme of the game.
Ricardo Diaz's opulent mansion and the climactic battle which takes place in it at the story's end, are very similar to their counterparts in Scarface.[11] Another reference is the game's overall storyline, as it is highly similar to the film, as is the design of the final mission. There are also more subtle references, such as an apartment hidden within the game with blood on the bathroom walls and a chainsaw (in a nod to the film's "chainsaw torture" scene).[11] Additionally, the "Mr. Vercetti" suit players receive when purchasing a local strip club bears a striking resemblance to Tony Montana's.
Most of the characters wear the then-fashionable white or pastel linen suits and, mirroring many episodes of Miami Vice, much of the storyline takes place in a glamorous Miami mansion and features a speedboat chase. In fact, if the player's "wanted level" reaches three stars, an undercover sports car (called a Cheetah) strongly resembling a Ferrari Testarossa, which is featured prominently in Miami Vice, joins the police in chasing the player; the occupants of the sports car are two undercover police officers resembling the Miami Vice main characters (Crockett and Tubbs) in both skin tone and dress.
The Cuban and Haitian gang member uniforms are heavily based on clothes worn by two extras in a scene of the pilot episode of Miami Vice where Tubbs first arrives at Miami International Airport.