Why can't Tommy Vercetti swim in the GTA Trilogy?

To the dismay of many fans, Tommy Vercetti still can't swim in the GTA Trilogy.

All three games within the GTA Trilogy are largely faithful to the original titles. In GTA Vice City Definitive Edition, it means that Tommy Vercetti still can't swim. It's disappointing to some fans, as they were hoping for more modern enhancements to these old games.

Vice City is a coastal city with large beaches. Hence, many were surprised back in the day to see Tommy Vercetti instantly drown when he got deep into the water. Some things never change, with one of them being that he still can't swim.

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Fans are underwhelmed as Tommy Vercetti can't swim in the GTA Trilogy

As players can see in the above YouTube video, Tommy Vercetti does the same drowning animation as he did nearly two decades ago. Likewise, Claude from GTA 3 still can't swim.

The original GTA Vice City manual stated:

"Shark attacks off Vice City happen a few times a year and there are more sharks out there than you would like to think - Best advice: Stay out of the water!"

However, it doesn't matter if the sharks are near Tommy Vercetti or not; he can't swim regardless of the setting.

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Staying faithful to the original GTA Vice City

Tommy couldn't swim then, either (Image via Rockstar Games)

The GTA Vice City portion of the trilogy doesn't deviate too much from the original title. There are a few quality-of-life changes, such as being able to restart missions and having a GPS feature instantly. Otherwise, it's the same old game as far as swimming goes.

It isn't just Tommy Vercetti who can't swim, nobody in Vice City can survive in the GTA Trilogy. Hence, any theory that talks about Tommy Vercetti forgetting how to swim because he was in prison for so long isn't relevant.

The fact is that the GTA Vice City portion of the trilogy doesn't have swimming as a mechanic. It also doesn't have some of the other quality-of-life features that San Andreas has, such as the ability to climb over walls and objects.

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Swimming mods

There are no swimming mods for Tommy Vercetti on day one (Image via Rockstar Games)

As the GTA Trilogy only recently came out, fans will have to wait a while until they can get mods to allow Tommy Vercetti to swim. There are mods for the original GTA Vice City, but they don't work with the GTA Trilogy at the moment.

Until then, players can either return to the original game to get a mod to let Tommy swim or wait for the GTA Trilogy modding scene to develop.