GTA Vice City is a beautiful game regardless of its pre-2005 textures and wonky character models. Despite the technology that was available during the time of development, GTA Vice City still managed to hold up quite well purely on the back of its immaculate art style.
The dated textures, character models and effects only add to the charm of the game by giving it the 80s aesthetic. However, to many players, the graphics of the game in its original form stand in the way of their gaming experience.
Therefore, the use of mods will allow them to mitigate some of the issues by improving the graphics of the game in certain areas. Here are some mods that can help make GTA Vice City look much better.
5 best GTA Vice City graphics mods of all time
#1 ENB Series by FORD LTD LX V 2.0
This mod is as comprehensive as it gets on GTA Vice City as it re-works all the textures and effects in the game to deliver a brilliant visual experience. While it wouldn't be that much of a leap on first viewing, the mod will show its complete effects as users keep playing the game.
This mod works a fine balance and does not go overboard with the reflections and other such effects in the game.
At times, graphics mods can go overboard and then inadvertently become a distraction. However, this mod maintains some amount of restraint, and all the effects are done in moderation.
#2 Improved Graphics
This is yet another mod that takes all the textures in the game and polishes them to a greater degree to make them look better.
In addition to textures, this mod also enhances the effects present in GTA Vice City such as blood, fog, and even rain. This helps with immersion in the game as the player will not be distracted by dated effects while playing.
While this mod isn't completely revolutionary, it does enough to make the game look better.
#3 New Effects
As the name suggests, the "New Effects" mod replaces previous effects for explosions, blood spatter and fog and enhances them to a greater degree in GTA Vice City.
While it isn't a complete departure or a huge technological leap from the original build, it is still is quite the mod.
It makes the game feel much more realistic as the somewhat cartoonish effects, like that of blood splatter, can really take away from the game's immersion value.
This mod does a fair job of replacing old effects with slightly better ones.
#4 GTA VC IceEnhancer
This is another mod that takes a comprehensive look at Vice City and enhances several textures and effects. From the water to the palm trees, no effect or texture goes unnoticed in this mod.
The IceEnhancer feels very much like a collection of several different mods to create one giant, comprehensive mod for GTA Vice City. While a memory update would certainly help the game make use of newer hardware, this mod does a great job by working with what is currently available.
#5 HD Effects
When GTA Vice City was released, HD textures weren't really a thing, let alone 4K. The game is nearly 18 years old at this point and will obviously show its age when compared to games of today.
However, with the use of this mod, players can at least get a feel of how the game might have looked on the PS3 with an HD Remaster. Hopes are extremely high for Rockstar to one day give Vice City the HD or 4K treatment but until then, this mod will have to do.