4 reasons why GTA Vice City is an underrated masterpiece

GTA Vice City is criminally underrated when it comes to discussions about the greatest GTA games.

More often than not, players tend to discuss GTA 5, GTA San Andreas, or even GTA 4. By comparison, gamers rarely bring up GTA Vice CIty when it comes to masterpieces within the franchise. This game is one of the oldest in the series, so it's easy to overlook.

However, many aspects of GTA Vice City still hold up well. Although it's an old game, it still makes several quality-of-life improvements over its predecessors. These simple improvements make it significantly more enjoyable to play. GTA Vice City perfectly encapsulates the old-school GTA experience that's largely missing from later titles.

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GTA Vice City deserves a lot more respect than it gets

4) The characters play their roles perfectly

GTA Vice City has an amazing cast of characters (Image via AndreiVercetti (DeviantArt))

Most characters in GTA Vice City have a memorable role. Ricardo Diaz's paranoid antics and the delinquent Love Fist are two examples of iconic characters. They have completely different personalities, yet they execute their role flawlessly.

The vast majority of these characters are similar in this regard. Any character who shows up more than once is bound to be remembered by the player. One cannot say the same for most video games of that era.

3) Tommy's rise to the top

Tommy Vercetti makes several, useful allies along the way (Image via Nodia Stories)

One of the greatest aspects of GTA Vice City is how Tommy Vercetti rises to power. Various GTA games handle this differently from one another, but GTA Vice City executes it most believably.

Tommy isn't given power out of nowhere. He starts the story as a low-level goon for Sonny Forelli and tries to build some connections in Vice City. Eventually, the player can acquire assets and become the kingpin of Vice City,

2) Excellent atmosphere from top to bottom

GTA Vice City looks and feels great from the beginning to the end (Image via Rockstar Games)

Some GTA games can have an inconsistent tone or several conflicting themes that make playing through the game feel sluggish at times. Fortunately, GTA Vice City is consistent in its simplicity.

Most gamers associate the game with the 80s. GTA Vice City indeed takes place in the 80s. It also does a remarkable job capturing the era, as the music and clothing are reminiscent of the 80s.

1) Introduced several quality-of-life updates

Bailing out of a moving vehicle is still used in GTA Online (Image via Rockstar Games)

It's easy to overlook how revolutionary GTA Vice City was for the time. Back in the day, GTA 3 single-handedly changed the industry. However, that game wasn't perfect. Many inconveniences only served to hinder future gamers from enjoying GTA 3.

GTA Vice City introduced several quality-of-life updates that GTA fans still love today:

1. Players can bail out of a moving car.
2. They can take a taxi to go back to a mission marker if they fail the mission.
3. There were more save points (from various assets and safehouses).

That's not even mentioning how players could look at the in-game map while playing GTA Vice City. In terms of new introductions, not many GTA games can claim they did more than GTA

Note: This article reflects the writer's personal views.