Why the ability to swim would’ve made GTA Vice City Definitive Edition an even better game

When Rockstar announced the Definitive Edition GTA Trilogy, most players expected to see swimming mechanics in the first two games. However, once the games were released, players quickly realized how little the core gameplay mechanics had changed.

In the original trilogy, Rockstar left out the ability to swim in GTA 3 and Vice City simply due to a lack of time. However, since the Definitive Edition also lacks this feature, players are complaining that Rockstar is lazy and hasn't put much effort into their newest release. This article explores how the game would have benefitted from such a feature.

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How swimming mechanics could have enhanced the gameplay of GTA Vice City Definitive Edition

Vice City is based on Miami, the famous tropical city famous for its vibrant beaches and plentiful waterways. When the original game was released in 2002, most players expected it to feature a significant amount of water.

However, players discovered that when the protagonist of GTA Vice City comes into contact with water, he instantly begins to lose HP until he dies. The game did prioritize boats much more than its predecessor, but getting on one was a risky endeavor, considering Tommy could die even in waist-deep water.

When Rockstar announced the "Definitive Editions" of the 3D Universe titles, the naming alone led players to believe that this simple issue would be resolved. Swimming would be an excellent way to elude the cops or flee from aggressors. Players could also swim across the islands if they didn't have access to boats.

There have been a number of mods that have enabled swimming in Vice City. However, some modders went a step further and created unofficial remastered versions of the game. One of the first mods to do so was Vice City RAGE, which used the RAGE engine from GTA 4.

Vice Cry was another such mod, which recreated Vice City utilizing the RAGE engine from GTA 5, resulting in a much better-looking remaster. When Take Two began to remove some of these mods, most players expected them to deliver something of comparable quality to justify this aggression.

However, the final product has turned out to be far inferior than these unofficial mods. It seems to offer none of the benefits that these innovative mods did. Even if the bugs aren't taken into account, Rockstar didn't do much to improve the games, as even a simple swimming mechanic was not included.