Number 53: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Rockstar 2002
Intro:
Rockstar must really love themselves, as their logo splashes are long and uninterruptable. The credits roll with some music at the start, while game footage plays through shapes, but this is interruptable. Then you load for a while, probably thirty or so seconds. The stories animated introduction says little about Tommy Vercetti's past, but establishes enough: the player is in a sticky situation in a hostile city, and must work his way in.
Getting Going:
Most of the key controls are explained, and the player's first experience in control is learning how to drive. Controls are a little sloppy feeling right from the start. The player's destinations are made clear by the mini-map, and early fights are easy enough to allow for the player to screw up a little.
Fun:
The most fun I had was in screwing around, instead of completing tedious missions to uncover a less-than-satisfying story. Having the whole city to myself, and choosing to obey traffic laws for a difference, felt more rewarding than buying new save points for a while. As I progressed, though, the experience became much more rewarding (moving out of the starting save point was a big turning point for this). Even then, though, the most satisfaction came from going nuts and just screaming around town in whatever I could get my hands on, seeing just how long I could evade the police.
Visuals:
The graphics aren't terribly impressive, but the size of the city and the variation from building to building (as in the attention to detail) was extremely impressive. While the models are pretty ugly, the population is present enough to keep things from seeming too strange. Each vehicle is well modeled. Animations are less than stellar, often appearing very jerky and unnatural.
Intelligence:
All enemies run on simplistic convergence, and stop only once the player is within striking range. They don't react much, if at all, to being attacked. Civilians will run at the first sign of trouble, or else they'll fight the player to the death, often with their fists despite the fact the player is waving a gun at them. Boo.
Immersion:
The music and jewel-tone visuals of the 80's do a good job at keeping the player focused, and the general lack of obvious load times helps a lot. The day-to-night progression, the conversations of others, and the general "life" the population has without the main character is satisfyingly similar to real life. If it weren't for the immersion, players such as myself wouldn't be interested in playing around the city like we are. The immersion is strong enough to make me forget how sloppy the controls are...
Cameras:
The camera does it's job admirably, though not wonderfully. I wish I could control the camera with the right stick, instead of using that to look around in first person perspective.
Control:
Sloppy. Very twitchy, imprecise, and sloppy. But most of the features of the game are similarly underdone, so it almost gets away with being part of a well unified design. Car driving feels a lot more precise than the other controls, though, and shows where the developers spent the most time.
Ideas:
Giving the player the option to progress is still a strong design aspect: the player can choose to learn the city, instead of being forced through a rail-ride. The player can choose to practice driving, choose strange out-of-the-way side missions, make cash through mugging or taxi driving, whatever, which is useful when the missions just get too tedious (as they often do). Allowing the player to change the characters clothes is a neat touch, too.
Memory:
Despite the frustrating(!) controls, the game is a lot of fun to play mostly due to the freedom it gives the player, but helped by the tongue-in-cheek humor compounded by the nostalgia factor. The game allows for lots of highly personal Holy-Shit moments that have nothing to do with the story. Despite technical shortcomings, the game's pure fun factor makes it a blast to play.
Rockstar must really love themselves, as their logo splashes are long and uninterruptable. The credits roll with some music at the start, while game footage plays through shapes, but this is interruptable. Then you load for a while, probably thirty or so seconds. The stories animated introduction says little about Tommy Vercetti's past, but establishes enough: the player is in a sticky situation in a hostile city, and must work his way in.
Getting Going:
Most of the key controls are explained, and the player's first experience in control is learning how to drive. Controls are a little sloppy feeling right from the start. The player's destinations are made clear by the mini-map, and early fights are easy enough to allow for the player to screw up a little.
Fun:
The most fun I had was in screwing around, instead of completing tedious missions to uncover a less-than-satisfying story. Having the whole city to myself, and choosing to obey traffic laws for a difference, felt more rewarding than buying new save points for a while. As I progressed, though, the experience became much more rewarding (moving out of the starting save point was a big turning point for this). Even then, though, the most satisfaction came from going nuts and just screaming around town in whatever I could get my hands on, seeing just how long I could evade the police.
Visuals:
The graphics aren't terribly impressive, but the size of the city and the variation from building to building (as in the attention to detail) was extremely impressive. While the models are pretty ugly, the population is present enough to keep things from seeming too strange. Each vehicle is well modeled. Animations are less than stellar, often appearing very jerky and unnatural.
Intelligence:
All enemies run on simplistic convergence, and stop only once the player is within striking range. They don't react much, if at all, to being attacked. Civilians will run at the first sign of trouble, or else they'll fight the player to the death, often with their fists despite the fact the player is waving a gun at them. Boo.
Immersion:
The music and jewel-tone visuals of the 80's do a good job at keeping the player focused, and the general lack of obvious load times helps a lot. The day-to-night progression, the conversations of others, and the general "life" the population has without the main character is satisfyingly similar to real life. If it weren't for the immersion, players such as myself wouldn't be interested in playing around the city like we are. The immersion is strong enough to make me forget how sloppy the controls are...
Cameras:
The camera does it's job admirably, though not wonderfully. I wish I could control the camera with the right stick, instead of using that to look around in first person perspective.
Control:
Sloppy. Very twitchy, imprecise, and sloppy. But most of the features of the game are similarly underdone, so it almost gets away with being part of a well unified design. Car driving feels a lot more precise than the other controls, though, and shows where the developers spent the most time.
Ideas:
Giving the player the option to progress is still a strong design aspect: the player can choose to learn the city, instead of being forced through a rail-ride. The player can choose to practice driving, choose strange out-of-the-way side missions, make cash through mugging or taxi driving, whatever, which is useful when the missions just get too tedious (as they often do). Allowing the player to change the characters clothes is a neat touch, too.
Memory:
Despite the frustrating(!) controls, the game is a lot of fun to play mostly due to the freedom it gives the player, but helped by the tongue-in-cheek humor compounded by the nostalgia factor. The game allows for lots of highly personal Holy-Shit moments that have nothing to do with the story. Despite technical shortcomings, the game's pure fun factor makes it a blast to play.