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If you haven't read our Vice City preview we suggest you go do that before reading on as it'll give you a lead-in to this review (and we don't intend getting unnecessarily bogged down in background detail here!). What we will say though is that all our ranting about Vice City promising to be bigger and better than ever was justified. In other words - believe the hype because this game certainly lives up to it. Also a warning: be prepared to lose all your spare time, your girlfriend and quite possibly your job too (but oh, it's quite a sweet trade-off really!).

What we must also say though is that this is not GTA4. Oh, you noticed the omission of that number too? What that really means is that Vice City is actually more of an expansion of what was started in GTA3 than a true sequel or next major progression in the series. Although almost everything's been tweaked, improved and made bigger and more expansive the basic mechanics, game play style/mission structure, controls, graphics engine and "wanted" meter with its familiar stars are all pretty much the same. Having said that Vice City still does many things that GTA3 doesn't and with such style and badassness in its new setting that despite the familiarity there's still a lot of freshness and it will still impress you immensely as a massively enjoyable gaming experience.

As most of you reading this probably already know, the story this time takes place prior to events in GTA3, 1986 to be precise and in the fictional location of Vice City. The Miami-like city and 1980s setting are really what set this game apart from the last as the themes are exploited to the max and the cheesy, comical style permeates every sequence in the game to make it one hell of a fun ride. What you get then is retro style everywhere – clothes, hair, shops, and cars but by far the best example and the one that goes the furthest to creating the feel is the massive collection of full-length songs from the era that makes up the soundtrack. Anyone who grew up in the 80s watching the TV shows and listening to pop music of the time will certainly experience it all again here. Oh and the opening sequence of a Commodore 64 OS booting up a tape file is a bloody nice touch too!

This time around your playable character is Tommy Vercetti, a mobster who's just finished a 15 year stint in the Vice City penitentiary as a result of working for the Forelli Family. As a reward for not squealing while inside, the head of the family Sonny Forelli gives Tommy the chance to cash in on his first job – the purchase of a large amount of cocaine using a suitcase full of Family money. However, the job turns out to be an ambush that only Tommy and mob lawyer Ken Rosenberg survive leaving Tommy with no money, no cocaine and an angry mob boss breathing down his neck. The game starts with Tommy vowing to get back the money and drugs and to bring Sonny the "unmentionables" of those responsible! From then on it's up to you to work out who crossed you through a vast series of missions working for the various important characters in the game plus many other side jobs you encounter.

The characters you encounter include Rosenberg himself who guides you through the first few missions and to several of the others you'll meet plus important locations where for example you can get a change of clothes. Changing clothes by the way can be done at several locations and is invaluable for evading cops and for carrying out certain missions. Others you'll meet and/or work for include a retired Cuban colonel named Cortez, his daughter Mercedes, real estate dealer Avery Carrington, adult film producer Steve Scott, his star actress Candy Suxxx, Vice City Mamba's star player BJ Jones and drug baron Ricardo Diaz plus many more.

Missions are quite varied and there's piles more than in GTA3 with which Vice City shares its mix of open-ended gameplay and tightly scripted narrative. However it all seems a lot less linear this time around because not only are you performing tasks for others but you're also attempting to take over businesses and become a big name in Vice City for yourself. As a result the mission structure changes as the game progresses and some of them have multiple objectives requiring several different gameplay styles in the one mission. It's a very welcome approach and while some of the early missions are quite simple, the more complex later ones can be considerably longer and get rather hard, harder in fact than some you thought were tough in GTA3! Not to worry though, most just require a good bit of thought and planning. A nice little touch (there's heaps in this game!) and a slight relief is that if you get "wasted" mid-mission there'll be a taxi waiting outside the hospital or police station to take you back to the mission entry-point or thereabouts (for a small charge of course).

Taking over or purchasing businesses in the game as you progress making a name for yourself is perhaps the single biggest change to gameplay. These businesses open up a series of new missions that are directly related to the business itself and your character instead of someone else. It definitely adds a more free-flowing style to gameplay and makes you feel more like you're in control of your own destiny than in the past. Just remember to visit your businesses occasionally to pick up your profits! Oh and most of the properties you purchase also provide you with a further save point that will be closer to an important area than those you had earlier in the game.

When you start playing only the eastern half of Vice City is available to you as hurricane warnings have closed all the bridges linking it to the western half. After a number of missions though the warning comes off and the bridges re-open making the rest of the city accessible. It's really then that you begin to realize the enormity of the place and the many ways in which you can traverse the city's roads, waterways and yes, this time around – the skies. Vice City is breathtakingly huge, 2.5 times larger than Liberty City in fact, but it's all the detail, everyday activities going on and the large amount of interactivity that really impresses the most. Once you start visiting new areas you'll be in awe at the huge variety of districts including downtown areas, malls, docklands, an airport and a massive beach.

Having said that, and while you're gawping at the next new area, these are still really only "enhancements" over the previous game as opposed to significant changes but they sure do jump out at you. General visual improvements include better texture detail in both the environments and characters, better lighting ala "Radiosity" (a technique creating more illuminative and reflective surfaces), and a much improved draw distance, most impressively noticeable once you're airborne and flying over the city.