The 10th anniversary edition of Grand Theft Auto

 

Vice City is my favourite Grand Theft Auto. It may not have had the disruptive influence of Grand Theft Auto III - a game that catapulted the GTA brand and the open-world crime genre into national consciousness and notoriety - but its 80s aura and colourful cast of characters was a significant elevation of personality. It's not that GTAIII was lacking in it, but the Ray Liotta voiced protagonist of Vice City, Tommy Vercetti, was a far more interesting man to control than GTAIII's mute-goon-for-hire Claude Speed.

Tommy's rise through the ranks of Vice's drug-addled criminal underbelly was fabulously judged, a violent ascent dressed in pastel and sound-tracked by Spandau Ballet. A tribute to the contradiction of 1980s crime dramas; Scarface, Carlito's Way, Miami Vice all touched upon in its neon and blood drenched narrative.

And it was enormous fun. Exploring the beach-skirted sprawl of Vice City - a facsimile of 80s Miami - stuffed with even more distraction than its predecessor. Buying up nightclubs, performing speedboat stunt runs, accompanying hedonist British rockers, engaging in high-speed chases in... golf buggies? It was nothing if not varied and eccentric. And we loved it for that.

It's a wonderful thing, then, that in content-terms, the whole package is here ten years later for mobile. At this stage of smartphone and tablet development, it shouldn't be surprising to find a ten year old game reproduced faithfully, but Vice City's size and detail impresses. The visuals have had an HD spruce and despite some blockiness in the character models that betray the game's age, the city looks terrific. There is the odd issue with buildings popping into existence on the horizon, particularly if you're approaching the shoreline in a boat, and there is slowdown when action gets hectic. Largely, however, this is an impressive technical feat.

When Grand Theft Auto III was treated to a similar mobile 10th anniversary edition, it struggled with its controls. Simply put, GTA is a complex controller-based game and translating that to touchscreen inputs is a tricky and somewhat thankless business. Vice City is an interesting comparison, as the game itself is more complex than its predecessor, but the virtual controls on iOS this time around are far more accomplished. Not perfect by any means, Vice City was never the most precise game in terms of control, and the lack of physical controls can only exacerbate this, particularly in the more fiddly missions.

The sheer number of buttons you need is also an issue, meaning on iPhone you cover up a large proportion of the screen. The iPad fares considerably better and provides a decent compromise. Whichever device you use, though, Rockstar have made a decent fist at working around the limitations of virtual controls. Everything is customisable, meaning you can move action buttons to wherever you wish on the screen. Steering can be digital, analogue or tilt-based (I preferred digital myself) and shooting's auto-aim is forgiving enough to make gun battles enjoyable fare. First-person aiming, however, should be avoided wherever possible, as it's far too imprecise to lead to anything other than you getting filled with holes. Fortunately, Rockstar have added in an instant mission retry to negate frustration.