Mark gets reacquainted with gaming's very own sin city...

Believe it or not, there was a time when full free-to-roam 3D worlds were just a gamer's pipedream. Oh sure, we'd had some pretty impressive action adventures in three dimensions - Metal Gear Solid and Soul Reaver come to mind - and even some truly memorable settings, from Hyrule in Nintendo's magnum opus Ocarina of Time to the then standard-setting streets of Sega's Shenmue... but these were all fantastical, story driven fictions, not the go-anywhere, do-anything sandbox offering many had craved.

And then it happened: GTA III. And since then gaming's never been the same; we've had a host of imitators, from your True Crimes to movie licenses like the Godfather and Scarface, and even the barmy-as-a-bright-blue-banana Just Cause, but GTA, in all its guises, remains the Daddy.

And Rockstar really have plugged that success for all it's worth, without ever really altering the winning formula - though there has been unquestionable expansion; San Andreas took the genre to its current heights, while Liberty City Stories set the benchmark for quality in the PSP games catalogue. Vice City Stories, then, finds itself between two stalls: on one hand, it's yet another familiar-feeling release that will fit fans expectations without really furthering the series - on the other, it's still one of the most polished pieces of programming the PSP has to offer. This is GTA back on PSP - considerably bigger and even brasher, but really just more of the same.

To recap from our Preview, Vice City Stories stars Vic Vance, brother of PS2 Vice City's main man Lance, a butch military kinda chap and, actually, quite a nice, morally upstanding guy - until he gets to Vice City, that is. That's when things all start going horribly wrong.

Vic's commanding officer, you see - a semi-psycho named Jerry Martinez - has no qualms about the whole abuse-of-power issue, and soon has a disgruntled, protesting Vic off out on a number of less-than-legal errands… which involve killing people. And stealing stuff. And picking up prostitutes. Handheld or not, this is still unmistakably GTA - and as such, is as strictly adults-only as gaming experiences get.

The gameworld Vic has to explore is an impressive one - set two year's before the original Vice City, it bodes the hallmarks of its big brother, with a few minor cosmetic differences - but notably looks even nicer than the city's original PS2 depiction. It really is incredible what Rockstar have managed to get out of the PSP. In purely polygon-pushing terms, there isn't a title that's used Sony's handheld like Vice City Stories - a plaudit equally applicable to audio, which boasts a brilliantly cheesy eighties feel, with delightfully funny radio dialogue and an insane amount of licensed tracks.

But most of that was also true of Liberty City Stories. Admittedly, VCS takes PSP programming even further, but still, surely we were all expecting another technical tour de force? No, the big talking points here are not how good Vice City looks or sounds, impressive as those aspects are - but how Rockstar's prowess with the PSP has created an altogether more varied game experience.

Unlike Liberty City Stories, Vice City does water in a big way. Indeed, half of the entire area you'll get to play in is water, with the physics engine adapted to accommodate swimming, riding jet skis and driving speedboats and the like - all with a pleasingly floaty, viscous feel.

Also new in Vice City Stories is the ability to take to the skies in helicopters - nothing we've not seen before on a home console in various free-roamers, of course, but its an altogether jaw-dropping spectacle when you raise the 'copter into the sky for the first time and the city's entire skyline spreads out before you - all on a handheld system. Handling a chopper can be a bit tricky, with X rotating the blades, Square lowering the craft, the triggers steering it left and right, and a push up of the analogue nub propelling it forward, but once you get used to it flight feels incredibly intuitive, as well as being the quickest way to get around the city.

Which comes in handy for the game's multitude of story-driving missions. In truth, none of these objectives stray outside of the usual GTA formula - there's fetch-and-carry, race and assassination missions prevalent throughout - but the manner with which the game's sea, air and of course, its returning land vehicles - bikes, trucks, sports cars and all, each with nicely diverse handling mechanics - tie different legs of missions together that makes them stand out from Liberty City Stories. You'll drive to your first goal, fly to your second, then nab a speedboat to bear down on your objective for the last part of the mission.

Unfortunately, this makes failing missions even more frustrating than before, forcing you to repeat the entirety of each leg of the journey when it happens. However, it's still a welcome improvement from some of the none-event missions of Liberty City, encouraging mastery of the game by the player in the same manner Rockstar have themselves mastered the PSPs internal architecture.

As far as mastery goes, there's no greater accolade than running your own empire - and Vice City Stories' Empire system allows you to do just that. Each of the city's gangs runs a number of illegal businesses from various hotspots around town - and over the course of the game you'll challenge the various gang leaders, defeat them, and ultimately take over their turf, raking in larger incomings over the course of the rest of the game. It's really more of a sideline than anything truly compelling, and the missions offered to actually run your empire are largely repetitive (ferrying call girls from place to place, that sort of thing) but it's an element of additional character-building element we're pleased to see returning from the older Vice City on PS2, and an option completists will no-doubt savour. Never let it be said that GTA doesn't boast value for money.

Unfortunately, it also comes with a few, inherent GTA flaws; notably the lock-on aiming is still temperamental - though admittedly improved from Liberty City, finding intended foes more often than pedestrians. There does seem to be a major issue with close-quarters combat however - it simply doesn't want to let you shoot people at point blank range, and if someone's punching you to death, you'll have to switch to a handheld weapon rather than gun them down. This is a particular pain in confined areas, and especially given the rigid nature of the camera system, which uses the L trigger to centre the view behind Vic, with no real floating free-look option.

Thankfully, these flaws prove less damaging to the multiplayer mode than you may think, which still retains its previous gametypes, and adds a host of new ones. On the whole, it's another varied competitive offering, but again the problem is going to be finding five friends who all own PSPs and copies of the game; this is a multiplayer game that's really only at its best with the maximum quotient of players.

And that's indicative of Vice City Stories as a whole: a game that improves upon its PSP forebear, and yet fails to really elevate expectations for the franchise as a whole. That said, this is an exclusive on Sony's smaller system, and should be treated as such - especially as, with GTA IV on the horizon, the chances of this making the port to PS2 like Liberty City Stories did is looking decidedly slim. Another standard-setting handheld release from Rockstar, then - covering familiar ground perhaps, but doing so with a speed and style few other developers have yet to display.

GAME's Verdict

• Bigger and better looking than Liberty City Stories
• New sea and air transport expands the experience further
• A real technical feat on PSP

• Overly familiar GTA narrative
• Still-dodgy lock-on targeting and 3D camera
• Finding enough people to enjoyably play the multiplayer is a hard one

Review by: Mark Scott
Version Tested: PSP
Review Published: 09.11.06