GTA 6 Isn't The First Time The Series Has Returned To Vice City
Rockstar Games broke the internet when it dropped the official trailer for "Grand Theft Auto 6" a day earlier than expected due to social media leaks. The video generated so much buzz on YouTube that it obliterated MrBeast's 24-hour record at over 85 million views. While the game's setting was not a well-kept secret due to massive leaks in 2022, the trailer officially solidified a return to Vice City. Fans continue to comb through every frame for Easter eggs, references, and clues about the map. One location, the Ocean View Hotel, known from "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," appears in the trailer, raising the question of whether the title's protagonist, Tommy Vercetti, will make his own comeback.
Hunting down and explaining these artifacts requires previous knowledge of Vice City. Most fans are familiar with the 2002 "GTA" entry bearing the same name, but some may not know that the location has been around for some time, with the series revisiting it more than once. It debuted in 2D in the original "Grand Theft Auto" in 1997 before getting its spotlight installment five years later. The locale appeared again in 2006 via "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories." Vice City has a well-documented history, a collection of recurring themes, and a fictional timeline within the franchise.
Vice City's first appearance
The "Grand Theft Auto" universe splits into three groups: a 2D Universe generation of games between 1997 and 1999, a 3D Universe generation of titles spanning 2001 to 2006, and then the HD Universe era of entries from 2008 to the present. Vice City first appeared in the series in 1997's "Grand Theft Auto" as an unlockable level after completing the two Liberty City and two San Andreas missions. The exuberant, zany, and neon-drenched Vice City that fans came to know better through future installments in the series is quite different from its primordial 1997 version. With such a limited 2D, top-down perspective, the iconic "Miami Vice" vibe of later entries only encompassed some tropical street colorways and scattered palm trees.
According to the game's promotional materials, Vice City doesn't provide the glitz or glamor of 1980s Miami. Instead, it's a more cynical, insidious place: "A former Spanish slaving colony ... a city that revolves around just one thing: money." Furthermore, it embodied a certain kind of final boss of crime-ridden cities, "Vice City now boasts the highest murder rates, the highest amounts of drug-related crime and the least respected police department of anywhere in the USA." As part of the generational split in the "GTA" franchise, the contents and layout of Vice City in 1997's "Grand Theft Auto" bear little resemblance to future iterations.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories sets the stage
The release of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories" in 2006 signaled the next time Vice City appeared chronologically in the "GTA" universe. A prologue set in 1984, "Vice City Stories" takes place two years before the events of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" and further expands the history and cast of characters of the famed locale. Aesthetically, this spin on Vice City takes heavy inspiration from the style of 1980s Miami. Think white suits with pink shirts and characters modeled after crooked cops and drug kingpins.
Narratively, "GTA: Vice City Stories" paints the location's underworld as a chaotic competition for survival. It tells the arc of Vic Vance, brother to Lance Vance — a central character from "GTA: VC." Vic, a moral man unwillingly forced into crime, claims dominance of Vice City after winning a brutal war against the rival Mendez brothers. Once at the top, Vic intends to leave the criminal world behind, only for his brother Vance to bring him back to his ultimate demise.
During a drug deal gone wrong with the Forelli crime family, Vic, Lance, and their correspondent dealers, Tommy Vercetti and Ken Rosenburg, are all ambushed. Only Vic dies, and the dominoes topple to begin the "GTA: VC" story. In terms of real-world time, "GTA: VC Stories" represents the last time people played new Vice City content, so fans eagerly wait to get back there in 2025 when "Grand Theft Auto 6" comes out.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City spotlights the town
The launch of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'" in 2002 took the franchise to new heights. Evolving the IP into 3D was huge for "Grand Theft Auto 3," but turning that 3D experience into an unforgettable location and story made "GTA: VC" the best-selling game of 2002. Reception for the title over two decades after its debut remained positive enough to garner a definitive edition distributed in 2021, with a mobile version coming in December 2023.
"Perhaps more than any of our other games 'Vice City' wore its inspiration on its sleeve. You cannot play for more than five minutes and not think about 'Scarface' or 'Miami Vice,'" Leslie Benzies, the lead producer of the "Grand Theft Auto" series until 2016, explained to Digital Trends regarding the success of "Vice City." Building up a criminal empire as Tommy Vercetti, a dangerous man waiting to pounce on opportunities, plays like it's straight out of a 1980s movie.
By the end of the "Vice City" kingpin come-up story, players are familiar with some iconic locations that appear in the "Grand Theft Auto 6" official trailer. As mentioned earlier, Ocean View Hotel, the upgradeable HQ for Tommy Vercetti, is still there (is Tommy still there too?). Also, the Pole Position Club and the Malibu Club will make their return. With a 2025 release date out on the horizon, fans will likely get a slow drip of teasers calling back to the streets of Vice City.