Vice City
Vice City is the 1980s Miami inspired city of GTA Vice City: a beach island, a mainland and three small islands, almost twice the size of Liberty City.
Key facts
- Area
- Vice City
- Type
- City
- Based on
- Miami (Rockstar art director Aaron Garbut, GameSpot)
- Play area
- Over 4.25 million square meters (GameSpot)
- Layout
- Beach island, mainland and three smaller islands
- Population
- About 1.8 million (Rockstar manual)
- Hidden packages
- 100 (GamesRadar+)
Vice City is the city where all of GTA Vice City takes place, in the mid 1980s. Rockstar art director Aaron Garbut told GameSpot before launch that the team based the map quite closely on the real Miami, but moved roads and changed the land wherever that made the game more fun. The whole team flew to Miami for research and came back with close to 10,000 photos and hours of video.
In Rockstar’s words
The game’s manual is written as a tongue in cheek visitor’s guide. It puts the population at about 1.8 million, notes a strong military presence at Fort Baxter Air Base near the airport, and says the economy runs on tourism and the black market. It lists hospitals in Downtown, Vice Point, Ocean Beach and Little Havana.
Size and layout
Garbut put the play area at over 4.25 million square meters, almost twice the size of Liberty City in GTA III. He described a mainland, three smaller islands and the large beach island, joined by long bridges in the style of the Florida Keys. The game has around 60 interiors, including a mall with shops inside it.
GamesRadar+ splits the map like this:
- East island, south to north: Ocean Beach, Washington Beach and Vice Point
- Small islands, north to south: Prawn Island, Leaf Links and Starfish Island
- West island: Downtown, Little Haiti, Little Havana, Viceport and Escobar International
You start on the beach side at the Ocean View Hotel. GameSpot’s walkthrough notes that the western half opens up after the Colonel Cortez mission Guardian Angels.
Tommy’s empire
After the story mission Shakedown, Tommy Vercetti can buy businesses all over the city, listed by IGN:
- Boatyard and the Cherry Popper Ice Cream Factory
- Pole Position Club and Kaufman Cabs
- Sunshine Autos and InterGlobal Films
- Print Works and the Malibu Club
His headquarters is the Vercetti Estate on Starfish Island.
Style
GamesRadar+ remembers the city as flat and sometimes samey to drive, but carried by its style: pastel suits, neon, the sun rising over the lighthouse and the Starfish Island mansion modeled on Tony Montana’s home in Scarface. It also notes that Vice City was one of the smallest maps in the series.
Videos
Updated