In Vice City Stories you get back at Vice City in the year 1984. The main characters of the games are two brothers: Victor Vance, the protagonist, Lance Vance the dirty bro.

Victor and Vance have both a bad time: Vic has been kicked out from U.S. Army and Lance is drug addicted. They want to change their life and they want to do that in a drammatical way: by taking over Vice City and defeating the main bosses who own it!

The structure of the game is similar to previous releases of the GTA Grand Theft Auto series and it is bases on a third person shooter who is able to drive every kind of vehicle found all over the city; from simple cars, to cabs, to taxi, to helicopters to airplanes and boats, to motorcycles and much much more.

You play into an open environment and like in real life you can go wherever you like both on foot or by driving one of the vehicles you can borrow (the exact term is steal) from the people who live in Vice City. When you go on foot you can walk, run, swim, jump and obviously you can use a vast amount of weapons: guns, bazooka, uzi, bombs, and so many more.

You can decide to follow the storyline and progress trough the well written story or explore the territory and conquest every kind of activity that will bring you cash, the money you're able to use to buy weapons, ammos, cars, eat from fast foods and all the things we can do in real life. If you progress trough the storyline you're able to unlock many extras and contents.

No matter if you follow the storyline of the game or decide to free roam: the thing you must keep in mind is that Vice City is a city and like every city there are authorities; so, if you steal a car, pay attention to police cars since they will see you stealing it and follow you until they arrest and put you in prison; you can run away and make them lose your traces but this is pretty hard if many police cars are behind you; if you're really a bad guy the police will ask some help to swat, to FBI and if you resist they will call military forces!

You can also enjoy a lot of side missions that are not necessary to progress trough the game but will benefit you by bringing more cash in your pockets. Also, if you're ill and finish to hospital or if you're arrested, you lose all your weapons but there is a chance to keep them if you bribe the policemen or hospital staff!

One of the most important elements of GTA Vice City Stories is the empire bulding.

You can takeover another faction business by attacking them; you must destroy the car parked outside the building you want to overtake and kill the bad guys coming outside to reject your attack. If you kill them all then you can buy that building and start your own business to earn money and buy whatever you want with it! Also you can choose what kind of business you like to run among: protection racker, loan shark, prostitution, drugs, smuggling and robbery!

Once your building is ready, you'll be able to constantly earn money from it and play the missions that will upgrade your level and rise the cash you get.

You can play and follow the storyline, you can choose to freeroam or play side missions that are level based.

* - Vigilante: Kill criminals by using the police vehicles and earn extended armor.

* - Air Rescue: Rescue pople from land or sea and bring them to the hospital; this will earm you extended health.

* - Paramedic: Rescue people using ambulance and earn unlimited sprit ability

* - Beach Patrol: You knock down gang members on their bikes and rescue people from dange; you earn unlimited stamina for swimming.

* - Firefighter: Put out burning cars and occupants. Activated in a fire truck. Makes the player fireproof.

* - Fire Heli: Activated in an Armadillo (fire helicopter.) Gives player a few small dollars, an addition to their completion percentage number, but unfortunately, it does not make you fireproof like its land-going counterpart.

* - Taxi Driver: Bring customers to destination. Activated in a taxi. Makes Taxis jump when the player presses down on the d-pad (L3 on PS2 port).

* - Vice Sights: Bring tourists to sights and hold them steady to take photos. Activated in Maverick at Airport.

* - Crims On Wings: Beat lap time around first island. Activated in Biplane at Airport.

* - Skywolf: Go through checkpoints and destroy targets in Hunter. Activated in Hunter at airport after "Last Stand" Mission.

* - Playground On the Town: Pass through checkpoints in allotted time. Activated on PCJ-600 behind the Police Station Downtown.

* - Playground On the Point: Pass through checkpoints in allotted time. Activated on PCJ-600 just south-west of the mall, behind the bridge.

* - Playground On the Docks: Pass through checkpoints in allotted time. Activated on the PCJ-600 parked near Victors first safehouse away from the barracks.

* - Crash: Cause $2000 worth of damage to the city before the clock runs out. Activated in the bus, in between the top-left studio and the plane prop. A second crash mission is near the docks, at the end of the road that runs next to the impound lot. This one tasks you to cause $1700 worth of damage with the tractor trailer.

Hand: fists, brass knuckles

Melee Weapons: baseball bat, nightstick, butterfly knife, knife, axe, gaff hook, golf club, machete, katana, chainsaw

Explosives and Incendiaries: Molotov cocktail, hand grenade, remote grenade, landmine (available only with Cheat Device), tear gas grenade (available only with Cheat Device)

Handguns: pistol/Beretta M92F (9mm), Equalizer (Colt Python with scope)

Sub-Machine Guns: Scorpion (Vz 61), Mac (Mac-10 with suppressor), micro-SMG (Uzi), SMG (MP5)

Shotguns: chrome shotgun (pump-action), stubby shotgun (sawn-off shotgun), combat shotgun (SPAS 12)

Assault Rifles: AK47, M16 assault rifle

Heavy Weapons: flame-thrower, rocket launcher (M72 LAW with pistol grip), minigun, M249

Sniper Rifles: sniper rifle (M21 rifle), laser-scoped rifle (Dragunov SVD rifle)

Other: camera, binoculars, detonator (used with remote grenades and landmines)

Weapon Set 1 ... LEFT, RIGHT, X, UP, DOWN, SQUARE, LEFT, RIGHT

Weapon Set 2 ... LEFT, RIGHT, SQUARE, UP, DOWN, TRIANGLE, LEFT, RIGHT

Weapon Set 3 ... LEFT, RIGHT, TRIANGLE, UP, DOWN, CIRCLE, LEFT, RIGHT

Get $250000 ... UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, X, X, L1, R1

Armor ... UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, SQUARE, SQUARE, L1, R1

Health ... UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, L1, R1

Raise Wanted Level ... UP, RIGHT, SQUARE, SQUARE, DOWN, LEFT, CIRCLE, CIRCLE

Never Wanted ... UP, RIGHT, TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE, DOWN, LEFT, X, X

Sunny Weather ... LEFT, DOWN, R1, L1, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, CIRCLE

Clear Weather ... LEFT, DOWN, R1, L1, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, X

Overcast Weather ... LEFT, DOWN, L1, R1, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, SQUARE

Rainy Weather ... LEFT, DOWN, L1, R1, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, TRIANGLE

Foggy Weather ... LEFT, DOWN, TRIANGLE, X, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, L1

Spawn Rhino ... UP, L1, DOWN, R1, LEFT, L1, RIGHT, R1

Faster Clock ... R1, L1, L1, DOWN, UP, X, DOWN, L1

Destroy All Cars ... L1, R1, R1, LEFT, RIGHT, SQUARE, DOWN, R1

Peds Riot ... R1, L1, L1, DOWN, LEFT, CIRCLE, DOWN, L1

Peds Attack You ... DOWN, TRIANGLE, UP, X, L1, R1, L1, R1

Peds Have Weapons ... UP, L1, DOWN, R1, LEFT, CIRCLE, RIGHT, TRIANGLE

Faster Gameplay ... LEFT, LEFT, R1, R1, UP, TRIANGLE, DOWN, X

Slower Gameplay ... LEFT, LEFT, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, DOWN, UP, TRIANGLE, X

Perfect Traction (Down is Car Hop) ... DOWN, LEFT, UP, L1, R1, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, X

Commit Suicide ... RIGHT, RIGHT, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, L1, R1, DOWN, X

Aggressive Drivers ... UP, UP, RIGHT, LEFT, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, SQUARE

Black Traffic ... L1, R1, L1, R1, LEFT, CIRCLE, UP, X

Spawn Trashmaster ... DOWN, UP, RIGHT, TRIANGLE, L1, TRIANGLE, L1, TRIANGLE

Guys Follow You ... RIGHT, L1, DOWN, L1, CIRCLE, UP, L1, SQUARE

Upside Down ... SQUARE, SQUARE, SQUARE, L1, L1, R1, LEFT, RIGHT

Upside Down ... LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, R1, R1, L1, RIGHT, LEFT

Chrome Cars ... RIGHT, UP, LEFT, DOWN, TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE, L1, R1

Unlockable: AK-47 Get 50 Balloons.

Unlockable: Armor Pick-up 60 Balloons.

Unlockable: Flamethrower You must gather 70 balloons.

Unlockable: M249 Machine Gun Pick-up 99 Balloons.

Unlockable: Pistol Pick-up 10 Balloons.

Unlockable: Become Fireproof Complete 15 levels of the Firefighter mission.