Of the two games in the Xbox Zero’s GTA collection, Vice City was the clear standout for me. Apart from the refined gameplay, flying vehicles, and a talking protagonist, it also had a more appealing world. Vice City has wide streets, bright colours, trees, plus the radio is filled with poppin’ 80s sounds. Now I revisit that world.

Stories is set a couple years earlier with basically the same world map, plus a trailer park and amusement park, minus a construction site or two. It felt nostalgic to roam these familiar streets with the same cars… if anything, it’s not different enough. I can’t decide whether the missions are the meat and the open world the potatoes, or vice versa, but at least half of that equation is all new.

Of course, it’s much like every one of these games. You start as a small-time crook, gradually working up to organised crime kingpin through violence, drugs, etc. all the while interacting with (read: swearing at, being sworn at by) a cast of almost universally unpleasant characters (plus, surprisingly, a string of missions with Phil Collins as himself). It’s something I looked past/bought into more earlier in my life but as when I tried Chinatown Wars, I found myself uncomfortable with the subject matter (not to mention the homophobic and transphobic elements). I realise the genre of crime power fantasy is popular in movies and games, but I don’t really get it. Oh well.

Certainly the realities of organised crime are a tad more up front here compared to the original, as there are now gang warfare mechanics. Acquiring businesses was simpler in Vice City but they came with bespoke mission sets; here you manage your “empire” by choosing from a small selection of crime types for each building, upgrading them, doing generic, repetitive tasks related to them, and defending them against constant, constant attacks by other gangs. The whole empire system is… an idea for something more involving to do between missions but it’s a bit half-baked (I guess that means it is potatoes after all).

At least the open world aspect, which is what I most wanted to experience, was up to scratch compared to my memories. The vehicles handle well and have that sweet soundtrack with many radio stations to choose from, there’s little tasks to do and things to find throughout the map, plus there are quality of life improvements like being able to easily get your weapons back after dying—oh and you can swim now! So as far as that’s concerned it was a nice enough romp, and only dragged down by the gang warfare annoyances, unlikeable characters, and loading times (whatcha gonna do, it’s the PSP). Also, there was one silly mission where you control a primitive domestic cleaning robot by remote control, so that’s cool.