Vice City Then and Now: From 1986 to GTA 6

Few places in gaming are as recognisable as Vice City. Rockstar's take on Miami has appeared in three games across more than two decades, and with Grand Theft Auto VI it returns as the centre of a much larger world. Here is how it has changed.

A quick timeline of Vice City

Vice City in 2002: neon, pastels and the '80s

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City took the 3D formula of GTA III and moved it to a sun-soaked 1986. The game wore its influences openly, borrowing the look of 1980s crime films and television set in Miami. You played as Tommy Vercetti, voiced by actor Ray Liotta, a gangster sent south after fifteen years in prison who sets out to build an empire of his own.

The map was split across two main islands linked by bridges, with districts such as Ocean Beach, Washington Beach, Vice Point, Little Havana, Little Haiti and Downtown. Its licensed radio stations, packed with real '80s music, became one of the most remembered parts of the game.

Vice City Stories: two years earlier

In 2006 Rockstar returned with Vice City Stories on the PSP, later ported to PS2. Set in 1984, it followed Victor Vance, a soldier who is drawn into the city's drug trade, and showed a slightly younger Vice City before Tommy's arrival. It added an empire-building system where you took over businesses across the map.

Vice City in GTA 6: the present day

GTA 6 brings Vice City into the present for the first time. Rockstar presents it as the biggest city in the state of Leonida, its version of Florida, and the trailers swap 1980s nostalgia for a satire of modern life: phone cameras, viral videos and social media running through everything. Ocean Beach returns as a name, and Rockstar has also named places such as Little Cuba and the VC Port.

The biggest change is scale. In 2002 Vice City was the whole map. In GTA 6 it is one region of six, alongside the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga. Explore them in our Leonida region explorer.

What carries over, and what does not

• The setting carries over. Beaches, nightlife, boats and Art Deco-inspired streets are all part of the identity of Vice City.
• The story does not. GTA 6 has its own characters, Lucia and Jason, and Rockstar has not announced any returning characters from earlier Vice City games.
• The era is different. The neon '80s mood is now a nostalgic nod rather than the setting. The pre-order bonus Vintage Vice City Pack, for example, adds retro '80s-style looks for the new characters.

Should you play the older Vice City games first?

You do not need to. They are separate stories in a different continuity. But if you enjoy seeing how a place evolves, playing the 2002 original before GTA 6 is a fun way to compare how Rockstar has reimagined the same city twenty-four years later. For the full series history, see every GTA game in order.