What GTA: Vice City Could Have Been. Analysis of the October 2, 2002 Build

We continue to study early builds of various parts of the GTA series. Today we will remember the classic Vice City. It was released on PlayStation 2 on October 29, 2002, but on the 2nd, the developers put together a preliminary version of the game. In this article, you will learn about the main differences between the build and the project that eventually went on sale.

It is important to note that several weeks pass before work on the game is completed and sales of disc versions begin. The final version of Vice City was ready on October 5, and the preliminary version, which we are analyzing in this article, was made on the evening of October 1. It would seem that the difference in dates is very small. Meanwhile, many changes were made during these four days.

In the build, the police cars are white and gray, while in the final version they are white and green. Perhaps the developers wanted the game to be more different from GTA 3, where the cops drove black and white cars. In addition, the green color suits the resort atmosphere of Vice City better.

Cars with the Top Fun logo contained remote controls for various equipment. For example, such a van was used in the mission "Demolition Man", where we planted bombs in a skyscraper under construction using a small helicopter. There are other challenges in the game that are related to Top Fun products. Initially, the logo of this company was planned to be completely different. In the build, it looked more like an American flag and was similar to the emblem from the movie Top Gun. Perhaps Rockstar did not want to get a lawsuit from Paramount Pictures, so they changed the icon.

To buy a building in Vice City, you need to stand on a special marker. It was always dark blue, regardless of the type of property. In the build, this icon turned out to be bright red.

Auntie Poulet leads a gang of Haitians. The color of her dress has changed several times. In the build it was yellow, and in the PS2 version and the recent Definitive Edition it was purple. This is the version that is considered canon. But on the PC in 2003 we saw a woman wearing a yellow outfit.

It is activated by pressing the L1, R1, L3 and R3 keys on the PS2 gamepad. The functions are controlled using the cross. This is a tool for developers, so they decided to remove it from the version of Vice City that is intended for players.

Using the debug menu, you can call various vehicles, switch between missions, turn traffic and pedestrians on or off, remove the interface, and also control the speed of time and the weather.

What else has changed in the final version of the game compared to the October 2 build:

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What do you think, were these changes necessary? Which version do you like more? Share your opinions in the comments!