Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Plot synopsis:
U.S. Army Corporal Victor "Vic" Vance had an impoverished upbringing with two brothers; Pete who is suffering from asthma and lazy Lance Vance. To make money for his dysfunctional family, Vic is employed as a Corporal for the U.S. Army.
In 1984, Vic is stationed at Fort Baxter in Vice City. His supervisor, Sergeant Jerry Martinez, a corrupt soldier of the Army who works as a drug smuggler, gives Vic the task of managing a drug dealing business. Vic arrives on the buyer's yacht, but they are ambushed by unknown assailants who blow up the boat, leaving only Vic alive.
After the negotiations' failure, Martinez, despite being angry with Vic, gives him a new job. He visits Phil Cassidy, an eccentric war veteran who owns a gun range at the docks. Cassidy gives him a gun and tests his skills. He makes another job with Martinez, who instructs him to get his girl Mary from a party. He goes to Phil's place and he provides him with the sports car. Vic arrives at the party, beats up several thugs and rescues the girl. He gets her back to the base, but a Master Sergeant confronts him about a pack of marijuana which Martinez planted under his bed, and he also confronts him about the girl, who reveals herself to be a prostitute. As a result, he is dishonourably discharged from the Army and charged with high treason.
Now on the streets, he gets a call from Phil, who gives him his old place to stay. He also does several missions with him, usually confronting Cholos. Later, he meets Marty Jay Williams, who is Phil's brother-in-law. Marty is the leader of a small organisation known as the Trailer Park Mafia, known for being involved in racketeering, loan sharking, and prostitution. Vic does various missions with Marty, often protecting his business. Marty often abuses his wife Louise, who has a child with him. Louise develops a relationship with Vic, which angers Marty. One day, Louise is beaten up badly and kidnapped by Marty, and Vic is able to track down and kill the latter.
With Marty dead, Vic takes over the Trailer Park Mafia, now renamed Vance Crime Family. Soon after, his brother, Lance Vance, arrives, hearing the news. He picks him up from the Escobar International Airport, but they are ambushed by Cholos. They manage to escape. As Vic expands the Vance Crime Family by taking over rackets from Cholos and Bikers, Lance sets up various deals. They transact with the Cubans under the leadership of Umberto Robina. Using a pinata resembling a rudely gesturing Robina, Vic destroys the Cholo's business, eliminating them from Vice City. Meanwhile, Lance has connected with local drug dealer Bryan Forbes. After several deals, they find out that Forbes is actually an undercover DEA agent, and he runs away with their money. They catch him and lock him in an old slum building, where they force him to expose drug deals around the town. He misleads them into various traps, even leading them to a gay bar. They return only to discover Forbes attempting to escape their captivity. Vic chases him and kills him.
After this, they locate and steal a major drug shipment, unaware that the drug shipment belongs to the Mendez brothers, Armando and Diego. Soon, they are kidnapped by them. Lance lies to them that Martinez stole the coke shipment, and that he is actually a DEA agent who wants evidence to arrest them, and they take photos of Martinez with a DEA agent, and they copy the Forbes files with Martinez's file, which describes Martinez as an agent. They do several jobs for the Mendez brothers, who connect them to Reni Wassulmaier, a transsexual film director. He/she gives Vic several jobs to work, and he also helps her manager, Barry Mickelthwaite, to get Phil Collins on his concert unharmed from the Forelli mobsters, to whom Barry owes money.
Reni connects Vic to Ricardo Diaz, a drug baron, for which Lance and Vic do a few jobs. The Mendez brothers are not pleased with this, and they betray them, saying that Martinez exposed them off, and if they give all of their businesses to them, they will let them go alive. They refuse this offer, and they are knocked out. They wake up at the power plant, where they kill several of Mendez's men and barely escape. Vic cooperates with Diaz to take them out, and they break into the Mendezes' safe and destroy their bearer bonds, which makes Armando and Diego bankrupt. As revenge, the Mendez Brothers kidnap Louise. Vic wants to save her, but Lance is hesitant, until the Mendez's henchmen blow up his car. Losing his mind, Lance assaults them, and he gets into a trap, and the Mendez brothers kidnap him as well. Left with no choice, Vic arrives at their mansion, and fights with Armando, who arrives with a flamethrower and tries to burn him alive, but he manages to kill him. He finds Lance and Louise, but Louise is badly beaten and dies in his arms. Vic leaves angry, swearing revenge against Martinez and also Diego, who escaped.
Diaz helps Vic track Diego and Martinez. He makes Vic steal an army chopper from Fort Baxter. Phil helps Vic by making a diversion. After Vic successfully steals the chopper, Vic assaults the Mendez's fortress. He blows up a few floors, but his chopper is shot and he is forced to land on the building. He raids several offices, and he finds out that Martinez and Diego are on the roof. After a tense stand-off, Victor kills them. Moments later, Lance arrives in his chopper to find Martinez and Diego dead. Lance and Vic agree to never engage in drug business again. The Vance Brothers then leave Vice City to send Pete the money for his asthma medications.
=== Characters ===
Like previous Grand Theft Auto games, Vice City Stories features notable voice actors. Gary Busey, Luis Guzmán, Philip Michael Thomas, and Danny Trejo reprise their roles as Phil Cassidy, Ricardo Diaz, Lance Vance, and Umberto Robina, respectively, which they previously played in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Phil Collins makes a cameo as himself, making him the first famed musician to ever appear in a Grand Theft Auto as a virtual representation with a character model, with his song "In the Air Tonight" in the game's soundtrack, including an on-screen performance of the song by the animated version. Phil Collins was played by Joseph Martignette during the in concert scene. His songs like "Easy Lover" with Phillip Bailey and "Turn It On Again" with Genesis also appear on the soundtrack. Also, Opie and Anthony, as well as several crew members of The Opie and Anthony Show were recorded and used as voices of several minor characters.
In addition to the gangs previously featured in Vice City, new gangs make a debut in this game: the Trailer Park Mafia, the Cholos, the Stallionz, and the Mendez Brothers. Also, it explores the Vance Crime family, that was introduced in the original game, in more detail.

Tags: neo noir

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