Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories - Progress Report 6

Song of the Day

Electric Eye - Judas Priest

Progress Report VI

Story Missions Complete: 33/59 (WE'RE HALFWAY THERE!)

Mission 29; Snitch Hitch - Lance is still going on about that large shipment of drugs. However before he can tell us we get a visitor...The Vance Mother! This will be the only time we'll ever see her, though. Lance tells us we have to go "pick up a friend from the airport". As we step outside he tells us that he has a contact who is looking to get out of the game and is willing to sell what he knows to the first bidder. We have to drive all the way to the airport only to find out that someone else got there first. The ex-dealer warns us that the buyer has a private jet and a private army. Barely a challenge for the Vance Brothers. Drive over to the jet (it's basically around the corner) and waste everyone. After they're all dead Lance will go into the plane leaving you alone to deal with the Bikers, who also want the files. Again they are no match for us and once they are dead it's mission complete.

Mission 30; From Zero to Hero - This is it, this mission marks the beginning of the second half of the game. Lance tells us that it's time to get that shipment of drugs but Vic has reservations, he doesn't want to be involved in the drug game. Lance says that it will just be this one shipment and they will be set for life, and their brother will get the medication he needs. Lance eventually manages to convince Vic to do it by mentioning that the coke we're about to steal belongs to our good friend Jerry Martinez. 

Lance brings a couple of gang members with us for extra protection, though you really don't need it. Drive to the docks in Little Haiti and kill everyone there. Martinez will show up in a military helicopter so we need to get into the truck and follow Lance. The next section isn't hard, your truck takes a lot of damage and for an army Sergeant, Martinez is a terrible shot. It's time for us to head to the second island at long last, but as we cross the bridge Martinez will shoot missiles right in front of you. They are incredibly easy to dodge though.

Slow moving truck vs. an attack helicopter. 

There is police at the other end of the bridge and that scares off Martinez...but now they're after us. However, even with a four star rating, it's easy enough to get to the safe point. It's not far and your truck should still be in great health. Reach Lance's new apartment and you've won!

This unlocks a number of things, the most important being that now all of Vice City is open. This means we can now own all 30 properties, eliminate the Bikers for good (and the Sharks if we want). Speaking of, we can now build 'Drug' properties, which I'll talk about later when I've unlocked the other two business types. More sports cars are available for carjacking, including one of my personal favourites, the Infernus. It is also now possible to get a six-star wanted level (brilliant...) and we have a brand new safehouse. 

It's very low-key, the police would NEVER look for us in here.

Nice view though. There's the "Chunder Wheel", a reference to "The Warriors"...

Mission 31; Brawn of the Dead - Lance shows off one of his new suits, a erm..."lovely" blue suit...

I literally could not find a better photo to show it off, so...

Victor calls Martinez to gloat about stealing his coke, but Jerry has some bad news for us...the coke didn't actually belong to him, he was just the handler. The real owners were the Mendez Brothers, and they are looking to kill everyone involves, including Jerry and, gasp, US! Vic shouts at Lance, but he's got a buyer! Some film director is shooting a "z-list" movie in the mall, but can only do so at night. So, off to the mall! Once we arrive there the director tells us he needs a stuntman. Lance offers Vic's services while they talk "snow business". 

This mission is a fun little distraction after the big mission before. First you have to shoot at as many zombies as possible in one and a half minutes. There is a 'gore' meter that is always falling, you fill it up by shooting a zombie. If they come too close, the meter will fall faster. You have unlimited shotgun shells and they die in one hit, it shouldn't be a problem.

The next stage is to protect the record store from the zombies. You have a katana, again they die in one hit. This one is slightly harder, but it's still rather easy. After this Lance tells us of his success and we drive home to pick up the coke but it isn't there...and neither is Mother Vance. Yup, she stole the drugs that would have made the Vance family rich. What a bitch.

Clearly the Vance Bros. got their good looks from this saucy bird...

Despite not being able to sell him the drugs, the director does page us saying that if we want to "film 'snow white' see Remi...". This unlocks a new mission strand that we will get to much later. Lance also pages us telling us we need to see him pronto. Naturally 'pronto' in GTA speak is 'whenever you want', but let's do that next after taking care of some more businesses (of which we can now build 'Smuggling'). One more thing has been unlocked, a swanky suit for Vic...

Nice and subtle. Yep, Lance probably bought us this...

Mission 32; Blitzkrieg - Lance tells us that he thinks everything will be okay and tries to think of ways to keep the Mendez Brothers off their backs. Just then though he gets a phone call saying that the Mendez Brothers and their gang are attacking all of Vic's businesses. This mission is simple, I just drove to the nearest business (which was a ten second drive away from Lance's apartment), killed all the attackers and I won. Lance says something like "We won here, but other places might have lost", but I never noticed any of my empire being damaged.

Mission 33; The Mugshot Longshot - After the last mission, one of the Mendez Brothers pages us and asks us to meet him. They live in a nice house on Prawn Island, which is the small island in the north. The talkative brother, Armando, tells Vic and Lance that they will either work together...or the Vance Bros will be killed. A hard choice that is. He asks us who stole the coke and before Vic can answer Lance blurts out that it was Martinez. Armando wants proof. 

Lance, of course, has an idea...Jerry is turning to the witness protection system and he thinks that we can take a photo of Martinez talking to the DEA that will prove that he is talking to the cops about the Mendez's. He also thinks if we can get a photo of his face, Lance can put it in Forbes' old ID and make it look like he was an undercover cop. Excellent! First we have to drive to the police station and take a photo of Martinez talking to the DEA. Simple enough, don't get too close (the game will actually point out the best place to take it from).

Then you have to follow the car, easy stuff. And then finally take a good picture of Martinez while he stands on the boat. He will spot you, but he'll just get the DEA agent to drive the boat away from the "idiot taking pictures". Finally, drive to the print works (the only Tommy can buy in Vice City) and you've completed the mission.

Cast

The Mendez Brothers

Armando & Diego

(Voiced By: Yul Vasquez (A) & Ruben Trujillo (D))

The Mendez Brothers. Armando (the white suited man) is the more charismatic and is considered the leader of the two. Diego, the tough looking one, is quieter and only speaks Spanish. Yes, we're allies for now, but there's no doubt about it, they'll probably betray us soon...

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories - Progress Report 3

Progress Report III

Song of the Day

Turn It On Again - Genesis (Duke)

Story Missions Complete: 17/59

Mission 13; Takin' Out The White Trash - DRAMA, Louise forgot the baby's stuff when she ran away. We must go over to Marty's and get them! But OH NO, some of his men have come to attack us. Basically kill a bunch of guys, with the help of a baseball bat-wielding Louise and drive back to her place. They are supposed to chase you, but one only caught up to me just as I approached the mission marker. Easy.

Mission 14; Marked Men - Back to Phil's for a sec and we see him and Martinez having a little discussion. It seems Phil no longer trusts Martinez, but Jerry won't put work Phil's (and thus, our) way until he does trust him. All the honourable Sergeant wants us to do is check on some of his merchandise. Easy stuff. Everything goes according to plan...except it ends up being a trap and we have to kill our way out of it. We must drive back to Phil's, but Martinez's men will give chase. Phil decides to use his boomshine as EXPLOSIONS, so just concentrate on the driving. After this Phil decides to lay low for a while, but Vic refuses to follow suit. 

After this we get two pager messages, the first from Martinez warning us that we're still on his "shit list". Lovely. Also, Louise pages us to tell us we've got trouble from Marty...

Mission 15; D.I.V.O.R.C.E - SEE WHAT IT MEANS TO ME...SOCK IT TO ME SOCK IT TO ME SOCK IT TO...oh...erm...sorry, got carried away there. Anyway, we enter Louise's to find an obese lass all worried about Louise. This is Mary-Jo Cassidy, sister of Louise and Phil (though Phil never mentions Mary-Jo, or vice versa...). She tells us that Marty has kidnapped Louise and is threatening to "turn her out". Mary-Jo is actually a bit jealous of the attention Louise gets, especially after Vic decides to go rescue her. Drive to the Trailer Park where you see Marty drive off (almost running over Vic in the process).

We're then attacked by some of the Trailer Park Mafia, you can either fight or give chase immediately. Eventually Marty will make a stop and you finally get to kill him. This should be an epic fight, the last hour or so of the game has been building up to this moment when we can finally kill Marty and I want it to be special. However, I didn't notice him get out of the car and I immediately ran him over. Enter the car with Louise who is worried about how to look after her baby with Marty dead. Vic tells her not to worry and we drive off to the new safehouse in Little Haiti!

Villa del  Vance

Completing the mission also unlocks our second outfit, the 'Trailer Trash'.

San Andreas players may experience flashbacks...

Mission 16; To Victor, The Spoils: Remember how I said the Marty missions were tutorials for the business side-missions? Well, it's time to unlock them. Basically, Louise has a great idea to make money, Victor should take over Marty's businesses and become a gang leader himself. So, you grab two random guys, kill all the gang members protecting one of Marty's old places and then drive to the next place, kill all of them, go inside, take over the business and you win. Now you can start taking over businesses, which I'll write all about in a separate post. You also unlock the ability to recruit gang members, just like in San Andreas.

FRIENDS!

This pretty much marks the end of Act I (or, as I like to call it, The Tutorial missions). You get a pager saying that there is a visitor at the airport. Oh boy, I wonder who it is?

Mission 17; Jive Drive: Oh hey, look who it is...

Lance Vance...err..before he got "cool".

You didn't expect the brother of our hero to not show up, right? Well here he is, and Vic isn't too happy. Vic claims that Lance always gets the two of them into trouble. After some pleading, Vic agrees to let Lance help. Now, onto the mission. The Cholo attack you ("You killed many Cholo. So the Cholo will kill you plenty"). It's a rail shooter mission, Lance drives and we shoot. The mission can be tricky if you suck at first person aiming (like me) and especially if you suck using the PSP's control nub (like me). It took me fourteen attempts to beat this..though I had mastered the rail shooter section by the third or fourth. After Lance drives off a ramp and blows up our lovely car, we are surrounded by Cholo. This section gave me a lot of trouble, since there are Cholo all around you. My biggest problem was that I always decided to stay in one place and shoot, which is stupid. Another problem? Lance isn't bulletproof, and if just one Cholo gets shots in on him, he's as good as dead. 

After this you've still got more to take care of, as you'll inevitably end up with a two star wanted level. You have two options, either drive straight to Lance's hotel while evading the police, OR go to the nearby Pay n'Spray and get rid of the attention. I prefer the second option, even though it involves going the opposite direction for a few seconds. After that, drive Lance to his hotel and win. This unlocks a Louise mission and we get a pager from some fella called 'Umberto Robina'. Vice City players will remember that name...

Cast

Mary-Jo Cassidy

(Voiced By: Cathy Trien)

The sister of Louise and Phil, she's a rather minor character overall. She's good natured enough, but she does get jealous of the attention that her (better-looking, thinner) sister gets, she genuinely gets upset when Louise is kidnapped that it wasn't her. 

Lance Vance

(Voiced By: Philip Michael Thomas)

Making his second appearance in the GTA series, Lance Vance will act as Vic's main ally during the game, even though he has a knack for getting them both in trouble. He has ambitious plans, but for now he's just Vic's speccy bro.

His voice actor is most famous for being Ricardo Tubbs in the 80s TV show 'Miami Vice', which both Vice City games are heavily influenced by.

Next on VCS: Businesses.