Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is an action-adventure game played from a third-person view. The player controls criminal Tommy Vercetti and completes missions to progress through the story. Players can freely walk around the game's open world and can complete side missions too. Vice City has two main islands and some smaller islands. The islands are unlocked for the player as the story progresses.
During the story, Tommy meets different gangs. As the player completes missions for different gangs, some gang members will defend the player and some rival gang members will see the player and shoot them.
As Tommy builds his criminal empire, the player can buy a number of buildings in the city, some are where weapons can be collected and vehicles can be stored. There are also businesses which can be purchased.
Each building has a number of missions, once all missions are complete, the building begins to generate an ongoing income for the player.
