Since beginning life back in the late 90s, Epic Game's Unreal Engine has gone on to become one of the most powerful, and ubiquitous, game development tools in the industry. With Unreal Engine 5 releasing not long ago, this latest iteration is already proving itself to be another world beater, and is being used in some hotly anticipated AAA titles, including the new The Witcher game. On top of that, people have been using it to reimagine older games in a more modern context, including this example from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
As spotted by DSO Gaming, the YouTube channel TeaserPlay has uploaded a "concept trailer" that shows what a remake of GTA: Vice City could look like using UE5. As many will see, it's a pretty spectacular piece of footage, that looks at the classic open world title through a more modern lens. It should be stated at this stage that this is just a fan-made trailer, and does not represent any type of unofficial remake that the creator is looking to release.
According to the description under the video, the purpose of this project was to show what the disastrous GTA: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition should have looked like. Released late last year, and developed by Grove Street Games, the trilogy was panned by players who saw it as a very rushed remaster that was littered with game-breaking bugs and graphical oddities. Alongside this, Rockstar removed the beloved classic GTA games prior to the launch of the Definitive Edition. Since then, the studio has reinstated the old games and put a lot of work into fixing the remasters, but some may feel it was too little too late.
It's hard to imagine that Vice City is now 20 years old. When it first came out, it was a highly-praised continuation of the series, which was going from strength to strength. Currently, it's showing a Metacritic score of 95 on PS2, and 94 on PC. Its Miami Vice-esque visuals, complete with neon lighting, were what made it stand out from its predecessor. On top of that, it was also the first entry in the GTA franchise to feature a fully voiced protagonist, with the sadly departed Ray Liotta, who died yesterday at just 67, breathing life into Tommy Vercetti.
Even after more than two decades, Vice City is one of the most memorable games in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. This fan-made trailer shows that there is still a lot of love for this installment, and it's interesting to see just what could become of a full remake or remaster done with care.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City originally released in 2002 for PS2.
Source: DSO Gaming