Miami Vice review

When a tie-in game boasts that it is based on a real-episode but fully interactive it casts my mind back to the dawn of CD-ROM based games when we were promised fully interactive TV style shows that would revolutionize gaming. Anybody who remembers those promises will remember the handful of awful interactive FMV.

Miami Vices claim to be an interactive real episode, then doesn't fill you with confidence. Miami Vice, thankfully, doesn't try the FMV approach but bases its storyline on a real episode. So if you fancy taking control of the Miami-Vice duo and investigating your way through a bit of nostalgia then this might be the game for you.

While Miami-Vice doesn't fall into the interactive game trap it feels like so many film and TV tie-ins before it. It's rushed and poorly executed. You might ask whether there is room in the market for a direct Miami Vice tie-in with GTA Vice City and the like out there and the answer is that if it was well done then the retro market would probably support it. Unfortunately the game is riddled with bugs, a poor control system, poor graphics and bad level design. The PC version of this feels like a rushed port from the console which is unusual. The saving screen, for instance, advises you not to switch off your PC while the save is in progress. Now that I've whetted your appetite, let me justify these criticisms.

Vice control

The first barrier to enjoying Miami Vice is the control system. Should you try to get to grips with it you'll find it an uncomfortable system as the camera swings around wildly, constantly changing the direction that you're walking.

The controls can't be remapped and so if you try out a control pad then you'll find that a lot of the controls are rather uncomfortably mapped. When you switch back to the keys you'll find the same frustration with the swinging camera angle.

You have certain auto controls which will occur when the level requires it. These include jump which you can't do yourself but have to let the computer do for you if the gap is small enough to be crossed. Should you decide to crouch out of sight behind a box then the game will turn your back to the box and leave you visible, vulnerable and unable to retaliate for a few seconds until the game gets the hint and lets you crouch.

Girls on the Beach

The TV show of Miami Vice always has style going for it. The Miami setting and girls in bikinis at least gives it something to watch for even for those who don't think much of its stories.

But Miami Vice the game lacks visuals to keep gamers interested. Looking more like low-res console graphics than good modern PC graphics, let's say that Miami Vice looks rather lackluster. The character models lack detail and the backgrounds are blocky and flat. The explosions lack weight and the animations aren't as smooth as you should expect from a modern PC game. It feels too much like the game was designed for the lowest quality console that it would appear on and then quickly ported to the other formats so that they would all look and play exactly the same.

This might mean that the console versions look and play better than the PC version but somehow I doubt it. The sound isn't much better. The effects lack strength and the voice acting in the cut scenes is rather poor. The background sound throughout the levels is a low, poorly looped drone and, in fact, the only good sounds in the game are those that are taken from the TV show namely the theme tune.

Leveling out

This brings us nicely to the level design. The levels are linear and incredibly samey. There are sub-goals on the missions such as arresting a certain number of enemies or finding a stash of drugs. The levels are basically a straight forward walk through the level shooting at carbon copy enemies using the awful auto-aim.

The auto-aim is activated with the right-mouse button which locks the sights onto the nearest enemy even if they are in a different room. When it locks onto a useful enemy it makes the combat rather pointless as hitting the target becomes too easy.

When the enemies appear from nowhere and start shooting at you before you've seen them because of the camera angles it might seem that the combat is unfairly weighted against you. It comes back into your favour when you see the AI. The enemies don't move around the room, don't patrol and don't work together. All they do is pop their heads up and down to shoot and be shot.

We want to be together

Miami Vice is about two cops of course and you can choose between them. Although Davilex would have you believe that there are great differences in game play between them but as you can probably guess this isn't the case.

The game plays much the same whoever you play as. Crockett and Tubbs are a team in the TV show and in the game. The team dynamics are rather poor though. The AI problems that affect the computer drones also affect your partner. He gets stuck in the scenery far too often, fails to get up the steps and stand in front of you blocking your path.

Tubbs and Crockett can heal each other if one gets badly hurt. This isn't really necessary though because your health automatically regenerates when you aren't getting shot at. This means that you just have to duck out of combat for a few seconds to let your health regenerate when you find yourself in a tricky situation.

Out of its time

80s TV shows still manage to have some retro appeal but the game is unlikely to tap into that goodwill. In the same way that the show is now out of its time the game, although a modern game, also looks and feels out of its time.

If this had been made just a few years ago, three or four maybe, then it could have been an average but not exceptional title. Gamers have rightly come to expect better, especially in the PC world. The graphics, sound, AI, level design, controls and gameplay are all poorly implemented. With all of these factors working against it there is really almost nothing to recommend it.

The only good part is the music that comes from the TV show and I'm sure you could get that on a CD from somewhere. All in all it seems like Miami Vice embodies the worst of what we have come to expect from movie and TV tie-ins.