GTA 6 Vice City vs Original Vice City (2002): What's Changed
GTA 6's Vice City vs the 2002 original: map, setting, landmarks like the Ocean View Hotel, protagonists and what's confirmed before the November 19 launch.
GTA 6 takes the series back to Vice City, Rockstar's take on Miami, when it launches on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The original GTA: Vice City came out on October 29, 2002, which makes tomorrow its 24th anniversary, and it was set in 1986. GTA 6 is set in the modern day, inside the fictional State of Leonida, Rockstar's version of Florida.
The short answer: GTA 6 is not a remake of the original. It keeps the name, the beachfront hotel strip and some returning landmarks, then builds a much bigger, modern city around them, inside a state with five other regions.
At a glance
| GTA Vice City (2002) | GTA 6 (2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Release | October 29, 2002 | November 19, 2026 |
| Time period | 1986 | Modern day |
| Continuity | 3D Universe (reported) | HD Universe, same as GTA IV and V (reported) |
| Protagonist(s) | Tommy Vercetti, voiced by Ray Liotta | Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval |
| Map scope | Vice City only, no rural areas | Vice City plus five more regions of Leonida |
| City layout | Vice City Beach and the Mainland, linked by bridges (reported) | Downtown and beach split by a water channel |
| Reported map size | Roughly 5–6 km² including water | No official figure; fan estimates only |
| Launch platforms | PS2 | PS5, Xbox Series X/S; no PC date announced |
| Development time | About one year (reported) | Nearly a decade (reported) |
Setting: 1986 neon vs. modern-day Leonida
The original was a love letter to the mid-80s, drawing on Miami Vice, the cocaine cowboys era, glam metal, Scarface and pastel suits. Its radio carried over 113 songs, around nine hours of 1980s music spanning new wave, metal and hip-hop, according to retrospectives.
GTA 6 swaps that period piece for present-day Florida satire. Vice City now sits inside Vice-Dale County, a stand-in for Miami-Dade, according to one fan database. One reported but significant detail: GTA 6's Vice City belongs to the HD Universe shared with GTA IV and GTA V, not the 3D Universe Tommy lived in. If that holds, this is a new version of the city, not the same place 40 years later.
Map: one city vs. a whole state
The 2002 map was entirely urban, with no countryside at all. It was split into Vice City Beach and the Mainland, connected by bridges, and was roughly 5–6 square kilometres including water, per one breakdown. Even fans of the game admit it feels small next to San Andreas, GTA IV and GTA V.
GTA 6 makes Vice City one region of six. Rockstar has officially named them: Vice City, the Leonida Keys, the Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga. Reports describe the Grassrivers as an Everglades-style swamp full of wildlife, alongside a Keys-style island chain, mountain ranges and inland lakes.
The city itself keeps a familiar shape. Like the original's beach-and-mainland split, GTA 6's downtown and beach districts are separated by water, here a channel.
What about the bridges?
In 2002, the Island Bridge was a two-lane crossing between the main landmass and an adjacent island, locked until you finished certain missions. One writer thinks a bridge in the GTA 6 trailer resembles it, connecting a main landmass with an island, but that is a visual comparison, not a confirmed callback.
How big is the new map?
Rockstar hasn't published a size. The numbers floating around are fan work:
- A rumor based on fan analysis puts the map at roughly 70% larger than GTA V.
- Some speculative analyses claim crossing the full map takes over six minutes by vehicle.
- Trailer-based comparisons suggest GTA 6's Vice City alone has more landmass than the original's.
Given the original's 5–6 km² footprint and the five extra regions, it's safe to expect a much larger world, but treat any specific multiplier as unverified.
Landmarks that return
The Ocean View Hotel
Tommy Vercetti's first safehouse in the 2002 game, the Ocean View Hotel, returns rebuilt in GTA 6. Rockstar's own material lists it on Ocean Drive alongside another art deco hotel, The Dominion. In the original, the Ocean View and neighbouring properties sat just behind the beach.
Ocean Drive
The Ocean Drive strip of hotels and beachfront road is part of GTA 6, according to Rockstar's material. It appears at the 32-second mark of the official trailer, with NPCs on the street and neon-signed buildings. In the same trailer, a character steps out of a Cheetah on Ocean Drive. Several outlets put Rockstar's new Ocean Drive side by side with the 2002 version as soon as the first trailer dropped, and one report notes that the pastel art deco hotel strips are back.
Vice Beach
The first trailer didn't name the beach it showed, but players immediately read it as Vice Beach from the original. Rockstar's material now refers to Vice Beach directly, with dense crowds of sunbathers, beach umbrellas and banner-towing planes. Police cars in Ocean Beach even carry 'Vice Beach' markings. Lifeguard towers similar to the 2002 ones line the shoreline. The biggest visual difference: tall skyscrapers now rise behind the shore as the camera pans.
Smaller callbacks
- Ammu-Nation is back as Leonida's firearms chain.
- A nightclub in the GTA 6 trailer was compared by Redditors with the Malibu Club. This is a fan comparison, not a confirmed return.
- A convenience store where Lucia and Jason appear in the trailer was matched by a Reddit user to a store from the 2002 game.
Fan-spotted lookalikes (unconfirmed)
One fan comparison of trailer footage pairs several GTA 6 locations with 2002 counterparts. All of these are speculation:
- A two-story motel courtyard matched to a similar motel in the original.
- A high-rise under construction compared to the green-mesh construction site from 2002.
- An apartment block with corner balconies likened to a pink multi-story building.
- A curved residential tower seen as a modern take on a curved hotel.
- A rooftop infinity pool compared to the original's rooftop pool.
- A rundown trailer park that, in one writer's view, gets closer to what the 2002 scene was going for.
Fan mapping also suggests Little Haiti and Little Havana return in some form, with one analysis pointing to murals and graffiti spelling 'Perle' in a Little Haiti-style neighbourhood. None of this is official.
What's new in GTA 6's Vice City
The original was low-rise beach town meets 80s downtown. Rockstar's GTA 6 material paints something closer to modern Miami.
Downtown
- A sprawling skyline of high-rises and waterfront towers.
- An elevated monorail running past skyscrapers at night.
- The Sahara Arena, home of the local basketball team.
- The Vice City Arts Center, a performing arts complex.
Neighbourhoods and districts
Rockstar lists Ocean Beach, Little Cuba, the Tisha-Wocka flea market and the VC Port among Vice City's areas. The port handles both commercial shipping and cruises and is branded the cruise capital of the world.
One report describes Stockyard, an art- and car-focused district modelled on Miami's Wynwood. It reportedly contains the Electric Fang Tattoo studio and a clothing shop called Stock 305, with Electric Fang said to offer more than 50 tattoo designs from a real-world art collective. The same source mentions Rideout Customs, a garage that turns regular cars into lowriders.
Crime and characters
- Jack of Hearts is a strip club owned by Boobie Ike, per Rockstar. He runs clubs and a recording studio as fronts for criminal activity.
- The PTT Youngins gang reportedly holds compounds in Southside Vice City and runs illegal hydroponic grow operations. One source says a mission has you raid one of their compounds to steal contraband.
Protagonists and story
The original put you in Tommy Vercetti's shoes, a Forelli family mobster released after 15 years in prison. Sonny Forelli sends him to Vice City to oversee a drug deal that goes wrong, leaving Tommy in debt. From there he works with lawyers, arms dealers, producers and gang leaders to recover the money and build his own empire. Ray Liotta voiced him, and he was the first voiced protagonist of the 3D era after GTA III's silent Claude. The main story runs about 20 hours, per one estimate.
GTA 6 trades the lone kingpin for a duo: Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval, a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style criminal pair. That's the biggest structural change between the two games' stories. One reported detail for anyone expecting a GTA Online relaunch on day one: GTA 6 is described as single-player at launch, with GTA Online's status unannounced.
Streets, crowds and tech
In the 2002 game, pedestrians followed fixed movement patterns, especially around Vice Beach and Ocean Drive. The GTA 6 trailer shows NPCs spread across the map, doing different activities and moving in groups, and Rockstar's beach material shows dense crowds.
The production gap is massive. Vice City reportedly took about a year to make, while GTA 6 took nearly a decade. GTA 6 runs on Rockstar's RAGE engine, according to reports. Unsurprisingly, side-by-side screenshot comparisons find the new game looks far better, and one comparison argues fire and explosion effects have improved significantly. Those are impressions from footage, not measured differences.
Why the original still matters
GTA Vice City was reportedly the best-selling game of 2002 and has sold over 17.5 million copies. It holds a 95/100 on Metacritic, and many fans rank it the second-best GTA after San Andreas. It was only the second fully 3D GTA, following GTA III.
If you want to revisit it before November 19, you have options:
- Original PS2/PC releases, which comparison pieces still use for side-by-sides.
- The 10th anniversary mobile port for iOS and Android (December 2012), with updated visuals and controls.
- GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition (2021), which bundled a remastered Vice City with GTA III and San Andreas. Some fans criticised its visual changes as inconsistent with the original.
Rockstar is leaning on the nostalgia too: the GTA 6 pre-order bonus is the Vintage Vice City Pack, with the Standard Edition at $79.99 and the Ultimate Edition at $99.99, according to the official pre-order listing.
Confirmed vs. rumored
Confirmed by Rockstar
- Launch on November 19, 2026, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S; no PC date yet.
- Modern-day setting in Leonida.
- Six named regions, with Vice City as one of them.
- The Ocean View Hotel returns, rebuilt.
- Ocean Drive, art deco hotels, lifeguard towers and Ammu-Nation are in.
- Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval are the protagonists.
Reported, single source
- GTA 6 is in the HD Universe, not the 3D Universe.
- Stockyard, Rideout Customs and the PTT Youngins.
- Single-player only at launch.
Rumor or fan speculation
- Map roughly 70% larger than GTA V.
- Over 700 enterable interiors, often repeated but never confirmed.
- A neighbouring state called Gloriana, based on licence plates fans spotted in Trailer 2.
- Other returning locations hinted at by leaks.
- Island Bridge, Malibu Club, Little Haiti and Little Havana callbacks.
Sources
Based on 10 videos and articles. Here are the main ones, with credit to their creators.
- ArticleGTA 6 Vice City vs. the 2002 Original: How Much Has Changed?gamerfuzion.com
- VideoGTA 6 Vice City — Everything Confirmed (Full Breakdown)No Fast Travel
- ArticleRevisiting Rockstar’s 2002 hit GTA Vice City ahead of the much anticipated GTA VIenterpriseam.com
- Article3 similarities between GTA 6's Vice City and the OG Vice City (and 2 differences)sportskeeda.com
- Article26 GTA 6 Screenshot Comparisons Showing How Much Things Have Changed Since Vice Citykotaku.com
Show all 10 sources +Show fewer −
- Article"We've came a long way": Fans compare the store in GTA 6 trailer with OG Vice City onesportskeeda.com
- VideoGTA 6 EXTENDED LOOK VS GTA VICE CITY LOCATIONS COMPARISONOnespot Gaming
- VideoGTA 6 VS GTA VICE CITY MAP COMPARISONGRIZZLY BEAR
- VideoGTA 6 vs Every GTA Game ComparisonOnespot Gaming
- VideoGTA6 vs. GTA5 vs. VICE CITY Physics Comparison | Grand Theft Auto VI [Showcase]Rizado