5 best GTA Vice City mods in 2023, ranked

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Vice City was released by Rockstar Games in 2002, perfectly emulating the essence of the 80s and leaving gamers in awe. Two decades later, while there are titles that offer much more, GTA Vice City continues to offer players an experience unlike many other games out there.

While it may have fallen short of modern-day prerequisites in its vanilla form, some players have created innovative mods that overhaul Vice City to today's standards. That being said, we list five of the best Grand Theft Auto Vice City mods in 2023.

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Ranking five best GTA Vice City mods in 2023

5) Gravity Gun

While it looks much like the Up-n-Atomizer from GTA Online, it functions slightly differently. The gun plays into the gravity control gimmick by letting players move objects such as NPCs, cars, bikes and even fish at will and drop them wherever they wish to.

All players must do is aim for an object and click the left mouse button (LMB) to move the selected target anywhere. Clicking on it once more, the object will be released from the grip of the gravity gun and fall to the ground.

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4) Raccoon City Stories (zombie mod)

A world full of zombies is out to get Tommy Vercetti. The Raccoon City Stories mod adds a unique twist to the game by compelling all NPCs of GTA Vice City to attack the protagonist. Committing to the full gimmick of a zombie breakout, the NPCs' character models are also altered to resemble the "undead."

Players will be overwhelmed by the outpouring of zombies every time they attempt to walk down the streets of Vice City. While it can be a little detracting if installed before finishing the game's main story, it does account for a fun experience afterward.

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3) Swimming mod

Finally, a fix for one of the game's most crucial missing features has been introduced. Players can now take Tommy Vercetti out for a swim in the pristine waters of Vice City, which was once fatal. The Swim Like San Andreas mod now allows players to be able to swim in GTA Vice City.

Installing this mod brings to the game the entire swimming and parkour animation set from GTA San Andreas. Although the water does not react to Tommy's movements as the developers never intended for players to be able to swim, it is a minor deterrent which can easily be overlooked.

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2) First Person View

The first-person perspective in games has remained popular for a long time. The Far Cry franchise offers one of the best open-world first-person shooter experiences, and its inclusion in GTA 5 was a first for the franchise. If players want to bring this experience to GTA Vice City, they now have a way to do so.

By installing the First Person View mod in the game, players can experience it from a fresh perspective. The camera placement is similar to any first-person shooter game and contributes brilliantly to the overall immersion in the timeless classic.

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1) Vice City RenderHook

Many Grand Theft Auto Vice City graphical overhaul mods are available. However, none work wonders like the Vice City RenderHook, an in-progress graphics mod.

This mod implements ray-tracing support in the game through DirectX 11 shaders that completely change the look and feel of the game for the better. It focuses more on in-game lighting rather than assets and texture upscaling. Players should note that it only works for Nvidia's high-end RTX graphics cards at the moment, although there may be support for GTX graphics cards down the line.

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The mods on this list have been ranked on the basis of how much they are able to renovate Rockstar Games' timeless classic.