Why This Canceled GTA: Vice City Mission Would Have Been A Game-Changer

The Grand Theft Auto franchise is littered with controversy. The very first installment in 1997 was banned in several countries for being too violent and, ever since then, the series has continues to push the limits of what society can accept.

Grand Theft Auto 3 was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2001. While it also generated tons of controversy, many outlets have named it as one of the greatest games of all time, it arguably set the stage for the franchise to become the phenomenon it is today, as seen with Grand Theft Auto 5 ranking as one of the best-selling games of all time.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City took many of the gameplay concepts introduced in GTA 3, but it sent the series in a new direction. Vice City is set in a neon-soaked, drug-fueled 1980s Florida. When it was released in 2002, the game sold close to a million copies in a single day. While the game has plenty of moments that push the envelope, one moment never saw the light of day — and could have been so much more.

Scarface is one of the most iconic crime films in history, following the rise and fall of Tony Montana, a cuban refugee who arrives in Miami in 1980 and sets out to create a drug empire. This setting in Vice City seems to be a direct reference to the Al Pacino classic.

Apartment 3C is in the Ocean Beach area of Vice City. The apartment houses a bathroom that contains a chainsaw and stacks of cocaine next to a blood-soaked bathtub. This is a clear reference to a famously violent scene in Scarface which involves around a drug deal gone wrong. While it still works as an homage, there were once bigger plans for this apartment.

Originally, the space was to be used as one of the many safehouses that players would earn after completing a mission for Sonny Forelli, the Don of the Forelli family. Vice City featured safehouses spread around the city, which came in quite handy as weapon-filled save points. Unfortunately, this particular safehouse was cut from the final version of the game, leaving many to wonder what this space could have become. Some people believe that a mission involving this apartment was also removed, but that could simply be one of the many myths in the GTA universe.