Best Games Set In Miami

Miami, the Gateway to the Americas, and also the bastion of the fabled Florida Man. The weather is not the only thing that's hot and humid in this US city, but also the esteem associated with its locale. It's one of the hottest settings (both literally and figuratively) thanks to its strategic location and thus became the subject of many works of fiction.

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By  Raza Malik

Video games, for that matter, are among these works of fiction that have chosen this magical city as their playground. The results speak for themselves. Most games set in Miami tend to become classics. The city itself has its personality that makes it ripe for some digital recreation or rendition. These titles best capture the spirit of Miami that they almost count as a vacation to the place.

Updated January 11, 2024 by Ritwik Mitra: Miami is one of America's more notable cities, set in the heart of Florida and serving as the perfect place to retire for many. The seaside views and unique vistas of this city make it a great setting for many games to capitalize on.

With the craziness that can occur in this area, it's easy to see why so many action games focus on Miami as a backdrop for these frenetic action set-pieces. Players who want to explore a virtual world that either emulates Miami's architecture or is inspired by it will find many games that fit the bill.

Special Mention: Grand Theft Auto 6

Grand Theft Auto 6 is easily one of the most anticipated video games of all time, with the trailer for this title encapsulating the world and stoking the flames of hype for an open-world game that promises to be bigger and better than anything that Rockstar has put out until this point.

It's a shame that Rockstar has faced multiple leaks for this video game, something that no studio should go through. However, all these stories will become a thing of the past once GTA 6 launches and blows its competition out of the water.

10 Bad Boys: Miami Takedown

Metascore: 35

• Release year: 2004
• Genre: Action-adventure, Third-person shooter

Bad Boys was Michael Bay's directorial debut that established just how much this director loved explosions in his movies. Featuring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in a buddy cop action flick, Bad Boys makes for some mindless fun where fans can switch off their minds and have a great time.

The second movie received a video game adaptation called Bad Boys: Miami Takedown, which is a fairly unremarkable but quite entertaining game that fans can try out. It's nothing special, but players who want to check out every game set in Miami won't mind giving this title a whirl.

9 Driv3r

Metascore: 56

• Release year: 2004
• Genre: Action-Adventure, Open-world

Driv3r or Driver 3 is the odd one out in the series and is even considered the worst game depending on the aspect. However, it does make up for it by playing to its strength, which is the driving system. Back in its heyday, it put driving mechanics and vehicle handling schemes of even games like GTA: San Andreas to shame.

It's also an open-world game set in Miami where players are tasked to shake down a cartel operation in the city as undercover FBI agents. Instead of drugs, the cartel seems to deal with automobiles as contraband so it's up to the protagonists to investigate by posing as, well, drivers.

8 Miami Law

Metascore: 56

• Release year: 2000
• Genre: Adventure, Story-driven

If players want to check out a title that features less action but lets players soak in the tropical sky and the neon streets, then Miami Law might be more accessible. Well, somewhat accessible since it's only available for the Nintendo DS. It's a point-and-click adventure game with plenty of puzzles and detective tropes.

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Players can switch between the characters for variety since each of them has their strengths and weaknesses. Law Martin, for example, specializes in shootouts and general police fieldwork while Sara Starling is more of a forensics and detective mindmap law bringer. Both of them complement each other well.

7 Miami Vice: The Game

Metascore: 63

• Release year: 2006
• Genre: Action

Based on the TV series that started it all and put Miami in the crosshairs of directors and video game developers, Miami Vice: The Game is a callback to the setting's best opportunities. This video game adaptation is a third-person shooter where players get to assume the role of police officers Crockett and Tubbs.

The two are dead set on finding the link between a powerful drug lord and his operation. It's set before the events of the TV show but it still features some of the more familiar and original characters. Sadly, the game's only available on the PSP but that's nothing modern emulators can't fix.

6 The Godfather 2

Metascore: 65

• Release year: 2009
• Genre: Action-Adventure, RPG

Most of the time, it's video game movies that don't live up to their source material's name but in Godfather 2's case, it's the other way around. While that film is widely celebrated as the finest sequel ever made, its video game adaptation is far from special. That doesn't necessarily mean it's unplayable.

Godfather 2 (the video game) simply had too big of a shoe to fill in. Still, this action-adventure and RPG hybrid that took some design inspirations from GTA games has introduced its cool gimmicks such as the crew system.

5 Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Metascore: 74

Hotline Miami was an indie breakout hit, with its fast-paced action gameplay being lauded to the moon and back. Given how successful this game was, it's easy to see why a sequel was greenlit in no time flat.

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While Hotline Miami 2 has its fair share of highlights, the expansion of the game's maps can make things slightly overwhelming at times. Getting killed off-screen is always a huge pain, but that's a small gripe in what is otherwise a fairly decent sequel.

4 Scarface: The World Is Yours

Metascore: 75

Scarface, the legendary film, was set in Miami and it follows the journey of a Cuban refugee who rose to the ranks of the criminal underworld in Miami up until he became the kingpin. Scarface: The World Is Yours is the video game adaptation of that very same movie, complete with Tony Montana (complete with Al Pacino's intense face though not his voice).

In this game, players get to control Tony and direct his actions most of which include criminal activity and being a dysfunctional drug lord. The difference here is that the game explores Tony's alternate fate if he had survived the final shootout in his mansion at the end of the movie.

3 Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

Metascore: 78

• Release year: 2011
• Genre: Action, Simulation

Most games set in Miami put the players at street level which is a bit of a shame since the city has one of the best skylines in the world. Thankfully, players get to gaze not only at that skyline but also down at the houses in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.

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It's a combat flight sim game where players partake in modern high-octane dogfights and two of the missions take place in the Miami skies (and one on the Florida coast). Players get to spit fire at enemy aircraft while admiring the tropics below which is a stunning satellite image recreation of Miami.

2 Hotline Miami

Metascore: 85

Hotline Miami is a bold and violent game that doesn't hesitate in bringing an exaggeration of the city's dark and dingy underbelly. It puts players in the role of a gun-toting and axe-wielding vigilante intent on punishing and slaughtering the underworld gangs and criminal organizations within an alternate-reality Miami.

The game's 16-bit charm might put off players craving for next-gen graphics but that's part of the game's art style and also a way to mask its overt savagery. The gameplay is rather simple; players just walk around building to building— room to room, killing floral-shirt-wearing gangsters and disrupting their poker games or cigar sessions.

1 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Metascore: 95

Finally, and most likely the most popular game set in a fictional version of Miami, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The name might be different but Vice City is very much a faithful clone of the Florida city (minus the alligators in the sewers and the toilets).

As always, it's a crime drama involving several drug cartels and even the mafia. At the center of it all is Tommy Vercetti, a former mafia hitman who was dumped by his boss in Vice City to sort out some connections. This gave Tommy plenty of violent new opportunities to start over and claim his spot in the crime underworld hierarchy a-la Scarface.

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