An Old Friend (GTA Vice City)

Updated 2 November 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

An Old Friend is the short mission that follows the opening of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002). Tommy Vercetti walks from Ken Rosenberg's office to his room at the Ocean View Hotel and calls Sonny Forelli in Liberty City. He admits the drug deal was an ambush and the money is gone, and he promises to recover both the cash and the cocaine.

What is An Old Friend in GTA Vice City?

An Old Friend is the first proper storyline step in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It comes straight after the opening sequence, in which the drug deal that Tommy Vercetti was sent to oversee is ambushed. gta.wiki lists it as a mission for Sonny Forelli, the don of the Forelli family, even though Sonny never leaves Liberty City. Our GTA Vice City missions hub shows where it sits in the full story.

What do you have to do?

Very little. The player begins outside the office of Ken Rosenberg and has to reach the Ocean View Hotel on Ocean Drive, step inside and head for the stairs. gta.wiki's objective list has just those three steps. There is no combat, no timer and no way to fail, which makes it a gentle way to learn driving and the map of Ocean Beach before the real work starts.

What happens in the cutscene?

Once Tommy is in his room he phones Sonny, who is sitting in the back room of Marco's Bistro in Liberty City. Sonny is in a good mood at first and reminds Tommy that he went to prison fifteen years earlier for the family. When he asks about the deal, Tommy tells him the truth: it was a set-up, his two companions Harry and Lee were killed, and the cases of money were left behind.

Sonny loses his temper and smashes the receiver on the table. Tommy swears he will get back the money and the drugs and punish whoever arranged the ambush. Sonny accepts this, but makes it clear that only their long history is keeping Tommy alive. That threat hangs over the rest of the game.

Why does this mission matter for the story?

The phone call sets up the whole plot of Vice City. Tommy is in debt to a mob boss who does not fully trust him, and he has to find out who was behind the ambush. That search leads him through the jobs for Ken, Colonel Cortez and Ricardo Diaz, and finally to Rub Out. The tension between Tommy and Sonny that starts here only ends in the final mission, Keep Your Friends Close..., when Sonny comes to Vice City himself.

Sonny keeps calling throughout the game. gta.wiki records one such call after Rub Out, in which he complains that Tommy never stays in touch and hints that he has heard about Tommy's rise.

What does An Old Friend unlock?

Trivia

gta.wiki notes that the song heard during the cutscene is "Life's What You Make It" by Talk Talk, a track that is also on the Flash FM radio station. It also records two small technical quirks. In the original release the thrown phone briefly freezes in the air before the scene ends, a glitch that the 10th Anniversary Edition repaired, as did The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. And on the Steam PC version a save made right after this mission can still carry the name of the opening mission.

For the people involved, see Tommy Vercetti, Sonny Forelli and Ken Rosenberg. The Forelli family's longer history is covered on our Forelli family page.