Grand Theft Auto 2

The Good
Grand Theft Auto 2 is the sequel to DMA Design's 1997 hit, and it is even better. For those who haven't played the original, you control one of several protagonists and go on many exciting missions to earn money. You can also have the option of participating in a high-speed police chase, go on a killing spree, and much more. The graphics and sound were amazing at the time, and there is plenty of replayability there as well. It was so successful at the time that players demanded more, and DMA delivered two years later.

In regards to GTA2, the developers took what made GTA great and expanded on it. The sequel features more advanced AI and more missions. If you commit enough crimes, not only are the police involved, but SWAT teams, secret agents, and the military. The game also introduces gangs who you do missions for (with the Zaibatsu commonplace). If you successfully complete a mission for a certain gang, you'll gain a higher respect for them but your respect for their rivals also decreases. I like the way they start shooting at you repeatedly if you drive around a gang's territory while you have low respect for them.

The higher your respect is with the gang, the more missions that you gain from them. Missions are split into three categories: green, yellow, and red. Green missions can be accomplished easily enough, but red missions are far more challenging, especially if they involve you driving into a territory of a gang whom you have lower respect.

There are thieves to look out for, including muggers and car thieves. Stand in an area for too long and you will get mugged. When I am playing the game, I'l let them mug me the way they do normal pedestrians, but as they walk away, I'll execute them in front of other people.

There are new radio stations to listen to, and there are a couple of DJs that I enjoyed listening to. Out of all of them, I enjoyed listening to Dean Frantz because at least I can relate to him, especially when he mentions the cops. I am glad that the developers chose to remove the option that allows you to turn on constant ratio. It didn't make any sense in the last game to be listening to radio stations while you were out walking around.

GTA2 provides a day and night setting. Some of the missions require you to blow up things, and the resulting explosions look spectacular at night, as do the buildings that have their signs lit up. There are several weapons that you can use on your enemies that cause these types of explosions. Two of my favorites include the flamethrower. Once you set people alight, they scream and run in the opposite direction. But that is nothing compared to the rocket launcher. If you use it too close to your target, you'll end up flying through the air and come back down hard on the ground.

Another thing I must point out is the nice save feature, where you can enter a church to save the game, as long as you get at least $50,000 and are not on a mission. This save feature is a step away from the draconian save method in the previous game, where you are limited to saving in between cities.

Cheat codes can be entered into the game if you keep failing the missions. The cheat codes include invincibility, maximum cash, full ammo for all weapons, and more. There are a few cheat codes that alter the game mechanics. I like using the one that involves all pedestrians turning into thieves. No matter where you go, you hear them fighting, and one of them has a go at you if you get too close to the action. Another cheat involves turning vehicles into the game into mini-cars. When you use this cheat, you can also listen to different radio stations in “chipmunk speed”.

The Bad
If I have to say anything negative about this game, it would have to be the fact that the aforementioned $50,000 requirement for saving games is a little bit hefty, and should have been much less. With this requirement, you need to successfully complete at least two missions, and then you can then save in-between each mission if you want. I am glad that the money requirement is left out for GTAIII and onwards.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, Grand Theft Auto 2 is a much better game than its predecessor as the game mechanics are much better. There are new radio stations you can listen to while you are driving around, and also thieves and gangs to deal with. As I said earlier, completing missions for a certain gang earns you a higher respect with them, but lower respect with their rivals. As a result, the rivals will deal with you the moment you enter their territory.

As the game says, “And remember: respect is everything.”

The Good
The Entire Feel of the game is cool, violent, and mature (well, somewhat). The Music is simply awesome with perfect timing. The weapons are fun and different from a normal game. The controls are generally solid. The cities are huge with really nice looking buildings and streets. The Cops have good AI, There not to tough nor are they easy.

The Bad
The View you could say is outdated (epically since its on a 6th gen console). I'm fine with the "tank" movement, but a full 3D behind the back view would have been nice. The lack of a map makes it pretty difficult to find the phone, so your gonna do a lot of walking.

The Bottom Line
Overall, this is one of the coolest games you'll ever find. Despite its view, its still a cool looking game that doesn't seem to disappoint.

The Good
The Graphics arent exactly groundbreaking for 1999 but a lot of games from the early days of 3d havent aged all that well so i can say GTA2 has aged alright in terms of graphics, it will never get old seeing myself shooting a rocket launcher at someone and watching them fly into the air and then crash back down! The soundtrack is a bigger highlight though, full of eclectic oddball choices like a fuzz box drenched 50's rock&roll type song, an actual licensed hardcore punk song about taxi drivers, some Nu Metal/Industrial Hip Hop song thats repetitive but catchy "lemme show you how its done" and even an electronic worship dance song about jesus. Thats just some of my favorite tracks but there is a lot of variety in this game that fits the retro-futurist Y2K vibe of this game perfectly. And i really enjoyed the "Respect" system [ Basically if you gain favor with 1 gang you lose respect from their rivals gang ] it lets you choose your own path if you truly want to and i think its an interesting system, i also enjoyed the driving controls a fair bit, very buttery smooth which oddly is nothing like the game boy color port of this game but yeah if you played that one the windows and home console versions are the opposite of that, also i liked how the maps were designed and the atmosphere, i'd love to see an actual remaster of this game really.

The Bad
The difficulty might be seen as bad to some, and spoilers to not get "nice try" at the end of the game you must 100% all districts which could take some time and honestly the missions in this game can get SUPER BRUTAL and to save the game you need 50,000$ and head to the spawn church building which means you might wanna conserve your saves which could be too much for some people, hell even as a kid i never got to the second district til i was about 15. And as much as i liked the driving controls and even my personal taste on the on foot controls [They're okay] i do think it should have used the mouse for aiming instead of doing some kind of tank controls to turn/aim on foot, its like playing a topdown version of the original doom games, without strafing, and honestly mild one when you look at the future games, the story isnt really much of anything its just "do this" and "do that" until you do every mission and then you SPOILERS kill the 3 bosses in the district til you make it to the end of the game, but this might not matter seeing as this game is way more arcade-like than future installments but for those looking for a story, you might not find much here

The Bottom Line
this game is great, but at the same time it's pretty flawed. For those that love havoc and a challenge this might be for you. But if you're looking for a crime sim with a good story and dont wanna rip your teeth out at some missions, steer clear!