Grand Theft Auto 2

Classic! I grew up playing this game and after years of struggling to replay it, I finally found some patches to be able to fully enjoy it on a modern machine on a 32:9 monitor. This is my first replay of this game after probably 25 years. And I'm loving it. I loved modern GTA games, all of them, but these are the roots they all came from and their DNA is unmistakeable.

There's a widescreen fix online, which I obviously cannot link here, but it's the one from PC Gaming Wiki. After fixing up some settings, the game runs in super-ultrawide (16:9 HUD optional) with only one issue, which is that nothing ever spawns on the screen, which means that when you're traveling horizontally or trying to kill a lot of enemies in a small area, things will be spawning very far away from you, which made one mission nearly impossible to do (kill 100 scientists in a mall). It's also supposed to support zooming the camera with Num+/Num-, but that didn't work for me either.

The game is unfortunately coded in 25fps and increasing the framerate increases the game speed, but thankfully Lossless Scaling again comes to the rescue with one of its best examples of the X4 mode, which brings this game from 25fps to 100fps. Obviously it's not without a fair share of artifacts and doesn't fix the lousy responsiveness this game always had due to the low base framerate, but it's definitely worlds better than playing it at 25fps or without the frame limiter. I've tried the same thing in GTA1, which suffers from the same hard-coded low base framerate and it works just as well as GTA2.

Grand Theft Auto 2: A Chaotic Classic That Holds Up

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Introduction and Historical Context

Grand Theft Auto 2 (GTA2), released in 1999, is one of those games that feels like a product of its time, yet still manages to remain entertaining today. Developed by DMA Design (now Rockstar North), GTA2 marked a significant step forward from the original Grand Theft Auto released in 1997. It’s a top-down open-world action game where you wreak havoc in a sprawling city filled with rival gangs, corrupt cops, and ordinary citizens just trying to survive the chaos you bring to their lives.

What’s special about GTA2 is that it wasn’t just a cash grab sequel—it improved on nearly every aspect of its predecessor. The graphics were sharper, the gameplay was more varied, and the world felt more alive, even with its intentionally exaggerated and absurd tone. It’s also one of the last games in the series to feature the top-down perspective before the franchise moved into 3D with GTA III.

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Gameplay

At its core, GTA2 is about freedom. You’re thrown into a massive city and left to decide how you want to climb the criminal ladder. Want to run missions for gangs? Sure. Prefer to steal cars, cause chaos, and fight off waves of cops? Go for it. The game doesn’t punish you for doing things your way—it encourages it.
Here’s what makes the gameplay tick:

Missions and Gangs

One of the standout features of GTA2 is its faction system. The city is divided into territories controlled by three gangs in each district, and they all want your loyalty. You can choose to work for the Zaibatsu Corporation (a greedy mega-corporation), the Loonies (a gang of psychotic anarchists), or the Yakuza (disciplined but deadly criminals), among others. Each gang has its own flavor and mission types, and they all hate each other. Helping one faction raises your reputation with them but lowers it with their rivals, meaning you’re always walking a tightrope of alliances.

The missions themselves are varied, often bordering on the ridiculous in the best way. You’ll be tasked with everything from blowing up rival gang hideouts to stealing specific cars or escorting convoys. However, the difficulty spikes here can be brutal. Some missions feel manageable, while others will have you tearing your hair out with their sudden increase in challenge. Expect to retry missions multiple times as you learn the patterns and strategies needed to complete them.

Combat and Driving

Combat in GTA2 is chaotic and brutal. You can wield a variety of weapons, from pistols and machine guns to flamethrowers and rocket launchers. The shooting mechanics are basic but satisfying. Driving, meanwhile, feels tighter compared to GTA1. Cars handle better, and there’s more variety in vehicles, from sports cars to buses. Stealing a specific car for a mission—or just for fun—is always a highlight.

The Wanted System

The police are no joke in GTA2. As in later GTA games, you have a wanted level that increases as you commit crimes. Start small, and the cops will come after you in patrol cars. Cause enough mayhem, and they’ll escalate to SWAT teams and military forces. The challenge of evading them adds a layer of tension and fun to the chaos.

Checkpoints and Progression

One of the big changes in GTA2 compared to its predecessor is the introduction of save points and respawns. You can save your game by visiting churches (at a cost), which helps reduce the frustration of losing progress after dying. However, this save system comes with its own set of issues. If you only keep one save and it becomes corrupted—a problem that some players report—you’re out of luck. Always back up your saves, or you risk losing hours of progress. For a game this challenging, that’s a painful lesson to learn the hard way.

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World and Setting

The game is set in a retro-futuristic city simply called Anywhere City. It’s divided into three districts: the Downtown area, the Residential area, and the Industrial sector. Each has a unique vibe:

• Downtown: The starting area, with skyscrapers, bustling streets, and corporate strongholds.
  
• Residential: A mix of suburbs, small businesses, and shady hideouts.
  
[*]Industrial: The most dangerous district, filled with factories, gang territories, and crime-ridden streets.

The city feels alive, with pedestrians going about their day, cars honking in traffic, and random events like gang fights breaking out. The humor is dark, and the world doesn’t take itself seriously, which is part of its charm. For example, ads on the radio and billboards parody consumer culture and corporate greed in hilarious ways.

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Graphics and Sound

For its time, GTA2 looked great. The graphics took a significant leap forward from the first game, with better lighting, smoother animations, and more detailed environments. The game also added a day-night cycle, which was a big deal back then. Driving through the city at night, with neon lights reflecting off the streets, adds a surprising amount of atmosphere.

The soundtrack is another highlight. Each car you steal plays a different radio station, featuring genres like rock, techno, and even funky lounge music. The voice acting is over-the-top in a fun way, and the sound effects—whether it’s the roar of a flamethrower or the screech of tires—are spot on.

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Difficulty

Make no mistake—GTA2 is a tough game. The difficulty spikes can be insane, especially as you progress through the city’s districts. Some missions require perfect timing and precision, while others demand quick thinking under pressure. Add to that the relentless cops and rival gangs, and you’ve got a game that keeps you on your toes.

This difficulty isn’t just about the missions, either. The save system, as mentioned earlier, can be unforgiving. If your save gets corrupted or you forget to save after a key mission, you’ll be back at square one. For modern players used to autosaves, this might feel archaic and frustrating. But for those who like a challenge, the difficulty adds to the game’s charm—it forces you to get creative and adapt to survive.

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Final Thoughts

Grand Theft Auto 2 is a chaotic, challenging classic that stands as an important stepping stone in the history of open-world games. While its difficulty spikes and technical issues might frustrate some players, it’s still an incredibly fun and rewarding experience if you’re willing to put in the effort. The faction system, vibrant world, and dark humor make it a standout entry in the GTA series.

If you’re a fan of the franchise or just want to experience a piece of gaming history, GTA2 is absolutely worth playing—just remember to save often and brace yourself for the challenge.

Grand Theft Auto 2 Review: A Vicious, Vile, and Vulgarly Beautiful Disaster

Alright, buckle up, because Grand Theft Auto 2 is about to drag you through a cesspool of crime, chaos, and complete utter nonsense in the most fun way possible. Released in 1999, this top-down, pixelated mess is the twisted lovechild of mayhem and laughter, drenched in so much criminal insanity that you might need a shower after playing it—or at least a heavy drink.

The Story: "Yeah, Sure, It's About Crime—Who Cares?"
Do you like stories? Of course you don’t. You’re here to steal cars, run over pedestrians, and get chased by a gang of lunatics with a vendetta. The plot is thinner than the paper used to print your dad’s old “for mature audiences” VHS tapes. You play as some faceless criminal who’s essentially just trying to climb up the greasy ladder of criminal chaos while stabbing, shooting, and running over people in the process. Do you care about the story? Nope. It’s about as important as the traffic laws in this godforsaken city.

If you somehow get distracted by the plot (which, let’s face it, is unlikely, because it’s complete garbage), you’ll probably get swept away by the sheer carnage happening on screen. The story is just an excuse to run riot through a city full of over-the-top, insane gang members who hate you, love you, and want to blow your face off with a bazooka all at the same time.

The Gameplay: Welcome to a World of Shenanigans
You’re not here to read some sappy tutorial about driving, shooting, and respecting others. No, GTA2 is like that one cousin who’s always getting into trouble, and you can’t help but laugh at their dumb antics. You steal cars like a desperate maniac, run people over with the kind of grace that would make a NASCAR driver cry, and you’ll probably kill half of the city’s population before realizing you're not even playing the game—you’re just creating a digital apocalypse for fun.

Oh, and the driving mechanics? Just beautiful. If you’ve ever wanted to feel like a child with a toy car who’s let loose on the freeway, then GTA2’s physics will make your dreams come true. Hit a wall? Your car will bounce off it like a rubber ball, doing flips and twists that would make a stunt double puke. Hit a person? They’ll explode into a fountain of blood and limbs, like some sort of bizarre, pixelated fireworks show. It’s a glorious mess, and you’ll want more of it.

The World: Welcome to Insanity
In GTA2, the world is less of a "city" and more of a blood-soaked playground where you’ll find people shooting at each other for no reason, criminals running around like they’ve lost their minds, and NPCs acting as if they’ve just been dragged out of the nearest insane asylum. There’s always something weird going on—whether it’s an innocent person turning into a human fireball or a police car suddenly launching itself into orbit after being rear-ended by your stolen vehicle. It’s like an action movie, but one where all the actors are so drunk they can’t even remember their lines, much less be remotely competent.

The gangs? Oh, they’re a riot. Some of them want to kill you, others want to recruit you, and the rest just want to be friends with a shotgun. But no matter what, they’re all screaming at you to "do this" and "do that," and you’d better do it, or they’ll kill you without a second thought. One moment you’re dodging a crazy cultist throwing grenades, the next, you’re getting chased down by some biker gang that thinks you just stole their lunch money.

The Sound: The Sound of Destruction
The music in GTA2 is like a non-stop techno party in hell, and honestly? It suits the game perfectly. You’ll be jamming out to some ridiculous electronic beats while plowing through pedestrians, flipping cars, and creating a perfect storm of criminal chaos. It’s like someone took a rave, put it on steroids, and let it run wild in the middle of an open world filled with explosions.

And let’s not forget the sound of mayhem. The sickening sound of a car smashing into a pedestrian’s body or the horrifying screech of tires skidding around a corner will stay with you long after you’ve turned off the game. There’s something oddly satisfying about the distorted cries of NPCs as they turn into human pinballs under the wheels of your car.

The Physics: A Lawless Hellscape
Speaking of physics, GTA2 has absolutely no interest in pretending that real-world rules apply. Hitting a wall? You’ll bounce off it with the grace of a hamster on a trampoline. Drive over a group of people? They’ll fly into the air like a ragdoll that’s been hit by a hurricane. And don’t even get me started on the car crashes—they’re pure, unfiltered insanity. It’s like watching a demolition derby designed by a mad scientist who’s had one too many energy drinks.

The Conclusion: An Explosion of Trashy Fun
If you ever wondered what would happen if you mashed together a trash heap, a firecracker, and a clown car, then GTA2 would be the answer. It’s a game where everything makes absolutely no sense, but that’s what makes it beautiful. It’s a chaotic mess that you can’t help but love, even as it laughs at your ability to make any progress or stay on a mission without getting sidetracked by blowing up an innocent bystander.

Is it a masterpiece? Not even close. Is it a game that’ll make you feel like a morally bankrupt lunatic? Absolutely. Is it fun? Hell yeah. It’s dark, twisted, and vulgar, and every second of it is glorious. GTA2 isn’t about rules, respect, or logic—it’s about complete, unfettered chaos.

If you want a game that gives zero shits about being politically correct and instead offers a whirlwind of destruction and degeneracy, then buckle up, you degenerate little troublemaker. GTA2 is waiting for you to turn the world into your personal dumpster fire.

Peak GTA

A great franchise whose early installments do not hold up due to poor controls and limited visibility.

The Grand Theft Auto series from III through Vice City, San Andreas, 4, and 5 are well-known for their crime lord simulations. The 3D graphics, intuitive controls, and gritty stories have made them landmarks in gaming that have been often imitated, from the Saints Row series to the Just Cause series. While the franchise as a whole has become a juggernaut of gaming, its early installments were innovative in their gameplay but inhibited by two fatal flaws: the controls and the top-down view.

The Positives
-This game was innovative in its time to have robust cities that you could navigate, car physics that remind you of the old Bump ‘n Jump games at high speeds, and the fact that you were a criminal and the point was to climb the ranks of criminal enterprises. You could steal, shoot, and burn things to the ground. It’s a teenage boy’s dream.

-When you get used to the controls, the driving around and the running around and causing mayhem can be fun. For the challenge-seekers out there, you can get your wanted rating up high and try to dodge law enforcement for as long as possible. It is the beginning of the open-world game where you can do what ever you want and only have to take jobs if you feel like it.

-The jobs vary and make you use various weapons or go to different areas of the map. This was early days, and they really gave you interesting criminal organizations with personalities as well as job backgrounds and car designs for the era. Many modern story-rich games can definitely be traced back to this early part of the series where you can align with various factions, climb the ranks, and become a big-time player. It’s kind of like the Elder Scrolls series in that regard but applied to the real-world criminal underground.


The Negatives
-This is the old tank-control scheme. While I get why they had to compromise—the PlayStation pre-analog days required controls that didn’t let you run around fluidly with a stick, but these are terrible. They are so bad that while I own these games on Steam, I had to play them on my PlayStation Classic for the controls to be even bearable. I’m sure you can make them work decently on PC, but it was much easier just to go back to the PS1 for ones that I could get used to in minutes instead of hours.

-The visibility is the game’s biggest issue along with the map design. I know that they made intricate maps so that you couldn’t just drive 100 mph everywhere, but it gets more and more designed like a maze as you progress in levels and becomes unbelievably frustrating. You can’t drive very fast for more than 10 seconds because there will be a sharp turn and a brick wall just moments later, and every time you make a turn you have a 50:50 chance of driving down a dead-end way. Because this is pre-GPS navigation in the 3D age, the arrows pointing in the general direction of your target mislead you as you try to turn to get closer only to hit a dead end. Sometimes, it’d get so difficult to figure out how to enter an area, I’d drive around a walled fortress for 10 minutes only to determine that I had to go to another area, enter that little entrance, walk up stairs, walk over an overpass, and then go to my area. One job could take 30 minutes to an hour not because of its intricacy but because that’s how long it’d take me to drive to the place I was supposed to go while not getting stuck/lost, driving into water, damaging my car too much, or getting shot by opposing gangs that eventually have rocket launchers. It’s wild.

-While the quests do vary, I did about 25 of them (roughly 8 per level to reach the target score), and the Easy ones were mostly “get vehicle and drive it somewhere (often to be crushed)”, the Medium ones were mostly “Kill opposing gang”, and the Difficult ones were mostly “blow 1-3 things up while getting shot at by an opposing gang”.

-For a game with decent job descriptions, the ending literally says, “Game Complete”—and it takes you back to the start screen. Wow. So that happened. Reminds me of the old “A Winner Is You!” days on the Nintendo.


Overall, I’d recommend the series and possibly to play this for a while, but you might just want to play to blow things up for a while and then be done because there’s no real accomplishment or benefit to beating the game (“GAME COMPLETE”). It just doesn’t hold up, and you’re much better off buying San Andreas if you want to play a good GTA game, which will give you hours of enjoyment without the frustration of the controls and the map/top-down view that this has. I do recommend this if you like mindless destruction or if you want to play all of the GTA games, but man was this difficult to get through. I found myself having my iPad open watching videos while I was playing to keep myself from getting too bored/frustrated with the game. It was a good game in its time, but that time has passed and it has been way outdone by its successors that can be purchased for low prices and so I’d suggest that all but the nostalgic or GTA completionists play those instead.

Still great after all these years. I recommend widescreen fix (link available on community pages). Playing on a gamepad is quite fun (with proper layout of course)

Used 2 B a Funny Mayhem game that inspired me to make a Board Game based Partially on it
and the Ways u can spice up it's gameplay by playing this like Musical Minigame or PingBall *
this modern Port on steam doe is a Relic that Wont even start wihtout 3rd party Mod n Hax!

The ultimate classic. When an open world had a greater meaning. 10/10.

jesus my saviour!
my favourite flavour!

Getting back to this after nostalgic memories was not a disappointment.
The simple goal of getting 1, 3 or 5 million dollars to advance a level makes the game, in some sense, more complex than newer titles in that it can be completed in many ways, where the dynamic relationship triangle between gangs dynamically changes the playing field. Completing a job gives +1 to cash multiplier, while getting busted removes multipliers. Completing kill frenzy give +1 life while wasted removes 1 life. So contrary to newer titles; busted and wasted are also two very different things.

won't run unless you have a commodore 64