While the first Grand Theft Auto game I played was the original, the first GTA game I consider to have actually played, rather than driven around in for ten minutes at a time, would be GTA III. Whatever happened to Grand Theft Auto 2?
I would answer that by saying that I didn't have the interest back then, but I'd be more correct in saying that I didn't have the knowledge that GTA 2 existed. Despite having a PlayStation at the time, I must have been playing something else. I can't even remember playing a demo like I had done with GTA.
It's time, then, to see what I've been missing.
Fun Times
A live-action montage opens the game, with some pretty spot on casting for the lead character of Claude Speed (at least, compared to my memories of his GTA III look). The actor is... that bloke from The Bill. The bad cop. Was a detective. Yeah, him.
Anyway, this stylised introduction makes way for the menus, and from here on in, GTA 2 looks rather different to the original outing.
Gone are the bright lights and colourful sidewalks, replaced here by bright lights and colourful sidewalks, but in the form of a lighting engine, which paints everything in a cyberpunky glow.
This dusk mode is playable only on the Dreamcast version of the game, with the PlayStation having the alternative and easier to see noon mode. I'm playing on the PC, which has both, because PC, but the dusk mode seems to be the default for good reasons - it shows off the murky midnight world of organized crime that was perhaps missing from the original.
The game plays largely the same, and once you've configured the controls to your liking, you're off looking for payphones in order to accept jobs.
Anywhere, USA, is the near-future setting, and it has a number of gangs vying for control, and you can do missions for them all. As you'd expect, there's a lot of mingling between the Zaibatsu, the Loonies and the Yakuza, and not all of it is good. Being in the good books of one gang usually means being in the bad books of another, and this will affect how they see you out on the streets.
The first mission I found myself in was for the Zaibatsu, who wanted me to steal a cop car. Like before, this is a game of following the arrows and dealing with whatever comes up, and so I eventually found myself outside the cop car park, and ready to steal.
Running over an alleyways-worth of people right outside wasn't too smart with regards to the wanted meter, but neither is stealing a cop car. Whatever mood the police are in now, I'm in the mood for the next step of the mission: To pick someone up like the taxi service I am. Destination...
Destination car crusher, ok then. Opening with a bang.
Now a wealthy man, I can roam about the city looking for my next mission, which I decided would be for the Zaibatsu once again - they're the dominant group across the whole map, and with two more city zones outside of this one, I can only hope that being in with these guys will put me in good stead when up against the smaller gangs.
The city is supposedly more alive than in the first game. There are different types of pedestrians, with people taking taxis and buses, as well as robbing cars and assaulting people. Gang members, naturally, will patrol their territory and shoot those who oppose them, and that will include you in due course.
My second mission was to deal some drugs across the city. Through an absolute fluke, the first vehicle I found when emerging from the payphone was an Ice Cream Van, which brought back memories of a similar mission in GTA: Vice City.
Four deliveries in three minutes later and the job was done. At this point, I wanted to save, which brings me to the first of many frustrations...
Frustrations
GTA 2 is still a pseudo-arcade game. Running people over gets you points. Completing missions gets you points. Going on Kill Frenzies gets you points. It's a game about getting points, not about following a plot, but that plot is still there and some of us would like to see where it goes, but at our own pace. That means saving, and in GTA 2, that means having enough cash and finding a Church in order to make a donation. Still far better than the saving in the first game, but still unfathomably annoying.
Laughably, after watching some videos on YouTube, the nearest church at that point was right around the corner, but I didn't know that because I had no idea where in the city I was, because navigating it is as much of a chore as it was in GTA. Controlling vehicles - even slow ones - results in doing something far too much than you wanted. I want to go forward... no, not at a hundred miles an hour. Now turn... no, not that fast into the building. Let's back up... which way around is this car even pointing?
In mere minutes, I was on fire, running from the police, and busted. I just wanted to save my game.
Final Word
I would like to say that I went back and played it again, but there's just too much that is still alien and awkward to me the prevents me from wanting to play again. For all the fancy lighting, it's not enough of a draw when I know that I'm going to have a torrid time driving, navigating, shooting in the right direction...
I don't even know if using a controller rather than a keyboard would help, because I think my brain is just incapable of competently playing a top-down GTA game at this point. It wants me to know what I'm doing from the very start, and I just don't.
But it looks good - really good, in places - and if you like the formula of the original, it's more of the same, with added gang warfare. I don't know if that's enough to put it on the 1001 list, but I'm sure there's enough here to sink your teeth into.
A more vibrant city, a more realistic tone, but more of the same. Try it out, but know that it's still not the GTA that you most likely know and love.
Fun Facts
GTA 2 allows for multiplayer games, which is a surprise to me. I remember the hype with multiplayer in GTA IV.
Grand Theft Auto 2, developed by DMA Design, first released in 1999.
Version played: PC, 1999/2008.
Version watched: PC, 1999 (World of Longplays)