GTA 2

Grand Theft Auto 2 is a top-down action game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games, the sequel to the 1997 original. It was released for PlayStation and Windows on 22 October 1999. A Dreamcast version followed on 1 May 2000 in North America and 20 May 2000 in Europe, and Tarantula Studios made a Game Boy Color version that came out in December 2000.

Development took place at DMA Design in Dundee, with Keith Hamilton as lead programmer. The team considered calling the game Eh Stole E' Motur, then worried the name would hurt it abroad. It went out under the plain sequel title instead.

A retrofuturistic city, and no year to pin it on

The game takes place in Anywhere City, also given as Anywhere, USA, a retrofuturistic metropolis divided into three districts: Downtown, Residential and Industrial. The year is never stated. Sources place it anywhere from three weeks in the future to 2013, while in-game mentions of the coming new millennium point to roughly 1999.

Rockstar's page describes seven ruthless gangs locked in a power struggle, and promises faster cars, busier streets, angrier police, and the FBI and the Army joining the chase.

What changed in play

The basics carry over from the first game. You still play from above, and you still finish a level by reaching a points target.

The signature addition is gang respect. When you take jobs for one syndicate, your standing with it rises and your standing with its rivals falls, and rival members start treating you as an enemy. Each level has two unique syndicates, plus a third gang that appears in every level.

You can save in the middle of a level by going back to the church where you start, and it costs you points. Other additions:

• a health meter
• garages that modify vehicles
• side jobs such as taxi driving and trucking
• hidden packages to find
• AI gangs that fight the police

An eight-minute film and eleven radio stations

The game opens with GTA 2: The Movie, an eight-minute live-action short shot in New York City. Dan Houser wrote it and Alex De Rakoff directed. It follows the criminal Claude Speed, played by Scott Maslen.

The radio has eleven stations in total, with five available in each area. Head Radio returns from the first game, and the gang-run stations play on their own turf. The menu song, Short Change, was produced by the British band E-Z Rollers.

Mixed reviews, about 2 million copies sold

Reviews were mixed. Metacritic lists a Metascore of 70 from 15 critic reviews. Critics praised the soundtrack and the gang respect system but found that the graphics had barely moved on from the first game. The Game Boy Color version got negative reviews.

More than 1.2 million copies shipped to retailers worldwide, and the game went on to sell about 2 million. The PlayStation version received a Platinum award from ELSPA for 300,000 or more sales in the UK.

On Steam in 2008, then GTA III went 3D

Rockstar put the game on Steam in January 2008, as part of the launch of its full catalogue on the service.

Grand Theft Auto III followed in 2001 and moved the series to 3D, starting a new era for it.