Over the subsequent few months, I’m going to be looking again at every of the core Grand Theft Auto video games and replaying them within the lead-up to the arrival of Grand Theft Auto 6. What we’ll be placing collectively gained’t be conventional re-reviews, they usually gained’t carry IGN’s typical rating out of 10, as a result of it actually wouldn’t be in any respect honest to easily decide aside previous video games printed a number of {hardware} generations in the past and make them sweat beneath the harsher requirements of 2026. What we will likely be doing, nonetheless, is re-examining what made every GTA exceptional upon the time of its launch, digging into what they achieved and the legacies they established, and rediscovering how a lot enjoyable every of them stay at this time. We’ll even be figuring out each the elements of the GTA expertise which have seen essentially the most evolution and progress, in addition to the elements that stay fascinating, commendable, and timelessly spectacular. On the finish of the venture, utilizing GTA’s beforehand six-star needed degree, you must be capable to get an thought of the place every of those video games roughly sit in my long-term love for this collection.
Subsequent within the queue? GTA 2.
Grand Theft Auto 2 arrived proper on the tail finish of the twentieth century, sticking with the identical model of top-down turmoil that beforehand propelled its predecessor to nice success. It’s a noticeable refinement of the unique in some elementary methods – barely extra forgiving due to the flexibility to avoid wasting, and in addition a bit smoother to drive round in. It didn’t, nonetheless, change its antiquated, tank-like on-foot controls for one thing that higher exploited the dual-analogue controllers that had quickly reinvented the established order within the late ’90s. What it did shed was the unique GTA’s recognisable, modern setting. It as an alternative opted to set its motion at an unspecified level within the close to future, in a stylised, retro-futuristic backdrop known as Anyplace Metropolis, USA – a spot overrun by gangs, dominated by a megacorporation, and that includes the very best price of Elvis Presley’s per capita this facet of Graceland. Did it work? Nicely, the reply – not like Anyplace Metropolis’s proliferation of Elvis impersonators – requires slightly extra dialog.
GTA 2 instantly comes off as a sport with a little bit of an id disaster. Even in case you ignore the truth that it sports activities a very totally different look and vibe to the unique, it additionally fully clashes with its personal field artwork, and even its personal intro film – which options contemporaneous ’90s automobiles and an apparent New York setting. On the time of its launch, I truly bounced off GTA 2 moderately rapidly, and this was completely a significant motive. As quickly because it started it simply felt like a wholly unrelated product to every part that had come earlier than – as much as and together with the tone-setting FMV intro it simply served me. That’s a very bizarre downside to have. Consequently, I don’t really feel like I caught round wherever close to lengthy sufficient again in 1999 to get a really feel for a way a lot slicker it truly is to play.
Regardless of the very fact it prices in-game foreign money to make use of, the addition of a save perform represents a transparent enchancment over the unique. Simply head to the closest church, and the nice lord above will bear in mind your progress for you. Jesus certainly saves in Anyplace Metropolis, albeit for a charge. Right away GTA 2 seems slightly extra conscious it’s a PC and residential console product. By the late ’90s, hefty, mission-oriented motion video games had largely moved on from the ruthless arcade philosophy of ranging from scratch each session with a tiny set of lives. Developer DMA Design adjusted its format accordingly, albeit solely barely. That’s, GTA 2 retains score-based development, nonetheless operates with strictly restricted lives, and is tough as hell – however saving is nonetheless a crutch the unique didn’t have.
A newly added well being bar addresses one other main frustration from the unique GTA. In the event you’re making an attempt to keep away from dishonest simply to get by means of the missions, the boosted well being is an much more helpful repair than saving. Well being in GTA 2 works on a 10-point scale (with 5 hearts that may be halved). That is in stark distinction to the primary GTA, which basically operates along with your character on his or her closing sliver of life always – the place you’re immediately wasted after sustaining only a single hit. The tank controls make dodging incoming fireplace hideously troublesome in each video games, however the problem is at the least tempered right here by the very smart addition of that further padding. It doesn’t make it straightforward, by any means, however it’s actually much less annoying.
One other Soul Saved!
The enhancements don’t cease there. GTA 2’s digital camera is significantly much less janky and, whereas it nonetheless shimmies round slightly as you drive, it does a method higher job of monitoring automobiles easily. Vehicles additionally self-straighten when blazing alongside the streets, so it’s far much less finicky to line up inside a lane – or certainly change lanes – with much less livid tapping of the d-pad.
There are additionally far fewer obstacles for automobiles to get hung up on than there have been within the authentic. With the top-down perspective, it may be difficult to inform what objects are rooted into the bottom and can trigger a crash, as a result of depth is usually a troublesome factor to successfully talk from immediately above. GTA 2 skirts this by having skinny issues like gentle poles not even register to automobiles in any respect. It isn’t a very life like method, however it cuts down on the fixed collisions which slowed down the tempo of the unique.
Vehicles can now be fitted out with weapons and devices, like machine weapons, mines, and oil slick traps, and the quantity of handheld weapons has been greater than doubled. GTA 2 provides tossable explosives like grenades and Molotovs, a suppressed SMG that gained’t alert different close by NPCs, a shotgun for extra devastating shut quarters injury, twin pistols to dial up the John Woo issue, and a futuristic electro gun that may saute suckers into skeletons. The electro gun is especially nifty contemplating it could lock onto a number of targets without delay, however a light auto-aim perform (an help sorely missed in GTA 1) makes for much less irritating fight throughout, no matter what weapon you’re utilizing.
Respect is The whole lot
Regardless of the extra polished gameplay, GTA 2 nonetheless leaves me detached in numerous methods. I do know that merging the aesthetic of ’40s and ’50s autos with a crime-ridden, near-future company dystopia is a stylistic alternative, however it simply doesn’t actually seize me. It’s not that I don’t discover this period of automotive historical past attention-grabbing – I like skidding round in video games like Mafia and LA Noire – however they simply look foolish on this setting and don’t sync with it in any respect.
It’s very easy to inform automobiles aside within the authentic GTA, as a result of they resemble actual automobiles they usually all look fairly distinct. In GTA 2, there are greater than 60 totally different autos, however there are far too many who look too related to one another – and none that actually resemble something notably iconic. They only appear like caricatures of automobiles, and I vastly desire the realism of the unique GTA’s autos.
I additionally desire the unique’s maps over the three districts of Anyplace Metropolis (the Downtown Sector, the Residential Sector, and the Industrial Sector). Now, GTA 2 boasts sharper graphics than its barely murkier predecessor, and the impact of this cleaner picture arguably makes it the extra timeless-looking of the 2. On PC there are even day and evening variations of every space. Nevertheless, with the potential exception of the Residential Sector (which is essentially the most diversified), there’s a plainness to Anyplace Metropolis that I don’t assume the cities within the authentic GTA shared.
I do take pleasure in how far more alive and harmful Anyplace Metropolis feels – with muggers, carjackers, and gang members scurrying the sidewalks all over the place as an omnipresent risk. Nevertheless, I don’t assume it has the allure of Liberty Metropolis, San Andreas, or Vice Metropolis – as primitive as their renditions had been by trendy requirements.
I’m keen to concede my desire right here might merely be as a result of the period of time I sunk into these maps dwarfs the moments I’ve spent in Anyplace Metropolis, however there may be additionally one thing larger at play. The 3,500 pound, 350-horsepower elephant within the room right here is Driver, which was launched on PlayStation in European territories about 5 months earlier than GTA 2, in June 1999. Now, the unique Driver has no on-foot element – so it’s not a wholly like-for-like comparability – however it is a totally 3D, open-world automobile chase basic that quickly cemented itself as kind of my favorite sport of all time at that second. I’d seen the longer term, and GTA 2 couldn’t lure me again.
The daybreak of 3D action-driving video games was upon us. Previous to Driver we’d already seen Midtown Insanity on PC, from future Midnight Membership, Smuggler’s Run, and Pink Useless Redemption builders Angel Studios. Following Driver got here Mucky Foot’s formidable however janky City Chaos in late 1999 on PC and early 2000 on PlayStation, which boasted a primitive model of driving and third-person motion. A PlayStation-exclusive Driver sequel adopted in late 2000, the place you could possibly exit automobiles to steal one other. June 2001’s World’s Scariest Police Chases sank with little hint after arriving on PS1 after the PS2 had launched, however it was truly a surprisingly respectable open-world driving sport of its personal contemplating the completely outmoded {hardware} it was operating on.
Any method you slice it, GTA 2 was a buck late and a dimension quick to be part of the primary wave of 3D action-driving video games.
After all, the collection wouldn’t be the bridesmaid for lengthy – however that’s a dialogue for subsequent time.
Verdict
Enjoying Grand Theft Auto 2 once more in 2026, I’ve undoubtedly discovered myself with a stronger appreciation for its technical enhancements over the unique. Actually a lot better than I gave it credit score for again as a young person in 1999. The driving is best, the taking pictures is best – and people are vital and welcome positive aspects. Nevertheless, I simply can’t muster any true enthusiasm for its retro-futuristic setting. I don’t know that I’d go as far as to name it aggravating however, within the phrases of the king of rock and roll, it simply ain’t satisfactioning me.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN opinions staff. You possibly can monitor him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him issues about stuff.