Grand Theft Auto 2

Mothers, lock up your daughters - there's a new GTA in town. The word on the street is, while GTA 2 might bring you more of the foul language and edgy content that virtual carjackers have come to expect, that's about all it brings.

Moral Combat
The biggest surprise in GTA 2 is the Teen rating. Obviously rated for its language alone (which is toned down from the Mature-rated PC version), GTA 2's content might warrant another look from the ESRB. The basic premise is the same as the first GTA; you're a small-time hood trying to make the big-time. You'll drive for getaways, rescue captured compadres, and plow right over rival gangs as you make drug deals.

GTA 2 doesn't require you to jump through a lot of hoops to win. You simply earn a certain amount of cash to get through each city. You can complete some Yakuza missions, and then jump ship and work for the Zaibatsu Corporation, then go off and throw it in with the Loonies. You can go on a reign of terror, gunning down pedestrians and picking fights with the cops, or you can steal an ambulance, get it wired with bombs and drive it to the park. If there's something your sick and twisted mind can imagine, there's a chance GTA 2 will let you do it.

Down For Whatever
GTA 2 is presented in the same bird's-eye-view as its predecessor, which is both good and bad. There's a Fox's Scariest Police Chases look and feel to the whole thing, which is at once disappointing and interesting. The people look like ants, the cars look like toys, and bullets are little dots that make people fall down.

One of GTA's strengths has always been its sound. Whenever you hop into a new vehicle, the "radio station" changes, giving you a whole new soundtrack. If you bump into a pedestrian as you walk down the street, the poor fool will likely insult you or call you out. Run over a pedestrian, and you'll hear about it on your police scanner, down to the very area of the city where you committed the crime. The sound is very complete and very cool, and it covers up for the simplicity of the visuals.

Driving your car is a snap once you get the hang of it. Like most everything else in GTA 2, the driving is simplified; there's a button for forward, one for brakes and reverse, and you press the D-pad left or right to steer. There's not a lot of variation in the gameplay. Despite the game's nonlinear nature, you're still just driving around, shooting or jacking cars.

Wanna-be Gangsta
GTA 2 preserves the controversy of the first in the series, and it makes some improvements in gameplay (the rival gangs add a lot of conflict and replayability), but there isn't really that much different. Armchair delinquents looking for more backdoor shenanigans will get a lot out of GTA2, but old-school gangstas might wanna pop a cap in this one.

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