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A lot has been said about the game GTA2. Some magazines think it’s a very violent game with horrible graphics and gameplay. Others think it is a game that isn’t worth buying at all because of all its flaws. However, it is a relatively good game with a few flaws. It may get bashed because of it’s very violent content, but anybody willing to try it will find a lot to like.
The graphics may be the reason people don’t even bother looking at GTA2 more than a couple of times. The graphics could have been a lot better, and should have considering the Playstation is a 32-bit machine. The cars and people in the game look small enough and don’t look realistic. In this day and age with Playstation 2 and other systems, that is not good at all. In fact, the characters are about as big as Lego people are, despite being a little better than the characters in Lego games. The characters are also able to jump over the cars, which will confuse many people considering the gritty realism of carjacking that the game tries to accomplish. The game also uses a top- down view that is guaranteed to disorient you once or twice. Be prepared to get lost even though the instruction manual comes with a map. Sometimes it is even hard to tell which way your character is facing.
The sound is pretty good, and very different from the average game. While most of it is very vulgar (one button makes your character burp and do other disgusting stuff), some of it is just disturbing and confusing. Listen to the car radios in GTA2 for a minute or two and you will see that this is not a game for kids, with lines about drugs and other mature themes. It is pretty impressive how each different type of car has a different radio station to listen to, and that you’ll hear the police and other stuff going on while you’re joyriding. However, it’s hard to tell when the police are far away from you and when they are right behind you because the siren doesn’t seem to sound like it gets closer or goes farther away. The sound makes the cities feel more real, even though the graphics don’t make it look like the cities are nothing more than something constructed with blocks.
The gameplay is pretty cool, and the reason to get this game. The whole point is to gain respect from gangs, and then doing jobs for them. To gain respect, kill some of the rival gang members by shooting them or running over them. But be careful because they will try to shoot you and blow up cars, which can kill you if you’re too close to them. Once you gain respect, you can do various jobs for the gangs and get paid for it. If you fail the job, you lose respect and can try to do another one. Many of these jobs are dangerous and will lead with many police chasing you, and maybe even the Swat Team. Complete the job, and it’s time to go to a phone booth to get another job that results in the same commotion. There are also Kill Frenzies, in which you have a limited time to kill people with various weapons and cars. Just don’t kill yourself on accident when you’re using bombs or other weapons that can make an explosion.
The levels are huge, and that explains why there aren’t very many of them. While there are a lot of bonus levels, they are all timed and are nothing more than kill frenzies that get boring fast. There are only three real levels and although they are big, they all look the same. However, there is no save feature at all. This means you’ll have to leave your PSX on all the time if you want to keep your records. That is not good at all, because if you get a lot of jobs done and have to turn the game off you will lose all your data.
Ultimately, GTA2 is a fun but flawed game. It could have used better graphics and a save feature. But at $10, you could certainly do a lot worse. However, many other Greatest Hits games are the same price, so you may want to check them out first. An interesting idea for a little while, but after that you won’t pick it up and play it that much. It’s too bad, because it brings some really innovative ideas to games of the action genre. People able to overlook GTA2’s flaws will like it a lot, but the rest should rent it to see what it does right. -- Anonym. Contributor, PGNx Media
---- Sep 14, 2002
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