- Disc(s) plus hard plastic protective replacement case only. Disc condition ranges from flawless to scratched but is guaranteed to work..
Product Description
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Hit the streets as the criminal genius out to help take over the
city! / Rated T: Teen
.com
----
Grand Theft Auto is back--and the popular mission-based driving
game is nastier than ever! Grand Theft Auto 2 plays much like its
predecessor, and that is not necessarily a good thing.
The graphics in the original were terrible, and GTA 2 does
little to amend this deficiency. The game camera looks straight
down on the action, making it difficult to judge relative
heights. The grainy game objects don't help matters much, either.
Plus, the game's missions mainly consist of fetching things for
crime lords, with a few assassination missions thrown in every so
often.
Still, Grand Theft Auto 2 is a terrific game to boot up for 30
minutes if you want to blow off some steam. You don't necessarily
have to take on any missions. Instead, you can brainlessly roam
around the enormous city environments performing random acts of
violence. (However, we don't recommend that you try this at
home!). Few games of any type offer this sort of reckless,
open-ended mayhem.
chases are wilder than ever thanks to new units with
improved interception techniques. New weapons also add some
much-needed variety to the carnage that players are bound to
create. If you never played the original, skip it and pick up
this version. You might also consider getting some therapy, if
time permits. --T. Byrl Baker
Pros:
* Artificial intelligence is somewhat improved
* Controls are a little better than the original Cons:
* Few gameplay improvements from the original
* Less than impressive graphics
* Gameplay suffers from slowdown
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Review
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Everyone's favorite jack-move simulator is back for another
round. Grand Theft Auto 2 is, for the most part, a collection of
enhancements to the original game. The graphics have been redone,
the music is different, there is a slew of new weapons, the
mission structure is a bit more complex, and the city feels a bit
more alive. But at its core, GTA2 is the same old game.
There are three levels in GTA2. Each level is divided up into
three areas of turf, controlled by a different gang. The gangs
range from the ever-unpopular megacorporation, Zaibatsu, to the
dirt-road mobile-home-owning Rednecks. But regardless of personal
philosophies, the gangs' methods are roughly the same. You, as a
budding young criminal always on the lookout for the next big
score, need to earn some respect from the gangs in the city.
Since the gangs are constantly at war with each other, the only
real way to earn the respect of one gang is to roll over to their
rival gang's turf and start smoking as many gang members as you
can find. Once you've earned a little positive respect from a
gang (an onscreen meter lets you know where you stand with all
three gangs), you can start answering that gang's pay phones and
going on missions. The missions are similar to those in the
original GTA. They force you to blow up buildings, shoot
informants, deliver narcotics, and all other types of ill deals.
The better you do in one gang, the more that gang's rivals will
hate you. The more they hate you, the angrier they will get when
you roll into their area. Angry gangs will simply open fire on
you the minute they see you. Luckily, you've got a meter
this time around, so you can withstand a few s before going
down.
The are also a constant factor in GTA2. In the original
GTA, "the man" was content to simply set up roadblocks and hope
you'd wreck your car. This time around, the 5-0 can get downright
devious. They'll swerve in front of you and cut you off. They'll
send a van full of armored SWAT guys your way. In later levels,
the feds will pick up your trail, and, if you're really a
miscreant, those cop-car roadblocks might just get replaced with
tanks.
Even though the gameplay is largely the same as in the previous
GTA, it's still a lot of fun. The game gives you plenty of
freedom to pick which gang you ally yourself with, though if you
want to actually finish a level, you're eventually going to have
to side with each of the level's three gangs. Once you get tired
of running errands for the gangs, it's still fun to just drive
around, running people over, blowing up cars at random, mowing
down innocent bystanders with your machine , and waiting for
the cops to arrive on the scene. This gives the game a "pick up
and play" style to it, so you can sit down, turn on the game,
cause a ruckus for ten or 15 minutes, and go back to whatever it
was you were doing before. Excelling at GTA2 takes work, since
you need a ton of points to proceed from level to level. This
forces you to get really good at the missions, since completing
missions is the only way to get your score multiplier up. Without
having all your points doubled and tripled, you could be stuck on
one level for days - and you can only save the game when you
complete a level. To help you score those points (and to help
keep you alive), you can get a lot more weapons this time around.
Now you can wield things like hand grenades, Molotov cocktails,
and tasers. New s include a , a silenced machine ,
and pistols akimbo.
Graphically, the game looks better than the PlayStation version
of Grand Theft Auto, but it still falls short. The entire game is
very blocky, and it runs at a less-than-breakneck speed. Even the
fastest cars in the game feel sluggish. Even though the graphics
may look a bit plain, the game has a great soundtrack, closely
mirroring the station-style of the original game. This time
around, the musical stylings are a little more modern, having
been provided by Moving Shadow records.
GTA2 provides the same comically violent gameplay as that of the
original. If little blocky guys peeling each other's caps with a
variety of weapons easily offend you, or if exploding cars and
sirens turn you off, then don't waste your time with GTA2.
However, if you loved the first game but wished there was just a
bit more variety in the mission structure, then by all means
steal a car, drive it down to your local game retailer, and slap
around the owner until he gives you a copy. OK, it might just be
easier for you to buy one, instead. --Jeff Gerstmann
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
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