The first thing that you will notice upon booting up Grand Theft Auto 2 is that the viewpoint and graphics are drastically different from its successors. The last of the old-style GTA games, Grand Theft Auto 2 takes place from a bird's eye point of view. Gazing down on the action, you then move your character around a gigantic map in your search for more cash. Unlike many games featured on Freeware Friday, the graphics are smooth and crisp and show no real sign of aging. The amount of detail put into every inch of the city is absolutely astounding, and Grand Theft Auto 2 is one of the best looking top-down games to this day. The music and voice work is also just as good, which is not surprising, given that this was originally a retail release!

Grand Theft Auto 2's gameplay revolves around accruing enough points to leave the zone of the city you are currently in. Points are essentially money, and can be gained through two methods: performing missions or random criminal activities. The random criminal activities are incredibly fun, and you can beat the entire game without ever performing a mission if you so wish. It's an aspect that the later games lacked: the thrill of the high-speed chase mixed with the exhilirating freedom to do whatever you want to earn the cash you need to win. Later games would incorporate heavy-handed crime drama, but Grand Theft Auto 2 is free of such nonsense. If you want points, simply load up with a car bomb and drive into a crowded intersection. Then detonate. Viola, money and wanted level!

Speaking of weapons and random acts of violence, the amount of options you have at your fingertips in Grand Theft Auto 2 is staggering. There are many types weapons that you never have to pay for, as they exist solely as pick-ups scattered around the city. Car modifications do require money, but include things such as oil slicks, machine guns, and the aforementioned bomb. There's also a wide variety of cars for you to steal, and even gang-specific cars that allow you to masquerade as other gangs (something that would be later incorporated into games like Mercenaries).

The other way of earning money is by answering the phone and doing missions for different factions. The system is much unlike the first game, where you only work for one faction, as well as later games, where you have multiple factions but no way of measuring standing with said factions. In order to do missions for factions, you must be in good standing with them by eliminating their enemies or doing other missions. The more difficult the mission, the higher the required reputation level and the greater the reward. Each faction is specific to one of the three massive areas, except for one, which is present in all three, and each faction has a unique car. These factions are:

1. The Zaibutsu Corporation, which is a parody of exploitive Japanese corporations. They control most of the city, and are engaged in many illict experiments as well as contract killing and drug running. Their car is called the Z-Type, after Zaibutsu.
2. The Yakuza, which are the Zaibutsu's main rivals in the first area. They are much like a pared down version of the Zaibutsu, and their car is even named the Y-Type. However, they are not nearly as well-armed.
3. The Smilies, which are a gang of loonies that took over a madhouse in the first area and set it up as a hub of insanity-related criminal activies, mostly revolving around the drug trade. Their car is named Dementia, and has a smiley face on top.
4. For your racist parodies, look no further than the Rednecks, who exist to the north amongst the trailer park of the second area. They brew moonshine, hate minorities, and love explosions. Their car is a pickup truck with a confederate flag on top.
5. The immoral scientists of SPS love their experiments, and run the labs in the south of the second area. Their gang car, suitably named the meteor, is the fastest gang car in the game. Their missions revolve around a wide array of experiment-like activities.
6. The Russian Mafia are the gun-runners of the third area, and are not to be trifled with. They run the docks, and their car, the Bulwark, is exceedingly tough. We're talking direct-hit-from-explosives tough.
7. The Hare Krishna are the final gang, and are based entirely around the fact that they are tired of the abuse the people around them directed their way. Their car is the Karma Bus, and they have a lot of stealing missions.

Even with all these gangs, there are plenty of other activities to do and NPCs to interact with. Expanding upon the sandbox style of the first game, you can interact with other car jackers, fight off muggers, take the train, play a bus driver, and track a random civilian through the city. NPC interaction is persistant (to a point), which helps to lend more of a life to the city that the previous and subsequent games lack.

Finally, Grand Theft Auto 2 includes a bare-bones multiplayer mode. While you can set objectives, the biggest draw is the ability to fart around the environment with other players nipping at your heels! It's alright, if buggy, but playing a LAN game of Grand Theft Auto 2 is a great way to have a night of easy free fun with your friends.

Grand Theft Auto 2 is one of the best action games of our time, and easily underappreciated. It debuted concepts that games in the same series never expounded upon, and the simple fun of beating a mission entirely through destruction and violence is exhilirating. In a way, it's more free than its sequels, which are bound by a restrictive story. Grand Theft Auto 2 is available for free from the Rockstar Classics section with a sign-up to the newsletter.

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