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Demos
Reviews An old game with a futuristic setting., October 23, 2005 Rating: 6.0/10 By Mitch It's sometimes hard to come to terms in the beginning of Grand Theft Auto 2 of what exactly makes it set in the future. Before we experience unusual, Sci-Fi weapons, some of us may not even have the slightest idea that we're playing in a world set in the not so distant future. The fact that it takes place in the future doesn't make much of a difference. The fact is, GTA2 is better than the first, with more crisp, darker graphics, enemy AI, weapons... just about everything you'd expect from a sequel.
Like the original, we know nothing of our character, except for this time he has a name: Claude Speed. Really, that's all we know, and it's all we really need to know. GTA and GTA2 are both infamous for veering away from story lines, and just providing hours of free-roaming fun with a metropolis to cause havoc in. Unlike the previous GTA, which contained Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas, we're put into one huge one. Instead of advancing through cities, we advance through massive districts, beginning in the industrial district, and later moving onto more suburban and metropolitan areas. Sometimes this does actually make a difference. When we begin in the industrial district, it's very dark, and littered with low powered, raspy vehicles that we really don't want to drive. Street lights flicker; along with shop signs, and we'll encounter a short amount of bays and construction sites. As we progress, areas become more lit, and rarer, powerful vehicles will start to hit the streets. In terms of missions, we're not introduced to doing jobs for various bosses. This time, we're working for gangs, which control several parts of the city. These are notable because you'll notice their gang cars cruising about. Jack one, and prepare to get shot at by the driver as well as any other members of the gang that are lurking around. Sometimes, later in the gang, you'll encounter more powerful ones which heavier weapons. Try stealing their car then, and you'll get blown up instantly. If you jump out in time, you better be able to run fast, or have the ability to dodge bullets, because the gunfire does not subdue then either.
Each gang has its own enemy, such as the Mafia feuding with the Yakuza. Each district holds a few gangs, and their respect meter is found in the top, left hand corner of the screen. If you complete a job for a gang, your respect meter will probably go up. However, because you've just done some helpful deeds for them, their enemies won't like the looks of it, so your respect with them goes down, and they'll begin to shoot you on sight. If your respect goes below the margin, you won't be able to take any jobs for them. So, in the end, you'll probably have one gang you need to do jobs for but don't nearly have enough respect to do so. You now have to go back to your well trusted gang, and stab them in the back. Kill as many as possible, which will also attract the police, and your respect meter with the rival gang will soon go up. When this is all over, and you've got equal respect with all gangs, you'll move on, and do it all over again in the next district. As we progress, things start to get more rough. We're not being sent on assassination missions, trying to take out men with heavily armed body guards with an itchy trigger finger, and other missions which you'll have to keep repeating over and over.
For weapons, we get roughly the same ones as before, and some new futuristic ones, and variations of the older ones. For example, we have two machine guns here. One fires slower, around three rounds a second, the other fires at a much faster rate, roughly fifteen rounds a second, ripping through riots of enemies before they get the chance to fire back. To help prove that GTA2 takes place in the future, we get a rare electricity gun that is quite interesting to be seen in GTA. It has the ability to fire a long stream of purple electricity, which locks on to multiple targets at once. For example, three beams will break off and lock onto a car, while the other three will each individually lock onto three people and turn them into toast. In different environments, when you're up against one car or person, all beams will lock onto that particular enemy and bake them to ashes. Sadly, we can't say the vehicles are all as interesting. They're the same as before, with sedans, coupes, trucks, and more, all with different speed variables and handling. In the future, you'd expect to see cars hovering around and blasting people with lasers. Nope, not in this future. They're all normal, and you don't have much to look forward to.
GTA2 is destined to be a cheap buy these days, and I'd recommend someone to spend the $8 on them if they're bored enough. Cancel that out, and head over to www.rockstargames.com, where GTA2 has been added as a Classic, available for a completely FREE download. If you're on broadband and got a few hours to spare, download it, install it, and enjoy. If you don't like it, just delete it. The only price you paid was bandwidth.
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