Description:
If you've lived a life that's full, traveling each and ev'ry highway, it's still likely you haven't yet done it your way, until you play GTA. The game that made it's fame by letting you run down pedestrians and shoot innocent bystanders has returned with better graphics and amazing improvements to the multitude of sound effects. From the first moments of the installation, Grand Theft Auto 2, offers the same smarmy, self-important hipster "atti-tude" that overtakes people who get tattoos and then think they're rebellious; in spite of this, it's one of the most entertaining games around. Parents beware: this isn't a driving game, but rather a title that prides itself on valuing random violence. (At certain points in the game, for example, your character is rewarded with a "kill frenzy," where he or she gets to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time). But we think it's a hilarious and engaging interpretation of modern urban life and wouldn't trade GTA--to update a cliché--for all the crack in Philly. Here's the 411: you're trying to impress low-life, underworld crime bosses, and you have to do their dirty work in any way you can. This includes killing people, stealing cars, throwing bombs, inciting mayhem, and belching at passers-by. But the best part of this game comes once you start a carjacking. More patient players pick the parked cars and evade the cops for longer; those of us with limited attention spans just like using a truck to bang into other drivers in the way, ramming them until the road is clear. The new edition boasts better graphics for these escapades, but there is still something to be said for the pixellated pleasure of the first GTA, in the same way that some of us hold a fondness in our heart for our TRS-80 Tandys. Once you adjust to the birds-eye view, it's easy to become obsessed with completing your missions. The improved AI is as clever as the rest of the game; in version two, for example, the bus we were driving caught on fire after we hit too many cars. Imaginative and capable of making you laugh out loud even as you ready your rocket-launcher, Grand Theft Auto 2 is a great ride. --Jennifer Buckendorff
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