As we get closer to GTA 6’s launch, the franchise’s leap to the third dimension is turning more into a history lesson than a memory. But there were GTA games with one fewer D to them, and personally, I prefer their irreverence to what came after—even knowing Rockstar will likely never return to any of its interesting ideas.
Respect is everything
GTA 2‘s intro video ends with the player character getting shot in the back of the head. It is cut together from short promo snippets that show off the sort of things you do in this sort of game—cop chases, robberies, gunfights, doing missions, the sort, except for the part where one of the in-game factions sends an assassin after you to get the job done, and crime does not pay. It is a whirlwind tour of the sandbox fantasy, with perhaps a hint that every death is just the beginning of a new adventure.
