Grand Theft Auto 2's Setting

GTA2 takes place "three weeks into the future" according the game's manual but some fictional journal entries on the games promotional website indicate that the game takes place in 2013. On the other hand, in game radio hosts inform listeners that the "millennium's coming" which would indicate a setting in the late 1990s.

"Anywhere City"

In any case, its location is creatively called "Anywhere City" which is split into three levels, which are the three districts of Anywhere City. Downtown contains most of the cities businesses along with a large mental institution and a university. The Residential district is notable for its trailer park, hydroelectric dam, and the city's prison. The third district is referred to as the Industrial district and contained a seaport, meat packing plant, a Krishna temple, and a Nuclear Power Plant.

Time Of Day And Lighting Effects

Time of day is static and depends on which platform the game is running on. In the PC version of the game the player can choose between dusk and noon. In the PSX and Game boy versions of the game the time of day is noon and in the Dreamcast version of the game the time of day is dusk. Players using the noon setting would experience a bright setting making the gaming easier to see and also lowering the game's graphical requirements because there were fewer lighting effects. On the other hand, the dusk setting is darker and makes use of multiple dynamic lighting effects from explosions and city lighting.

The game's city is filled with pedestrians the player can have limited interaction with. In addition, there are a total of seven gangs in the city whose names and descriptions can be found in the character section of the GTA2 site.