Grand Theft Auto 2

Players begin a game with one character (six in the Game Boy Color version). Like its predecessor, the game focuses on players completing a series of levels, each requiring a set target score being achieved to progress to the next stage. Points are awarded from various criminal actions, such as destroying cars, selling vehicles, and completing missions for various crime syndicates, with the latter awarding more points than doing simple criminal actions. Creating chaos from their crimes will cause the player to be wanted by the police, who will hound the player to arrest or kill them, with higher wanted levels increasing the level of response used.

Being arrested or dying loses the player any equipment they found, and impacts their multiplier bonus. Grand Theft Auto 2 ' s setting is unique for the series: a retrofuturistic metropolis referred to as "Anywhere, USA", which is divided into three districts (Downtown, Residential, and Industrial) that players will switch between as they progress through the game. The time period the game is set in is not specified—conflicting sources suggest anything from "three weeks into the future", to the year being 2013, despite in-game references to the "new millenium" that is coming (implying the game takes place around its time of release, in 1999). The game introduced several features and improvements to the series.

Players can save their game during a level playthrough by visiting the church where they start, but must pay a set number of points to do so. Jobs on offer come from three different syndicates—each level features two unique syndicates, alongside a third syndicate present in all levels. By doing jobs for a syndicate and completing them, the player gains respect with that syndicate, allowing them to take on tougher jobs with enough respect, but lose it with their chief rivals, locking them out of their jobs and making the syndicate's members hostile to the player. Other improvements include vehicles and pedestrians being more interactive with the game's environment—such as gang members engaging in fights with police—the presence of other criminals (such as muggers), a health meter , garages that can modify vehicles with special improvements, a selection of side missions ranging from running a taxi to driving a semi-truck, and groups of 'hidden' packages to find across the level.