GTA 1 and GTA 2: The Forgotten 2D GTA Games

Before Grand Theft Auto III and its move to 3D in 2001, GTA was played from above, like an animated model. Three two-dimensional games laid the foundation of the series between 1997 and 1999, and almost everyone has forgotten them today. Here’s what they invented, and why they still matter.

Before 3D, GTA Was Played From Above

On November 28, 1997, a small Scottish studio called DMA Design, already known for Lemmings, released a strange game published by BMG Interactive: Grand Theft Auto. The camera sat straight overhead, high above the city, so you steered a tiny character across what looked like an animated subway map. There was no signposted story: you stole cars, took missions over the phone, and racked up points by causing chaos. The criminal sandbox was born, and it was already top-down.

The detail that makes you smile today: this first GTA takes place across three cities already named Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City. Twenty-five years before Leonida, the series had already set its vocabulary. The game also owes its legend to a carefully orchestrated scandal, a campaign masterminded by PR man Max Clifford that earned it an 18 rating and a scandalous reputation, a story we tell in full in our deep dive on how GTA was born at DMA Design.

GTA 2’s Live-Action Short Film

It’s the strangest artifact in Rockstar’s history. To launch Grand Theft Auto 2 in 1999, DMA Design produced an eight-minute short film, shot entirely in live action, without a single line of dialogue. It follows a criminal named Claude Speed, played by British actor Scott Maslen, on a bloody spree working for several syndicates. Stills from the film even decorated the game’s menus at launch. It’s the only 100% live-action content the studio ever shot.

The nod fans love: two years later, the silent protagonist of GTA III would also be named Claude. Rockstar has never confirmed they’re the same man, and the connection remains a fan theory, but the echo was enough to write Claude Speed into legend. The original film, preserved by the Internet Archive, is still watchable today.

Anywhere City, the Strangest GTA in the Series

Released on October 22, 1999, GTA 2 didn’t just reuse the recipe: it pushed it in a direction the series would never explore again. Gone were the identifiable American cities, in came Anywhere City, a gray, retro-futuristic metropolis the game mischievously sets ‘three weeks into the future.’ You can feel the influence of films like Blade Runner as much as that of the urban crime thriller.

Above all, GTA 2 introduced a respect system that foreshadowed San Andreas’ turf wars. The city is fought over by colorful gangs, from the Zaibatsu conglomerate to the Yakuza, by way of the trailer-park Rednecks and the Loonies escaped from the asylum. Do a favor for one and you make the others hate you: every mission reshuffles the map of alliances. At launch, the game got a mixed reception and sold below expectations, overshadowed by the ambition of an industry tipping over into 3D. For many, though, it’s the wildest and most accomplished 2D GTA.

London 1969, the Only GTA Set Outside the United States

Between the two main games, DMA slipped in a unique experiment. GTA: London 1969 left the fictional American cities to point its camera at a real capital: late-1960s London. Left-hand driving, British slang (the arrest ‘Busted’ becomes a local turn of phrase), period cabs and Mini Coopers, a Swinging Sixties vibe. To this day, it’s the only GTA ever set outside the United States in a real place, and it has the rare distinction of being an expansion, not a standalone game.

A juicy detail for anyone who knows what came next: this first expansion for the series was produced by Dan Houser, the future writing mastermind behind the modern GTA games. Rockstar even spun a prequel out of it, GTA: London 1961, given away free on PC as long as you owned London 1969. DLC before the word DLC existed, made by the people who would go on to reinvent video games.

What These Forgotten Games Left the Series

You can smile at those pixels seen from above, but every modern GTA owes them something. The sandbox, the phone missions, the radio, the tasteless humor: the formula was already written in 1997. GTA 2’s respect system foreshadows the gang turf of San Andreas, and the names Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City would go on to become the series’ iconic cities. It would take GTA III’s big leap into 3D to turn these foundations into a revolution, as we lay out in our overview of all the GTA games in order.

These games are no longer sold, but they survive in the archives, and above all in the series’ DNA. When GTA 6 opens the gates of Leonida on November 19, 2026, it’ll be the same move as in 1997: steal a car and see what happens. Here’s our ranking of the 2D GTA games, from the most foundational to the most obscure.