# Grand Theft Auto 2

18 Hacker News commenters recommended Grand Theft Auto 2 and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Fans praise its distinctive top-down city, fun cars and sneaking tactics, and many call it the turning point for the series. Some say the top-down view has not aged well.

## Why people recommend it

- Fun to replay for years (4 comments): "GTA II is still fun for me, I try it about every third year for a week." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46940381)) "I later got my hands on a copy of GTA2 and played that a lot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46938862)) "played GTA2 until my eyes bled, amazing games" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46941367))
- Distinctive top-down city design (3 comments): "GTA II was great. The top-down view didn't age well I guess but made it feel quite distinctive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46938491)) "The whole city also truly felt like it was designed around the birds-eye view" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50040273)) "felt like a mischievous schoolboy's notebook come to life" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50047312))
- Fun cars, sneaking and flamethrowers (3 comments): "I had a lot of fun attempting to mod the textures to get my favorite cars in the game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46330414)) "I loved getting invisibility and trying to sneak up behind them with a flamethrower." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46941797)) "GTA I and II had really fun car physics." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50036935))
- Favourite game in the series (3 comments): "I absolutely adored the first 2 games, especially GTA2." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46939184)) "GTA2 was the turning point for the entire series." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46956705)) "GTA II is still my favourite GTA." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46941689))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Helldivers 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/helldivers-2.md): 50 recommend
- [Triple-A Minesweeper](https://hackerapproved.com/p/triple-a-minesweeper.md): 40 recommend
- [Quake II](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake-2.md): 33 recommend
- [Red Dead Redemption 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/red-dead-redemption-2.md): 28 recommend
- [Grand Theft Auto (1997)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grand-theft-auto.md): 28 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Grand Theft Auto 2", https://hackerapproved.com/p/grand-theft-auto-2/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).