Grand Theft Auto has quite a reputation. For good or for bad, this series has nonetheless been revolutionary thanks to the things that it added to the open-world sandbox, memorable characters and absolutely interesting stories that deal with crime as fans know it. Of course what many may not know is that the original Grand Theft Auto games, mainly one and two were radically different.

So as a way of putting in knowledge on how much different, it would be fun to see how much GTA2 and GTA3 compare to one another. Here are the 10 differences between Grand Theft Auto 2 and Grand Theft Auto 3.

10 3D In GTA3

The most obvious change that has to be mentioned is the drastic change between the top-down perspective and 3D graphical capabilities. Ever since Grand Theft Auto 3, many things had to be changed thanks to the 3D camera which will be talked about more later.

No longer utilizing a top-down perspective, which will also be touched on, later on, Grand Theft Auto 3’s 3D perspective proved to be incredibly influential as every game following this had the same general formula. Currently, even Grand Theft Auto V has a similar approach to Grand Theft Auto 3.

9 Voice Acting

Although Grand Theft Auto 2 still had some form of voice acting, it wasn’t until Grand Theft Auto 3 did the voice acting really went up a level. This had to to do with the storytelling of the game.

Since Grand Theft Auto 3 follows a 3D camera rather than top-down, along with the story being incredibly deep and it is only fair that the voice acting would fit the scope of how big the game is now.

8 Different Hardware

Grand Theft Auto 2 was originally for the PS1. It was also later released on the Gameboy Color and the Sega Dreamcast.

Since the game was running on this type of hardware, there was only so much that the game was able to provide, which explains the top-down perspective as well as the level-based system. But with Grand Theft Auto 3, the game was released on consoles like the PS2 and Xbox which allows for more fidelity compared to its predecessor.

7 No More Levels

Speaking of levels, this seems to only apply to the 2D games such as Grand Theft Auto 2 and the original Grand Theft Auto. In Grand Theft Auto 2 specifically, everything is broken down into three distinct sectors with the player going through levels while setting a target goal for each one.

Whether that’s by destroying cars or doing missions for crime syndicates. However, Grand Theft Auto 3 removes that completely by once again making it open world.

6 Open World

The open-world of a Grand Theft Auto game is one of the hallmarks of the franchise and Grand Theft Auto 3 was the game that started it all. Although it had some things that held it back compared to what came afterwards, there were many things that are drastically different from its predecessor.

By having it open-world, players are able to explore a living breathing world unlike Grand Theft Auto 2. There is also a progression system where the players had to unlock the islands in order to progress the game. This was intentional as the developers wanted the players to feel poor to get super rich in the end.

5 No Longer Top Down

A very interesting thing that was only available during the first two Grand Theft Auto games was how they were both played within a top-down perspective. Quite a drastic change from the 3D camera that was shown later in the series.

This allows for the player to kind of see more of what’s around them, however, it does prevent the player to do the things that one normally would through the 3D games. After all, this camera system is more suited for the levels that were originally there.

4 Gameplay Is Vastly Different

The 3D camera also drastically affected the series from a gameplay standpoint. Since the game is 3D, it means many things have to be different from the top-down perspective such as how carjacking was now done a little differently, or how the shooting in the game is vastly different now.

What’s more, as mentioned before, Grand Theft Auto 2’s level system also makes it that the gameplay is kept more restrained naturally.

3 No Multiplayer

Another drastic difference is how Grand Theft Auto 3 removes the multiplayer mechanic that was shown during Grand Theft Auto 2. Although multiplayer happened later in the series like Grand Theft Auto Online or Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories.

However, it should be known that Grand Theft Auto 3 was planned to have a multiplayer mode only for it to get removed later in its development.

2 GTA3 Has Cutscenes

For the most part in Grand Theft Auto 2, there are virtually no cutscenes. The only thing that is available in the live-action film that supposedly details the game.

However, it seems to only take place in its own form of continuity, as the main character of the game dies from one of the syndicates during one of the films. Which is a bit different to how it is shown in the game. Meanwhile, Grand Theft Auto 3’s cutscenes are all in-game and not done by live actors.

1 GTA2 Is The Only GTA That Has A T Rating

Probably the most interesting fact that makes Grand Theft Auto 2 not only has a distinct difference compared to Grand Theft Auto 3 but the rest of the series as a whole. Is the rating system.

Grand Theft Auto 2 is the only game in the entire franchise that has that rating, at least in the PS1 and PC versions of the game. This is in comparison to Grand Theft Auto 3 that often deals with a lot of heavy mature themes just like the rest of the series.

NEXT: The 15 Best Weapons in GTA V, Ranked