Anywhere City

Updated 29 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Anywhere City is the setting of Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999). It is a retro-futuristic city split into three districts, Downtown, Residential and Industrial, each controlled by three gangs. The Zaibatsu Corporation is present in all three. The city is not based on one real place, and the game never says exactly when it is set.

What is Anywhere City?

Anywhere City is the only map in Grand Theft Auto 2, the top-down sequel DMA Design released on 22 October 1999. Where the first game parodied real places with Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City, the second game invented one generic metropolis. Wikipedia's article on the game calls it a retro-futuristic city, and the game's own name for it in some places is simply "The City" or "Anywhere, USA".

The player is Claude Speed, a career criminal who takes jobs from the city's gangs. He is a different character from Claude in GTA III.

What are the three districts of Anywhere City?

The map is divided into Downtown, Residential and Industrial. Each one works as a separate level, and players move between them as the game goes on. All three are patrolled by the Anywhere City Police Department. According to gta.wiki, the highest wanted level the police will reach rises from district to district, with Downtown capped at four and Industrial reaching six.

Which gangs control each district?

Every district has three gangs. Two belong only to that district, while the Zaibatsu Corporation, a powerful conglomerate, has a branch in all of them. The gang list below follows gta.wiki.

gta.wiki also lists the gang leaders, such as Johnny Zoo for the Yakuza, Elmo for the Loonies, Dr. LaBrat for the Scientists, Billy Bob Bean for the Rednecks, Sunbeam for the Hare Krishna and Jerkov for the Russians. A small settlement called Mad Island in the Industrial district is home to a group that attacks Claude whatever his standing with other gangs.

How does respect work in Anywhere City?

The gangs are the heart of the city's design. Finishing jobs for one gang raises your respect with it and opens tougher, better-paid work. It also costs you respect with that gang's main rivals, whose members then turn hostile and lock you out of their jobs. Each gang also has its own radio station that can only be heard in certain parts of the city, according to Wikipedia. The city's motto, quoted on gta.wiki, is "Respect is everything."

When is GTA 2 set?

Nobody knows for sure. Wikipedia notes that the game never states its year. Some sources point to a vague near future, sometimes given as 2013, while in-game references to the coming new millennium suggest a date close to the game's 1999 release. gta.wiki lists further contradictions in the evidence.

What is Anywhere City based on?

It is not a copy of any single city. According to gta.wiki, the design document cites several large American cities, with Los Angeles as a big influence. The bleak, retro-future mood draws on Frank Miller's Hard Boiled comics and Terry Gilliam's film Brazil. The live-action promotional short was shot in New York, but the city is not meant to be New York. The cars are restyled classics and the buildings lean on post-war architecture.

Does Anywhere City appear in other games?

Not as a playable place. The only nod gta.wiki records is a GTA 2 screenshot on a computer screen in an internet cafe in GTA III. The series went back to parody cities in the 3D era, and Anywhere City remains a one-off.