Anywhere City Returns! Criminal Wasteland – A Spiritual Successor Fan Concept to Grand Theft Auto 2

 

The flag of the new Anywhere City. I had wanted to come up with a Latin version of the famous GTA 2 motto (And remember, respect is everything!).

The full map of the re-imagined Anywhere City, USA from Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999), set in 2013 as the setting of a video game universe entitled "Criminal Wasteland." (click to enlarge)

A map of Anywhere City's neighbourhoods (click to enlarge).

A map of all gang territories in the new Anywhere City, done in the style of the original GTA 2 map (click to enlarge).

A map of the transit systems (subway, elevated rail, railroad, monorail) in Anywhere City (click to enlarge).

A map of Anywhere City's major highways (click to enlarge).

A map of the Anywhere City metropolitan area (click to enlarge).

A full map of the un-named state the new Anywhere City would be located in as I had envisioned back in 2017, entitled "Anystate." (click to enlarge)

A color-coded map of Anystate's counties (click to enlarge).

A "propaganda piece" for the Anywhere City Police Department (also inspired by the Rap Sheet in the 2005 video game Need For Speed Most Wanted).

A "design document" for Criminal Wasteland, offering a synopsis for the new Anywhere City, USA (click to enlarge). 

Anywhere City is divided into five districts akin to the five boroughs of New York City, which are: Downtown, East Anywhere City, Industrial, Residential and Sub-Suburbia.

Downtown District - Home to the city's tallest buildings, the Downtown District is always bustling with people from every walk of life and serves as the headquarters for many public and private institutions and world-renowned companies. Being the nerve center of the infamous globe-spanning lifestyle product conglomerate Zaibatsu Corporation, the area is home to many Zaibatsu entities and properties, including the famed tower complexes (and have a major underground complex, as well). You'll also find the Anywhere City Hall, the stadium complex in Crashtwelve Park, the University of Anywhere City, as well as nightclubs, gentlemen's clubs, hotels and casinos. The southern portion of the district has long been a melting pot of Japanese people and culture, and the southeast portion is home to the Sunnyside Asylum & Medical Center, which has been overrun by the patients (again), now hell-bent on being a legitimate gang once more after two previous heights of power.

Sub-Suburbia District - A profound mix of the other four districts, Sub-Suburbia features low-level apartments, premier shopping destinations, storage warehouses, strip clubs, and generally cheap hotels. It's also where the RV Opry Mobile RV Park in Disgracelands and the Scientist Research Center in Stromberg are located, in addition to the Zaibatsu maintaining their own corporate master-planned community in The Village. Amongst the hideous forest of tenements is the Arbo-Wormley Gigamall, where countless shoppers (of both the innocent and criminal types) frolic about.

Industrial District - The Industrial Revolution is alive and well in this part of the city - factories, warehouses, sewage plants, grimy wastewater canals and other major sources of pollution line the neglected sidewalks and dilapidated streets. The Port of Anywhere City is located on Mad Island, where carrier and tanker ships from all ports of call in the world haul in and out billions of dollars in questionable cargo. The central area of the district is home to the Russian Mafia, while the Hare Krishna take hold of the southeastern portion of the area, complete with their Vedic Temple complex, and both have to contend with the Zaibatsu in the northwest central sector.

Residential District - Housing projects, tenements, apartment sprawl, and condos - the Residential District is home to much of Anywhere City's populace and towards the northern and northeastern

edges of the city you'll find the lucky few that are rich and affluent (of these, few made their fortunes legitimately) with their mansions and large homes. The Residential District is often known as the

city's commuter belt, and the shallow, superficial at times serenity may be the very difference between this suburbia and the Sub-Suburbia district. However, violence and corruption are at the heart

of every home here. The Zaibatsu lurk around in the south central sector of this district.

East Anywhere City District - If arriving by plane, your first walks on foot in Anywhere City will be in the Governor Johnny Rotten International Airport. Outside of the airport, slum apartments, low-level

offices, cheap shops and hotels and other such locations dominate the area. The Brewers & Butchers neighbourhood is one of very few urban areas in the world where local efforts against gentrification have been successful, despite the vast history of corruption and machine politics associated with the city and state. The Zaibatsu operate around the airport, as does the city's monorail system, an East Anywhere City exclusive.

Each district of Anywhere City serves to form a part of the Zaibatsu think tank in addition to being key pieces of the Zaibatsu Corporation world headquarters.

Downtown - Where the main Zaibatsu commerce, financial reports, 401ks, etc., take place as well as where their "automatons in business suits" people are generally located. They are located in

multiple skyscrapers with their name clearly engraved on them, and they're not just above-ground - they also have a major underground fortress that's home to laboratories, shops and condos

they couldn't put in visible view from the streets, and the Noxxa subway station happens to be located inside this bunker of all bunkers. Largely inspired by many underground complexes in fiction,

examples of which being, but not limited to, Hank Scorpio's Globex Corporation complex on The Simpsons, the Mr. Big laboratories and corporate complex in the 1988 arcade game NARC, 

and the Geldra complexes in the 1986 and 1990 arcade games Rolling Thunder and Rolling Thunder 2.

Sub-Suburbia - In Sub-Suburbia, the Zaibatsu run laboratory, focus testing, product testing operations and have some condominiums in The Village, their corporate master-planned community. They

also have activities around Cayman, Ventress, Xenoton and Miraloma. Like in the other four districts, the Zaibatsu have also begun construction ventures here.

Industrial - Keeping the Zaibatsu way secure is a full-time job, and what better way to enhance that ultimate vision of worldwide corporate megalomania-controlled chaos than to promote the very value

of productivity. The Zaibatsu's concentrated efforts in this part of town include electricity and power plants, manufacturing, chemical production, and other renewable energy sources. They've also taken

advantage of the Port of Anywhere City in Mad Island to ship out their bulk cargo and contraband and bring in even more profit.

Residential - The Zaibatsu maintain logistics and data control operations in the few commercial hotspots in this part of town, but very few people associated in any matter with the corporation actually

live here despite the district's moniker. In fact, many of the more "well-profiled" sorts that work for the Zaibatsu dwell outside of Anywhere City in some of the rural parts of the state, and even in the

48 contiguous states.

East Anywhere City - Daring and bold are the kind of people that usually come to Anywhere City by air via the Governor Johnny Rotten International Airport, and as such, more attention and potential

scrutiny is placed on all the other folks that venture through the area than the Zaibatsu and their interests in this strategic business zone. From cargo loading and warehouses to private concourses

and private jets, they also have the luxury of the city's monorail system to facilitate travel and illicit small goods.

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The following is an essay I wrote on Grand Theft Auto 2 and the setting of Anywhere City, USA back in 2017 entitled "Describing Anywhere City, USA In A Nutshell." It was originally published on my DeviantArt channel and I have revived it for the purposes of this concept.

Describing Anywhere City, USA In A Nutshell

What is Anywhere City, USA? To put it shortly, whatever it is you imagine it to be. I'll chime in with the long answer, which is really only my description and vision of what such a place would be and is therefore only my opinion and perspective.

Chapter I - Introduction

The concept of "Anytown, USA" has been around at least since the late 1970s as Hollywood, fictional novelists, and other media platforms started tackling what life must be like in stereotypical "Americana" - how the average American lives, works and plays. From "Anytown, USA" to "Anyville" to "Anywhere, USA," the cultural depiction of normal American towns has been a frequent setting of fiction. Even video games such as SimCity allow the player to create their own simulation of what they imagine the typical village, town, burg, community, metropolis and such and bring it to pixelated life. One video game developer, however, saw an opportunity to capitalize on this kind of trend that was prevalent in various media (i.e. The Simpsons).

Chapter II - The Anywhere City Concept Has Its Role - In A Controversial Blockbuster Video Game Of All Places

Enter DMA Design (now Rockstar North) and Rockstar Games. Building upon the underground cult success of the controversial 1997 video game Grand Theft Auto, the two companies had then released two games set in 1960s London (1969 and 1961, respectively). The video game stirred up international attention as gameplay focuses on an outlaw (whose image is of the player's choosing) who attempts to rise up the criminal ladder by working for multiple illicit factions and crime bosses, killing people, stealing various items from people and causing destruction in multiple cities, often at odds with law enforcement. But now, they were seeking a bold new direction for the franchise while keeping the same action-packed missions and cheesy humour that made the original Grand Theft Auto enjoyable. In 1999, Grand Theft Auto 2 was released and this is now where the "Anywhere City, USA" factor comes into play.

Chapter III - The GTA 2 Setting Theory

Here Anywhere City, USA is a retro-futuristic metropolis that is set in an unspecified time - either 2013, 1999 or "three weeks into the future." Fictional police journal entries on the GTA 2 website suggest the 2013 setting, as entries are made from July to November that particular year. The game manual uses the phrase "three weeks into the future" and in-game references suggest the game is set in 1999. Upon close analysis, I have determined that 2013 is the correct setting, and for multiple reasons. The "three weeks into the future" tagline is designed to be a gimmick, one that will eventually wear out of being potentially over-used. 

All Grand Theft Auto games have been established to take place in a particular year (GTA 1 is assumed to be in 1997, GTA 3, 4 and 5 are explicitly stated to be set in 2001, 2008 and 2013 (!), respectively, etc.) and remember, all events take place at some point. 1999 is the in-game reference when Head Radio DJ Johnny Riccaro says "The millennium's coming, what do you think is going to happen?". However, this is most likely the game breaking the fourth wall, with the fictional radio personality implying that something big will happen once the calendar drops 1999 (and the 1990s, 20th century and 2nd millennium altogether). When GTA 2 was released, there were still fears of Y2K, or what would have 

happened if computers did not read past 1999. Many visions of the future were predicted by many people, ranging from the cynical and pessimistic to the really paranoid and bonkers mad. So now, we come to the 2013 setting. Keep in mind that a big part of the logic behind guessing 2013 to be the correct GTA 2 setting is from the perspective of the original GTA. For what it's worth, the cities of Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City in the 1997 debut are actually clean-cut what with all the action that goes on in the game. The buildings and streets look rather well-kept, most people don't appear to be criminals or some other kind of lunatic (though given the nature of these games, judging a book by 

its cover is again never wise), and police response is rather accurate of the then-contemporary setting. Fast forward to GTA 2's Anywhere City - in all three districts (Downtown, Residential and Industrial), almost everything looks run-down and in a state of despair and the only place that comes close to "clean" is arguably the Zaibatsu Village in the Residential sector (even the Zaibatsu headquarters in the Downtown sector looks shady and could use some cleaning and dusting). Everyone in the game is either: a gang member, a criminal that's after people's wallets or vehicles, or just damn crazy. And the police are said and proven to be fed up with the collapsing society, resorting to brute force and violence whenever they spot a criminal and will call upon the SWAT, Special Agents or even the Army to hunt down a suspect. This kind of change, whether you're looking at it from 1997 (GTA 1's release date and setting) or 1999 (GTA 2's release date), can't just happen in two years (1997-1999), one year (1999-2000), and especially not three weeks from a certain date in 1999. This kind of change would have to happen over the course of many years, perhaps over a decade. 

Now, back to the Y2K scramble. We'll take the average Y2K prediction people had back then and go with the following: Y2K happens, some economic unrest and much civil unrest occurs (the economic changes are bigger than the dot.com bubble burst of 2000-01, but not as threatening as the Crash of 1929), and technology as a whole gets a major slap in the face.  It takes a while for society to recover from this, as much of the inventions we saw in the 2000s and early 2010s basically don't happen. Social media and smartphones likely don't happen, either. I suspect that the Anywhere City, USA depicted in GTA 2 is generally meant to represent DMA Design's vision of what any place in the United States would have looked like had a Y2K event occurred worldwide. Computers in the society of GTA 2 are depicted as a luxury, mainly for large corporations like the Zaibatsu Corporation, with websites and the Internet generally unheard of and still considered a new marvel of human engineering. So society was reeling from the Y2K event until some enterprising people come up with a novel idea: market highly questionable pharmaceutical products to the sheepish and gullible race of people that we are, with all this evolving into the Zaibatsu Corporation. Zaibatsu is a Japanese word that means conglomerate,

which is fitting considering how diverse and monolithic the corporation. From pharmaceuticals that the country supposedly can't live without to vehicles and weaponry without a license, the Zaibatsu appear to have invested in getting the U.S. government to see their point of view on society in general and their activities in relation. Like said before, all this change would have to occur over many years. Therefore, 2013 is the most realistic and logical setting for GTA 2. Besides, 13 is considered an unlucky number by many people, and given all the criminal pizazz and jazz in the game, 2013 is indeed fitting as the moment when "the shit hits the fucking fan" for the Zaibatsu Corporation, Anywhere City and society in general. When Claude Speed decides that it's his time to make his mark on society...

* - For those who'll say "What about the Scientists?", keep in mind scientists aren't just computers and gadgets. If anything, the SRS Scientists (as depicted in GTA 2) are merely a rival pharmaceutical faction to the Zaibatsu that prefers to do it the cold, calculating brainiac way - build a large lab center. After all, people were making wonder drugs long before computers ever arrived on the scene.

Chapter IV - Further Examining What Anywhere City, USA in GTA 2 Is All About

Anywhere City is depicted in GTA 2 and on the GTA 2 website as a global centre of commerce, industry, and low-lifes alike. Anywhere City, like many fictional settings of this genre, is not based on any particular important place in the United States but rather a variety of them. Think of it as a painting where all places in the 48 continental United States are like colours on an artist's palette, and not one area was sacred, compromised, or not considered. GTA 2's Anywhere City, however, is greatly reminding of the Heartland of the United States (Mid-East and Mid-West, namely). It seems to be a conurbation of places in the American Heartland (Cleveland, Nashville/Memphis, Dallas/Houston, Kansas City, St. Louis, etc.) and is just as much them as it is say New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, etc. Every place in the 48 states seems to be as well represented as each another, making for a city full of Americana flavour. The city also works as a setting beyond the Grand Theft Auto series, it seems to be greatly inspired by television shows, movies, books and music of the 1990s, 1980s and 1970s. For example, the Residential District strikes me as the kind of area Mike Judge could set his cartoons Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill in, while Downtown shows resemblance to The City in Transmetropolitan and other such urban dystopias. Then there's the retro-futuristic factor: all the vehicles come from the 1910s-1980s range while weapons and technology are for the most part up to date with the Electrogun being the super-futuristic taser weapon, and the city's architecture is primarily post-war. The game also shows itself to indicate that this criminal wasteland also has cyberpunk elements (which, given the Y2K theory, would be really to hard to do but DMA somehow pulled it off) as there is neon lighting, dirty streets, completely wacked out people that cling on to legal and illegal drugs in a vain (and at times futile) attempt to survive, with a shadowy and monolithic mega-corporation that seems to be calling all the shots. The game seems to serve as a summary of the 20th century, what with all the important figures, advancements and biggest events that shaped the world back then, making it fitting that GTA 2 would be released in 1999 as the 20th century and 2nd millennium was coming to a close. Anywhere City isn't Blade Runner futuristic, but it's not completely stuck-in-the-past retro either*, making the setting a wonderful and imaginative setting with bucket loads of potential while keeping it rather surprisingly realistic and hitting close to home at the same time.

* - Assuming 2013 is the canon setting of Grand Theft Auto 2, that means that the video game is set in a future now past. Suffice to say, this retro-future dystopia is, as of the moment the calendar switched

from December 31, 2013 to January 1, 2014, now stuck in the past. I still think, haven written this on May 24, 2017, that the GTA 2 2013 still quite resonates in many ways with the actual 2013 and 2017.

Chapter V - Conclusion

Many fiction writers, animators and designers have come up with many attempts to imagine the ultimate "Anytown, USA." From The Simpsons to King of the Hill to Transmetropolitan, people

have offered their predictions of what American society as a whole stands to become not too far from now. But the biggest credit goes to DMA Design and Rockstar Games for Grand Theft Auto 2, their criminally underrated 1999 masterpiece that, in my opinion, is not only one of the best video games of all time, but features the best possible Anywhere City, USA.

Everyone reading this owes it to themselves to see what Grand Theft Auto 2 is all about and to immerse themselves in what is arguably the most ambitious and dedicated imagining of American society. In real-life, Anywhere City, USA would be a total hell-on-earth nightmare scenario. But as a setting of a video game where the goal is to become one of the biggest criminals in history, it's the most ideal place for all your nefarious dreams to come true. And remember, respect is everything! Especially in a place like Anywhere City!

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Grand Theft Auto, the GTA logo and GTA 2 © by Rockstar Games, DMA Design/Rockstar North & Take-Two Interactive. I am not an employee of Rockstar Games, Rockstar North or Take-Two Interactive, nor am I associated with them in any way.