We study the quantum scattering in two spatial dimensions (2D) without the usual partial-wave formalism. The analysis beyond the partial-wave approximation allows a quantitative treatment of the anisotropic scattering with a strong coupling of different angular momenta nonvanishing even at the zero-energy limit. High efficiency of our method is demonstrated for the 2D scattering on the cylindrical potential with the elliptical base and dipole-dipole collisions in the plane. We reproduce the result for the 2D scattering of polarized dipoles in binary collisions obtained recently by Ticknor [Phys. Rev. A 84, 032702 (2011)] and explore the 2D collisions of unpolarized dipoles.