Need for Speed: Underground 2

Added December 22nd, 2004 by Dingly

Introduction:

Last year when Need for Speed Underground was released, it showed us a new genre of racing. Targeted to the fans of Fast and the Furious, this new racing game focused more on modding and the import scene, something new in the game industry. Since Need for Speed Underground was such a success last year, EA knew that the sequel could not be a disappointment, and nor has it been. With this new sequel much of the problems of the original have been fixed, and lots of exciting and new material has been added on. The new sequel brings us to a brand new wide open city to cruise around in, but that’s not to imply everything is completely perfect: there are a few problems, but nothing that prevents NFSU2 from being a highly enjoyable racing game.

Gameplay:


When you first start the Career mode it does an extremely good job of letting you adapt to the new environment. By giving you tips along the way you are immediately accustomed to the control of the car and how everything works. You receive messages, otherwise called SMS, to advise you. These messages tell you where the new races are, what you have unlocked, and where you should be. The game does a good job of organizing the messages along with keeping everything intact. Because the city of NFSU2 is so massive, you are given a map of the metropolis along with points on the map. The points show where the races are along with the stores where you can pimp out your new car. Since the city is so enormous (125 miles in fact) you can tell the GPS to guide you, which is easily controlled via the D-Pad. If you would like to go to a certain race, the GPS will guide you with a simple arrow. The arrow will of course point you in the fastest way to get there. Along the way you are told by Brooke Burke, among others other, where there are new stores or races to be found in certain areas. Though of course this is good, you are unfortunately forced to find the different stores around the city. Until you find some of the stores you cannot get some upgrades that are necessary to progress, which unnecessarily slows down the game. Once the stores are found it is automatically pin pointed on your map, so if you would like to go there you can easily tell the GPS to point you in the right direction. The races are shown as small neon signs, once you reach it you can choose to accept or decline.


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The whole idea of the open and wide city to explore is a great idea, but sometimes it can be a bore to get from one point to another, which is where the World Map comes in. The World Map enables you to pick races which you have not completed and it will automatically take you to the exact race. The problem with the World Map, however, is that once you complete one race, you ultimately have to go back to the garage to access the World Map again. This is very tedious, but in the end it is faster then driving to the spot itself. Whether you drive to your race or use World Map is your choice, but not viewing the advertisements cluttered around the city is not. While driving around you will notice certain bill boards showing real life car shops, cell phone companies, and even soup. There is such a thing as realism, and then there is the blatant selling of virtual adspace to generate additional income, and this game is blatantly the latter. Though it doesn’t hurt the game per se, it does takes you out of it a bit when you notice that there is Best Buy every five blocks.

The main part of this game is modding your car. Since the original was solely based on modding the car itself, EA does not disappoint us in the sequel. There are up to a billion (Literally.) different combinations available, using spinners, window tints, spoilers, hoods, neon etc. As you progress throughout the game you will unlock different parts to your car, since the stock car you are provided in the beginning is extremely slow and weak. You are forced to upgrade to get a better performance to win the races, as well as moving forward in the game. One of the highlights of the game is seeing your new Honda Civic going over 100 mph with ease, all while dodging traffic left and right.

The difficulty can be easily changed from easy, medium to hard. If you are a big racer fan, you might as well raise the difficulty because this game does not put up enough of a fight to be challenging even on medium. Unlike its predecessor, NFSU 2 does not have the rubber band A.I it had last year. Most of the time, as long as you don’t crash, you will maintain your lead. While racing you are consisted of dodging traffic and viewing the scenery, which is not necessary a bad thing. Some of the races can become repetitive, since some of the races can go as much as six minutes long. Thankfully, even after a boring race there is almost always something to look forward to, and because races range from drifting all the way to circuits, you will not getting bored any time soon.

This year there are new race modes to experience, but the classic ones, such as the drag race, still remain. Besides some more things to dodge in drag races, not much has changed in the classic race types except for the fact that you can now experience the thrill of Downhill Drift. Downhill Drift is pretty much drifting, but (You guessed it!) downhill. Street-X, Downhill Drift, and Underground Racing League are some of the new modes that gamers are introduced to, and all of them help to add new dimension to the game.

Graphics:


Even when you are going past the speed limit, the graphics remain as bright and colorful as the city itself. Thanks to a consistent frame rate you can enjoy the scenery and the lights of the city, no matter what speed you are going. And it’s just that sense of speed that makes the game what it is. When you are going 140 mph it really does feel like you are going that fast.


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When it rains, you can see the rain drops getting on your screen. Comic cut scenes are scattered throughout the game, doing a good job of showing you what is happening in a style akin to Max Payne. The cut scenes definitely add a new style to this game, and helps the game feels fresh.

Audio:


NSFU2 has an excellent soundtrack, consisting mostly of techno and rock. Sadly, many of these songs do get pretty tedious after a while, to which a custom sound track option would have headed off entirely. Otherwise, everything else about this game sounds great. From the moment you upgrade your car’s engine you hear the difference as your brand new engine as the car goes forward, despite the fact that every car uses the same general pool of sounds. Yet the audio does not feel generic and it will not bore you. So overall the audio in NFSU 2 is extremely good, but not perfect.


Controls:


· Left thumbstick – Steer

· D-pad – Challenge opponent, display SMS, stats, enter shop, and display World Map

· Left trigger – Brake, reverse

· Right trigger – Throttle

· A button – E-brake

· B button – Nitrous

· X button – Shift down

· Y button – Shift up

· Black Button - Look back

· White button – Change camera


Given that NFSU2 is an arcade racing game, the controls are very easy to get into. Everything is exceptionally smooth and responsive. In a slightly strange move, vibration is almost non-existent unlike in most other racing games. It will sometimes be there when you hit another car, but there is nothing turning a corner at 140 with the e-brake going full blast, which is unfortunate. Another small grievance is that there is no customizing of controls, if you don’t like the position of a button then you are stuck with it. There are only a couple of controller configurations you can choose from, but aside from that controls are great.

Replay:


There are plenty of different things to do in this game, such as unlocking different parts to your car or completing more races. There is an insane amount of ways to modify your car, yet despite all of this, there really no point in playing again after you beat it. However, beating it will take you a very, very long time as there are five parts of the city to unlock, and each unlockable part of the city feels exclusive and spanking new. Furthermore, the Xbox Live will keep the replay value high. The online play is nothing revolutionary, but it does what it is supposed to do. Overall the replay is decent, but not anything to get too excited over.


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Overall:


This is easily one of the best arcade racing games for the Xbox. EA took a new direction in its racing franchise with Need for Speed Underground 2, and it has paid of tremendously. The developers did a very nice job indeed, and it shows in every aspect of the game. This sequel is a major improvement over last year’s version, and it fixes almost all the problems of its predecessor. NFSU 2 is an excellent game with great graphics, control, and gameplay. However, the constant advertisements do set a worrisome direction for racing games, as when you pay  $50.00 for a new game it should come complete without any advertisements. However, with over thirty cars to unlock and customize this game will keep you coming back for more, unless of course... you beat the game.