Unrealistic arcade racer, but the best driver still won

Introduction

So the story goes like this: My friend buys Need For Speed: Underground 2 and shows it to me, but I’m not interested ‘cause I’m a “hardcore” sim racer and not concerned with wannabe arcade style racers. But then, another friend acquires the game, and the two persons proceed to race each other over a LAN. Friend number 1 crushes friend number 2. Friend 1 things he’s hot stuff for crushing friend 2 along with the computer controlled cars. I, observing, calmly state that I would destroy both of them in any racing game. Friends laugh. Thus, I am forced to get the game and take them on.

A few days later, I get NFSU2, warm up for forty-five minutes, and let my friends know I’m game. Friend 1 asks me if I’m sure, because he doesn’t want me to use my lack of experience as an excuse. I say bring it. We race, and I am obliterating the friends for about two laps when the excuses start coming. Friends claim that my car is somehow faster; I attempt to defend myself, saying I am just taking a better line, getting through the corners better and so on, to no avail. We restart the race driving identical stock cars. After another obliteration, friends claim that the manual must be faster (this seems to be true). Friends switch to the manual tranny, and lose again. Friends claim it’s not fair because they don’t know how to drive manual. I say I won fair and square, but agree to switch to auto gears to prove my point. The obliteration continues, as friend 2 finishes some twenty seconds back while friend 1 resorts to trying to take me out by driving backwards on the track. I take the friends to school in the “Sprint,” “Circuit,” “Street X” and “URL” races, while “Drift” and “Drag” events are a toss up.

The story proves that although NFSU2 is a wannabe arcade racer, it is for the most part, still legitimate enough so that the best driver wins. Meanwhile, mainstream gamers will not have a problem getting the handle on this game. Perhaps this is the balance that makes the game commercially successful. Still, although half-legitimate, I would not call the NFSU2 a good racing game. As a race sim enthusiast, I found Need For Speed Underground 2 to be frustrating and hard to hold my attention, especially in the single player career mode.

The Basics

If you don’t know the basis of the game, NFSU2 attempts to fulfill a boyracer’s fantasy of underground street racing. In career mode, you start with a slow stock car, race, win money to hook up your car, gain rep, and eventually rise to the top of the scene. There is also a quick race mode, but it only allows you to drive cars and tracks that you’ve unlocked in career mode.

The main gameplay involves driving through the city, ala Grand Theft Auto, to different race and shop locations. There is a GPS and global map to make the process easier. The city is fairly large and features a diverse assortment of neighborhoods which are unlocked as the player progresses in the game. Roads range from standard city blocks to mountain ridgeways to an intricate multi-level highway. While it can be frustrating having to drive to different locations, overall I feel it adds to a more dynamic gameplay that I enjoy.

Racing

There are six main types of “events” in NFSU2, although only two can be considered legitimate racing in career mode. The first of these two is Street X, a hybrid of NASCAR and autocross. It consists of a four-car brawl on tight, technical tracks. The second is the URL or Underground Racing League, which emulates typical road /touring car racing on relatively realistic, Grand Tourismo style tracks. Unfortunately, running-opponent-into-the-wall tactics always come into play when racing the computer controlled cars, and the computer drivers only get dirtier as the game progresses (what type lesson does that teach the kiddies?). These races are relatively easy for me, and I can usually smoke the computer cars after learning the track and running a clean smooth line. It is possible to win these races coming into the corners banging off the walls, completely off line and out rhythm (as demonstrated by my friend), but this is not the fastest way around.

Sprint and Circuit events involve racing on city streets; sprint being point to point and circuit being laps. In career mode, unlike multiplayer, there are other cars on the streets. As you may guess, these races usually turn into a test of dodging oncoming traffic. Thus, luck plays a big factor as well as generic quick video game reflexes; whereas attempting to use good racing skills is only a marginal benefit. There events can be very frustrating.

Drag events take place on public streets in the city and thus also primarily involve traffic dodging. However, the strange thing is that steering is not completely user controlled, rather, pressing the ‘left’ or ‘right’ key merely allows the computer to change lanes for you. This is as ridiculous as it sounds. If you change lanes at a bad time, it is possible for the computer to loose control of your car, while the driver is powerless. It is difficult to describe exactly how the system works, but surprisingly, although mostly based on luck, the drag events do offer a decent fun factor, and the fact that races are only about 30 seconds long keeps the frustration level relatively low.

Drifting, the phenomenon of sliding a car sideways while retaining control is scored by points in NFSU2. Points are earned mainly by how long the drift is and how fast you are traveling, as well as some other random factors such as how close you are to a wall. Getting high scores requires a little technique and a good rhythm. Overall, I found the drift events tolerable, but a little boring if anything.

Modding and Pimping!

Besides the racing and pseudo-racing, souping up cars is the other main aspect of the game, and this is quite an intricate process in NFSU2. There are different shops to buy performance parts, body parts, paint and graphics, and specialty parts.

Performance parts, such as aftermarket engine components, turbochargers, suspension parts, and of course, nitrous oxide systems make your car go faster and handle better. Once you install certain performance parts, it is also possible to tune your car in the garage. Tunable settings include everything from suspension camber angles to reprogramming the ECU. However, I found most tuning options useless, for example, the suspension seemed to already be set up to handle optimally, and changes only made the car worse. Overall, the tuning seems to be more for show, and it not really a significant aspect of the gameplay. It is completely possible to complete the game without ever bothering with tuning.

While the other upgrades don’t help you win races, they do add to your visual rating, and in addition to winning races, you must achieve a certain visual rating to advance in the game. There are many visual-style parts to choose from; some are workable while others downright hideous. Surprisingly, pimping out the car turned out to be one of the most fun parts of the game for me. I enjoyed either attempting to gain a high rating while keeping a clean look or just going all out for the most ridiculous looking car ever. I can take the car-pimpage for what it is, and there is not much to be frustrated about here.

Physics and Realism

The physics in NFSU2 are typical of the genre and will not thrill any enthusiast. Cars generally drive on rails and will go wherever you point them, barring excessive speed, when the car will usually plow. It is possible to fishtail, but near impossible to spin out; the car will magically correct itself, although you will scrub off substantial speed. There is marginal, if any difference in the way different cars drive, even when comparing front and rear wheel drive cars, except that some accelerate faster and some turn better. NFSU2 does do a decent just at simulating body roll, unlike the early Need for Speed games.

Overall, cars brake and handle unrealistically well, particularly once you’ve souped up your cars. I sometimes feel like I am driving a formula one car with driver aids, rather then a street car. Basically, the cars are easy enough to drive, to the extent where you could probably beat this game without ever using the brakes, although you’d be making it much harder on yourself. I’ll assume this is what the developers were going for.

Although an analog wheel and pedals are ideal for most racing games, the steering axis in NFSU2 is configured extremely poorly, so I actually prefer to use just the keyboard. My friend uses a digital gamepad, which also seems to work well. The analog steering is set up too linearly, making steering so unnatural and cumbersome that I simply gave up on it. In addition, I could not find an option to change the steering linearity. Using the keyboard or digital gamepad does scrub of some speed, particularly when driving faster cars in high-speed corners during URL races. Still, it is definitely possible to be successful in NFSU2 with just the keyboard, although the less talented may have to resort to blocking and wrecking opponents when their talent runs out. Again, this is probably by design.

A major disappointment in NFSU2 and many racing games is the lack of damage modeling. I would actually be much more interested in this game, and any racing game for that mater, if it included damage modeling. I feel a good damage model could improve gameplay for both hardcore sim racers and casual gamers. Unfortunately, it is often impossible to implement such a system in a racing game that has licenses to use real cars.

There are also a number of nuances I have with the physics simulation. One of the must annoying quirks is that the cars don’t seem to bounce off the walls at the natural angles all the time. I think the developers programmed this intentionally to prevent wall riding; however, it often results in me under-correcting after brushing a wall. Along those lines, hitting other cars usually results in them slowly braking to a stop as if they were grounded by a million pound anchor, instead of more realistically spinning off to the side. This is also obviously to prevent completely wreckless driving, but it can also be frustrating.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in NFSU2 are good, but not what I’d call excellent. The cars bodies look smooth and close to their real life counterparts, although some seem slightly out of proportion. The city background itself is eye candy, with extravagant buildings and bright lights everywhere; it is a little over the top if anything. Objects do look quite pixilated up close, and it is also apparent the level of detail is not brilliant up close, however, I don’t consider this a significant flaw.

The sounds in the game are far from spectacular. There seem to be three generic types of exhaust notes: high revving, low growling and medium, but nothing distinctive about any particular car’s sound. There is also not much simulation of the ambient noise in the city. Moreover, the inclusion of the smack talking opponent sound clips before every race don’t do much for me. I am indifferent about the game music, and I usually don’t like music in video games anyway.

Conclusion

EA clearly created Need for Speed Underground to appeal to mainstream gamers. While casual gamers may feel they are playing a relatively realistic simulation, racing simulation fans will not be fooled. The bottom line is, if you’re remotely interested in the boyracer theme and looking for a fun game to kill time with, get this game. Otherwise, stay away.