30 out of 30 people found this review helpful.
Do you have a NEED for Speed Underground 2 ??
Date of Review: Nov 14, 2004
The Bottom Line: A must for any racer fan...if you liked the first one you'll enjoy this one. If you didn't like the first one you still won't like it!
It seems like I've grown up with Need for Speed video games. Honestly! From a 386 to a P4 or Xbox/PS2 console there has always been a brand spanking new Need for Speed game. This is the latest--Need for Speed Underground 2. It's the sequel to the very popular Need for Speed Undergound.
The plot is thin and the introduction video weak...this is a video game after all. Basically after being the best street racer of all time you get setup somehow and crash your car and stay out of the racing scene for a while...but now you're BACK! Wow I know it's riveting. Anyways it's very similar to the first NFSU in many aspects. You start off with a really fast car to tease you moments before you jump into a slow bone-stock Civic or 240SX !
Like the game before it, there are a wide variety of races which you must do well in to advance the plot and unlock all sorts of options. In addition to the ones from the first NFS game (Drag Racing, Circuit Racing, Drift track, etc.) there's also a few new ones. Since you are now driving in a virtual city you can challenge other tuners out there for a quick race. First to put a 1000 feet on the other wins ...this is the Outrun.
After unlocking a few items you also get introduced to the URL (which has nothing to do with the internet). This stands for 'Underground Racing League'; here you meet on a tight track and duke it out with other racers in the dead of night. Also there is a 'Street X' mode which is a very small little track with difficult corners. Aggressiveness is rewarded and mistakes will cost you. In addition to these there are a few other minor races, but the majority of the action is focused on the Drag, Circuit, Sprints, Drifts, Street X and URL).
After playing this game for a few days I've noticed it still feels lacking. While the original NFSU didn't even have a virtual city--the races were all setup and you would just pick and choose this sequel still feels a little unpolished. The map is very intimidating and hard to figure out. It sits on the left bottom corner of your screen in a little circle...packed in this is a plethora of red dots, green dots, torquoise dots, purple X's, orange triangles, purple circles, etc. etc. etc. Also it is very hard to look at the mini-map and go the direction you want to. Not because it interrupts you, but because going North can involve going backwards the wrong way on an onramp to change directions and then take a quick left and through a tunnel....etc.
Despite how big the city is with so many levels (literally as in 3-dimensionally with elevated freeways and lower streets there is still quite a bit of repetition. I find myself on the same streets going the same way looking for that same race a lot. This goes for the music as well, while nearly 30 hiphop/rock/metal songs by popular artists (from Snoop Dogg to Queens of the Stone Age) fill the playlist, that's still only about 2-3 hours of music. In a game that can take over a month to play, the music will definitely get on your nerves by the second week.
Also, like the first NSFU you often have to do things to your car that you don't want to...just because it increases your 'reputation' meter. This includes big vinyl stickers, decals, decals and decals (literally 7 on one side, 7 on the other, one on your windshield and one on the rear window!!), neon lights, big spoilers, ridiculous hood scoops, roof scoops and exhaust tips.
The game still is a decent racing game, but for some reason it just isn't as fulfilling as the original. The tracks seem a tad unpolished and missing depth. (What happened to jumping bridges and back alley tracks, dirt roads and busting through construction cones??) You can modify your car in more ways than you could ever imagine and now you also have a garage that can hold a bunch of cars. This works well as you can get a Navigator or Escalade after winning one set of races and then take this behemoth out to race against other giant vehicles in some entertaining action.
Anyways back on point this is still a B+ game, but that's not saying much as the original was definitely an A. If you like the first you'll enjoy this one, but don't get your hopes up too much. There's a lot of gameplay in this one, but it doesn't seem to be as enjoyable as it was before. The graphics are similar to the first and not too many improvements are noted.
