HOME

Need for Speed: Underground 2

Published By: Mayur Gandhi On: 25/11/2004 12:00
Rating: M Difficulty: Medium Learning Curve: 15 Min

THE SCOREBOARD

8.2
Great

Gameplay	7.0	"Underground 2 would've been more suitable as an expansion pack to..."
Graphics	8.0
Sound	8.0
Value	8.0

By Mayur Gandhi

The Need for Speed franchise was taken into a different direction last year with Need for Speed: Underground, a racing game set in the heart of the boy racing world which allowed for car customisation, excellent graphical effects and challenging gameplay. A year later EA has let it's sequel lose on the streets expanding on the original by adding the ability to freely roam around the big urban landscape and still offering what was great about last year title.

Need for Speed Underground 2's career mode has a simple plot to it, you're a driver at the op of your league when one day a rival gang decide to take you out. Your car is totalled and you have to start from scratch using the most horrendously slow cars available in a limited amount of tracks. A cheap story for sure but it gets the job done and sets about the motion for being able to advance through the game to pick up hot new wheels. This 'story' is told via static comic-book like panels between races in a similar fashion to the Max Payne series, only here they lack the style and polish we've become accustomed to with Payne.

If there's any one change worth mentioning from last years Underground it's how the game takes place is a sprawling night-life city. Your're free to drive anywhere you so please and in between races you have to actually drive to a location where a race is being held as opposed to the standard loading screen dumping you in the thick of it. Cruising around the city you'll also find shops to do up your car, from paint-jobs to bodykits to neons and stereos, there's a shop for all your customisation desires. Finding the races and the shops is the tricky part as your on-screen map has indicators as to where points are located but getting to them sometimes seems impossible and almost as if the markers are moving away as you get closer. Also, not all races are indicated on your map, this requires you to ride around looking for challenges.

It's been a good few years since Grand Theft Auto III hit the scene; that game created an excellent and useful free-roam option and it was entirely necessary to the game to be able to do whatever you wanted. Though it may sound like a good idea here in Underground 2 in actuality it falls flat on it's face and proves to be the games most tedious moments. Like GTA, sections of the city open up as your progress through the career mode but unlike GTA your missions (or races) do not take place on the streets, you'll drive to a race point which will take a decent amount of wasted time to get there, a loading screen will come up and you'll find yourself in a track not in the city. To actually create the feel of being in the underground as it were surely EA could've allowed to race directly in the city. There are shortcuts to races made available via in-game menu screens but not all the races are available here, nor are any of the shops. It feels more like a feature added as an after-thought.

Like nearly all racing games you'll start out with some terribly slow cars but through time and a lot of patience you'll find yourself behind the wheel of some excellent looking cars and the chance to upgrade them with performance boosting parts. The game does start out slow, literally, but getting to these cars you get an appreciation for why the series is called Need for Speed. There are several race modes available which for the most part mirror last year's game: circuit races which are lap-based events, sprints which take you from point A to point B on a set course, drag racing which will get you going at full speed on a short stretch avoiding traffic that may get in your way, and drift races where you'll be rewarded for how well you can slide around a track. Outrun is a new race type where if you're on the road and see another racer you can drive up behind him or her and tap a button to initiate a challenge, whomever gets ahead by 200 or so odd metres is the winner and earns a little cash to boot. The Underground Racing League is where most of the story is told, simply put it'll be comprised of a typical boy racer holding a race in a semi-illegal place like an airport.

The games difficulty is weak to none. Most of the races you'll find yourself taking the lead within a minute plunging your opponents into the smoke behind you. For the rest of a race you'll find yourself dodging traffic and admiring neon scenery. The nitrous boosts and drafting make taking the lead ridiculously easy. Unfortunately at times the AI will use cheap rubber-band tactics in that you may be on the last lap and have burned off your competitors by miles and they'll still catch up somehow, and it won't just be one of them but the entire gang of rivals. In such case keeping a steady finger on the Nitrous button can be a life saver. Regaining your Nitrous meter seems to be a concept borrowed from another one of EA's big hitter's this year, Burnout 3. Narrowly missing cars and performing powerslides and other manuoevers will earn your Nitrous points.

A big part of Need for Speed Underground 2 is the ability to customize your car's performance and appearance. On the performance side, you'll purchase parts that have been organized into stages, which gives the game an easy way to lock the better parts away from you until you're ready for them. While the parts fall into different categories, like engines, brakes, tires, and ECUs, the only thing you really need to know is that you need them all to win races. The visual enhancements are a little more involved and give you a little more leeway, but ultimately you'll need to trick out the look of your cars to proceed, as having a flashy car is the only way to get noticed and end up on magazine and video covers. Each set of parts has a number associated with it, and these contribute to a meter that sums up how many pieces of flair you've bolted to your whip. Spoilers, neons, vinyls, roof scoops, spinner rims, custom gauges, and even speakers for your trunk are just some of the available modifications, and they all help your car stand out. This is especially handy online, where you can show off your stuff to the world.

The look of the game is very appealing and highly stylised and the greatest part is there is no slow down to be seen at all, quite fitting for a game of this nature. The details in the cars is highly impressive and really do look like the real thing, the city too has a nice feel to it and feels somewhat alive despite the lack of pedestrians. Last year's Underground had a whirly effect for when you engaged your Nitrous Boost, this was actually quite overdone so it's nice to see here that the effect is been made a little bit more realistic and the added shaky-cam makes the feature all the more believable. Sure to make PS2 fans happy is that like last year Underground 2 boasts more visual flair than it's Xbox, PC and GameCube counterparts. Though the effects are a little more downcast they actually are better which is something I wouldn't expect to say in relation to the other technically superior platforms.

The dialogue of the game is very laughable and almost seems intentional to that extent. It's overcome with the same acting prowess seen in 2 Fast 2 Furious but it's still good fun. The sound design of the game really kicks it up another notch, going through tunnels- sounds will echo out, going under bridges- sound will woosh past you. A lot of care was put into making the sound make the gamer feel like a driver. And like last year the Nitrous sound effects are incredible. Though not personally a fan of gangster rap the music in Underground 2 is suitable and sets the mood well. I wasn't compelled to turn the radio off and press the mute button once during any of the ganster tracks but when EA's typical punk-rock selection began I almost turned the PS2 off. Thankfully you're given the option to filter out certain tracks, and trust me, you will. The soundtrack has a varried mix spanning from the likes of Helmet using a song off their latest album to Snoop Dogg covering The Doors classic 'Riders of the Storm' which surprisingly is actually quite good.