Deep, open-world street racer blending tuner culture, extensive customization, and aggressive AI-driven competition
Deep, open-world street racer blending tuner culture, extensive customization, and aggressive AI-driven competition
Pros
- Explore many different areas of the city.
- The game encourages exploration of the world.
- Fun to go in hot pursuit with the police.
Cons
- Only a few shortcuts to explore when racing.
In 2004, Need for Speed Underground 2 became the world's best selling game, which isn't something we can ignore. Electronic Arts' has since undergone a big makeover where every aspect of the game has built into it an impressive depth of detail. We see this in almost every respect of the gameplay. By its very nature, this arcade racing game continues its expansion into new territory with complex feelings of progression. The system builds out and lets you customize your car as needed.
What Can You Expect from the Game?
Need for Speed Underground 2 shows off the trendy import tuner culture found in America. You have all the music, dialog and SUVs to go with it. What's the result? We see a startling level of depth in the gameplay. For example, you can play for up to 40 hours before beating the entire game, which has been well composed, and the AI remains some of the most aggressive of any game. In some ways, the game might even be too big for its own good. We see the number two added onto the end of "Need for Speed Underground," but this game isn't a sequel in the traditional sense of that word. Instead, we see the game reinvented and remade to resemble the ever-popular game from Rockstar, "Grand Theft Auto."
The Setup of Need for Speed Underground 2
What we see in this game is a five-part city with a fictional urban center called Bayview. This imaginative ideal for racers keeps the game open and filled with almost a dozen types of races. Some of them include:
- City Core
- Coal Harbor
- Beacon Hill
- Jackson Heights
- The Airport
The open and large sandbox environment keeps everything interesting from beginning to end. Everything has been tied into a single thriving city, which differs from the previous titles. In addition, each of the regions of the city has its own personality. For example, Beacon Hill becomes the superb area for drifting. Meanwhile, a Sunday drive through City Core reveals an extensive and impressive freeway system that connects the entire city into a whole body. It gives you an excellent opportunity to drag race or take on a circuit course.
Need for Speed Underground 2 encourages you to explore the many nuances of its lifestyle. In fact, you will even get rewards for this exploration. For example, strategic stacks of cash have been carefully placed throughout as a way for you to collect them to buy more upgrades and new cars. The game does have a few shortcuts, but unfortunately, there aren't nearly enough, but overall, this is a game packed with hours of racing action.
Pros
- Explore many different areas of the city.
- The game encourages exploration of the world.
- Fun to go in hot pursuit with the police.
Cons
- Only a few shortcuts to explore when racing.
Pros
- Plenty of vehicles to choose
- Modifications
- High octane action
- Rewards for completing challenges
Cons
- Outdated graphics
- Limited neighbourhoods to explore
Need for Speed Underground 2 is the eighth edition of the popular car racing sim and was released on the Microsoft Windows platform in 2004.
If you have played any of the other Need for Speed games then you'll know what to expect – high octane action in a variety of ultra-fast cars.
Concept
The game is set in a single city with five unique neighbourhoods to explore. This was pretty good for its time, but as the game is now more than a decade old, you'll probably want to get your racing rush in a wider range of metropolises.
Gamers start off with a Nissan Skyline GT-R, but this vehicle quickly becomes damaged by a mysterious person in a Hummer H2. In replacement, the player is given a Nissan 350Z and has to complete a number of races before moving to the next level.
By winning races, the gamer becomes closer to finding and reeking revenge on the person who wrecked his beloved Skyline. This involves having to conquer a group known as the Wraiths in an underground racing league before engaging in one final, five-lap, circuit race with the vandal.
Gameplay
Essentially there are eight racing modes in Need for Speed Underground 2. The circuit, sprint, drag and drift races remain from past versions of the franchise, but they are complemented with a Lap Knockout mode, an underground racing league (URL), Street X (four cars racing in a very small area with very sharp turns), and OutRun, which allows you to challenge any vehicle on the road to race over 300 miles.
One of the major differences in this game to others in the series is that there is no option to choose races from the menu. Instead, players are required to drive their car to specific parts of the city in order to start a race. This can make things a little time-consuming, but most races are clearly marked on the game's radar so they are very easy to find. There are some hidden ones to locate as well.
Circuit races are usually the best place to start as they involve as many as four cars going around a single looped track for a maximum of four laps. Sprints are also relatively straight forwards as they involve a race that runs in a straight line.
Drifting's difficulty is really dependent on the settings you use, while Street X uses a similar system to circuits but with tighter turns and you are not allowed to use your nitrous oxide There's also drag racing, which has many similarities to sprints, but players are not permitted to use automatic transmission.
Graphics
What can be written about the graphics of a game that is more than ten years old? That's probably a little unfair as the graphics are good when you consider them in the context of their time. However, things have moved on greatly in the last decade and if you are used to playing the more up-to-date versions of Need for Speed, then this could well feel like a step back into a bygone age.
In some cases the graphics are little pixelated and blurred, but if you are fan of the series or are simply wanting to play it to relive your youth, then you should be able to easily look past that.
Other features
Being able to customise your ride is a great feature. Pretty much any part of a car can be tweaked to the player's satisfaction, including headlights, side mirrors, bumpers and even the vehicle's stereo system.
Under the hood, engine tweaks are possible with the game utilising a star rating to show you just how much new power your car has.
While you start off driving super-charged Nissans, there are many other cars to use. These include small hatches such as Peugeot 106 and 206s from the beginning of the game. Faster and more prestigious cars like the Subaru Impreza WRX STi and Audi TT Quattro are acquired by winning races, while you can only get behind the wheel of a 150mph Pontiac GTO or a 280 horse powered Infiniti G35 by gaining sponsorship deals.
The fastest car on the game is the Ford Mustang GT, which can be gained by completing URL race four at stage 14.
Pros
- Plenty of vehicles to choose
- Modifications
- High octane action
- Rewards for completing challenges
Cons
- Outdated graphics
- Limited neighbourhoods to explore
Pros
- Amazing graphics
- First-person racing
- New modifications
Cons
- Control keys are hard to get used to
- You only drive in one city
Race against other cars on various circuits in the city.
Need for Speed Underground 2 is an extension of the original game. With more cars to choose from, the game is a little more fun to play. Starting in the garage, you can select a car that you like from multiple tuners that include the Honda Accord and Toyota Celica. You won't have a lot of money to work with at first, but it's enough to do a few modifications to get some speed in order to win a few races.
Once you start winning races, you earn respect points from the other drivers. You also win money that can be used to perform numerous modifications to your car. There is a bit of everything in the way of modifications with the game, such as spoilers, rims, cold air intake systems, and components to make the car faster.
Another plus in the game is that there are more designs to choose from if you want to change the look of the car. There are more paint colors and schemes to choose from as well as different rim colors. The music in the game has been upgraded, and you can drive from a first-person point of view. While this feature has always been in the game, the graphics have been updated, giving a better scene while you're behind the wheel of the car. There is a story that is a part of the career if you pay attention. You're sent to a new city where rival drivers are trying to take you off of the streets, which is why you have to prove yourself in every race that you run.
Pros
- Amazing graphics
- First-person racing
- New modifications
Cons
- Control keys are hard to get used to
- You only drive in one city
