vadimio's Full Review: Need for Speed: Underground 2 for DS
It all started with MTV's show, "Pimp My Ride", hosted by rapper Xzibit. Now, tuning and visually upgrading cars has become more popular than ever. Video games such as Midnight Club 2, Street Racing Syndicate and movies such as "The Fast and The Furious" have fueled this growing trend. This past month, Electronic Arts released a game titled Need for Speed Underground 2. Unbeknownst to many, the first Need for Speed Underground was actually the best-selling game of 2003. I'm not a fan of racing games, but I decided to check out Need for Speed Underground 2 because tuning cars has begun to interest me.
The story in Need for Speed Underground 2 isn't very original, however I didn't expect one in the first place. Basically, you are an amazing racer and everything is going swell in your life. All of a sudden, a rival racing gang manages to kidnap you, leaves you in an unknown town and you must start from scratch. You'll start off with horrible and ugly cars, and to claw your way back up to the top you'll have to earn respect and cash.
In any racing game, the cars are the most important aspect of the game. Need for Speed Underground 2 features roughly thirty licensed cars, including the Audi TT, Ford Mustang GT, Cadillac Escalade, Hummer H2, Nissan 350Z, Pontiac GTO and various others. In the beginning, you are limited to the slowest and least-attractive cars, such as the Toyota Corolla and Peugeot 206. However, as you gain cash, respect and sponsors, better cars will become accessible. The driving physics aren't entirely realistic, yet the developers managed to create a nice balance between arcade-style and realistic driving. You can easily distinguish the cars, as some have more torque or power, others are easier to handle, etc. The game has a few SUVs, which are obviously slower and more difficult to handle, yet they're a great addition to racing games in my opinion. Although they might not be the best for races, pimping out a Hummer has always been a dream of mine. The only weird thing is that there is no visible car damage whatsoever, which gives the game a real arcade-like feel.
Need for Speed Underground 2 features open-ended gameplay in Career Mode. This isn't your traditional racing game because you don't simply go from race to race. This game actually features a city, Bayview, which is separated into five large sections. As you progress throughout the game, new sections are opened up and each section has its own distinct flavor. Bayview is a huge city, and it is obvious that the developers were trying to pull off a Grand Theft Auto-like experience. Unfortunately, they have failed because there really isn't that much to do in the city. It's true that you can find cash here and there, you can find some short cuts and cruising in the city is necessary to locate all of the shops and garages. However, in the long run I view the whole city thing as a big waste of time. After a few hours, I just wanted to go from race to race and visit my garage instead of spending time driving to a race, then finding a garage, and driving to another race. It becomes annoying after a while.
The races in Need for Speed Underground 2 were well done. The only weird thing is that some of them don't actually take place in the city, they take place on pre-constructed separate tracks. This begs me to ask: why did I spend time driving to the location, only to have the race take place in a completely different location? Anyway, there are a total of seven different types of racing events. First of all, there are drag races. These are quick races, where you must manually shift gears yet avoid over-heating. You must also dodge traffic and objects, although your vehicle stays in pre-determined lanes no matter what unless you switch lanes. The second type of races are Street X races, where you race around very narrow tracks and bumping your opponents and forcing them to a bad position is key. These are very tough races, although they add a lot of excitement. Sprint races are my favorite because they are very simple. The objective is to get from the Start to Finish ahead of the other cars, and finding shortcuts will lead you to success. Circuit races are very similar, the main different being that you must drive a few laps instead of once.
Out Run races are another type of event, where the objective is to outmaneuver your opponent and lose them. These have been a part of many other games, such as James Bond: Everything or Nothing and The Simpsons: Hit and Run. Drift is another event that actually isn't a race at all. The point of this event is to obtain points by drifting and performing tricks. The final event type is the Underground Racing League. Each URL event consists of two or more races without obstacles, and after each race points are given out depending on what place you finished in. To win a URL event, you must have the most points overall.
In Need for Speed Underground 2, you'll want to earn cash and improve your reputation. Earning cash is quite simple, all you have to do is win races. However, earning a good reputation is a bit more difficult. Earning a reputation involves beating your opposition by wide margins - the greater the distance between you and the car in second place, the more your reputation rises. And what happens if your reputation is large? It means that you will gain more sponsors, who shower you with gifts such as more cash and better cars. The cash that you earn is spent on pimping these cars, which is a game within itself.
The sheer amount of upgrades and things to replace and alter is remarkable. Once you find shops in the city, they will remain on your map forever. In Need for Speed Underground 2, there are four types of shops: paint shops, body shops, performance shops and car specialties shops. In paint shops, you can paint your body, paint parts and even apply all sorts of decals to your car. At the body shops, you will find hundreds of car parts to purchase, including hoods, headlights, roofs, mirrors, skirts and more. You can even add carbon fiber parts, which are more expensive yet definitely look much cooler. However, to pimp out your car to the max, you'll have to hang out at the car specialty shops. Here you'll find a wide variety of items, such as neons, gauges, boosts, rims, nitrous purge systems, hydraulic systems, TVs, audio systems and more. The performance shops are the most useful, as buying better engines, brakes and other objects will increase your speed, handling, and acceleration throughout races. Each car that you possess has a visual rating (the maximum is 10), and by buying more parts your rating increases. However, you should never spend too much money on any single car, as your garage holds a maximum of five cars. As you progress, the cars that your sponsors will give you get better and better, and you'll feel stupid for spending too much on your Toyota Corolla early on in the game. Visual ratings are crucial to make it onto a magazine or DVD cover page.
Need for Speed Underground 2 can be played online via Xbox Live. It's not too complicated, as all you can do is use your custom-made cars and race against five other people in any of the racing events featured in the single-player Career Mode. This does a decent job of extending the replay value of the game, although those without Xbox Live won't miss out on too much.
Graphically, Need for Speed Underground 2 is a very nice looking game. Most of races take place at night, which is great because this means that you get too see hundreds of beautiful neon lights lighting up the city. Sometimes it begins to rain, which makes handling tougher because the roads are slick. The scenery is spectacular and the cars look fairly realistic (although they shine and glimmer just a bit too much). The various designs that you can create are quite impressive, and the entire game emits a sense of underground racing, which means that the developers succeeded. The inclusion of Brooke Burke as the main character was somewhat unnecessary. In the game, she guides you to various places, sends you messages about what new events are about to take place, etc. Although she's very attractive, she really doesn't add a lot to the game. I must also note that no slowdown was experienced by me, even when playing the game online.
Audio-wise, the game has its ups and downs. All of the sound effects are terrific. The roars of the engines, the brake noises, and various other noises were well-recreated and sound realistic. As far as character dialogue is concerned, its virtually non-existent besides Brooke Burke, who continuously says annoying phrases in an attempt to sound hip and a bit 'ghetto'. Music-wise, the game features around 30 licensed tracks. These tracks include a few rappers, although no-name rock artists dominate most of the soundtrack. Rap fans get to enjoy Riders on the Storm (Fredwreck Remix) by Snoop Dogg, a Chingy track, "Lean Back" by the Terror Squad, a Capone song and an Xzibit track. Besides a lone techno track, the rest is all Sonic Animation, Killing Joke, Mudvayne, Snapcase and the like. I was a bit disappointed with the band selection, especially since other EA games like the Tony Hawk's Underground and Madden series generally have a great soundtrack.
Overall, Need for Speed Underground 2 is a solid game that misses out in a few crucial categories. My main problem with this game is the open-ended career mode. I feel that the developers should have spent more time on making the streets of Bayview more interactive and engaging. Otherwise, this is a solid effort by Electronic Arts that will probably appease the masses. I recommend this game to those that enjoy racing games, as well as to those that are fans of the "Pimp My Ride" show. If you're not sure, renting this one is a good idea.
Explore a free-roaming city divided into five distinct neighborhoods, from suburban hills to an intense downtown grid -- all connected by freeways you...More at Amazon Marketplace
Explore a free-roaming city divided into five distinct neighborhoods, from suburban hills to an intense downtown grid -- all connected by freeways you...More at Amazon
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