Need for Speed Underground 2

Review - Sam feels the need

EA gets a lot of stick for churning out rehashes of popular series every single year. Most obvious is its EA Sports line, this seemingly incredible turnaround rate often delivering a game that one has to go over with a magnifying glass to discern the changes. Not so with this sequel. Even though Need for Speed: Underground only came out one year before its successor, the changes between the two are more than just cosmetic. EA have bucked a trend that they created here by releasing a sequel which is more than just a wee update and lick of paint.

This time round it's all about freeplay, or at least the illusion of. Where before races were selected from a choice of no more then five options at a time, all from the garage menu screen, this time round there's an entire city to explore and race in. Mimicking a GTA style which is becoming taxingly prevalent, NFSU2 gives you a car and a map and points you in the direction of a few races and then leaves you to get on with it. While there are some events that require completion to move on to the next level for the most part it's left up to the player to decide what kind of races to drive in and when to drive them. On top of the races posted on the map there are hidden events which can only be found by driving around the map. Curious drivers are also rewarded with stashed bundles of cash. The information points dotted around also act as a kind of rolling tutorial, even if you don't really need to know how to use the handbrake by the time you've been racing for six hours. The freedom is initially rather daunting, and I found myself somewhat resentful of the time I was forced to spend getting from one race to another. Then I loosened up a bit and started to enjoy cruising around the town, taking in the impressive sights, listening to the varied and acceptable soundtrack and generally having a laugh. There are other boy racers shooting the city streets, and if you pull up alongside one you can challenge them to an Outrun race. If you manage to open a lead of a few hundred feet on them you win some cash; win enough in a row and you'll unlock a unique part for your ride.

Something else that has been added to the mix is the Racebreaker feature. Taking a leaf out of Burnout, whenever you narrowly avoid a collision, powerslide round a corner or perform some other daring move the amount of nitro in the tank goes up a little bit. So a bit of controlled recklessness may give just enough of a nitro top-up to snatch victory at the last moment. Something you may be forced to do, as like its predecessor, NFSU2 has the uncanny ability of making a van pop up in the middle of the road on the last bend of a hard fought race that you've managed to stay in the lead of for the last four and a half minutes. The number of occasions I got wiped out on the 2nd or very last turn after leading the entire way, to be overtaken by the computer on the sprint to the finish line is a number far higher than it would be if the game wasn't cheating. I really liked the way that you had to move on a few levels in the first game before your car would spin out and face the wrong way after a small bump. That let you get to grips with the racing model and kept the frustration levels down for those important formative moments with the game. NFSU2 is not as forgiving in this respect and the cheating AI is a constant pain as well.

NFSU2 has nine distinctly different race types. All the old favourites from the first game turn up pretty much unchanged. The new additions are all variants on a theme with nothing that offers up such a fresh racing experience as the drag and drifting contests did the last time round. Outrun races are the head-to-head challenges against the other cruisers on the map. Street X is a circuit race on tightly enclosed courses similar to the drift tracks. These races are all about hard-cornering, so if you're turning abilities aren't up to scratch you're going to have to get a bit of practice in to stand any chance of winning one of these difficult races. There are also URL races which usually take place on proper raceway circuits. It's good to be able to take the NFSU2 drive model and play around on more traditional courses. Some of these tracks are top notch and a thrill to drive, although I did find this class of race the easiest to beat. The bank is really good for these contests as well.

To get the most out of your ride you can now tweak the performance of your vehicles, with different set-ups loaded automatically for each kind of race. While it's possible to ignore this petrol-head section it's pretty simple to get your brain around the process. Engines, suspension, turbo, nitro, brakes and drivetrain can all be fiddled with. There's an electronic testing system which gives good feedback as the efficacy of the tweaks. Again, while not necessary, the inclusion of some proper tweaking in NFSU2 makes the game more complete then its older sibling. While it's no Grand Prix Legends there are enough options well presented to provide for an intriguing distraction. I was also pleasantly surprised when I first changed car classes to encounter a very different driving experience. Swapping out the nippy Peugeot 206 for a Hyundai Coupe made for a distinctive change in the car's handling. The new car class, the SUV, handles a bit more like a normal sedan then I imagine is the case in real life, but overall there's been an improvement in defining the different capabilities between each of the vehicles.

Naturally the pimping side of things have been expanded to a maddeningly complete degree. Save the windscreen wipers there's not on object on the car that can't be swapped out for an after market replacement or touched up with a dab of pearlescent pink paint. Right from the get-go there are more options than in a multiple-personality aptitude test. Cars need to be buffed to a certain star rating to qualify for the magazine cover which will herald entry to the next level, so all the pissing about with vinyls and window tints serves a proper function in the game as well as being an oddly satisfying way to waste some time.

The game starts off in the city core with a further four sections becoming available as you progress through the different levels. The developers have worked hard to offer a lot more variety in the environments than in the first game. The neon-drenched cityscape is nicely offset by the dipping and rolling roads of the posh hilly area and the dank and brutal industrial zones. There are several absolutely divine routes to take, especially in the hilly Beacon Hill area, some of which had me grinning from ear to ear at the sheer thrill to be had from driving down these twisty roads.

There's plenty of info about game and race stats yet annoyingly it can be rather easy to get stuck in the game. You may not have enough money for an upgrade that is needed to boost the car onto the next level, or you may run out of races to compete in. NFSU2 does a poor job of keeping you informed of what to do next but this is not a problem exclusive to this example of the free-roaming genre. You do have to remember to visit the shops often as only by travelling back and forth will unlocked parts actually become available in the stores. There's a lot of driving about in NFSU2. At first I found it tedious, but as time went by I settled down and enjoyed the driving experience. There's often the distraction of a hidden race or cash bonus and the map is for the most part well laid out and reasonably compact. I also discovered that you can race many of the races directly from the garage so you can actually bypass much of the cruising around. But the game looks so good and opens out new areas at such a pace that the openness rarely feels daunting.

Need for Speed Underground 2 is a rare example of an EA update which offers a lot more then its predecessor. The new race types are a lot of fun, and while the free-roaming 'sandbox' approach might be an unwelcome change for some it's not too painful to get adjusted to. Underneath all the posing and strutting, (which I found to become quickly intoxicating) there's a very competent and enjoyable racer eager to be recognised and respected. Online again online play is hampered by EA's cumbersome proprietary system and again, unless you have top quality cars in the single player career there's not much enjoyment to be had. Even so this pure arcade racer will provide the kind of thrills and spills that fans of the genre are looking for.

80%