Life in the Eyes of John

A blog on life, love, people, cars, and everything I can think about...

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Need for Speed Underground 2

The sequel to the hit NFSU, which sold 8 million copies worldwide, is out! This time, it's better than before.

First, let's talk about the cars. There are 29 cars in the game from Japan, Europe, and the US. Notable additions are the SUVs (Cadillac Escalade, Hummer H2, Lincoln Navigator), which are very cool to modify. Too bad Hondaphiles won't be able to drive the Integra and the S2000 anymore.

Speaking of modifications, there are tons and tons and tons of it! EA claims that there are around 80 billion combinations to choose from. Pimp out your ride with neons, wheels (sports or spinners), hydraulics (make your car go boing-boing!), speaker setups, and loads of body parts. Then, tune your car by bolting on various engine, suspension, and transmission modifications, then fine tune the gear ratios, ECU and turbo mapping, shock stiffness, and other tweakables in the Test Run mode.

Gameplay is better in some aspects. The free roaming environment allows the player to roam around Bayview's 150 miles of road. Along the way, the player may drop by a shop to buy parts, go to racing spots to earn the bank, and race others on the road via the Outrun mode.

Although it still is not a simulation (there's no car damage here), there are aspects such as torque steer (accelerate too fast from dead stop, and you'll find your car turning) that make it feel more real.

There are some points of disappointment here, though. One is the difficulty setting. I didn't feel quite as challenged as compared to the prequel (this game took me only 20 hours to finish). Here, you can go pick the Miata or Corolla, then drive it until the end of the game.

Another disappointing feature is the play-to-earn-your-parts gameplay. Unlike Gran Turismo, which uses the play-to-earn-your-cash gameplay, the NFSU series continue to block the player from the goodies from the start. Think of it this way, you have $28,000 on hand, but can't buy a Lancer Evo VIII until you've been through 80 percent of the game. In fact, you can't buy cars, only get sponsored to drive them (what?!?).

Overall, I'm giving NFS Underground 2 a 91% rating. I'll have to admit that it is very addictive to tune and pimp your ride. I just hope they let us loose on the goodies next time, especially now that I've learned that NFSU3 is in the making...

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