In 2003 Need For Speed Underground was released, and to some people’s disbelief it went on to become the number one selling game for that year. It was a great game indeed, but this direct sequel, Need For Speed Underground 2 has improved on almost every aspect of the top selling game and warrants some close inspection. Moving away from linear race modes, EA has decided to include the huge ficticious city of Bayview for racers to explore, and more importantly, they have beefed up the customizations, reworked the car physics, added in the option to race with SUVs (of all things), and in the process they have expanded the depth of the game quite extensively.

Gone are the days of going from one race to another, unless of course that’s how you see fit to play the game, instead feel free to explore the vast 125 miles of tracks laid out in Bayview, and do it all in the ’supped up’ car of your choice. Customizing a car isn’t only visually rewarding, there are deep customizations for the performance section of the cars as well, and in addition having a decked out car will be a requirement to make it through the progression system of the career mode, more on that later as I critique the latest in the NFSU series.

Gameplay

There are quite a few modes of play in NFSU2, including Career Mode, Quick Race Mode, Multiplayer Splitscreen, and Xbox Live Online Gaming, but by far the most comprehensive of all of the gameplay types, and the area where you will find yourself the most, is the Career Section. You begin a career after landing in the airport, and are greeted by your sister’s friend Rachel Teller, played by the sexy Brooke Burke, who kindly lends you her decked out 240z. Your free ride in that sweet looking four wheeler is short lived however, and soon you’ll need to pick out a car of your own, stock, and deck it out how you see fit by winning races and purchasing custom mods. There are about 30 cars in all, but they’re not all available to you from the start, in fact, some of the best cars aren’t available until you are almost finished with the game. So you better go find some races and get started right away.

The way you find races and other special events in NFSU2 is very intuitive. Initially, only a portion of the city is open to you, and by winning races, signing on with sponsors, and completing their requirements you will unlock the next area of Bayview. There are five areas in all and they all give you a different racing perspective. By looking at the World Map you can see where the races are, and also where the Shops are. There are five different types of races that you will compete in, and here is a brief description of what they entail:

  • Sprint : A sprint race is a point to point race between you and several other racers, making it to the finish line first to win. These also vary in difficulty as the game progresses, and the area of the city you are in changes, so be prepared for a different experience as the game moves forward.
  • Drag : Drag races are just what they sound like, races in a straight line where the only thing that matters is speed and crossing the finish line first. They have changed the Drag races a bit however, not only are the other racers super quick, but you’ll need to shift with precision to beat them while avoiding some stationary and some mobile obstacles as well. While in drag races you can pretty much concentrate on perfecting your shifting, since tapping the d pad to the right or left will move you to that lane.
  • Drift : There are two types of drift races. The object of both is to score the most drift point possible by sliding your car around corners. In a drift race you compete with other racers to beat their score, in a downhill drift you are on the track alone and have to beat a predetermined score. Either way you look at it these races are allot of fun.
  • Street X : These are possibly the most challenging races in the game, although some people may argue the Drag races are more challenging. Basically a Street X race is a race on a small, technical track with allot of sharp turns, no nitros, and some very stiff competition. Sometimes a struggle in trial and error, but if you force a couple of the opposing cars to crash, you basically have the race nailed.
  • URL (Underground Racing League) : URL races are generally required to fulfill your contract with sponsors, and they are about the closest thing you’ll see in NFSU2 to a real race track, as they are in areas where no traffic is allowed and you can only race in them by invitation.

Of course, beating races is not the only thing you have to do to make it through the game, you’ll also need to have a bad-ass automobile, and there is another type of race not mentioned above, the Outrun races. Outrun races are basically challenges to other racers you find cruising the streets of Bayview. You drive up close to them and then challenge them to a race by pressing up on the D-Pad, whoever can get 1000 feet away from the other racer first wins, and you’ll win a bit of pocket cash as well. If you beat a specified number of Outrun races in certain levels, you’ll be able to get a unique visual or performance upgrade for your ride, so although they are a distraction from the career mode, they still tie in. On a more personal note, they can be quite satisfying, the first thing I did once I unlocked the Mustang GT was knock out some of the Outrun races, and in the process scored myself a unique wide body kit for my Stang!

Customizing your ride is not only encouraged, it’s required! The visual rating of your ride is scored on a scale of 1 to 10, and to make it to certain events you’ll need to be in a car with a certain visual rating. For example, to get on the cover of one of the magazines (you can score dvd as well as magazine covers in the game) you’ll need to have a visual rating of 6. I enjoyed customizing my vehicles, it was much more fun in this version due to the enormous amount of options there are, possibly too many, if that can true. There are at least 3 levels of engines, transmissions, suspensions, and brakes, as well as nitros, turbo, and weight reducing kits. Not to mention the enormity of the visual mods like front bumpers, rear bumpers, spoilers, hoods, lights, rims, neon, vinyl, trunk audio, hydraulics, nitrous purge… you name it, you can customize it, and the better the mod, the higher the rating you’ll get.

At any rate, driving around the streets of Bayview looking for races can be rewarding in the fact that you can find shortcuts and information icons that will appear as tips on your SMS (short message system) to give you clues on the game. The rewards however are short-lived as there are far too few shortcuts, and for the most part the hints you get you already know from doing a couple of races and cruising through town. But all of this becomes a diversion from the racing, luckily, getting to any point by using the map and the GPS system is very simple. The map actually becomes your best friend in the game, because it helps you get to the hot spots quickly. EA must have realized that some gamers just want to race because in addition to the explore mode there is also World Map mode in the Career, which is basically a list of the races available with some stats, a quick and painless way to progress through the necessities of the game.

Before I complete my gameplay section, I do want to point out two things I noticed that was a slight disappointment. There are no police in Bayview, I mean I understand that having cops litter the streets while you’re doing 140 to get to the next race could become annoying, but it would have been fun to have a few Outrun races with the cops. The lack of police in no way hinders the game, and perhaps if they were there I would be complaining about their existence in the game, but the option of having them would have been cool. The other thing that was upsetting is that there is absolutely no damage model for the cars, they just don’t get wrecked in any fashion, with the exception of drag races where you can blow your engine or total the car completely. I know it’s an arcade racer, and no damage model is par for the course, but even scrapes and dings would have been enough for me.

Control / Playability

The controls in NFSU2 work just about the same as they do for any racer, right trigger is your throttle, left trigger is your brake and reverse, and left thumb stick steers. In addition to those most basic controls EA has laid out just about the entire controller for use in game at one point or another, here are the complete controls, what they did with the D Pad works especially well.

Xbox Live

The online component features all of the game modes present in the offline game, and can be played with up to 5 racers with virtually no lag and no problems with the voice communications. You can race with stock cars or bring your custom rides and race with them or just show them off to your friends. NFSU2 for me at least seems to be an anomaly in online gaming; meaning I personally feel the offline racing is better than the online racing. This is for two reasons. Number one, the online mode while flawlessly presented has no oncoming traffic, just you and the racers. Two, the way EA has the lobby and servers set up. After a race you get booted right back to the main lobby, and have to go through the tedious task of recreating a new room and inviting your friends. If you like playing with strangers there is no problem, but for a group that likes to stick together, such as the tight nit group of gamers here at Xbox Solution, it becomes quite bothersome.

Graphics / Presentation

Need For Speed Underground 2 is a work of art, from the well rendered vehicles, to the excellently architectured city of Bayview. The original NFSU by nature was very dark, and in some respects so is NFSU2, but now there is much more city lights, neon, and signage, as well as different stages of darkness. While all the racing takes place during the night-time hours, it now may be dusk, midnight, or coming up on dawn. The reflections from the city lights render well on the cars, and the skid marks, smoke, and nitrous blur effects are done very well. All in all I don’t think anyone could complain about the graphics in game, the cut scenes however are done as a story-boarded comic strip fashion. Perhaps it fits the game but some really sweet CGI sequences here would have really hit the spot. The game also feature 480i display mode.

Need For Speed Underground 2 Screenshot

View All Need For Speed Underground 2 Screenshots in the Gallery

Need For Speed Underground 2 Screenshot

Audio

All of the cars in the game sound great, and their sounds become increasingly intense as you mod your ride, even changing the muffler tips will change the sound of your car a bit. The screeches on the road, the cars whizzing by, even the thunder when the rain starts sounds superb. Not to mention the EA Trax that come with the game, while some of them just aren’t my style, most of them really get you in the mood to race! The voice acting is a bit on the shady side, even from Brook Burke, but I can learn to ignore the phrases that are repeated a bit too often. From what my buddy Gronar tells me, the sound is excellent on his 5.1 system, which is supported in the Xbox version of NFSU2.

Replay Value

The core game should take you at least a good 35 – 40 hours to complete. Then you have split screen multi player as well as Xbox Live, but I found that when I finished my initial career mode I wanted to try another career on a higher level, so I’m smack dab in the middle of that one right now!

Overall Score

Overall Score: 9.2/10 [not an average]

Additional Comments

If you like arcade style racing and customizing the hell out of cars, you’ll really enjoy this racer, it’s among my top 3 racers of all time!

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