Need for Speed Underground 2
In 2003, Need for Speed evolved with the release of Need for Speed Underground. The game worked really well and from its success comes the sequel, Need for Speed Underground 2. Although unfortunately it is not such a leap forward.

The sequel is dragging the game towards a more story line style game with cut scenes being placed before certain races. I can’t really see how EA thought this was a good direction to go for an arcade style racer and the outcome vindicates my opinion some what, especially when you compare it to games that pulled it off well.

The one good thing Need to Speed Underground 2 does bring however is the freedom it offers due to the game being set in one big city. If you want to turn up to a race you will have to get in your car and drive there so if you have some time to kill or want to look around you can take the scenic route.

That said, the concept is a novelty. You won’t find many exciting adventures to go on located around the city it is really just there to add a little something extra to the game. Of course it is still a welcome addition as you don’t have to be doing the same thing all the time.

Perhaps the idea of the city could have been a great addition although your actual racing doesn’t make much use of the extra space. And while driving from one place t another is good a first it slowly but surely becomes a chore.

As with any career based game, you start off at the bottom with a pretty poor performing car but after a while you’ll be racing a car that are just pure fun to drive. There is a nice selection of different types of races as there was in the previous game too.

Difficulty levels are a bit of a novelty on the game too. If you’re an avid player of racer games you should be able to beat them straight off providing you can get in front of your competition and don’t have a ramming contest with the scenery. Plus the computer driven cars are particularly unfriendly guys so they won’t set out to ram you off the road.

Through the competition such as Burnout is all about the big crashes, Need for Speed Underground 2 sadly fails in this department. Though there are some nice cut scenes when you have high speed collisions, the damage just isn’t there once the collision is over. Something that really takes the edge off the game.

There is plenty of options for your cars though allowing you to customise your cars performance and appearance to the enth degree. You can purchase extra parts for your car such as the nitrous-oxide upgrade which gives you extra boosts for power slides and near misses (remind you of any game?) As a general rule though you need to get all the upgrades to progress easily through the game.

Changing the appearance of the car allows you more freedom although it is still linked in with the game. If you want to appear on magazines and the like you will need to buy the parts which they think look cool not what you actually want to buy.

The online mode is pretty predictable, huck up with people online and race them though there is also free run mode in which you can just cruise round the city with your friends. Of course even if you don’t have an internet connection you can run the multiplayer mode via split screen.

Need for Speed Underground isn’t a bad attempt at a racing game. But it does have some major weaknesses, the sound is pretty poor and the idea of it being underground is far from what the game actually feels like. You may well be better off playing the original Need for Speed Underground - Gamer Forge.

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This article was posted by mworld.

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