A year ago, EA realeased an urban style racing game which allows you to tune and modify your car up anyway you want. Now thats Need for Speed Underground to you, and it was indeed the best selling game of 2003. Alrite, here comes 2004 with EA realeasing a sequel to the first NFS Underground. Here's my review for Need For Speed Underground 2.
Gameplay:
Lets start off with the gameplay first. First of all, the normal race modes from the first game are all here. Such as drag racing, drifting, spriting, etc. Of course there are 2 new modes which are called Racer X and URL. Racer X is race which takes place on a drift track. It doesn't really make any exitement though, because its just actually a drift race but instead you don't have to slide around corners. URL are better well known as Underground Racing League. They take place on circuits, and each round you earn points. After 3 rounds, the points will sum up and if you have the highest points, you win!
Now, this year's career mode are far different from last year's game. Start out with an extremely slow car and get your own reputation high enough to earn your own fame. Of course you have to drive around the city, seeking for races to earn cash, challenging NPCs for outrun challenges and of course cruise around and find nifty little cash pick-ups. The problem is, it gets really boring just driving around the city from one race to another. Upgrading your cars are good, but just exiting a shop itself takes 15 to 20 seconds! Gosh, the loading times are extremely bad. The PC and Xbox versions of course have faster loading times, but that isn't by much either.
Talking about upgrading, there are lots of new cuztomization parts. Much more new vinyls and decals to make your car the beast you want. Of course, all the parts and upgrades from the first game are all here as well.
Graphis:
The graphics are great. Its not a vast improvement from last year, but they are tweaked up abit. The roads though, looks polish. Meaning, its like you are racing on a dark piece of glass. The backgrounds are all pretty well designed. Bayview looks extremely big, and there isn't any framerate issues regardless of the awful loading times.
Sound:
Most of the music in the game are pretty dull. There are about 25 tracks in the game. There isn't any more rock and rap n' soul type of music as it is from the first Underground game. Brooke Burke voice acting suits this game well. She is like the mama' of underground racing! But some other voice acting just plainly suck. Just like the NPC cars on the track which you can outrun them. I mean I can't even hear what they say, as they just mumble away and the race starts.
buY iT Or ReNt It?
Personally, NFS Underground 2 is a letdown. I expected more, but it seems the trend continues as sequels are always ain't as good. EA did well on Underground 2, but just that I could not get the underground racing feel from this game. I'd say buy it if you are a real hardcore fan first Underground game. If not just rent it, get cuztomize your car and just finish it.
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