... But It Is Still Really Good
Continued from Page 1The good far outweighs the bad, though, and that is what is important. Building a fast car from the ground up is an absolute thrill. Each part you add has an immediate and noticeable impact and it is fun to bolt on something new and then take your car out for a test drive. Taking a car from stock to a dominating street machine is satisfying like nothing else. It is disappointing that you aren’t allowed that much freedom with the visual upgrades, but you do still have a lot of options and you can make some really, really nice looking cars. The racing itself is also very fun. The controls seem tighter and the game is just plain fun to play. The car list is also pretty good. All of the cars you would expect along with a couple that might surprise you. There are around 30 cars from Mitsubishi, Subaru, Honda, Mazda, and many more. The best cars, namely the Skyline and my beloved Lancer Evolution series, are unlocked late in the game so you have lots of motivation to play through career mode. Need for Speed Underground 2 is well put together and a lot of fun, even if there are some hiccups along the way.
Online Play
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, Need for Speed Underground 2 looks good. The game doesn’t move quite as fast and there aren’t as many nifty visual effects going on, but the game still looks nice. Most importantly, the framerate is very smooth. The game looked great last year and looks just as sharp now.The sound is an area that is a bit hit or miss. The spoken dialogue (mostly by Brooke Burke) is pretty lame. I blame both hideously bad writing and Burke’s monotone delivery. The music in the game can only really be described as OK. Some tracks are better than others, but the mix of hip hop and rock doesn’t always mesh well with the action onscreen. This is yet another case of an EA soundtrack trying to appeal to everyone but failing miserably. Come on EA, give us custom soundtrack support already! One aspect of the sound that really stands out is the engine sounds. Each car sounds different and when you put new parts in it the sound changes even more. The best part is that the engines are nice and loud and enjoyable. Nothing bothers me more in a racing game than when the engines sound all quiet and fake. That isn’t the case in NFSU2, so hook it up to your surround sound and rattle the windows.
Bottom Line
Overall, NFSU2 is among the best racing games on Xbox and is highly recommended for fans of the original. There are an almost overwhelming number of races to win and parts to unlock and the single player career mode will provide you with over 50 hours of street racing fun. There is also online play available on Xbox this year and it works great and is very fun.I once described Need for Speed Underground as the glamorous preppy rich kid wannabe side of street racing, and that still definitely applies here. There are advertisements all over the place for everything you can imagine. And these aren’t clever made up products that fill the city of Bayview, these are things like real-life fast food restaurants and cell phone providers. There is nothing underground about that whatsoever. This isn’t realistic, gritty street racing culture. This is a 50 hour long commercial that just so happens to also include some racing.
The bottom line, though, is that Need for Speed Underground 2 is still the best street racing game on Xbox even if it doesn’t showcase the culture as well as, say, Street Racing Syndicate. The gameplay is more fun and that is what is important. Give it a rent or buy it, but make sure you play it.
