Need for Speed: Underground 2 review

The first time I played a Need for Speed game was on a 3DO, and how the franchise has changed since then. But the formula remained the same; players raced the world's most exotic cars on highways, avoiding the law and slower traffic.

Last year Electronic Arts turned the franchise on its head by removing the supercars and replacing them with hot-hatches and a gameplay mechanic based on the illegal street racing scene a la 2 Fast 2 Furious.

On the whole gamers took to the new format in a big way, turning the franchise from a niche product into a really big seller. So a sequel was inevitable as was it sticking to the winning formula of night time racing and modified street machines.

Burberry parade

An accident, so the intro cut scene tells us, has put our hero out of action. Warned off by rival drivers we make a new life in a new city and prepare to become top racer in that town. It's a simple tale but told well through the medium of comics.

Despite the wooden performance of actress Brook Burke as narrator the narrative style really works. Though her awful drive safe warning when the game loads is both hilarious and terrible in equal measure.

The name of the game is open non-linear gameplay. There's a whole city out there kid and you've got to become top dog. And that city seems awfully familiar. EA has gone the same route as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and created a hybrid of Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco – allowing for neon lit casinos, some big letters on a hillside and camp hippies galore (I may have lied about that last one).

Cross town traffic

So we drive from place to place in this big old city to take part in different events. Cross town travel is aided by a nifty little GPS system. It shows the location of events and upgrade shops and will display navigation information on the HUD to get us there. If driving to each event isn't your thing, then races can be selected from the home garage.

Not driving to each event though means missing out on one of the game's more exciting events, namely taking on rival drivers and trying to out pace each other. See another racer mooching around town and you can challenge them, the winner being the one that manages to overtake and lose the other.

The organised events vary in style from regular circuit races around town, point-to-point events, powerslide competitions and even track races. Perhaps the oddest events are the drag races. Odd because there's little steering involved. The joystick changes lane, but doesn't steer – instead concentration is on getting a good start, slipstreaming and changing gear at the perfect moment. Yeah it's odd, but it actually works.

As far as car physics go it's nothing special. But this is an arcade racer and I can forgive some erratic handling. It's easy to powerslide the cars and throw them around the circuits and upgrades do change handling, albeit not in an overly noticable way.

Magazine star

Racing other nighthawks isn't the be all and end all. Street racing is about fame too and as our hero's success increases, so does his bankability. Publishers clamour to put his rides on the cover of magazines and DVDs. This is where race winnings come in handy, being used to buy all manner of styling and performance upgrades to look good on a magazine cover.

It's here that perhaps I'm showing my age or as I like to call it, my taste. The cars have a style index which shows how funky they are; add more upgrades and the star points rack up. Get the right number of style points and the magazine will be begging for a photo. But here's the thing, for those of use with any taste this section is counter-intuitive.

Styling by Pinanfarina, now that's automotive beauty. But not in this world. Gone are the days of beautifully crafted supercars from this franchise. We now have to suspend all taste and believe that putting Kenwood decals on the doors and under tray neon lights makes a Peugeot 106 a vastly more attractive.

Even if you buy into this world of destroying car design with over elaborate parts, lights and decals there's still a fundamental problem with this approach. Style points are awarded for adding these upgrades but there's no need for them to match, the game doesn't care. So you can spend some time making the car as hideous as possible and the game just adds up the number of upgrades and thinks you've got the modern equivalent of the glorious E-Type.

Rubber band

Leaving style issues aside, the biggest problem with Need for Speed: Underground 2 is the terrible AI. The other drivers seem to have two settings; omnipotent and blind. Set the game on easy and the other drivers show no ability at all, struggling to get round corners and often skidding off on long easy straights.

But make the difficulty level a little harder and the cheating AI from the first NFS:U game returns. Just as the upgrades negate the need for taste, the cheating AI removes the need for talent. It doesn't matter how good you are at this game the AI will always be on your tail. One accident and it's all over. I really hate this approach to racing game AI, I feel it's totally counter to the spirit and aims of racing.

It's bling innit?

Need for Speed: Underground 2 is not an unattractive game. The neon lit streets of the city look good, though the night time setting goes some way to hiding any deficiencies. Please EA, let us have some daylight racing next time. The cars shine, the draw distance is good and the city as a whole looks pretty great.

It's also a large play area, with miles and miles of road to explore with different areas highlighted in a change of graphical style. We have the Vegas style neon-lit casinos, the Beverly Hills style mansions and the downtown rougher areas. New areas are unlocked fairly quickly but they only consist of a few roads, most of the game is there already.

I'm only happy when it rains

It rains at the same time in every race, a pleasing enough effect but a boring one when it becomes so predictable. And I can cope with rain. What I struggle to cope with is one of the worst game soundtracks I've ever heard. I would quite happily listen to nails being dragged down blackboards than this collection of faux-scary complaint-rock for moody teens. And no, EA hasn't given Xbox owners refuge in custom soundtracks.

Sales of the game are massive. EA knows its market. Noise rock and chavved up motors are the order of the day to sell to 12 year olds that wouldn't know a good car or a decent tune if they were beaten repeatedly with it. But the failings of NFS: U2 aren't style related, as those issues are down to personal choice.

The problem with NFS: U2 is the terrible cheating and inept AI and the lack of variety. Older NFS games took us to many different locations, from Europe, Asia and the US, offered daylight events too. Yes I know urban night racing is the natural place for these illegal street events, but the first duty of a game is to be fun, not to try and recreate reality. It's not as if this is a sim anyway. NFS: U2 is diverting for a while, hence the score. But it soon becomes monotonous. In the final assessment it lacks ambition and appeal to anyone who actually likes cars.