Street racing with cops never felt so sweet!
Second, custom making your ride from bottom up is a blast! In this game, it almost forces you to change the looks just so the cops wont recongize you. Gives you the chance to step back from the racing and making your ride look pretty using your taste and artistic imagination.
Third are the cops! This is when this game is just not a racing game anymore. Of course you must drive fast and things...but you must plan ahead on how to get rid of them. If they do lose contact with you, one must know how to aviod contact with them when they are on the look out. During a persuit, you just cant go on the freeway and lose them driving fast. It's best to be in the city and lose them in a 'realistic' way. Like hiding your presence for a breif time. The police AI seems very good and balance in this game. Gets very hard at times, but games are only fun if it's challenging. Yet, it is not that bad if you know how to elude them. Took some practice with me for the fact there isn't many quality games out there about eluding cops in this way. Sound track is okay. Something you may not go out and buy the CD...but it seems to fit in the game very well. Playing this game in the day light is refreshing...but I wouldn't mind seeing a game like this at night in the future! Just imagine the possibility of killing the headlights and hiding at night??? Never the less, this game is awsome! It's a game of racing and eluding cops in one. Not to mention using your creativity to build up your ride. The story of the game is fair. Maybe in the future EA can do a better job on twists in the plot. ??? Making it more epic in that nature. It wouldn't be a bad idea to almost make a racing game like this into role playing. The story was great in the begining....then it faded off to nothing. The city looks great and plays great! Since I am writing a review...I believe having more hide outs and such could be better.
My closing comments are this: This is an incredible racing game with some depth. I can only hope for EA to expand on this idea even further. For now, this is one of the more 'elite' racing games on the PS2. Not only you are street racing, but you are against the police. This sort of mixture really makes a virtual city alive. I strongly believe this will hold up as a 'classic' in years to come. Sometimes it can get boring only racing without cops in the city. This is a game that pushes forward on new ideas. Something I strongly feel you wont feel as if you wasted your money on buying! To go further, it's not a waste of time of trying!