While not as good as the first one, NFSU2 still is a good ride, but best enjoyed in small chunks.

User Rating: 7.8 | Need for Speed: Underground 2 PC
By Mystikvm | Review Date:
Need For Speed Underground reinvented the Need For Speed franchise, and that is good, since I've never really liked the other games that carry the NFS brand. But the ability to pimp your car, race arcade style with some phat (just to stay in the mood) beats made me love NFSU1. EA did well top hop on the street racing wagon, and I was curious to see what the second installment of this market-leading racer would bring. To cut it short, I was slightly disappointed, but the more I played the game, the more I came to enjoy it, and in the end I still was satisfied. Let me touch on a number of subjects that were improvements in this game, be it for better or for worse. Yes, every change is in fact an improvement, only some of the improvements don't fit this game well, like the free-roaming city. It's nice to drive around a bit, but it feels kind of odd to have to drive sround for sometimes over 10 minutes to engage in a 3 minute arcade race, it just takes away a bit of the speed that was in the first game. I finished that one in a few hours, but it was a ride full of adrenaline, NFSU2 has a slower pace, and you'll most likely find yourself driving around rather uninterested looking for a few races to win. While the races are still arcade, the fact that you have to truck around for so long is redious, to say the least. Good thing they were able to fill the map with exciting events and new race modes like Outrun, which makes driving around on the map more bearable (you have to gain a 300 metre gap between you and your opponent, really arcade) and Street X, which is more like a circuit race on a Drift course, narrow, cramped and thrilling. Drift did lose some of its appeal, it is harder to rack up some high scores now, and while that wouldn't be much of a problem in the first installment, now you have to compete with three opponents at the same time, so you're all on the circuit, and the moment the first one has completed his round you have 30 seconds to join him on the other end of the line, or you're out. So no more unlimited time for drifting. Too bad, isn't it? One other thing that makes this game somewhat arcade, but also a bit unexciting is its difficulty. Like most arcade racers I encountered this one is easy. But only sometimes it is extremely easy, since cutting corners doesn't make you lose much speed, and you'll be able to create massive gaps between you and the rest. You'll encounter a few hard events (Drag is really hard now) but most of the time you'll just blaze through them with two fingers in your nose. Then the most important thing, the cars. You can own a number of cars which you can fully modify, modding the car has turned into micro-management now, everything can be replaced, from doors to speed counters, and you have a whole lot to choose from too. A bunch of new car models have been thrown in the mix and this game will get you to play it a few more times to see if you can mod a Hummer as well as you modded your Audi TT (depending on the version you're playing). Thumbs up EA, real nice touch. Technically the game has improved much. I don't have a cutting edge graphics card, so I couldn't play it on the highest settings, but when I was able to do that when playing NFSU1, this game looked exactly the same while this time the detail bar was only half full (or half-empty, if you're the pessimist), so it can only look awesome when you're able to fill the bar up fully. And the music. Man, what a delightful sound. EA Trax is the best feature EA has nowadays (and they have a lot of disgusting features, let me tell you that) and for this soundtrack they've really outdone themselves. Great music the pumps you up even more that the soundtrack of the first game. Superb. All in all this game is a polished version of NFSU1, with a number of improvements, only some of them don't come out quite as well as they should have, like the free-roaming streets, which is the most important thing in the game. Also some of the cutscnenes will bug the hell out of you, the language used is way over-the-top and the whole thing seems like a big poser trip. But don't you worry, the game on itself holds up pretty well, while in gamneplay terms not as thrilling and fun as the first game, it still is a great experience.

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