NFS Underground 2 - Hey, Remember Gran Turismo?

Need For Speed: Underground 2 (Windows) is a weird combination of many previous games in the same genre including; Gran Turismo, Midnight Club, Test Drive and a slight hint of Grand Theft Auto. NFS Underground 2 is in some ways just another average racing game but with a twist. Instead of randomly racing the same tracks over and over again, NFSU2 uses a career mode in which you partake in various tournaments, underground circuits and eventually become a celebrity.

Like Gran Turismo, the basic idea is that you participate in races in order to earn money. This money is then used to purchase better cars, flashy body upgrades and more advanced engine components. During a career you'll also unlock a wide variety of upgrades, be exposed to a very large map area, be on the cover of magazines and sign big corporate sponsorships.

Like Grand Theft Auto, you are free to drive anywhere in the city and are not confined within the barriers of a boring menu system for races and upgrades. If there is a race on the other side of town, you must drive there yourself. If you want to swing by the garage to purchase a new vehicle or slap on a pimp looking fender, then you must drive to that location. This can, at times, become boring and repetitive but after all, driving is the name of the game.

While in career mode you can access specific menus and alert messages. There is an ingame SMS message system that delivers helpful hints and tips to your virtual inbox. This can include garage locations, ways to improve your car, places to buy stuff and other little tidbits that are revealed along the way. There is also an interactive map that plots the location of all races, garages, and other special points of interest, so there is no way to get lost. In fact, they even created a GPS tracking system that displays a dynamic arrow which gives you turn by turn directions to your destination. Sometimes this system is annoying so it's better to just use the old fashion on screen mini map (similar to grand theft auto). Also similar to grand theft auto is a career mode statistics menu. This menu is full of statistics and progress charts, which are helpful in determining what you still need to do in order to unlock more areas of the game and ultimately earn that 100% competition goal.

The graphics in NFS Underground 2 could be described as glamorous, flashy, glittery or simply fabulous. This of course is only possible if played on a high end gaming system that can handle the 100% detailed settings. Older systems can handle this game by turning down the detail levels but that also makes the game look plain ugly. I'd recommend at least 512mb memory and a 64mb video card (not onboard). The graphics are the best I've seen in a computer racing game in quite awhile and they definitely super pass anything from the Gran Turismo series. The environment is completely realistic, complete with street decorations, vast amounts of texture placements, dynamic lighting, street lights, weather effects and artificial traffic. The only downfall here is that the environment is too solid and feels fake because you can't really damage anything, including your own car. If you smash into a brick wall at 150mph, neither your car or the wall are damaged and you'll simply drive away unharmed. There is no apparent damage to the car, no smoke, no missing wheels, no broken mirrors, cracked windows or anything else that would seem realistic.

The sound is equally amazing but only to a certain point. The player engine sounds very dynamic and realistic, as well as the other cars around you but that's about it. There are some generic sounds for lightening, rain and maybe a hint of ambience here and there. The most obvious and powerful sound aspect are the music tracks. Snoop Dogg and Xzibit are just some of the featured artists. Most of the music is rap/hip-hop with a few rock tracks thrown into the mix and this music is played in the menus and ingame. After awhile it does become annoying but the volume can be turned down or off.

Need For Speed: Underground 2 in a nutshell is just like Gran Turismo. The whole point of playing is to race for money so you can upgrade your car for better performance so that you can participate in more difficult races later on. It's an endless cycle that does take it's toll on the replay value. There are only a very few types of races and unfortunately you'll have to do these races several dozen times over the course of a career. The free roam mode is a nice touch but it too is rather redundant and uneventful. The graphics and sounds are flashy and it truly looks and feels like a cheap reason to copy The Fast & The Furious (the movie). If you have a beefy gaming system and enjoyed previous Need For Speed games (or the Gran Turismo series) then I'd recommend this game. I'd also recommend a steering wheel with pedals. The keyboard has little to no control. Otherwise, don't bother because the racing/driving aspects of the game will become boring and repetitive since everything is scripted to happen in a certain order despite the vague inclusion of personal choice and free roam mode. I've never personally played the PS2 version but somehow I bet that it's better.