Need for Speed: Underground 2 Review

When someone mentions EA to me, I immediately start thinking of cows. Firstly, I like cows: huge docile animals that give everything and ask for nothing in return. Cows are great, I watched the other day the industrial process of milking a cow on 'Discovery' and it was fun. As I sat there and watched the huge sucking machine squeeze milk out of the cow's udder, the words "challenge everything" kept ringing in my head. Is there some kind of strange connection between the process of milking cows and challenging the very foundation on which our life is based? There must be, I mean why I else would I be thinking about it while watching such a great show?

Sometimes these strange mental associations are strong while playing EA's games and perhaps the strongest when playing any of their sports games. EA can often spot and launch a winner, but for every winner they make, they dish out three expansions and a watered down sequel that makes it quite clear to everyone what their long-term goal is in regards to the initially exciting and successful franchise.

Still miracles do happen in life and I'll be the first to admit that for once, this strange association in my brain that connects EA's games to cows doesn't hold true. No, sir. I'll go out on a limb right away and say that Need for Speed Underground 2 is a game superior in every way to its predecessor. The franchise itself takes a very original turn, although the way in which it does it is not particularly original, as we had seen it applied with great success in games like Grand Theft Auto, Mafia and the likes.

The single biggest change for me in NFSU 2 is the addition of a free-roaming city that you can navigate through by using your car's built-in GPS system. What this means is that you won't simply be in the menu and clicking 'race' when you're ready to play. Instead, the programmers have given you a fairly large city with five distinct neighborhoods to drive around in and look for races. This is truly a monumental shift in the franchise's gameplay fundamentals as it allows the player to race at his own pace and gives the feeling of freedom you get from playing games like GTA. Only, in NFSU2, you'll be burning a serious amount of fuel in your screaming-fast, pimped-out wheels that would make the cars in GTA (and need I mention Mafia here) look like horse carriages. Hence, the career mode becomes a bona-fide single player campaign: much more immersive, free-flowing, and ultimately very, very addictive. You start out as an obscure wannabe racer and have to make your way through the underground street racing ranks. As you win races, your rep improves and you start signing sponsors. After some time, you'll be racing with the big boys and having your sweet set of wheels featured on the covers of racing mags and DVDs. The goal in the game is still the same; become the best underground racer and look good in the process. Beating people with a margin of three or more seconds as well as having the most pimped-out ride (hey, the MTV show 'Pimp My Ride' IS sponsored by EA) will get your star rating up there and you'll get more money from the sponsors. And all the while, you'll be able to just chill and enjoy the scenery as you speed away on what looks like a genuine traffic grid of a major city: with cleverly laid out highways, highway exits and intertwined city districts. This feature alone makes the sequel stand out in every way. Sure, they may've borrowed the basic concept from other successful franchises, but it's implemented so well that I don't see how anyone in the world could object to its significance.

In addition to this one major change, NFSU 2 includes a number of new or excess features that you'd expect from any good sequel. Three new gameplay modes are added to last year's circuit: drift and drag competitions. Each of the racing modes differs slightly from the other and in order to gain the competitive edge, you'll be able to fine-tune your car for each gameplay mode. Speaking of fine-tuning your car, the free-roaming gameplay concept allows you to look for and unlock body, engine, accessories and paint shops all across the city. The level of customization to your car has also been increased, allowing you to make a distinctive set of wheels. But there is a catch; each time you get a new car, you'll have to customize it from scratch. While this might be slightly frustrating, the idea was to have you winning races so that you would make your new car as cool as the previous one and possibly even cooler. As your reputation grows, more districts and more car parts become available. You know how that works, right? The important thing is that the whole concept does what it's supposed to: it keeps the player hungry for more racing and it makes you want to keep playing. I swear I caught myself saying, "just this one more race" a few times at 2 AM and I've never said that while playing a racing game before.

As addictive as Need for Speed Underground 2 may be, it's still not without its faults. I thought I'd never utter out these words in a million years, but I think that having Playboy model Brooke Burke narrate the cut-scenes and play as your manager was not a good move by the producers. Well, not for the quality of the franchise anyway (the sales are a whole different matter). Brooke is featured in the skillfully drawn comic panel cut-scenes that further the story, and will be talking to you over the cell phone frequently. And therein lays the problem you see. Brooke LOOKS good. She looks even better without her clothes on, but that girl can't act to save her life. I've heard midget porn actresses (when I visited a friend once who, um, has those kind of movies) read their lines more professionally. Now I don't mind seeing Brooke but hearing that woman's diction makes me think she needs to take a few more drama classes at the local Scientology and Life Betterment center. What this does for the game is kind of obliterate the funky, hip-hop street-wise image that the whole underground racing scene is founded on. Furthermore, there are a few other distinctively suburban white guys who try to use phrases like "a'aight" and "off the hook" and it all just sounds like they used Vanilla Ice as the special advisor on the project (Word -Ed.).