One of the perks of being a gaming journalist is that you sometimes get to preview the hottest upcoming games before they go public. I recently had a chance to spend some time with EA's Need for Speed™ Underground 2—not enough to become an expert, but enough to experience what players will be buzzing about when this game hits retail shelves.
Bright lights, big city.
The game's mouth-watering teaser at E3 2004 featured several high-performance, tricked-out automobiles negotiating the curves of model Brooke Burke's corpus delectable. Burke is one of the first things you'll see in the game … and one of the things you'll remember the longest. After an obligatory safety warning (which essentially reminds you not to drive in real life like you do in video games), your character arrives into the fictional town of Bayview. Brooke's character arranges for you to obtain a set of wheels, and then it's off to the races.
The city of Bayview is vast, and EA included five distinct districts to explore. Much like Vice City in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Manhattan in Spider-Man® 2, Bayview is an interactive playground, where things are happening everywhere, even if you're not right there to participate. There are different race icons scattered across town, key locations (like body shops and garages that you can visit for vehicle upgrades), and other street racers who randomly prowl the roads looking for an impromptu contest.
The other racers represent Bayview's active (and aggressive) tuner community. These gearheads spend all their time and money on their cars, upping performance and visual pizzazz to the max. Winning races earn you cash, but winning alone isn't enough to earn bragging rights in Bayview. You have to look good doing it. You get no love and no respect unless your car dazzles the opposition before, during, and after the race.
Hit the streets.
Sadly, you don't get to keep your borrowed wheels for long. Instead, you must start from scratch with a lower-end vehicle straight off the factory floor. To keep up with the competition, you can spend your hard-won cash at any of Bayview's automotive shrines. To put more muscle under the hood, boost performance with a nitrous injector, cool air intakes, or a state-of-the-art exhaust system. To turn the audience's heads and make your competitors feel drab and awful, jazz up your ride with front- and rear-end bumpers; custom headlights; neon light systems for the engine, undercarriage, or trunk; and those styling chrome spinner hubcaps. Each of these cosmetic changes adds to a star meter, which tracks how wickedly eye-popping your wheels have become. A one-star car is hardly worth a second look, but a 10-star car creates a traffic hazard because people can't take their eyes off it.
Exploring Bayview is one way to enjoy all the new race modes in Need for Speed Underground 2. From the main menu, you can take on any of the race types alone, with a partner via split-screen, or with multiple human drivers online. Returning are the drag, drift, and circuit races, along with newcomers Outrun and Street X. A drag race is a simple dash in a straight line to see who can go from zero to victory the fastest. Drift races put you on a tight, curving track with five other drivers to see who can work the gas and e-brake to stack up the most powerslide points. Circuit is a multiple-lap race, and sprint is a point-to-point run. Street X is similar to drift and designed to encourage contact between the drivers, but it's a longer course, which rewards you for staying clear of your opponents. Outrun, perhaps the most exciting new modes, puts two cars on the same streets and turns them loose. Whoever is in the lead determines the course—kind of like follow-the-leader—but the leader can change at any moment. You'll need strong leading and following strategies for these races.
Coming your way!
In terms of gameplay, Need for Speed Underground 2 comes down firmly on the side of realism over arcade action, but that doesn't mean that EA hasn't learned a few things from Burnout® 3: Takedown™. In this game, your car can also be outfitted with a nitrous injection system, which functions like the boost inBurnout. Your nitrous meter fills as you powerslide, catch air, and narrowly avoid hitting other cars. Any mojo in your meter will give you a turbo boost of speed for as long as the meter lasts. Crashes definitely slow you down, but you won't find the kind of flying sparks and twisted metal explosions that are so common in EA's other racing franchise.
Need for Speed Underground 2 has already hooked me, and I've only seen the first two districts. I can see pursuing a long, successful career as a street-mod hero, and I can also see just tooling around Bayview, enjoying the sights and looking for fellow underground racers to take on. The course and pace of your progress is entirely up to you, just like the custom configurations you lay out for the car's engine and exterior. All we have to do is make a few choices, explore a few districts, and then shut up and drive.
