Test Drive Unlimited 2 Review (PC)

Test Drive Unlimited 2

When I first saw the box to Test Drive Unlimited 2 (TDU2) I thought to myself, “not another crap racing game”. But if you play this game, like I did, expecting another boring race game, you’ll soon realise that Gran Turismo 5 isn’t the only racing experience out there.

What makes this game special isn’t the fast exotic cars, the simulated driving experience or the beautiful rendered graphics; it’s the online functionality that today’s customer undoubtedly expects with their purchase. Not only have Eden Games’ made TDU2 online but have tried to make an expansive, massively- multiplayer online (MMO), sandbox driving experience. Have Eden Game’s succeeded in creating a World of Carcraft with a Need for Speed? Or does the game simply Burnout?

Storyline

The story mode starts you off at a party whereby you can pick any of the people dancing around. Once the character is selected you are called over by a little hotty known as Tess who tells you she has a surprise present for you in the garage; the present just so happens to be a Ferrari (if only all birthdays were this good). After looking at your car and then taking it for a test drive you are rudely awakened by the same hotty demanding you get out of HER car. Annoyingly your character is dreaming. Although she’s mad at you for snoozing in her car, for some reason she lets you drive her to a club, with the promise of entering you into a race competition, allowing the gradual transform from valet to race driver. And your racing career starts from there; it’s not the best storyline ever but it gets the job done.

Presentation

In truth, the handling of the cars is not as precise as I had expected. This may be due to the fact that I was initially comparing it to the likes of Gran Turismo. This game is not a driving simulator and doesn’t make out to be one. It is an arcade racer and it’s a good one at that. Although handling isn’t as realistic as I wanted after driving around few a few hours I got used to it; also the fact that I was driving around for a few hours showed how additive and enjoyable the game actually was. The quality of the graphics could be better in my opinion; the car and character models look great but the environment itself is very lifeless and empty. What I do admire about the environment is the fact that Eden Games actually used satellite data of Ibiza in order to make the island as accurate and realistic as digitally possible.

Gameplay

Players are allowed to race around the Game island of Ibiza and build up their own personal wad of cash; this money is then used not only to buy awesome cars but luxurious houses, stylish new clothes and even a face lift (yes a face lift…). The races themselves basically consist of three styles of events; dirt, street and track racing. These offer a good mixed variety of driving challenges.

The racing itself though is only really part of the fun. One of the great things to do in TDU2 is just aimlessly driving around the island finding new showrooms and seeing other real-life players cruising around. The achievement factor in TDU2 is great; you can showcase all your rewards and cars you have collected through game. This is achieved by player characters being allowed to exit their cars and freely walk around homes, clubs and dealerships to strut their funky stuff (or new face lifts).

When entered into a multiplayer race, all of the competing cars are lined up, allowing competing players to laugh at or envy other players’ cars. The races basically setup an interactive lobby of their own where you can make friends (or even enemies) and engage in the massive online content that the game has to offer.

The servers have often been down but I’m hoping that these are just starter errors and will be infrequent, freak occurrences as a game that involves such a heavy online feature should not have constant online interruptions.

Sound

The engine sounds are pretty cool but cheesy voice acting really hinders the audio within the game. You could argue that this cheese is there to maintain TDU2’s arcade roots of overacted racers but I feel that this style of audio is unnecessarily intrusive within the game. The background tracks aren’t amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but are pleasant enough, although often listened to unnoticed.

Conclusion

Although it’s not the best looking racing game I’ve ever seen, it has to be arguably one of the most enjoyable. Its arcade driving feel and massive sandbox environment makes cruising around the island of Ibiza a treat. The single player on its own has great depth and is great value for money; with the addition of an MMO like feel to the multiplayer definitely creates immersion. Although the graphics of the environments are lifeless, the immersion comes from the fact that real- life players are seen cruising round the streets, breathing actual life into this arcade racer. If you’re a fan of racing games, then TDU2 is well worth a test drive …. or two.

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