If I hadn't spent the greater part of the last few months playing Burnout 3: Takedown I would have loved Need for Speed Underground 2, and in many ways Electronic Arts latest racer is better than Takedown, but just not in the ways that matter most to me.

Underground 2 is all about street racing and it excels at giving you a world of options for tinkering with your ride and having pick-up races however I just didn't find the mechanics that appealing and the story line seemed absolutely flat to me.

If you're an absolute gear-head, there is no question you are going to love this game. You can purchase and upgrade parts for everything from your engine to your exhaust system. You can even tinker with the look of your car with new spoilers, neon kits and rims.

The game itself is not nearly as exciting. While there are 125 miles of road to tool around searching for pick-up races, cash and plot, there's still not much to do on the roadway. Instead of adding to the game, this addition of more space feels like it waters down the original game, making it a weak-sister imitation.

The best add-on to the game, online play, is fairly stable and gives players a lot more to do but just doesn't go far enough to make this game shine in a year of blockbuster games. In addition, the game's graphics and sound are both solid, but again far from anything worth talking about.
The game does excel in one way: marketing. I've never seen so much product placement in one game, from billboard lined streets, to name-brand fast food restaurants to a well-known cell phone interface; this game is the master at selling everything but itself.

If you're just a fan of console racing, then Underground 2 isn't for you. If you're a gear-head into the street scene that is willing to put up with a lot of play to get to the good stuff, then pick this bad boy up.

You have to give Electronic Arts some credit. It’s the largest game publisher in the world, and when it pumps out another of its major franchises, it pours on more polish than an obsessive/compulsive car detailer. And that’s what Underground 2 is in a nutshell – a whole lot of chrome, but not that much substance.

Need For Speed Underground 2 rolls over extremely familiar ground: you start off with a stock sports car and, through a series of slightly different events, earn new cars, get special upgrades, and tweak your ride with the latest fully licensed bling. While everyone understands that spinners, neon lights, and hydraulics won’t improve your drive to the grocery store, it’s extremely important in NFSU2. Your reputation not only depends on your skill as a driver, but also on the appearance of your ride.

Graphically, this game is a dazzler. The locals have to be extremely proud of their sanitation system; this place is shinier than a particularly clean operating room. Effects are everywhere, with the requisite slow-motion camera work for particularly nasty crashes, long jumps, and other notable accomplishments. The lights are bright, the sounds are spot-on, and overall, Bay View (the Hollywood-like city where this takes place) makes Las Vegas look like Smallville, USA.

While driving around looking for various styles of races (which is the main meat of the single-player game) is fun, there’s a whole other online mode waiting to be tapped. The players here seem to be mostly the targeted audience, which means your online fun mileage will vary. The single-player game has so much to offer with so many unlockables, though, it’s not too much of an issue. A few novel racing modes, like ‘drag racing’ (where precise gear shifting will win the day) makes the game even more interesting.

It’s a good thing the game is so entertaining. Take away the default music — it’s literally “default” at this point — the cliché story, and the seemingly endless parade of brain-dead adversaries and potential mates, and you’re left with a glitzy, well-crafted arcade racer. There’s plenty of depth, and just enough twists and turns not involving the streets you’re tarring. Just know that you should go in for the racing and the racing alone—the rest of the polish, smooth and even throughout, is “style” of some sort that masquerades as substance.

System Requirements: Pentium IV 1 Ghz, 256 MB RAM, 64 MB Video, Windows XP

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