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The street lamps light up the dark, winding streets, like beacons, encouraging you to follow them to the abandoned neighborhoods where nothing but the swaying trees are stirring. You feel the vibrating tumbling of your car, you grip the steering wheel until your knuckles turn white, and from nowhere a stunning girl steps out into the street with her arm stretching out. Next to you is a line of motorcycles, sleek machines that shine with the reflections of traffic lights and moonlight. Then the girl lowers her shoulder, and your foot hits the pedal, and you're off to become a street legend or a promise of something that should have been. Legend, guy. Welcome to Bayview, the world's capital of illicit racing. Welcome to Pace Underground 2.
Need for Speed Underground has put you in an alien city racing for fame, money, and a beautiful girl who haunts the scene like an urban ghost. Now that you've earned the love and popularity of fans of this illegal sport, you've come to the city of Bayview (which sounds like Los Angeles down to the Hollywood sign) where you're looking for some more glory. When you meet her, you're going to make a name for yourself, because it won't be easy to see that the area is full of experienced racers.
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You will start your illegal race car driving career by finding Rachel's beautifully modified car in the airport parking lot and then advise her, using the PDA/Instant Messenger contact interface known as the SMS (Short Message System), to go out to her garage somewhere in town. From there, you're free to visit the big city of Bayview. How big are we talking about a town? Wide enough to house five of the districts (Beacon Hill, Coal Harbor, Jackson Heights, City Center and Airport). It's so big that sometimes you're going to use your World Map to make sure you're not lost on the road to the garages or the next race. You're free to stroll through the area to your heart's content, just to see that there's nothing out there but close to empty streets (you're going to see light traffic, but there are no people wandering around). You're going to skip the discovery phase in the Explore mode game because, sweetie, it's just about racing, and because there's nothing out there to see in the first place.
Rachel can quickly point out that the World Map will be filled with colorful circle icons that include numerous racing options such as Drag, Drift, Circuit, Sprint, and two new ones such as Street X and Downhill Drift. You'll see certain icons that will lead you in the right direction when it comes to garages specializing in automotive modification or shops that specialize in just making your car look great. In any case, you'll come to learn about it and eventually come to really love import tuning. What's easier than equipping the car with new decals, tears, and changing everything from the front bumper to the spoiler. You can also adjust the tires to rims and make a very scandalous journey. Be imaginative as you like with the design of your car (you receive points for graphic presentation) but because winning races is what you want to do, you'll have to change some parts and install a nitrous device.
See, winning races entail winning Popularity Points that would eventually lead to winning sponsorships, a car featured in magazines, or a DVD cover. The more races you're driving, the more money you're winning, and the more money you're having, the smoother and more physically presentable the car. Speaking of this, there are a lot of them to chose from, and they've even added the newest ultra-sleek models like the Nissan 240SX this year and they're waiting for it, trucks and SUVs like the Cadillac Escalade (huh?). You can also notice the Pontiac GTO and my own favorite Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Most of the vehicles handle wonderfully (SUVs are way too cumbersome to race) and even more so when you configure engine parts, tires, and Nitrous. This is particularly fantastic provided that the road conditions vary with the weather or the form of the road.
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The races themselves are dispersed around the map so that one race could take you from the Airport District to Coal Harbor and then back to the City Center. Each part of the city provides various types of highways, such as the City Centre, which has freeways used by many race types. At a moment's notice, the Circuit Race will take you out of the streets and straight onto the highway. Drag races come straight from the first game, and you're going to have to drive your car at high speeds while trying to make good changes at the right time. Sprint's got you running from one stage on the map to another as you're being timed. Drift, the returning favorite, has you dragging out trendy drifts along a circle loop. Street X is a no-holds-barred ride close to what you've done to win the race—while it's nowhere near as bad as Burnout 3's Takedown mode, this is a hard and furious race.
Visually, Underground 2 is both impressive and a little disappointing, well, the streets are detailed down to the swaying trees and the blinking lights of a shop sign. You're going to enjoy how the rain peels the windows and how the drops suddenly move to one side as you drive up. Registered vehicles are gorgeous and elegant and accurately reflect the lamps. Yet you're going to find those nasty PS2 jaggies, and that's not good at all. Finally, the cut scenes are presented in comic book-style, making each one long and uninteresting. Rachel Taylor looks like Brooke Burke, but if you were hoping for a full-motion video of her, you're going to be a little surprised.
As far as music/sound is concerned, the soundtrack is good, but it's not too unique. You'll hear the hard-hitting songs of artists like Unwritten Rule and other hip-hop stars like Capone. It's not bad, in fact, but I want my underground racing games to have a soundtrack that suits the illegal racing culture of Midnight Club II (trance, hip-hop, etc.). The voice that works is a weak point in the sound. Department, because there are no chance street racers on Earth, will pose like they were raised by Snoop Dogg. The real underground racing lingo isn't anywhere near this spot. Luckily, the visual effects are excellent.
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Need for Speed Underground 2 is a fantastic sequel and also one of the most addictive driving games true to the culture of underground racing. With too many enjoyable racing modes and a large portion of the city to race around, you'll spend a lot of time burning rubber in the streets of Bayview. If you enjoy driving games and customizing your car anyway, and if you're a fan of speed games, then this is the game you'll probably want to play.
