Game: Need for Speed: Underground 2 

Condition: Pre-Owned 

Included: Game Disc, Manual & Case 

License: No Product License Key Present 

Year: 2004 

Need for Speed: Underground 2 is a cross-platform racing video game and the eighth installment in the Need for Speed series, the direct sequel to Need for Speed: Underground. It was developed and published by Electronic Arts in 2004, for Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and mobile phones. It was also commercially successful, breaking sales records in the United Kingdom.

The game entails tuning cars for street races, resuming the Need for Speed: Underground storyline. Need for Speed: Underground 2 provides several new features, such as a broader customization, new methods of selecting races, the "explore" mode in a large city known as "Bayview". The City Center was based on Philadelphia, Beacon Hill was based on Beverly Hills and Coal Harbor was based on Camden, New Jersey, and the Stadium area was based on Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. Brooke Burke is the voice of Rachel Teller, the person who guides the player throughout the game.

The game has been ported to PlayStation Portable, under the title of Need for Speed: Underground Rivals. The Nintendo DS port introduces a new feature in which the player is able to design custom decals to adorn any vehicle in the game.

The game was followed by Need for Speed: Most Wanted in 2005.

Plot

The story begins after the player has beaten Eddie's street gang - "The Eastsiders" in Olympic City. The player is now revered as the best street racer in Olympic City. The player is called after the final race by a bald man with an "invitation" to join his team. The mysterious bald man on the video screen tells the player that he "is not taking no for an answer." In defiance, the player abruptly hangs up the call. One night, the player is called by his friend, Samantha whilst en route to a celebration party, who informs him that the party is really kicking and the people want to see him at the party. An unidentified black Hummer H2 waits in a dark underpass for the player. The call is suddenly interrupted by a dazzling light from the Hummer's headlights, which blind the player while instantaneously ramming his blue Nissan Skyline GT-R in an effort to wreck it. A man with a scythe tattoo on his hand rolls down his window following the collision and calls to confirm that he "took care of a problem."

Six months later the player boards a plane to Bayview with a good luck note from Samantha that also refers to her friend, Rachel Teller (Brooke Burke) as well as a car key. The player arrives in Bayview to find Rachel's green Nissan 350Z waiting for him outside in airport terminal parking. The player competes in a few races using Rachel's car before handing it over to her. The player buys his first car using the money provided by the insurance on his totaled Skyline. The player soon gains fame by winning races and encounters Caleb Reece (David Palffy), who is the leader of "The Wraiths" and turns out to be the driver of the mysterious Hummer that wrecked the player's car in the first place.

Rachel reveals to the player that Caleb is attempting to take control of the racing scene in Bayview by manipulating the sponsorship deals in his favour. The player eventually encounters The Wraiths and defeats them one by one. The player also meets a female Wraith member named Nikki Morris (Kelly Brook) who drives a Ford Mustang GT. She joins the player's side after he defeats her in a series of URL events. Caleb becomes infuriated by this and challenges the player to a final showdown in his Pontiac GTO, and loses to the player.

That event solidifies the player's status as the best underground racer in Bayview.

Gameplay

In addition to the racing modes included in the previous Underground game (Circuit, Sprint, Drag and Drift races), four new variations of races have been provided in Underground 2. One racing mode was dropped, this being the Knockout competitions. Still, a Lap Knockout option is available when racing Circuit in non-career races.

Underground 2 is unique among the games in the Need for Speed series in that it requires a player to drive to a certain place in the city in order to begin a race (other games allow the player to select a race from a menu). Most races are marked on the in-game radar, but some are hidden and the player must search for them, should he/she decide to play them.

Once any stage is completed, all of the race location icons for that stage are removed from the map and a new set of race location icons are placed on the map for the next stage. While in the garage, there is a "World Map" feature that includes a menu of races for all prior stages, with the menu noting which races have been completed or not completed, and the player can select any race from any prior stage to run from the menu. After completing stage 2 through stage 5 (stage 5 is the last stage of career mode), there will always be 8 sponsor races that will not be completed, since a player has to choose a single sponsor per stage and can only run 3 out of 11 unique sponsor races, leaving 8 sponsor races not completed at the end of each stage. These can only be run using World Map. Due to a game bug (at least on PC version), if running a non completed race from the World Map, no credit (cash or rep) will be awarded unless the player uses restart at least one time during the race. The restart can be done as soon as the race starts in order to get credit for the win.

Circuit race is a standard race that involves up to four cars driving around a track that loops back to the start line of itself. A circuit race is typically a maximum of four laps and minimum of 2 laps (The final career race is 5 laps). A sprint race is just like a circuit race except that the track does not loop back to the start line. It's a point to point race involving a maximum of four vehicles.

Street X mode is similar to circuit races, except that they take place in closed and tight tracks. A maximum of 4 racers participate in this event. This mode disables the use of nitrous oxide. Street X uses the same arena used in Underground 1 for Drift Races.

Drifting is one of the easier types of racing (depending on difficulty level) in Underground 2. On the "parkade" tracks, the player drifts with up to 3 (if online, always 3 if offline) other competitors at the same time on the parkade tracks. Points are awarded when the player successfully slides the car and finishes each drift without hitting any walls or traffic. Like the Street X mode, no nitrous oxide is allowed. There are also downhill drift events where the player drifts the car while progressing down the course from top to bottom. In the downhill drifts, there are no other racers, but there is normal city traffic. Players increase their points by sliding past city cars. The downhill drift events may have been inspired by Initial D.

Drag racing is a point-to-point race that forces a player to use a manual transmission. Steering in this mode is simplified to simply allow for lane changes, while the game handles the steering along the lanes, and the player focuses more on maintaining an optimum speed for the car. The Nitrous Oxide meter is enlarged and displayed on the left side of the screen.

The Underground Racing League (URL) is a set of tournaments which takes place in a specific set of closed tracks outside city streets - either actual racing circuits or airport runways. URL tournaments typically consist of one to three races, with up to six cars (both in career mode and online). In tournaments with two or more races, a points system is used. At the end of each race, drivers receive a specific number of points according to their standing in a race. The total score at the end of these races determines the winner of the tournament. The Bayview Circuit where the URL Races held is based on Sepang Circuit.

Special events - these are similar to sprints without any barriers, with the goal to reach a target point on the map (using the in game guide helps here), which is a "photographer", and the player needs to reach the target within a specific time limit. Achieving this will reward the player with a magazine cover. Ten of these special events are called "DVD" events, which get unlocked based on a cars visual rating, and stages 2 through 5 each require completing some number of "DVD" events to complete a stage.

Outruns - while in free roam (cruising), the player can challenge specific opponent cars (an outrun opponent car will have bright tail lights, similar to the player's cars when they use nitrous oxide) in an "outrun", where the goal is to start an outrun and then distance their car from the opponent's car by 300 metres (1,000 feet). The player can choose when to initiate an outrun, and can take any path and/or use tactics to achieve this goal, provided they are in the lead. Each stage, including the intro stage, has a limited number of outruns a player can win. For example, in the intro stage where the player is driving Rachel's car, 3 outruns can be won. After winning the number of outruns allowed for a stage, the outrun opponent cars cease to appear. After completing career, there is no limit to the number of outrun wins allowed. Depending on the stage, after winning some number of outruns, the player is rewarded with a unique part. Some stages allow a player to do a series of outrun sequences, rewarding the player with multiple unique parts (one for each series of outruns won). The outrun mode is similar to that of Tokyo Xtreme Racer and Wangan Midnight video games, which uses health bars instead of distance to determine the winner.

Cell phone / SMS system - During game play, the players will occasionally receive phone calls or text messages. The game maintains a list of messages and game info that can be reviewed via a menu system.

Cash and info icons - Each stage, including the intro stage, includes a set of hovering icons scattered throughout the game world. As the player explores the map in free roam, the player receives a cash reward and/or info as the player discovers and drives through each of the icons.

Vehicles

As in Need for Speed: Underground, Underground 2 continues to offer similar vehicles for purchase and modification, most of which consist of Japanese models such as Nissan 240sx, Nissan GTR R34 or Mitsubishi Eclipse, with some European and American models. In addition, Underground 2 is the first game in the Need for Speed series to offer three SUVs as racing vehicles. Also, it is the second game in the Need for Speed series after Underground to offer a Korean-made car (Hyundai Tiburon) as a racing vehicle. There are two versions of the game, US and EU, where each version has 29 of 31 possible cars: the US version has an Acura RSX and a Honda Civic, while the EU version instead has a Peugeot 106 and a Vauxhall Corsa, the rest of the 27 cars in both versions are the same.

SUVs, also known as sport utility vehicles, were a new element added to Underground 2. The SUV's can be upgraded and tuned in the same manner as cars. Some of the events in career mode are SUV only events and only appear when a player is driving an SUV. In career or any offline mode, if the player is driving an SUV, the computer opponents also drive SUVs. However, after completing a stage, the World Map allows a player to run any event from prior stages in either a car or an SUV.

Customization

Customization in Underground 2 was significantly expanded compared to previous iterations from the series. Visual customization has expanded with the ability to customize the car's front and rear bumpers, side skirts, spoiler, hood, exhaust tips, doors, roof scoop, wheels (including the ability to put on spinners), headlights and taillights, side mirrors and paint. Vinyls and decals can also be added, as well as car stereos (speakers, amplifiers & subwoofers), hydraulics, nitrous bottles and under glow neon. Most visual modifications to the car have no actual effect on vehicle performance. The sound systems, for example, could be put in the trunk of cars, but served no purpose other than visual cues. Hydraulics can be used in combination with nitrous at a start of a race which can cause a car to do a wheelie and for some cars get a better launch. The performance and handling of the car is affected by cosmetic modifications like spoilers and hoods, which affect the downforce of the car - better spoilers allow better tuning of the downforce management both in front and in the back of the vehicle. Visual upgrades increase a cars visual rating, up to a rating of 10.0. At least one car in a career garage needs to be visually upgraded to a 10.0 rating in order to unlock all 10 DVD events (completing these rewards the player with a DVD cover), and each stage has a required number of DVD events.

A car's performance can be enhanced by upgrading the car's engine, engine control unit (ECU), transmission, suspension, tires, brakes, reducing the car's weight, and adding a turbo and/or nitrous. The player has the ability to either upgrade the performance through upgrade packages or by purchasing individual parts of each performance category. NFS: Underground 2 also introduces a dyno-tuning system which allows players to specifically tune certain aspect of the car such as ECU, turbo, suspension springs, front and rear shock absorbers, gear ratios, aerodynamics, brake bias, individual tire grip, etc. The player can test the settings via a dyno run which will display a torque and power versus rpm graph, and an estimated 0–60 mph (0–100 km/h) time.

Multiplayer

Underground 2 had online multiplayer capability on PS2, PC, and Xbox, however by 2010, EA Games had shut down their servers, rendering the feature inoperable. The PC version has a multiplayer LAN mode, and multiplayer races over the internet can still be run using the games LAN mode and a virtual LAN (virtual private network).