Is NFS: Underground 2 Still Good After Two Decades?

NFS: Underground 2 celebrates its 20^th birthday this year, but does this classic racing title still have something to offer modern players?

NFS: Underground 2 Is a Modern Classic

When it comes to racing franchises, few can reach the fame and scope of the Need for Speed series. The first game in the series hit the markets way back in 1994 and subsequent years saw some of NFS’s most critically acclaimed titles. Among them is NFS: Underground 2, arguably one of the most influential games not just in the series, but also in the racing game franchise as a whole.

With its dynamic gameplay, open world, detailed and varied car customization options, and a continuation of the shift towards street racing and tuner cars, seen in the first Underground, NFSU2 is still a title remembered fondly by many late 90s/early 2000s kids. However, is this modern classic up to the standards of today when not looking through rose-tinted glasses?

Recently, I was hit by an urge of nostalgia for the late 2000s when I first played NFS: Underground 2 so I decided to download it and give it a go once again. It was not long before I found myself cruising the streets of the in-game city of Bayview in search of my next race. At the time of writing this article, I’m about 80% done with the game’s playthrough. I have to say I was both surprised with how well the gameplay feels and unsurprised by the fact it’s still as captivating as when I first played Underground 2 all those years back.

Does NFS: Underground 2 Offer a Rich and Varied Experience?

When you start a career in NFS: Underground 2, you are thrown into the fictional city of Bayview, which seems somewhat inspired by US West Coast cities such as LA and San Francisco. This city is divided into several regions, each having its own vibe. For example, the city center has many tall skyscrapers and a big ring road going around it. Meanwhile, the old town has hilly streets and winding roads going through historical buildings.

The player has a varied open world around which they can drive in search of various races that are marked on the map. There are circuits and sprints, which are essentially made up of a route from the streets of the city.

However, there are also drift races, where the aim is to make more points than your opponents by doing cool drifts. NFS: Underground 2 also offers drag races, which set the player up against NPCs on a straight sprint where acceleration and precise gear shifting are paramount. Meanwhile, StreetX races are played on a short circuit with sharp turns where maneuverability is more important than top speeds. Finally, there’s the URL, a professional racing league whose raves are conducted on closed-off circuits.

All of these different races give the player a ton of opportunities to try out various playstyles, circuits, and car builds. To progress through the game, you must win all of the races on the map. When you beat all the races in one area, a new section of the map opens for you and the story progresses a bit. There are five stages in total, each with several dozen races. All of this means you must master different types of racing to beat NFS: Underground 2, giving you a very rich playthrough experience.

Does NFS: Underground 2’s Gameplay Feel Good?

With so many races, one must wonder if it actually feels good doing them. The answer is a resounding “Yes”! In my view, Underground 2 matches any modern racing game in terms of its excitement, challenge, and “coolness” factor.

The majority of races are made up of routes through the city, so there’s a lot of variety in circuits. You can get the high speeds of racing through the central ring road, or the tight corners of some backstreets all in one race. Players must always check the minimap in order to see the upcoming curves and adjust their speed correctly.

Of course, the fact that these are street races means there’s traffic to consider. The player must dodge other cars sometimes or else lose vital time by wrecking into them. I cannot count the times I’ve lost a race just because I crashed into a car at the last few hundred meters before the finish line, which allowed my opponents to overtake me.

Another thing that makes NFS: Underground 2 races exciting is the crazy speeds at which they go, especially if you play on hard difficulty. Since bots don’t really have a sense of self-preservation, and crashing isn’t an automatic loss (except in drag races), they go REALLY fast. By the mid-game, it’s not uncommon for you to have to go at speeds well over 200 km/h (around 120 freedom units/hour), or else you won’t win the race.

Combining the different challenges, high speeds, varied circuits, the randomness factor of street traffic, and the difficult bits, NFS: Underground 2 definitely provides an exciting and challenging gameplay experience.

Does NFS: Underground 2 Offer Detailed Car Customization?

Another great feature of the game that can easily rival even modern titles, is the variety and degree of customization it offers. Tuning your car and also making it look cool are key aspects of NFS: Underground 2. There is also a variety of real sports models from real car manufacturers that you can choose from. Of course, the fact that the game is from 2004, don’t expect to see any modern supercars.

Regardless, the game still offers a ton of options when it comes to installing different parts in your rides. As the game progresses, you can equip your car with better and better parts to increase its acceleration, top speed, and handling.

On the aesthetic side, there’s even more variety. You can paint your car by choosing from a variety of colors, but you can also stick a ton of varying vinyl designs on it. When I first played the game when I was young, I tended to just throw everything I could on four or 5 layers, making for a disgusting visual clutter, that I thought was cool. Fortunately, now I have a more decent taste in aesthetics, so my cars don’t look like a rolling circus.

Of course, NFS: Underground 2 also offers players the ability to drastically change the body and accessories of their rides. You can change bumpers, side skirts, air intakes, spoilers, lights, etc. Each component has dozens of variants that are unlocked throughout the story, so there are thousands of possible combinations.

And these customizations don’t have just an aesthetic purpose, but also a gameplay one. As you mod out your car, its “star rating” will rise (shown on the right in the screenshot above). This will give you deals to have your ride featured on the covers of various in-game magazines.

How Are NFS: Underground 2’s Graphics?

So far, we have praised the game for its rich gameplay and extensive customization options. However, nothing is perfect, and that certainly applies to NFS: Underground 2. It should be no surprise that a 20-year-old game’s graphics might not be the best thing ever.

Now, we should make a big distinction here between the car models and the environment. The former seems to hold up pretty well, even by today’s standards. The cars are detailed enough, and the lighting on them is decent for the era (so don’t expect any ray tracing or complex deep shadows).

But the main gripe most modern players might have is with the environment itself. Even on the highest settings, the in-game world definitely feels a bit clunky. Curves are a bit choppy, the buildings and roads don’t have very detailed textures.

Of course, this should be expected from such an old game, and in my personal opinion, that’s not detrimental to the overall experience. Considering most of the time you will be traveling at high speeds, you wouldn’t really have much time to look at the slightly clunky details of the world.

What Else Can We Say About NFS: Underground 2?

While gameplay and graphics are important in a game, so is the plot, and to be honest, the story of NFS: Underground 2 isn’t anything extraordinary. But to be honest, there aren’t many racing games out there that have a super deep narrative and Underground 2 isn’t too different.

The setup is concise and compact: The player, having been named the best player in Olympic City (the set in Underground 1), is called by a mysterious man with an “invitation” to join his team. However, the player denies this and carries on barreling down the street. This doesn’t go well with the mysterious man who later ambushes the player, making him crash his car.

We then fast-forward six months to the modern day when NFS: Underground 2’s story is set. The player arrives in Bayview and meets Rachel, who will act as his manager and agent for the player, who now has to reclaim his reputation by racing in the city.

However, the music in the game is by far a lot more impressive. It has more than thirty tracks in various genres that were popular in the early-mid 2000s. On the electronic side, you have house and trance music, perfect when you cruise through the city’s streets in search of your next race. When in garages, you would often hear RnB and hip-hop. My personal favorites are the hard-rock and metal tracks as they combine superbly with the maniacally high speeds and drifts some races require you to do.

It’s also a cool feature that you can adjust what tracks play where in your game. You can set up which tracks play in the garage, the free-roam in the city, or when you are in a particular type of race.

Conclusions

NFS: Underground 2 is an old game, no questions about that. But surprisingly, its core gameplay seems to be up to standard compared to a lot of modern racing titles. With its open world, variety of races, and many customization options, you could spend hours and hours playing through the campaign.

Sure, its story isn’t that groundbreaking, and the environment really shows the age of the game. But the dynamics of the races and the banger soundtracks make up for these potentially negative sides of the game.

Whether you’re an older gamer who’s up for some nostalgic drives through Bayview, or a newer gamer wanting to see what a “retro” title might offer, why not give NFS: Underground 2 a try?