r/NFSU2

I have finally 100%'ed my first ever NFS!

Here are some things I'd like to point out about this game:

> the visual rating part isnt as bad as some make it out to be. Yes, you will have to add parts u dont want like roof scoops, but i hardly (in my eyes) ever made an ugly car and they were always up-to-spec with what the Stages asked for
> The driving is just phenomenal and honestly still holds up to this day, the camera does a LOT for it too with it swaying depending on which side ur driving to. Newer NFS games do this with the action camera and NFS Heat has the FOV increasing depending on how fast u are, but if they had something like this it'd be amazing
> Circuit races are outright attrocious, like, what do you mean i'm in stage 5 and the average circuit race takes 5 to 8 minutes to finish while I got sprint races that take 2-4 and an SUV drift event (pictures 3 and 4) that is SO easy the opponents dont even get 500 total score??? They overexaggerated with Circuits
> The game goes on for too long, I started it on medium and had a blast, even changing to hard mid-way through, but the burnout settled in and I had enough of it at the tail-end of Coal Harbor East, idk who's idea it was to separate coal harbor in 2 sections but with how repetitive Underground 2 can be it was not a good idea. This game has the Sonic 1 syndrome where the developers spent all of their time in the beginning of the game and forgot to tidy up the end and it shows: The villain isn't hyped up and is barely present at all and the "finish" is just a race, nothing happens afterwards and you dont get anything as a reward.
> Some other smaller annoying things were as such:

1. Hidden Events were always just "spoken" in a voice message, i never got a text about them despite the loading screen saying I would.
2. The rivals speak of "forking over the money" to join events despite u never actually having to pay up to join anything, if specific areas, events or heck, ur status had a say in how much u had to pay to join it would make the game even more immersive (funnily enough, Unbound DID introduce a buy-in fee). Also it bothered me how disrespectful they kept being 'till the end of the game despite the fact I was winning races all over Bayview which also disconnected me from the narrative since that's what the story is about, but it honestly feels like an oversight since in the beginning they do speak of the player as being the new guy.
3. Feels weird to me that City Core had like 5 districts each with their own name but the other areas didn't; I get it, they're not as dense as City Core, but Beacon Hill's current East & West side is ridiculous since they separate both sides by the highway on the left and that leaves East with like 3 roads LOL (picture 5). But since City Core's districts all had their own name (this video shows someone going through the removed highway with City Core areas all named, such as "Market" and "Hotels") maybe they were thinking that section would be like a HUB for many locations? I digress.
4. I think Beacon Hill should've been the starter area instead of City Core, or at least have it where it would be the only place with available races, why not even have Stage 2 unlock Jackson Heights even? I reckon with the lack of speed the initial cars got, that part wouldn't be too much of a hassle.
5. Sadly I didn't get the mileage I thought I would with dyno tuning, at a Stage 3 URL I kept losing on hard (Funnily enough this was the hardest event in the game for me, even on hard) so I spent a good 40 minutes tuning my car but no matter what I did I kept getting worse results (picture 6) so I defaulted and went back to medium.
6. I think this game really missed out on having pinkslips and the ability of using the same performance/customization parts in different cars like in Underground 1

All in all this game honestly surprised me with the amount of complexity it presented me with, specially with how small-sized it is, really makes you think how a sub 3GB game can have so much content and with such intricacy like with hidden events, dyno, sponsors, hidden parts (outrun races) and just general customization, painting your HUD is such a small thing but really sells ur car as your own.

Now that I know drivers slow down when I'm behind and accelerate when I'm ahead, this doesn't feel like a racing game anymore. I can just goof around as much as I want 🤣

FYI the Evo was actually worse than the eclipse I don't know how but it was a downgrade buying that car

I'm addicted.

This is my Toyota Corolla, there are many like it but this one is mine. Without my Toyota Corolla, I'm nothing... Without me, my Toyota Corolla is nothing.

How you do fellow Bayview racers?

I wanted to show my humble Toyota Corolla... I usually run it vanilla but I wanted to add some spark to it and made it into this thing I called "Night Runner" which can be practically called a stage 1 Corolla .

You can either roast it or you can praise it...

Your call... I'll be watching from... over there .

22 years later and this game still has secrets to uncover😭 Here’s my current RX-7 build that pushed my PS2 to repeated 18.62 runs.