Test Drive Unlimited 2
Developer – Eden Games
Publisher – Atari

I was trying to work out where to start with this review and thought it would be best to just get straight on with it and explain that the reason this review comes a staggering 5 weeks after the game was released is simple and as I’m sure you are all aware when TDU 2 was released it was a bit broken (alot broken if were honest). So at the time a decision was made to postpone the review until all elements of the game were working thus giving the game a fair review



The Broken things
When TDU 2 was released back in February it became instantly obvious something was not quite right with the game. It was very difficult to connect with people, if you did manage it at some point it would more than likely disconnect one or both of you from the server and speaking of servers the club servers were shut down on day one due to some exploit in the club system. And not forgetting the best of them all “the randomly corrupt save game data for no apparent reason” glitch needless to say the first month after the release of TDU 2 was not a pretty affair. Despite all these problems the game has now been fixed and I shall not be taking these problems into account for the rest of the review.

The single player parts
When you first start playing the game you will be immersed in a world of street racing this however lead on to one of the first new features to TDU 2 and that is the licence system and is a nice new touch making you take part in multiple little time trials, races and various other events on order to test your ability to control more powerful cars and once all events from that licence are completed it will unlock the relevant classes’ championship.



Championships take over from the single races of the original game and while they try to add some depth to the other characters you race against throughout these events the poor scriptwriting and equally bad acting mixed with the fact that there are only about 3 or 4 different intros used when starting single player races can become tiresome after a while but overall doesn’t spoil the single player experience.

This time there are 2 islands to blast across the first being Ibiza and while it is a fairly small island it is certainly a good starting point and also a great place to experience another new feature the off road/Dirt track racing. The off road side of this game feels very well developed and can be allot of fun especially when you get into some of the more powerful 4x4’s. The second island takes us back to the totally reworked Oahu (Hawaiian island from the original game) and you can definitely tell the difference. The island looks infinitely prettier than the original did and now feature all the new features such as off road racing and the continuation of the single player events.



The multiplayer Bit
While the multiplayer is what the game is all about it still makes up less than 40% of the actual game though that is not saying it is under developed as it certainly isn’t. The single player is where you are going to be spending the majority of your time when you fists start playing and there is defiantly enough to keep you busy for 40+ hours there but once that is done it is only the multiplayer side of the game that is going to keep you coming back for more.

The clubs have been massively improved on since the first game and this is where you will finally see why you can walk around everywhere and interact with people. The clubs have now been given some focus as well now that every club vs club race earns xp and money for your club which all goes towards levelling the club up and unlocking new and exclusive cars that can only be accessed from the clubs garage. All club events require a minimum of 2 players from each club before they can be started and that is a nice little touch as it means that club members have to cooperate in order to contribute to the club and as there are 5 different levels of membership as a club owner you can reward those who take part and help out by granting them access to things like the club cars.



There are plenty of different online events to take part in as well inside the club you can go head to head against other members of the club via inter-club events and outside of the club you can take on the world on your own (or you could invite a friend) in Races, speed trap events, speed runs and work cooperatively with others to complete Follow the leader and keep your distance events which are easy enough unless one of the other players is struggling with the concept of working together to ensure everyone can reach the objective.

The Achievement Stuff
The achievements are very well balanced in this and make this an almost certain 1000 if you are willing to put in the time needed to get some of the more long haul ones. The game rewards you with something of a slow drip feed of gamer score but should be generous enough to keep most interested. It seems to be quite an intelligently written list as it does push you to try all of the different elements of the game and while there are some that would annoy some people like:
Cockpit Addict - Drive 500 km (311 miles) using the cockpit view (any game mode)
the cockpit view is done really well and shouldn’t take all that long to get. There are also some usual suspects:

Collection
Tyrannosaurus wrecks - Own all 6 bonus cars (treasure hunt)

Completion
Coronation - Win all championships & cups

Multiplayer
Club Basher - Win 30 Club vs Club challenges

And the simply insane
God of Cars - Own all purchasable cars



The summary
Despite its brokenness at beginning this is a very well put together game of somewhat epic proportions with lots of innovative features that will keep you online for a long time.

The handling has improved from the original while still keeping that slightly arcade feel it does seem to be have been refined which makes it more approachable.

The game world has been massively extended with the addition of a second island not to mention the serious improvement in visual quality particularly in things such as car models plus the addition of both variable weather and a full day night cycle.

Overall this game gets most things right it is a little bit to heavy with the single player story considering it doesn’t really have one and that can get annoying so it will have to lose half a point for that but it is otherwise very fun, engaging and entertaining as long as you make the most out of the multiplayer you can’t go wrong.

Total score 8.5 out of 10