A massive multiplayer online racing game (MMOR) that puts you in the shoes of a racer driving for fame, wealth and luxurious cars in an open world, set in Ibiza and Hawaii, both recreated as realistically as possible.
How does it play?
There is a basic story to the game, although it isn't its main focus. Your a valet working in Ibiza who dreams of racing in the Solar Crown competition, after some initial test drives you get into the championship with the help of a few people and your journey to become rich and famous begins.
Character selection.
First you select a pre-defined avatar which will represent you in the game (eventually you can customize his or her look) and after a few initial missions your given free reign over what to do and where to go.
The game has a single player component which you can play at any time, this includes some single specific challenges types like driving someone from point A to B in a set time or driving at a set speed, these challenges reward you with money and are pretty easy to tackle.
Cups and championships are also part of the single player and include a wider variety of races from time trials, long lap races and getting your speed tracked by cameras. Out of all of these the hardest by far are the timed trials, which are very challenging and unforgiving, they require very precise driving skills against defined time.
As an MMOR, the game also includes a wide variety of multiplayer modes which include some of the same ones as single player. These are set up all across the maps and you can join specific ones or let the game find one for you. Once you join a lobby you and the other players get to see each others avatars and cars while waiting to start the match.
There is a heavy emphasis on community and social play as each player has their own profile they can customize and can also create their own challenges to share with the TDU2 community. However, although this is encouraged very few players I have met online are willing to take part of this aspect of the game as you can issue instant challenges against other players while driving or invite them to drive in your car, barely anyone will accept either.
Speaking of cars, there is a great variety of licensed vehicles raging from British, Italian, Asian and US brands. Im not a car buff so I really don't care about this, but there is a quite the selection to choose from. You can also further customize your car by expanding its capabilities for speed, breaking and handling as well as changing their color or adding decals to the chassis.
The map screen.
TDU2 has a leveling system which splits into different categories for the overall level of 60. The categories split into: Competition (championships, duels), Collection (cars, houses, clothes) Discovery (finding roads, shops and wreck cars), Social (inviting people to drive with you, friends) leveling these up will help you increase your overall level.
You can also create and join Clubs which act as specialized groups of people who can race other clubs, hang out at the clubhouse and take part in challenges, they act as guilds or clans like in other MMOs. The idea of owning property is mostly as a storage for your cars but you can also change furniture (which is limited) and your clothes.
It is a shame however that you can't throw parties or put on music while you hang out at your place, but at least you can invite friends over.
Player profile.
As an MMO, the game requires hours of commitment in order to do everything, earn all the cars and houses and beat all the challenges and cups as well as exploring Ibiza and Hawaii, which are massive in size. But there is no rush to do everything and you can take your time with each event as you wish.
The game (as many other MMOs) launched with some rough technical issues which caused the servers to be brought down for a few weeks preventing players from using the game's features to their full potential, this was eventually fixed and the game works as intended now.
There is also a Casino you can take part of to have fun with some mini games and win money and cars, but this feature is separate from the game as it is a DLC.
How does it look?
The game has a nice look to it when your driving, the cars look great and the avatar models aren't that bad either although their clothing options could have been better, the enviroments get the job done as well but are a bit unpolished sometimes.
Some buildings have very bland and rough looking textures as well as the models missing certain parts of their structure, this isn't very noticeable but Ive stumbled upon it a few times, it isn't important unless your hunting for them.
Sadly nothing like this ever happens.
Many of the game's trailers showed a heavy emphasis on the luxurious lifestyle of racing and partying, specially since your introduced to it in the first 10 minutes of the game, but after that initial sequence with the dj and the guests your never going to see something close to this again, which is very disappointing.
TDU2 has 2 radio stations, Harriba Radio and Road Rock, the choice of music tracks is a mixed bag and some of them just don't make sense with the whole look and feel of the game but at least there is some variety for everyone. Your going to hear the same tracks often though so you will probably switch between stations often.
Final veredict?
Ill be sincere, Im not a fan of racing games at all (unless you consider Mario Kart one), but when I saw and read what TDU2 was doing I got interested its certainly about racing but it takes it a few steps further.
Hopefully this will eventually get expanded in future installments but the idea of having an open world where you do more than just race is an interesting one and thats why it caught my attention.
The game is not perfect by any means and I think some of the reviews at the game's launch were a bit too harsh as the game was not working as planned during that time. Once you get past a few of the issues present today there is a very complete and fun game to play, the possibilities of the game expanding perhaps to include motorcycles or other vehicles is thrilling as well.
If your expecting a hardcore racing game like Grand Turismo this isn't the game for you, it has a more arcade feel to it, the difficulty can jump from extremely easy to absurdly hard. But I do recommend this game if your interesting in the concept of the whole game, it certainly did for me.
Presentation: 4/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Final Score: 4/5
