Need for Speed 2

 

Need for Speed 2

This was the first video game I ever owned. It was a 3d racing game.

It featured 8 to 9 tracks with 8 to 9 cars to select from.

Game modes included tournament and knockout along with single race and 2 player. Tournament and Knockout was the way to unlock the bonus car and track.

This game allowed to choose between arcade mode and sim mode as styles of play. In addition, you can choose between automatic and manual transmissions. If you choose sim mode, you can adjust settings such as brake bias, gear ratios, and downforce.

Unlike the first game and later games, there was no police chases. However, you did have an option to enable traffic and crash into other drivers. These other vehicles could be unlocked as well as other track assets so you could race as them. You could drive as a bus, t rex, or a log if you wanted to.

Tracks themselves were very unique. Several tracks featured elevation, hairpin turns, sharp turns, narrow sections. All the fun stuff that lets you figure out how to speed through. Proving Grounds was just an oval meant for beginners. Outback is mostly an oval with a few extra turns. But every track starting with North Country throws difficult turns and terrain at you. Several sections of Mystic Peaks force you to slow your car down to first gear otherwise you crash into a wall and die.

Actually, there is no damage model or destruction caused to your car so the only penalty for running into a brick wall is a time penalty and having to reset the car on the track.

In both arcade mode and sim mode, the physics for crashes is ridiculous as cars can fly all over the place by hitting a bump to fast or crashing into an obstacle.

When playing arcade mode, you really have to learn how to use the handbrake to get good at the game. It hardly matters how sharp or narrow a corner is. Once you figure out how much handbrake to use, you can maintain most of you speed going through any corner. Under sim mode, trying similar use of the handbrake will just spin out the car.

One feature I found endearing about this game is the sim feel. If you want to switch off arcade mode, put on sim mode and turn all the HUD off. Your default view is the cockpit view of the car. All the gauges work (speedometer, tachometer). You can hear how different the engine sounds if you rev the engine too high before shifting gears. If you drive with a manual transmission, you have the option to use engine braking just by downshifting gears. I’m not completely sure if it is possible to drift the cars though. Technically, all the cars are RWD but I didn’t experience spinning the car out by accelerating too fast.

When you play the knockout mode, you will race two sets of opponents based on the car you choose. Not every car is created equal as it is much easier to win knockout with certain cars (McLaren, Ferrari) while other cars is nearly impossible to do (Lotus Espirit V8).

In the tournament mode, the difficulty is much fairer since all your opponents will drive the same car as you.

Some of the tracks had hazards which would allow you to fly right off them (Mystic Peaks) and there were other tracks that had random jumps built into them (Mediterranean). Also, some of them have short cuts built in.  

Looking back on this game, there are a number of features that are missing compared to modern racing games. First off, there are no time trials. Second, there are only 8 cars and 8 tracks, so there is no progression of starting with slower cars and then upgrading to faster cars. Third, there are no upgrades to existing cars. Your only modifications to the way the cars drive is by tuning them in simulation mode. Forth, there is no manipulation of existing tracks. Later installments of the game would let you mirror tracks, change the direction, or change the day/night, and weather of the track.