Test Drive Unlimited 2 review

[Paralectic]

Hello and welcome to my review of the relatively old game Test Drive Unlimited 2.

I am aware of the fact that the game was released in 2011, I've purchased it in 2013 and I will still review this title because the series are discontinued and I do still enjoy the game untill today.

 

 

Now something about me regarding the racing genre on PC.

I do not like racing games where you can race on a track, in a car which is almost unhandle-able ( in my opinion, ofcourse ).

With these games I mean Grid, and partially Dirt.

 

Okay, I did enjoy Dirt 3 and Dirt Showdown without a doubt but in the end, playing with a controller or a steering wheel, it didn't satisfy me enough to keep me playing these titles once in a week or more often.

 

 

 

 

So now back to what I do enjoy in a game of the racing genre.

I do really like the open-world idea, having a big map or several maps ( In Test Drive's case: Island ).

Driving around without anything forcing you do to anything, making speed and just drive all across the island on various landscapes with a nice sight does satisfiy me.

 

Buying a relaxing car, my Ferrari 458 Italia, Purple with black rims in this case: And just cruising around the island, on the roads with water to the right of me and the city to the left of me, hearing the engine doing it's work is what I like.

 

Not being forced to drive a track, do a race and aiming on finishing first without anything else you can do.

Just free-roaming in open worlds with customizable cars which you can upgrade and adjust to any specification you want.

 

And that's for the driving part, now for the experience in terms of sound.

 

The sound of the car, in various situations ( Driving in sand, dirt, or just a normal road ).

The sound is different every time, for every car in any situations ( weather too for example ) is just perfect in the game and these small things help me enjoy the game more than I already did.

Driving through a tunnel while It's raining in my custom white Nissan GT-R is what I can't do in any other game.

And these elements of Test Drive is what makes me want to play the game, the endless options to tune and adjust cars to exactly how I'd like to and then going on the road, hearing the right sound and feeling good when playing the game .. Yeah, that;

 

Now for the other part of the game:

Missions, Money, Houses and avatar.

 

Missions in Test Drive are tasks you have to complete which can be anything from getting a high adrenaline bar, but also could be driving above a certain speed and also opposite missions like driving really careful without the person next to you in the car getting sick.

 

These missions are pretty fun for the first few times but become boring quick, but they reward you with money to buy cars, houses and clothing.

 

Money in the game is pretty important ofcourse but I feel like you just have to keep grinding the repetitive missions to finally buy the car you have been wanting for a while.

 

So yeah, the method of money making within the game is something I don't like and that made me want to Cheatengine myself a couple houndred million instead of working for the money I want to buy the car I'd like.

 

Houses and Avatar: Besides the garage part to store your cars, I don't care about Houses or pimping your avatar ( Buying clothes, getting haircuts, etc ).

 

So yup, the car driving part is what I like the most of the game.

 

Okay, for some of you I might have not played the game in the right way, or not long enough but this was my final review of the game.

 

If I had to give the game a score from 0 to 100 I would give it a 85, some aspects could've been done way better ( Money making and missions ) but the driving itself is what makes the game a good open-world cruising game, and pretty unique in it's genre.

Okay okay, Grand Theft Auto is somewhat more bigger and to some also better but what I care about is the car driving.

In Grand Theft Auto the car driving is only fun when stunting and such with your friends.

 

So that's it for the review guys, I hope you have enjoyed reading my opinion about this game.

[FloRolf]

Nice review!

I also really enjoy TDU2, its my favorite racing game actually.

The only part i dont like is getting these damn driving licenses ^-^

PS: check out The Crew, a open world racing game by Ubisoft which will be released in 2014 afaik.

[Psykomantis00]

I REALLY was excited for this game a while back... TDU1 was amazing. TDU2 was crap. The multi-player specifically was terrible. Cars would just disappear and reappear randomly. If you were playing with a friend there was a 50% chance that you couldn't see them even if they were right in front of you. I had such high hopes for this game. 

[bob345]

tdu 1 was much better imo. tdu2 did not even have proper wheel support. and also THAT VOICE ACTING good god it was horrible