Ok, Christmas has gone and the big games are another year away. I've gone on a buying bender trying to feed my gaming addiction during the interim.
TDU2 is the first of a series of short reviews, as I go through a series of latest releases for the Xbox 360.
TDU2 has some good ideas but the general execution was poor. The release was littered with bugs, and whole sections of the game were locked for weeks while the devs came up with fixes. I traded it in after being frustrated for too long. This review is based on the expeiances I had while the game was out. TDU2 has probably been patched by now to fix most of the major bugs.
There were moments where I enjoyed flying round the island, but too many times I got bored travelling to destinations or trying to complete monotonous challenges.
I felt the handling very difficult to get used to. You'd have thought developers would come up with handling model at least on par with previous titles, TDU2 handling felt like a step backwards.
Although the graphics on occasions looked good, sunsets and the like. Too many times I was faced with ugly bland textures.
I enjoyed the RPG elements of the game, levelling up, buying new house and so on, that was bugged by the fact you couldn’t move your cars around garages easily. The whole point of buying the house was to customize it, but not easily being able to put the cars in the garage you wanted was a bit of a let down.
Good
+Large open world
+RPG elements
Bad
-Open world felt lifeless
-Handling of cars has been done far better
-Bland graphics
-Annoying "look to apex" function in cockpit view
-Multiplayer didn't work while I had the game
Richard writes: "The series may have a cult following, but ten years on Test Drive Unlimited 2 still upsets me. It was one of my most anticipated games ever, with a concept years ahead of what Forza Horizon could achieve. But it remains one of the buggiest launches of a game I can remember, completely tarnishing my memory of it."
Game Informer - It's hard to imagine what to do in a car game except race other cars, and yet with Test Drive Unlimited 2, developer Eden Games found a way to expand the genre's horizons enough to offer an experience that's slightly different from your average racer. Eden's ambition came with a cost, but Test Drive Unlimited 2 is a game that I remember fondly and appreciate for the chances it takes.
This game gets a bad rap, but I enjoy it still. The idea was great, I think that if the devs were just better supported it could have been something truly epic.
Would love to see something like this again, especially on a next gen console.
Dear gameinformer,
look up the fucking definition of cult classic,
sincerely,
anyone who knows what "cult" or "classic" means.
Eden Games released the second DLC Pack for Test Drive Unlimited 2 in addition with new DLCs.
