In our time together, Test Drive Unlimited 2 and I have been in a mostly hate-hate relationship. This started with an issue of the review copy of the game we received. To avoid the long version of the story, it ended up being a pressing issue with the disc and not an actual bug in the game. A bit of back and forth and another copy of the game later and we were in business. Considering where we started, however, I wasn’t in an overwhelmingly optimistic state about how everything else with TDU2 would go. It turns out my gut wasn’t far from wrong, but not totally right.
Test Drive Unlimited 2 is the product of Eden Games, who previously developed the first Test Drive Unlimited. On the whole, Test Drive is one of the longest running racing series in gaming; having hit its tenth entry in the main series with the arrival of TDU2. It is a series that has experienced a lot of highs and lows in its time. First being published by Accolade before being acquired by Atari (formerly known as Infogrames), and being handled by different developers before Eden took over.
The first Test Drive Unlimited was a great success as it explored uncharted territory with its M.O.O.R. model (Massively Open Online Racing), which attempted to erase the line between the single player and online racing experiences. It was a game in which you could get into races whenever you wanted; whether it was by starting an impromptu race with another player driving through Hawaii, or through more standard computer-opponent races. There were tons of cars to add to your collection of exotics, houses to buy, clothing and fashion accessories to get for your avatar, plus a whole lot more. Five years later, Test Drive Unlimited 2 tries to pick up where the success of the original left off while adding new features.
I fully intended to sit here very serious-face with my notes and proceed to tell you why TDU2 isn’t a very good game… and then I started to think about it. I would be lying to you if I sat here and told you that Test Drive Unlimited 2 is a fantastic game; you wouldn’t very well listen to me if I lied to you all the time, would you? What I will tell you is that TDU2 is one of the most surreal games I’ve ever played, and that there is a decent racing game lurking somewhere below the strange life that the game thrusts you into. I could go on forever about the awkward situations that arise in the game, but in the interest of our collective sanity I won’t. However, it is hard to fully impart my experience with TDU2 without some explanation of those oddities, so I will digress on occasion. Bear with me, it will paint a much clearer picture of the wackiness ahead.
After a short daydream you wake up in the role of a valet for a hotel on the island of Ibiza, being yelled at by the guest whose Ferrari you were napping in. The guest in question is one Tess Wintory, who also happens to be a famous local TV personality. (The game never actually bothers to tell you this, instead letting you figure it out and transposing onto her the generic personality of an uppity, overly-entitled, prissy, aggravating daddy’s girl and all around rich b-….person. Get used to the idea of restraining yourself from punching your TV, because you’ll see this clichéd personality repeated many times throughout TDU2 with every rival racer you meet.)
You quickly get fired for being a terrible valet after getting Tess in trouble with daddy for being late because, you know, rich people can totally fire whoever they want. But don’t fret too much over your loss of employment, as Tess has a proposal for you: if you can get her to the set of a show on time in her Ferrari, she’ll get you into the Solar Crown Racing Championship, the pro racing circuit on the island. Now, I don’t expect an Oscar-caliber story to propel me into a racing game, but I have come to expect some actual effort in the process. The road to your racing glory is even more implausible than usual in TDU2, and it would have been better off without the story at all.
(Also, Tess’ proposition is far and away one of the strangest parts of the game; as long as you reach the destination in time she’ll give you a spot as a new racer. No matter how terribly you drive. I literally showed up at the set with both bumpers hanging off and paint scratched off all over her fancy car and she still introduced me on her show as one of the hot new racers in the Solar Crown Championship. The only thing you can’t do to the car is drive it into the ocean. You can get into head-on collisions, hit buildings and street signs, drive on the wrong side of the road, and she will never say a thing once you arrive (trust me, I tried everything). I was flabbergasted. I suppose when you’re rich you don’t have to worry that your newest racer is actually a moving automobile apocalypse.)
Once you get into the Solar Crown you’re hooked up with Todd Bishop, the first of the driving instructors that you’ll have to earn your licenses from. The license system should be familiar to players who’ve delved into other racing games, but for those not in the know licenses are basically required tests you must pass in order to gain access to the 11 different classes of competition in the game. Bishop handles the C class licenses, which give you access to the different races involving classic cars such as the Lancia Delta integrale evoluzione, Mustang Fastback, and Lotus Espirit S3 that you choose from as your starting cars. While you will learn some useful concepts from the lessons I felt torn with the licenses, because they are usually reserved for simulation racers where you need to learn specific important techniques. In TDU2, once you cruise around for a while and get an idea of where the handling lies in the arcade racing scheme of things you really won’t need much else. The licenses weren’t bad, but they did feel unnecessary in the big picture.
In the midst of obtaining your first car, you have the F.R.I.M. system automatically installed in your car. The F.R.I.M. system basically rewards you with money for taking risks like near misses with other cars, drifting, catching air and the like without colliding with anything. It sounds like a nice incentive to make the game more exciting, but ultimately it just comes off as an unsuccessful attempt to crib Project Gotham’s kudos system. Oddly F.R.I.M. doesn’t function in races at all, leaving the only times to attempt to make bank on it when you are running to and fro on the islands. The payoffs simply aren’t worth it when you can make more money and faster by participating in races, even if you’re just repeating races. It had potential, but there’s not enough incentive to pay attention to it, and it will quickly be forgotten in your rear view.
One of the last big things you receive in the early part of the game is your first house where you can rearrange furniture, your wardrobe, keep track of the weather, and organize your garage. You start out limited of course, since your starter home is a trailer where you only have a two car garage and can adjust all of a sofa inside. As you start gaining money for winning races and running errands you’ll be able to afford bigger and better pads. There’s almost always something to collect, and one of the things TDU2 does very well is keeping you hooked to the game by always having something else waiting just on the horizon to add to your collection.
(This will probably be my last aside and then I’ll try and leave the strangeness in peace, but here is a head-scratcher for you. How is it that you can’t throw a rock without hitting a rich person in Ibiza but your character starts the game carless, homeless, has no clothes except their valet outfit, but is walking around with $27,000 dollars in cash in their pocket? I’m dead serious. The person that can answer that in the comments gets a big no-prize, cause I still can’t understand it. Your character has to be the most unfortunate lucky person in the universe, considering their circumstances at the start of the game and then the opportunities that just get casually thrown their way.)
Speaking of a collection, it is one of four categories within the brand new level system introduced for TDU2. The four categories (collection, social, discovery, and competition) earn experience toward a cumulative level of 60 in the game. There are certain advantages and unlocks you’ll gain at different levels, like the ability to travel to Hawaii (the larger island in the game) from the airport at level 10. I didn’t necessarily mind the new level system, as there’s enough perks backing it to make it worthwhile. My problem is that the game basically forces you to perform in all categories to get anywhere in the game; if you’re in the unfortunate position of not caring about spending money on clothes for your avatar, or interacting socially within the game you end up hamstringing yourself and will never see level 60. Level 60 isn’t a requirement within the game, but it certainly takes a bit of freedom from players to not be able to reach 60 without doing things they may have zero interest in.
The online and social aspect is still the strongest part of the experience in TDU2. As you drive through back roads and highways, you’ll pass by other players in real time who populate the world. If you pull alongside another player you encounter, you can check out their car in exquisite detail, including their personal customizations and how their character is dressed. Everything you do is reflected accurately to the world at large. There are even areas (like homes and dealerships) where you can get out and walk around your friends’ cars to see everything down to the interior.
The other aspects of online are still in place from TDU, but there are new features in addition to the new out-of-car mode. There is now a co-op mode in the game, user created challenges, and player run clubs of all different stripes. All the new online features bring something enhancing to the experience, with the exception of user created challenges. There isn’t a problem in the offering of them, it’s simply that I never ran into a user challenge that wasn’t set up to be entirely impossible to clear. It’s not a requirement to beat your own challenge before putting it out to the world, and it shows. Perhaps there will be a way to moderate user challenges in the future, but as for now it’s not worth the trouble.
TDU2 is unconventional because it’s a game where the further you get from the storyline of the game, the better the game becomes on the whole. You’ll still need to participate in races to build your fortune, but you’ll feel no ties to the story or the racers who are supposed to be your rivals (except for the previously mentioned punch-reflex). It’s almost as if Eden Games was aware of this, because I never ran into any race in the game I would consider to be difficult. Honestly, passing some of the licenses will take you more time than getting a podium finish in the circuits.
Test Drive Unlimited 2 is not best in class as a whole game, but there is enjoyment to be found in it. I can’t say you’ll find even that much in the game if you’re not willing to partake in all the aspects of it, however. If you come to Test Drive’s table for just the single player story you’ll be baffled and possibly amused, but will certainly walk away disappointed. The best times to be found in the game are the quiet times long after the races are done, when you’re sailing through the countryside in your favorite car, the wind blowing through your hair and the warm glow of the setting sun in your windshield.
