Reviewed: June 16, 2004
Reviewed by: Travis Young

Publisher
Codemasters

Developer
Codemasters

Released: April 14, 2004
Genre: Racing
Players: 12
ESRB: Teen

9
10
9
9
9.3

System Requirements

Race Driver 2 boasts the most diverse range of insanely fast motor sports ever seen in one game including; 31 championships cover 15 different motor racing styles including GT Sports Car Racing, Street Racing, Rally, DTM, V8 Supercars, Global GT Lights, Rally Cross, Formula Ford, Open Wheel Grand Prix, Classic Car Racing, Super Truck racing, Stockcar Oval Racing, Ice-Racing, Convertible Racing and Performance Cars.

Race Driver 2 features:

• 31 licensed and fictional global race locations offering 50 tracks including Texas Motor Speedway, Hockenheim from the German DTM series and Surfers Paradise from the Australian V8 series.
• 35 aspirational cars, including Ford GT, Aston Martin Vanquish, Jaguar XKR, Nissan Skyline and AMG-Mercedes CLK.
• First person interactive story line.
• Up to 21 cars on the track at once, battling for position.
• 12 player head to head PC online functionality.
• A stunning new render engine, which allows for super smooth sixty frame per second graphics.

For those without a preferred genre, you will find Race Driver 2 a great “sampler platter” of all things racing. The career mode spans multiple racing styles and the free racing mode allows you to pick your type of race, car, and track from a massive list of unlockable content.

Depending on your style of racing you will either want to get your gamepad or a steering wheel setup for this game. I initially took a few laps with my Saitek gamepad before pulling my Logitech MOMO Racing Wheel out of retirement. It’s been a long time since a racing game came out for the PC that required my precious MOMO, and I was glad to slip behind the leather-wrapped wheel once again.

The options menu allows you to fine-tune whatever controller you decide to use, but a force feedback wheel is definitely a must if you plan on taking this game seriously. You can race from several views including chase, cockpit, hood, and bumper cam. Sim purists will cringe at the lack of a functioning dashboard. Even with the realistic cockpit view you still have your instrument cluster in the corner.

I was very pleased with the design of the instrument gauge that not only had an analog tachometer and digital speedometer, but also included a fuel gauge and an arc of indicator lights that change from yellow to orange to red as your car takes damage. These symbols are all easy to understand and cover all of the internal parts of the car like engine, steering, transmission, etc.

In additional to the aforementioned instrument cluster, there is also a rotating map that shows your position on the track as well as any nearby opponents. While Race Driver 2 actually has support for rearview mirrors the arrow system is back and works quite nicely. A transparent red arrow appears near the bottom of the screen indicating any car that is trying to pass. The more solid the arrow, the closer the car. If you can keep the arrow in the center of the screen you can effectively block a passing car.

There is also a realistic damage model that will have your glass shattering, doors swinging off their hinges, bumpers dragging behind you, etc. Sometimes the damage seems more cosmetic than anything else. You can throw a tire and your crew will tell you to “keep on racing” but only when you actually lose the wheel will you come to a grinding halt. You can take enough engine damage to lower your top speed and wreck your steering enough so the car pulls to the left or right, but these effects require excessive damage.

This allows for some cheap racing tactics, which I freely admit to taking part in. Often, it seemed I was totally outmatched in many races. I was racing flawless laps and the computer was passing me like I was parked, so I started retaliating by ramming the opposition off the track or cutting inside on turns and using the outer car as a shield.

Race Driver 2 features a lengthy career mode that tells a story much like the first game, but rather than some elaborate drama revolving around your father’s death, this time you play as a simple up and coming racer. You hook up with a mechanic and later on an agent. Working out of your trackside trailer, which also serves as your menu interface, you plan your race schedule, manage your garage, and negotiate for sponsorship. The between-race cutscenes are shown through the eyes of your character creating a unique first-person perspective.

You advance through the career by earning milestone amounts of money or placing in a certain position. These various objectives help break up the monotony of most racing games where your only goal is to come in first and if you don’t you simply restart the race until you do. My only complaint with the career system is that you are often required to race on unfamiliar tracks and there is no practice option prior to a race event. While you are free to restart any race as often as you like without penalty, the only real way to practice is to play outside the career mode until you have experienced all of the possible tracks.

Another oddity is the lack of pre-race qualification. While I seldom take the time to “qualify” in most of my racing games there are those that might be annoyed at the random starting placement feature, or at least they say it’s random. Out of about 50 races I’ve played I’ve never started ahead of 3rd and never further back than 7th. Still, with no hope of ever “winning” the pole position, it takes away slightly from the racing experience.

For those who like to tinker, you will find plenty to experiment with outside of the career mode. Your car setup is fixed for career races but for free racing you can adjust gear ratios, downforce, suspension, ride height, tires and even your brake bias. There is no parts list or upgrades to worry about, which again may turn off the hardcore racers. Personally, I found plenty to keep me busy.

TOCA supports two racers locally using split-screen but serious racers will want to head online where you can have races with up to 12 players. There is a unique point system that is used to grade your performance and maintain scoreboards so you can compare yourself to other racers. Given the serious overhead of the game engine there was some noticeable lag on many of my races with more than six players. Cars would warp or jump around, even on my blazing cable connection. It was a bit unnerving, but surprising enough, I never crashed because of it.

The damage model is accurately depicted with shattering glass and dented and broken body parts. Tires will fly off the wheel on impact and the metal wheel will grind on the pavement. Your hood can crumple up and actually block your view when playing from the cockpit view.

The various camera views are all quite playable so the one you pick is based solely on your preference. The chase view gives you a standard arcade experience and the bumper cam puts you right down on the realistic textured pavement giving you an enhanced sensation of speed. The various hood cams offer their own advantages and disadvantages depending on your system specs and game settings. The hood reflections can eat up some CPU power if you aren’t careful, but they look sweet if you have the rig to run it.

Tracks are simply amazing and the ones based on real tracks are highly accurate. As a frequent visitor to the Texas Motor Speedway, I can say that TOCA’s version is pixel-perfect. The other tracks are gorgeous whether you are racing on circuits, or through sectioned off parts of a city. If you look closely enough you can see the spectators and trees are 2D cutouts but at 120mph you’ll never know. There is also realistic lighting and shadows to add an extra notch of realism. All of these settings can be tweaked to fit your specific system requirements.

The movies are slightly compressed but still great quality with excellent character design and a unique first-person view so you see everything from the “eyes” of your character. The movies tie in the various race events and blend the menu interface right into the game for a seamless experience.

Music is restricted to the menus and is pretty much forgettable. It’s just some simple techno, jazz, and bass riffs that do nothing more than accompany the clicks as you navigate the menus. It fades away when you hit the track leaving you with nothing but the excellent sound mix.

There are plenty of great sound effects ranging from unique engine noises for all the vehicles found in this game to fender-crunching wrecks, shattering glass, squealing tires and the occasional radio encouragement or chastising from the pit.

If you have a 3D sound system you might be startled the first time you hear your exhaust popping while braking and downshifting. The sound comes from your rear speakers, as does the sound of any approaching cars. The 3D design allows opponents’ engine noise to subtly wrap around your room so you know which side the car is trying to pass you on.

Using GameSpy, it’s pretty easy to find at least a few people playing the game at any time and on some nights you can actually get a full field of racers going head-to-head. Just make sure you have the bandwidth to support it.

The massive scope of the content, both cars and tracks, makes this an awesome opportunity for racers to sample a bit of all racing genres. The story that ties the career together is also a nice touch that helps to immerse you in the gameplay and gives it a more personal touch, allowing you to identify with the lead character and get an insight into the world of racing. This is a great game for racers of all skill levels and fans of any or all styles of racing.