Test Drive Unlimited 2 (2011) Review #blogpost

Test Drive Unlimited 2 is an open world racing game set on the island of Ibiza and the island of Oahu. It was developed by Eden Games and published by Atari. It was released is 2011, somewhat 5 years after the first Test Drive Unlimited. So, you might be wondering if those 5 years of development has made it better than Forza Horizon. Well… No, because when this game was in development, Atari was running out of money and almost went bankrupt, So I think this game is a bit unfinished, but here’s a review of what they did get finished.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 has 101 cars, ranging from the small “cars of the people” Such as the Citroen 2CV and the Classic Beetle to Super cars like the Ferrari Enzo and like five different Bugatti Veyrons (Looks like someone’s a fanboy). Off-roading was huge part of the game, so there’s also some SUVs in the game as well such as the Land Rover Range Rover Sport HSE and the Volkswagen Touareg. there’s not really any oddball cars except some off-road buggy thing.

The sound of the cars are nothing like real life. It’s as if Eden Games got the sound from one car and just changed it in music editing software like Audacity. And then we get to the driving physics. Lets just say it’s a joke.

When I found out that Test Drive Unlimited was coming, I didn’t go on the internet to look for the car list, because I wanted it do be a surprise. It was a surprise, but a bad one. I thought that there would be about 300 cars. With the amount to time Eden games had, you’d think that 300 would be an alright number that’s achievable.

I would have liked to see more rally cars like the Ford Escort MKI seeing as rally was a huge part of the game and half of the races are rally races, so there should have been more suitable cars to choose from. There should have been for Japanese cars. I counted 4 Japanese cars. I think the game should have included BMW, because it need more sports sedans/Saloons like the M5 and M3. Here in my garage, I don’t have my Lamborghini. I have no idea why Lamborghini was taken out of the game, but it was a stupid decision to do so.

Upgrading was just stupid. Unlike other games, where you install parts, Test drive Unlimited 2 has this weird stage system. The stage system doesn’t let you upgrade the car how you want. What makes the upgrading system even worse is that there’s no tuning options like there is in forza, and that whole area of the game is disappointing.

The idea of having two maps is a brilliant. It means that you can have twice as many races without any of them being repeated. I like that there ain’t any barriers, so you can go buy a Range Rover and go exploring. The quality of the maps are better than most games of the time but its the whole thing of the fact that it took 5 years to get to that point.

To sum up this review, the amount of cars, the upgrading system and the Physics are all disappointing. The Maps and the graphics are great. Overall, I’m going to give this game 6 out of 10 and that purely because the Maps and graphics are the only perfect aspects of the game.

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Comments

The Stig's Bulgarian cousin

Really like the firs game, but the second is horrible.

09/13/2016 - 12:18 |
7 | 0

I think the first TDU is one of the best open world games up until Forza Horizon

09/13/2016 - 16:29 |
4 | 0

I loved TDU2 and I think it was better than horizon and horizon 2 only because they both limited where you could go. Forza Horizon 3 is finally allowing true open world like TDU2 did. I’ve played the FH3 demo and I can honestly say it’s like a Test Drive Unlimited 3 feeling game.

09/13/2016 - 19:01 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Nice! I find this game an underrated gem

09/13/2016 - 14:46 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Try the first one with the latest version it is much much better

09/13/2016 - 15:24 |
2 | 0
Kalem Austin

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Gem? maybe in a few years when it becomes a bit rare

09/13/2016 - 16:31 |
0 | 0
It'sThatDamnGingerAgain

I love this game. I loved the fact that you can drive an Audi Q7 V12 TDI along with the Touareg, Range Rover HSE, and Hummer H3. I really wish they put in more Japanese cars.

09/13/2016 - 16:17 |
1 | 0

I used to drive the Range Rover more than any other car.

09/13/2016 - 16:27 |
0 | 0
Jonttu

I really loved TDU series, 1 and 2. They werent the most realistic games but they still had so much more things to do like owning&tuning your own house and customising character, than other games in thoes years. Its just sad to see that there isnt coming any more tdu´s from them. Yes i know there is crew, but its nothing like TDU series. R.I.P. TDU!

09/13/2016 - 16:17 |
1 | 0
Kalem Austin

In reply to by Jonttu

I think the crew is what TDU2 was going to be like.

09/13/2016 - 16:26 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

For me, this game was one of my biggest videogame disappointments. Yes it had, its qualities such as the open world exploration in real life locations. But the biggest problem for it, in my opinion, was the shoes it had to fill (the original TDU) That game for the time of release (2005-06) was pretty great and I laid hours and hours on it. TDU 2, with such a delayed release, wasn’t an improvement over the first in any respect. I even prefer the car list of the TDU by a longshot.

09/13/2016 - 16:30 |
0 | 1
Kalem Austin

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

I think it was released when it was just so Atari could get out of there financial issues.

09/13/2016 - 16:35 |
0 | 0
Full Throttle

This game is awesome on pc…once you install about 20 mods (no joke) to get it working and awesome…

09/13/2016 - 16:52 |
2 | 0

It is the kind of game that need mods

09/13/2016 - 17:02 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Both of the TDU games are a shame really, they had massive potential, but fell a bit short really.

09/13/2016 - 19:35 |
0 | 0