Clubs, cars and shopping with Test Drive Unlimited 2

One of the early titles to come this console cycle was Test Drive Unlimited. A title that recreated the entirety of the island of O’ahu, Test Drive Unlimited was a solid racing game that offered all sorts of freedom for the player.

And here we are again, four years later, and the next game in the series, Test Drive Unlimited 2, is starting to show itself. A racing title, yeah, but this one has a new island, new graphics engine, new car engine, and a larger, almost insane focus on living a lifestyle of luxury. Ever wanted to drive a Gumpert Apollo Sport without dropping $400,000? Well, with sixty bucks and a game console, you can. Sort of. Anyway, follow the jump, and look at my hands-off time with Test Drive Unlimited 2.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
Developer: Eden Games
Publisher: Atari
To be released: Fall 2010

Now, the driving engine of Test Drive Unlimited 2 has been built from the ground up to strike a new balance between realism and fun, and like most racing games, vehicles of different types will accelerate and drift differently. The Audi, for example, had delightful grip, while the Ford Mustang drifted like a drunk person on a Saturday night. It’s a driving game, and if Eden Games makes do on solid car mechanics, it’ll be nothing too much to worry about.

Driving around the island is all grand and good, and the drop-in multiplayer is great, just as it was before. The new island of Ibiza looks lovely, lots of dust off-roads and a toasty Mediterranean island experience different from the more tropical Hawaii. Ibiza looks to offer a whole different attitude than Hawaii, and the island seems to have a bit more European flair. Eden is now rewarding players with money and achievements for just screwing around the huge island, with 310 Km of off-road trails and more than 600 Km on-road.

The new day/night engine, which is server based, will unify the time of day across the board for everyone online, and the weather system will be shared as well. Thankfully, those who still need some good old O’ahu is just an in-game flight away, and that whole island has all the new additions of Ibiza. Off-road challenges, purchasing opportunities, and more are all on the island, so any who wants to return to the original Test Drive Unlimited should be pretty pleased.

Graphics have seen the biggest boost in the cars themselves. Sure, they don’t look exactly like Gran Turismo-level of realism, but they have some insane levels of detail. New tech has allowed Eden games to place some metal flake and chrome visuals on the cars to pop even more. Car interiors have all sorts of detailing, with factory standard embroidery on every vehicle we were shown. Cars now have basic damage, and there is a new class of all-terrain vehicles for the off-road races that now criss-cross the islands.

This level of detail shows what Eden is really most excited about with Test Drive Unlimited 2: the luxury experience of buying. Since the whole game is online enabled, what Eden has done is made every shop a lobby for players to meet together and talk. Players will be able to go into high end car shops, design shops for car aesthetics, tuner shops to improve on cars, hair salons for their avatars, shops for clothing, and a whole lot more offer opportunities for players to meet and great. Interestingly, all of these shops are in first person, so you’ll walk around stores in real time with others around. It is surprising how often Eden has set up opportunities to get out of a car and walk around, although these elements are only lobbies or shops. Nothing game hampering is going on here.

Eden is offering all sorts of options to change the appearance of players and cars through said shops around the island. Even more, players will have the ability to buy homes to store all of their cars. With 20 different types of homes ranging from a cheap shack to the top-shelf yacht, and up to a hundred that can be bought by the player, you’ll need some serious coin to get everything. Hell, between houses, half-million dollar cars, multi-million dollar homes, you’ll be lucky if you even get around to spending the $50,000 on new couches for your houses. That’s right, for each house, you’ll get to spend money to customize it in a manner to make PlayStation Home jealous. The level of customization in Test Drive Unlimited 2 is out of this world, and it could easily be seen as a luxury shopping game with racing cars to earn money.

Versus and co-op are more at play than ever. Since it is much easier to meet people, as Eden considers the game a M.O.O.R. (Massively Open Online Racing), everyone is going to be on the same server, so meeting up with friends, showing off your latest purchases, literally just hanging out is pretty easy to do. You can also filter the island, so if you only want to see people racing certain car types, or only friends, or whatever, you can do that.

The most exciting addition to multiplayer is the addition of clubs. Just like a guild, up to 32 players can come together and make a club where they race in inter- and intra-club events. While you can only be a member of one club at a time, Eden is really trying to make it feel like a real place. Club buildings are upgradeable, and players will have to pitch in their own money to make this place the very best. Being a part of a club is very important, as certain skill points and upgrades can only be received with club members, and certain extra special cars can only be loaned out from a club. There are even role delegation, with some people being a Treasurer, and someone else being President.

One new feature that is pretty cool that has been streamlined is the challenges editor for multiplayer. Say you want a quick 30-second race down a straight of road? Or how about a three hour race of a few laps around the islands? That and a whole lot more are there for you. Just mark it out on the map, set a record for others to beat, and you can set up for others to pony up cash and see if they can beat your score. Not bad, free cash, but if they do, you have to pay the prize money.

Oh boy, some of the cars in here are stunners. Dodge Viper SRT10, Dodge Charger SRT8, Aston Martin DBS, Ford Mustang GT, Koenigsegg CCXR Edition and the Audi TT RS Roadster are all some of the early machines shown to me, and even the god-level Gumpet Apollo Sport will make an appearance. However, the only way to get hold of that heavenly machine is to be in a club, and each club will only get hold of one of those. It’s all about taking turns, just like in kindergarten.

DLC is going to be a big element of the game. While representatives from Eden Games would not confirm the inclusion of future islands, cars, and more, they did say that DLC would reflect the needs of the players. Also, motorcycles will be coming to the game, just not “on day one”. Fingers crossed some cool stuff comes down the line.

Ultimately, I found the game to be pretty interesting. I love the fact that they are putting so much detain in the cars themselves (you can roll up and down the windows), and I think that’s a fascinating approach to any game. However, at the end of the day, this is a racing title, and I want the best racing to be available, not shopping. As long as the racing is good, everything else is just leather on the seat.