Need for Speed: Underground 2

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Need for Speed: Underground 2 is the 8th game in the Need for Speed series, which was released in 2004. As the name suggest, it's the sequel of Need for Speed: Underground, with the addition of a truly freely roamable city. The game is based in a fictional city called Bayview.

Contents 1 Features 2 Plot 3 Bayview 3.1 City Core 3.2 Beacon Hill 3.3 Jackson Heights 3.4 Coal Harbor 4 Race types 4.1 Main race types 4.2 Misc race types 5 Cars 6 Footnotes

[edit] Features

[edit] Plot

The story begins a certain amount of time after the player has beaten Eddie's street gang, the Eastsiders and is currently dating Samantha. The player is now a superb driver who beats everyone in his Nissan Skyline GTR, scoring 20 wins in a row. While heading for a party to celebrate, the player is challenged to a race by someone who won't take no for an answer. A dark green Hummer H2 suddenly flashes its high beams, blinding the player and totaling the Skyline. After the incident, a man with a scythe tattoo on his wrist calls to confirm it.

About 6 months later he travels to Bayview, and this is the point where player starts playing the game. To get the player back on the path to success, Samantha writes the player a letter, referring him to a friend, Rachel Teller (played by Brooke Burke) and sending him to Bayview. When the player arrives, Rachel's green Nissan 350Z is waiting outside. The player then is instructed to head to a car lot and choose a car, with the money provided by the insurance on the totaled Skyline.

As the player wins more races and begins to gain a good reputation, he then encounters a man named Caleb Reece, leader of the Street Reapers. Rachel reveals to the player that Caleb is manipulating the sponsorship deals in Bayview towards him, meaning that other racers will be unable to continue racing in the city. The player keeps winning all kinds of races and eventually encounters the Street Reapers, whose cars all carry the same black paintjob with a scythe vinyl on the sides. Eventually the player meets Niki Morris, a female Street Reaper who drives a Ford Mustang GT. After the player defeats her in a URL race, she joins the players side. Infuriated at his losses, Caleb challenges the player to a showdown in his Pontiac GTO, but loses.

[edit] Bayview

The city is divided into four bigger parts, and each part is connected with only a few roads. The most northern part is called Jackson Heights, then a bit south you find Beacon Hill. The central is called City Core, and the most southern part is Coal Harbor. On the north side there's an airport, which looks as a distinct region, but it's part of City Core.^[1]

[edit] City Core

This is the region where the user begins to play. It looks like a typical medium sized city's center, with some higher building, but also features regions where are only small houses and thin alleys. It's surrounded with a highway ring, which is mostly elevated. There's also an underground tunnel, but the terrain is mostly flat, so there many long straights. There are 5 hidden shops in this area - 2 body shops, a car specialties shop, a graphics shop, and a performance shop. There's also a non-hidden performance shop, and a car lot, and your only garage is here.

It can be divided into the following districts:

• Hotel Plaza: a relatively big district occupying the western side of City Core, except the Stadium in south-west corner. There are many hotels and other big buildings and skyscrapers. The roads are wide here, there's only a few alleys, but since they're almost straight, you can do some big speed here.
• City Center: the north-east area of the region. Here is the underground tunnel where you can go to Beacon Hill, or to the City Core ring (road 27). Apart from that, it's not an important region.
• Stadium: the Eskuri Arena, and it's neighborhood in the south-west area. This is the only place where the ring's dual carriageways divides, and they enclose the arena.
• South Market: the middle of south-City Core. This district seems to have a notable Asian population, since the buildings are small, but colorful, and everything is shiny, especially the center of it (on the picture), where is a big roundabout under a red roof. There are small alleys as well as wide, main roads, which both have some turns, making this district the place of many of your races.
• Fort Union/El Norte: the south-east area of City Core. Road signs refer to this area as El Norte, but the game shows Fort Union when you enter this area. The center of this area is the Fort Union Square, where the road is much wider than usual because you can go on the pavement. On the south side there is an elevated train line. This is also a great place to race, since it has wider and narrower roads, and some tight turns.
• Airport: located in the detached east part of the city. This is a very important part, not because you start the game here, rather you race many Drag-s and URL-s on the runway of the airport.

Hotel Plaza	Eskuri Arena	South Market	Fort Union Square
The airport	View of City Core from Beacon Hill

[edit] Beacon Hill

This is the second area you get access to. The name is probably came from a play on Beverly Hills. It is the lower mountainside of Jackson Height, so the roads here are more curvy and bumpy, but this place yet looks like a city. It has 4 hidden shops, one from each type. It can divided into three areas:

• Beacon Hill West - the western area of this region, span from the west coastline to about halfway between the two bridges.
• Beacon Hill East - spans from the end of Beacon Hill West to the eastern bridge. These two areas are very similar. This area probably has a good nightlife, as almost everything is decorated with colorful lights, and there are many bars/clubs by the road. The only exception is the three U-turn area in the north-east corner of Beacon Hill West, where's only some trees by the road. Roads are a bit curvy here, and you can find anything here from wide multi-lane streets to narrow alleys, where you can shortcut the races.
• Pigeon Park/Brad Lawless Memorial Park - this is an another area where the game and the road signs differs. The game says Pigeon Park while on the entrance you can read that memorial park. It occupies the East end of this area, everything that is east from the eastern bridge. It only has one road, with a short-cut through a greenhouse. Also there's a bug in the game map here, there is a turnout on the south road which ends in a U-turn on the map, but if you go there, you find no road there.

Beacon Hill West

Beacon Hill West

Beacon Hill East

Memory of Brad Lawless in Pigeon Park

The greenhouse

[edit] Jackson Heights

The next, northest part of the city. It's in the mountains, so here there's many, tricky turns, whit short straight, and a lots of bumps. Also this is the only part where you can drift on an open road, with traffic, but this area only has 2 hidden shops (a body and a graphics shop), and there's no car lot. Also here you only find a few luxurious building at the south end of it and around the west-east combiner road in the middle. At the north-east there's an observatory, and from here and the south parts you can have a great overview of Bayview. There's also a great BAYVIEW sign on the side of a hill, just like the Hollywood Sign.

Entrance of Jackson Heights

A house in Jackson Heights

Observatory

View of Bayview

BAYVIEW sign

[edit] Coal Harbor

The most southern area, which is unlocked in two parts, but they're very similar. They're the industrial area of the city, dirty and dark, but here you can find many challenging races. In some events, you were here before, when you dragged between stopped trains. The two big part are the following:

• Coal Harbor East - this is the are you get access first, since all roads connecting Coal Harbor with City Core ends here. Here you can find 4 hidden shops, and a car lot here. This part is what looks more like a city, as it has some, old houses, and it has a more planned street layout, compared to west's screwed-up layout. You also find an iron factory here, in which you can go inside.
• Coal Harbor West - this is the second part you unlock. It only has 3 hidden shops (no graphics shop) and also there isn't any car lot. In this area you find heavy industries, and the docks and train station. It also has many dirt road, including a part which looks like an unused channel.

A house in Coal Harbor East

Inside the iron factory

Some big factory chimneys in Coal Harbor East

A part of the dock

[edit] Race types

Need for Speed: Underground 2 has many race types, but there are very similar types that only differs in some bits. In carrier mode, the player can unlock upgrades and cars by winning races.

[edit] Main race types

• Circuit: the simplest race type that was available in most of the preceding titles, and in most of the other car simulator games. The player has to go a few (usually 2-4) laps in a fixed route, and the winner is who completes this first. There are cases when the user has to choose between different paths where one of them is usually longer than the other. There are cases, when the alternate routes are marked on a map, but smaller shortcuts are usually not.
• Sprint: same as circuit, except the player has to go from a point to an another (like in rally), and not more laps on the same route.
• Drift: drifting mode is about sliding at high speed without hitting any wall. You get points for each slide you make, but you can combine more, which will result in a bigger point. Points are calculated by the speed and the angle of the car and the track, then multiplied by a multiplier. It equals to 1 when you start the game, and it will increase as you collect points, but it'll set back to 1 if you hit a wall or slow down. In drift races you can not use your Nitrous Oxide. While most drift races are kept on a closed race track where you go a few laps, there are some drift races in the hills, from the top to the bottom, and here hitting a car is treated the same way as hitting a wall.
• Drag: possibly the simplest type, although not the easiest. The player races through a relatively short, almost straight route, like in sprint, but you'll have to use manual transmission. Here you don't have to steer, only change lines with the steering controls, the game will handle the rest. Also in this mode you can totall your car by crashing into something, or blow your engine if you forget to shift up. The HUD is replaced with a special one, where the tachometer and Nitrous Oxide is much bigger. Here the win depends on good timing of shifts and choosing the right line (as there may be unwanted object, like a wall or a car in any lines), but your car's acceleration also matters.
• Street X: same as circuit but on the small closed drift tracks, and you can't use Nitrous Oxide here.
• URL (Underground Racing League): these are circuit races, but on a closed track. Here you have 7 opponents, while in other types you only have 3. Another difference that it may be a tournament of up to 3 races. This case you get points after each race based on your position, then the winner is who has the most points after the last race. Each URL win unlocks a car in the car lots.

[edit] Misc race types

• SUV: these are normal circuit races, but only SUVs are allowed.
• Outrun: occurs when you're driving in free roam and an another car offers it. If you accept it, the race begins. In order to win, the leader must get ahead by 300m (1000 ft). Winning enough Outrun races unlocks time trials for special parts.
• Special event/time trial: sometimes a photographer will invite you to a challenge. To have your car photographed, you have to go from a point to an another within a specified time, but you're free to choose your route. If you run out of time, you fail.

[edit] Cars

• 2003 Acura RSX
• 2004 Audi A3Type S*
• 2004 Audi TT
• 2004 Cadillac Escalade
• 2003 Ford Focus ZX3
• 2005 Ford Mustang GT
• 2000 Honda Civic Coupe Si*
• 2004 Hummer H2
• 2003 Hyundai Tiburon GT
• 2004 Infiniti G35
• 2002 Lexus IS300
• 2004 Lincoln Navigator
• 1999 Mazda Miata MX5
• 1995 Mazda RX7
• 2004 Mazda RX8
• 1999 Mitsubishi 3000 GT
• 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX
• 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII
• 1993 Nissan 240SX
• 2003 Nissan 350Z
• 2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec-V
• 1999 Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R
• Peugeot 106**
• 2003 Peugeot 206 GTI
• 2004 Pontiac GTO
• 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX-STi
• 2003 Toyota Celica GT-S
• 1986 Toyota Corolla GTS AE86
• 1998 Toyota Supra
• Vauxhall Corsa**
• 2003 Volkswagen Golf GTI

Denotes this car is only available in the North American version. * Denotes this car is only available in the Non-North American versions. **

[edit] Footnotes

1. ↑ In the beginning you only can access City Core and the airport, and the game counts them as one area. Also, on the map selecting City Core will also include the airport.