Engage in the world of Test Drive and you will get sucked in for life.  The original game appeared on the 360 in 2006 to critical acclaim, picking up high review scores all over the place.

The sheer size of this M.O.O.R. (massively open online racer) provided hundreds of hours of gameplay, online entertainment and challenges as well as encouraging you to drive around and explore all of the roads with some surprise findings.

With the size of the game also came problems, with Test Drive Unlimited being released in the infancy of the 360′s development cycle, and although didn’t take away any of the enjoyment of the game, people felt that the next evolution will iron the bugs out.

So, fast forward to 2011 and its bigger, and I mean bigger, brother, Test Drive Unlimited 2 is finally here.  With a single player campaign, enhanced club features, over 3200km of road plus another 900km of off road track and the ability to be able to get out of the car and walk around showrooms and houses, does Test Drive Unlimited 2 live up to its expectations?

Test Drive Unlimited 2 is set out over the two GPS mapped islands of Ibiza and Oahu, Hawaii taking in glorious sunsets with the use of the day and night transition features and both have a character entirely of their own, one you would have experienced if you played the original game.  Between the two islands there are over 3200 km of road and 900 km of off road track to discover and race on, each with the hustle and bustle of traffic daily traffic to overtake.  They are living and breathing islands that with one wrong decision can end up seeing your car looking like Marc Bolan’s mishap all those years ago.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 has upped the ante from its predecessor to include a bona fide campaign mode with its own very basic storyline and cut scenes.  Based around the fictional Solar Crown championship you start off as a valet that is picked up and entered into this series of races to catapult you into racing folklore.  Set over a series of class races plus island cups you will compete in a series of different challenges including eliminator, speed trap, maintain your speed, point to point as well as standard racing.  All of these will cough up cash for you to go shopping with as well as advance you to the next series of racing.  To do this though you will need your licenses which are scattered over the two islands and you are required to pass before being entered into the relevant races.

The beauty of this campaign is that it is not linear by any standard and the casual approach to doing what you want, when you want definitely comes to the fore as there is so much going on, including instant challenges for cash, driving around on your own, with friends or other gamers that are shown in an ever perpetual environment to unlock garages, showrooms, shops, tuners, hairdressers etc.  Full customisation is now in effect so as well as buying and changing your clothing, gamers can now paint up cars in sticker shops adding layers of depth to their own designs to even customising your avatars face and hair through cosmetic surgeries and hairdressers.  A lot is possible and in future can even be extended but we’ll have to wait and see.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 has also got a shot in the arm in terms of how you level up your avatar.  Taking a more MMO approach, the way you level up and unlock extra items and places has been split into 4 groups, social, competition, collection and discovery which all add to your global ranking or level.  Each time something is found, purchased, played or won will all add to their relevant level group which in turn will boost your global level.  As you rank up, more things are added to stores, garages etc with a few handy features given to you along the way.  I find this system great as it gently coerces you into exploring other avenues that you may not initially look at to unlock other items within the game.

The online part of Test Drive Unlimited 2 really is the heart of the game and always has been.  Test Drive Unlimited was the first game to mould the your single player experiences seamlessly into the multiplayer aspect to always give you something to do if the need arises.  Test Drive Unlimited 2 has enhanced this feature by expanding on the club area as well as increasing the co-operative, ranked and casual gametypes.  As well as being able to jump into someone else’s car if they invite you or dive into an instant challenge that has been created by yourself or someone else to even getting friends to have a look around your latest home that you have bought the social aspect of this game is astounding.  Clubs have now been built up to allow everyone to pitch in with finances to expand and develop our created club as well as bring in cars for the club to share.  Inter club races as well as inner club challenges can all be found here and the things to do and achieve together would put some MMO’s to shame.

Graphically, Test Drive Unlimited 2 looks pretty but not as beautiful as may have thought given the development time on the game.  The look is nothing to be ashamed of and is a massive leap forward from the original but you feel that it may have looked a little better.  I feel though that this is not the fault of the developer but more fault of the technology that runs the game and that is exposed as starting to feel tired and cannot quite keep up with the work it needs to carry out.  The sunsets are beautiful, there is some stunning scenery too but the odd drop in frame rate plus the draw distances seem short at times which can lead to pop up.  Also, the weather dynamics are great with cloud coming in every so often and rain pouring down at intervals to give the roads a watery look which adds a new depth to the game.

So with all this meat in the game the gravy should be the way you drive and the cars handling physics, right?  Well, the physics have improved from the original but not at the rate I had expected.  Touting this to be a little more sim I still feel that the cars handle like an arcade racer.  Each car does have it own character when driving, that is true but I wanted to feel every bump and camber in the road and to feel the level of grip I had and be able to adjust it with getting on or off the throttle a little.  Don’t get me wrong, the handling is solid and robust but going that extra little bit would have been the icing on the cake.  When the roads are wet it adds another level of difficulty to driving which provides some hilarious, if not frustrating results at times as your difficulty is amped up.  If you treat Test Drive Unlmited 2 more like an evolved arcade racer then you will certainly not be disappointed!

So all in all Test Drive Unlimited 2 is a great game, perhaps not the evolution that everybody was expecting but I feel people will be missing the main draw as they complain about the look and feel.  That this game, essentially is a hell of a lot of fun!  I think people miss this fact a lot and focus on things that are perhaps out of the depth of the machines capabilities and not necessarily the developers.  Test Drive Unlimited 2 provides fun in buckets and has enough content to lose you forever.  The design of the game has heralded an great creative canvas upon which to build further and after talking to one of Eden’s developers a while back have been promised that they are listening to the community and extra features, tasks and missions can be placed seamlessly into the game without you even knowing it.  I could go on and on about this game as it is so big but I have a date with a Bugatti that I cannot miss.  Test Drive Unlimited 2 is that addictive that I am thinking of playing now rather than getting this review written it pulls me back that much!

Are you sold?  You should be, so go and get the game and i’ll meet you in the club for a beer!

Edit – Since writing this review a number of serious bugs and glitches have occurred to quite a few gamers.  Eden are aware of the problems and you can check out the how they are getting on here.

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Review copy supplied by the Publisher