Asphalt: Urban GT 2 Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

A great sequel to an original classic! If you like driving games this would be perfect for you.

There??s a lot of choice when it comes to driving games in the console market, you have your Gran Turismo??s and your Need for Speeds but in the mobile world, there are plenty of games but few of quality. Asphalt Urban GT was a pretty good game, you can check out our review here. The sequel is a definite improvement on the original in some areas which I??ll get onto a bit later.

The graphics have improved when it comes to the pictures of the car but they are not amazing in the game itself. The producers have put so much in the game that the actual graphics when you are driving don??t seem as crisp as the original. The sprites are good and the backgrounds of the cities are nicely done but they lack detail and a little colour in some areas. The graphics of the cars in the tuning section is great but what??s the point of being able to customise the car if you only have a view from behind it during the race? Loading screens end with some pictures of the Pussycat Dolls (who in my opinion think that they are a lot more filthy than they actually are) and the menu and tuning screens are nicely presented. Even with the great graphics on the cars themselves, I felt more could have been done in game and am aching for a driving game which gives you the in car view that all driving game specialists use.

The sound is a bit above average. You get a decent enough tune when loading and on the main menu and a slightly different one on the tuning menus but there are no sound effects in the game itself. When you crash or finish there are little segments of tunes which is nice but the possibility of putting in lots of sound effects was there. I know this would have affected the memory of the game and maybe the playability would have suffered but I would have liked to have been able to hear the engines roar, the brakes and tyres screeching as you drift, the sound of the police sirens when they chase you and even the sound of the helicopter as it chases after you. Some of these sound effects were in Asphalt GT 1 so I don??t understand their reversal in 2. Still, the playability more than makes up for this.

The controls are easy to pick up and the instructions are adequate. You can use the D or key pad to control your vehicle. They will auto accelerate so all you have to worry about is steering. Left and right will turn the car and pressing the direction again will cause the car to drift. Once you have the hang of a quick double tap, drifting becomes great fun. The main button or 2 or 5 will activate your nitros and you can activate two at once by pressing the button again. As with most driving games, I used the key pad to steer (4 and 6) and the D pad to activate my nitros as I found this to be the easiest option. The controls are simple and easy.

The playability is excellent. It??s very tough to improve on a solid original but the producers have managed to do this. I??ll go through the similarities first. You still have loads of cars and tracks to unlock based on your earnings. There??s still an instant play and arcade mode and arcade mode still has standard races and a duel option. The wanted stars have been replaced by a bar. Ok, onto the improvements. There is an amazing level of tuning to be done for each vehicle. And the reason I say vehicle is that the developers have now added motorbikes as well. This is in addition to the hummers and classic caddy??s that have now made the grade. Each vehicle can be tuned once the tuning items have been unlocked. This includes changing the colours, bodykits, engine, wheels etc. It really is a long list and allows a lot of customisation for a phone game. The next big difference which is great is the ability to wreck your opponents. Before you could ram them but now you can actually wreck them to knock them out of the race. And you can do it to the police car as well if you??re good. If you enjoy this kind of mayhem (hitting vehicles with your hummer at high speed is very satisfying for some reason) then there is a new mode where the objective is to wreck all your opponents to win the race! Very cool. And speaking of new modes there??s another one where you play as the police car and have to arrest (ie wreck) the leader. You get penalised for illegal acts like smashing into stuff or for tussling with cars which aren??t in the lead. The number of nitros has increased to 8 and you can double nitro now for even greater speed. You pick them up for all sorts of things and they have a time bar for how long they can last which does vary depending on your scores. There are still lots of vehicles to unlock and you get rated on your mayhem, position and wanted status! Beware of the cops though as they set roadblocks now! As you may be able to tell, the playability really is excellent.

The lastability is great, but is just edged out by the playability. There is so much to do in the game in terms of vehicles to unlock, tuning items to get and also modes to unlock. The courses are quite varied in length and difficulty (with the hardest one located in Baghdad!) and the additional modes are actually really good fun to play. The duel is great as the more you bet the harder the police presence is and on the 50K bet you feel like you are number 1 on the FBI??s most wanted list. The cop car mode is also excellent but my favourite has to be the mode where you have to wreck all your other opponents. The game autosaves and can be suspended and resumed. With so much in here, you couldn??t ask for a lot more!