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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Racing Developer: Juice Games Publisher: THQ |
“Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights,” the follow up to “Juiced” has a large number of changes in the series’ overall design. The calendar
driven events is gone, players don’t need to pay for damage after a race and won’t need to kick in a race fee in order to enter a race.
The game as a whole is a much smoother experience, yet is still faces several issues that keep it from being the best racing game that
it can be.
Players will immediately notice issues with the controls in the game. There are two different types of driving mechanics, racing and
drifting. Neither is perfect and they feel like completely different controls, which can get to be a bit frustrating. The racing controls are
very touchy. When players tap the stick to the side, their vehicle will veer quickly in that direction. When players enter a drift event players
will feel as though they are driving a completely different vehicle. Most of the time players will feel like they are driving on ice. It is
actually very difficult to keep the car straight, which is important in the Drift Obliterator events which involve players actually needing to
cross the finish line before the rest of the competition.
Though the controls may be a bit difficult to get the hang of, the overall track design is pretty good. The environments that can be seen
from trackside aren’t very great, but what is important is the layout of the tracks, which do create fun racing circuits. There is a variety of
turn types on the tracks, from looping, tight 90 degree corners and more, players can quickly drift through the tracks, and they are mixed
up well too. While the tracks are fun and the driving mechanics of the game are alright, the presentation of the Career mode are fairly
hot or miss this time around. One thing that players will like this time around is the new goal based progression. For each racing
league, players will need to complete a number of goals in order to race in an advanced qualifier to move to the next tier and so on.
Each level has a number of goals for players to work towards and they are varied, keeping things fresh throughout.
Something else added to the game is the Driver DNA system that doesn’t work very well. The idea of the DNA system is that players
can change their talents in a variety of racing styles from aggressive to ice cold. The main issue with the system is that it doesn’t seem
to have an impact on how well the player performs on the track. Drivers that have maxed out in a certain skill could still easily end up in
last place behind those who are much lower in a specific skill. Also, players will be able to hire drivers, which are used only in crew
based events. Players are shown the drivers’ DNA structures to help choose which driver to hire, but they are difficult to read on the
screen and really don’t seem to matter too much on the track.
Each racing league that players advance to unlocks new levels of upgrades for power, handling and weight reduction for the cars.
While this is a nice little addition to the game, the issue is that if a player pays for a level one upgrade of any type, they don’t get any kind
of discount for upgrading to level two or three. Since there is a very small difference in price between the three, many will find it
worthwhile to buy the best upgrade right away. Along with upgrading the vehicle’s performance, players can also install a number of
visual modifications, such as new hoods and rims, and add paint jobs and decals. The physical additions that players can add all look
nice and allow them to customize their car in any way that they want, but in the end it doesn’t really matter much on the track. This is
one of the most fun elements of the game and players may find themselves sitting in customization rather than on the track. However,
working with decals can be a bit tricky and can get to be quite expensive really quick.
Visually, “Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights” ranges from good to poor. The cars are nicely modeled, along with the number of tracks that are
able to be raced on. Also, the reflections that can be seen on the vehicles look pretty cool. When players use the in car view, they will
notice some really bad reflections and shadows that slowly move across the dashboard, and on some cars players will be forced to
stare at some very low resolution texture on the instrumentation and steering wheel. Though the game runs smoothly for the most part,
it can slow down at certain points of the game when a large group of cars are on the screen.
“Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights” has its share of flaws, but there are also a lot of places where the game is very strong. The overall track
design is pretty good and the layout of the Career mode is nice. Unfortunately there are some aspects of the car customization that don’
t work very well, but players will have a lot of fun creating their own unique car. Also, the controls could have used a little more tuning,
but they work fine once the controls are figured out. For those who enjoy customizing cars and racing them, there is a lot of enjoy in this
game. However, players before, this is not perfect, yet.
driven events is gone, players don’t need to pay for damage after a race and won’t need to kick in a race fee in order to enter a race.
The game as a whole is a much smoother experience, yet is still faces several issues that keep it from being the best racing game that
it can be.
Players will immediately notice issues with the controls in the game. There are two different types of driving mechanics, racing and
drifting. Neither is perfect and they feel like completely different controls, which can get to be a bit frustrating. The racing controls are
very touchy. When players tap the stick to the side, their vehicle will veer quickly in that direction. When players enter a drift event players
will feel as though they are driving a completely different vehicle. Most of the time players will feel like they are driving on ice. It is
actually very difficult to keep the car straight, which is important in the Drift Obliterator events which involve players actually needing to
cross the finish line before the rest of the competition.
Though the controls may be a bit difficult to get the hang of, the overall track design is pretty good. The environments that can be seen
from trackside aren’t very great, but what is important is the layout of the tracks, which do create fun racing circuits. There is a variety of
turn types on the tracks, from looping, tight 90 degree corners and more, players can quickly drift through the tracks, and they are mixed
up well too. While the tracks are fun and the driving mechanics of the game are alright, the presentation of the Career mode are fairly
hot or miss this time around. One thing that players will like this time around is the new goal based progression. For each racing
league, players will need to complete a number of goals in order to race in an advanced qualifier to move to the next tier and so on.
Each level has a number of goals for players to work towards and they are varied, keeping things fresh throughout.
Something else added to the game is the Driver DNA system that doesn’t work very well. The idea of the DNA system is that players
can change their talents in a variety of racing styles from aggressive to ice cold. The main issue with the system is that it doesn’t seem
to have an impact on how well the player performs on the track. Drivers that have maxed out in a certain skill could still easily end up in
last place behind those who are much lower in a specific skill. Also, players will be able to hire drivers, which are used only in crew
based events. Players are shown the drivers’ DNA structures to help choose which driver to hire, but they are difficult to read on the
screen and really don’t seem to matter too much on the track.
Each racing league that players advance to unlocks new levels of upgrades for power, handling and weight reduction for the cars.
While this is a nice little addition to the game, the issue is that if a player pays for a level one upgrade of any type, they don’t get any kind
of discount for upgrading to level two or three. Since there is a very small difference in price between the three, many will find it
worthwhile to buy the best upgrade right away. Along with upgrading the vehicle’s performance, players can also install a number of
visual modifications, such as new hoods and rims, and add paint jobs and decals. The physical additions that players can add all look
nice and allow them to customize their car in any way that they want, but in the end it doesn’t really matter much on the track. This is
one of the most fun elements of the game and players may find themselves sitting in customization rather than on the track. However,
working with decals can be a bit tricky and can get to be quite expensive really quick.
Visually, “Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights” ranges from good to poor. The cars are nicely modeled, along with the number of tracks that are
able to be raced on. Also, the reflections that can be seen on the vehicles look pretty cool. When players use the in car view, they will
notice some really bad reflections and shadows that slowly move across the dashboard, and on some cars players will be forced to
stare at some very low resolution texture on the instrumentation and steering wheel. Though the game runs smoothly for the most part,
it can slow down at certain points of the game when a large group of cars are on the screen.
“Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights” has its share of flaws, but there are also a lot of places where the game is very strong. The overall track
design is pretty good and the layout of the Career mode is nice. Unfortunately there are some aspects of the car customization that don’
t work very well, but players will have a lot of fun creating their own unique car. Also, the controls could have used a little more tuning,
but they work fine once the controls are figured out. For those who enjoy customizing cars and racing them, there is a lot of enjoy in this
game. However, players before, this is not perfect, yet.
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