As I mentioned earlier Juiced 2 is not only about street racing, which is fun by itself, but also includes drift racing. As with the DNA feature this idea is awesome in concept but does not flesh out all that well in the final product. Don’t get me wrong I had a blast sliding around the custom “drift” tracks and seeing how long I could keep a drift going but the controls are so awkward that later in the game some of the drifting levels are nearly impossible to complete. This was after 10+ hours of gameplay so I don’t think it is just a personal learning curve problem. HIN also includes a deeply interactive multiplayer mode that allows gamers to create a career online, race for pink slips, or straight up sell their custom automobile over Xbox Live. Overall the different modes and multiple options make Juiced 2 my favorite racing game on the Xbox 360 of this style. It doesn’t compare to PGR4 or Forza but it is not meant to.
Graphically Juiced 2 made a huge leap over its predecessor. Everything in this game is shiny and has a neon tint too it, reminding me almost exactly of the follow up movie Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. The Las Vegas and Tokyo levels are simply stunning to race through, as the lights bounce off your windows and hood at 100mph. There are plenty of different camera options to choose from but for drifting you have to use the “behind the car” view. A lot of people may think that Juiced 2 can not even come close to the graphical prowess of games like Forza and Gran Turismo but if that is their opinion they need to remember what Juiced 2 is, an arcade racer with roots in a corny Vin Diesel movie. With a decent techno soundtrack and realistic car sounds the game rounds out a very decent entertainment experience. At the end of the day Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights does a fantastic job at what it is meant to do. The single player career can be completed in about six hours depending on how good you are but that is just zipping through, then you can always go online. It includes a deep career mode (online and offline), some cool new features (although they don’t work perfectly), plenty of customization, neat looking graphics, and some good gameplay. All of that in one arcade racing game is plenty enough for me to warrant a full purchase, especially if you are a fan of street racing / drifting games like I am.
