If you get into racing, hot girls, and hot cars then you probably have thought about Juiced 2 Hot Import Nights. Juiced 2 developers and THQ were thinking of nothing but adrenaline when they pieced together this game in addition to combining the fast street racing cars, hot girls, musicians, and DJs all in one. It doesn’t take much to get a player pumped up with all these features being combined into one total package. But don’t get too excited in the beginning because everything that sounds good, isn’t always as good as it sounds as we have found out before with our expectations on other games.
Juiced 2 is available for PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS. Players can range from 2-6 depending on which game play you choose or play solo. We found that the total developed career mode being played online with others globally seemed to be the most exciting part of playing Juiced 2. Multiplayer race modes can also be customized for specifics and the winner of the race actually depends on which mode you choose not just who crosses the finish line first. Some race winners are determined by the race time, some by the total scores and others are determined by the position of the drivers during the laps and how they finish, some winners are even chosen by a combination of all the drivers on the team and how they finished in each race, sort of like field day events. Multiplayer mode definitely has more to offer and more realistic play than single player mode which actually still handles and looks like the older arcade style racing games with only a few new additions added.
Juiced 2 features Circuit and Drift racing giving you the player the keys to test your skills against others and see who ultimately has the best DNA traits in racing and these traits have nothing to do with your genetics, just your skills in driving. The player can select and customize their car, hire a crew based on what you think their DNA traits hold and choose your challenge. Bets can even be placed on every race if you choose but your bet doesn’t have to be accepted by the other driver, you can even be challenged further and have your bet raised by the other competitor if he thinks you don’t have a chance.
With Juiced 2 street racing events are brought to life and tracks range from famous places all around the globe. The skills the drivers have and learn are considered their DNA traits and is listed on each player for you to try to see what you’re up against. Well this DNA readout we found can actually be very misleading so when choosing your crew members don’t always rely solely on this number. We found that during play some drivers actually drove a lot better than others but their DNA readout number was actually lower which made them look like slackers, wrong! Sometimes this number did represent others well but just don’t put all your faith in the readout.
Juiced 2 also gives each car a ranking number that ranges from 1-100. These numbers also are assigned for allowing certain cars to race in certain leagues (like 1-20 is considered Rookie league.) The higher you work your way up through the leagues 1-10, the better the car you are supposed to be able to unlock and drive. We found these numbers to be confusing also at times and found that some cars that were ranked the same handled totally different which seemed misleading. Even with some upgrades(i.e.: wind deflectors, hood scoops etc.) that you may choose for better performance doesn’t make the number of the car performance ranking increase and we all know a Saleen performs better than a Subaru, just to get the point across. Also within these leagues a number of goals are present. To qualify for a promotion you must complete a number of goals to progress to the next level. The good thing about these goals is that more than one goal can be obtained within the same race and you don’t even have to win the race to acquire some goals which can be very helpful working your way up into the more difficult leagues.
Customizing in Juiced 2 does have a lot of options which can be fun in itself just to make your car look “bad” but most of the options seem to be related more for cosmetic changes than performance. We felt that with a racing game performance should be more of an issue, and apparently the developers didn’t seem to think much about it. When choosing performance upgrades it seems that the game only allows a certain amount before the game actually requires you to just get a different car to continue.
The controls for racing games have always seem to bring a challenge and make handling hard to master. The steering still seems to be a little loose again like with the older arcade racing games but can see improvement with repeated play. With all this great computer technology you would think that the steering could be tightened up to make play more enjoyable and less frustrating for the racing die-hard consumer. Graphics and audio also still seemed to be a little behind compared to other games in this same generation. The pictures on the display case really give you high hopes of what the game will look and sound like. Some games have pretty awesome graphics and sounds but I have to say this game really left out that “Oh! "That’s bad “ impression that we all want and desire from a hot racing car of today.
Juiced 2 overall still provides some means of fun and play. Hopes were high for this second edition and it seems that thoughts by many of its players revealed that Juiced 2 just didn’t provide any challenge and the hopes for better quality overall seem to have been a great disappointment. This game is like many others that could have produced a lot better turnout if only given more time during the production for much needed improvements in several areas.
