Game Description

Test Drive Off-Road 2 follows the path set by 1997's Test Drive: Off-Road as you drive across twelve courses (based on six locales: Morocco, Hawaii, Mojave, Santa Cruz, Switzerland and Wales) in your quest to win races on the World Tour. This time twenty vehicles are available to choose from, but before you can get behind the wheel, you'll have to purchase them with credits earned from winning races.

Some of the licensed vehicles include a Hummer, Dodge Ram, Jeep Wrangler, Ford Explorer, Jeep Cherokee, Range Rover, Ford F-150 and a Dodge T-Rex. The World Tour consists of five events divided by class: Hummer, Safari, SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle), Truck and Military. Each class has you competing against five similar vehicles in a series of races, where you'll need to place within the top three in order to advance to the next track.

Win the class and you'll not only unlock certain courses, but move one step closer to participating in the Open Class. In order to access this final event, you'll have to place first in all five races comprising the World Tour. Notable features include Dual Shock Analog Controller support, three difficulty settings for single races, your choice of automatic or manual transmission, multiple controller configurations and memory card support to save top scores. As in the original, an alternative soundtrack will accompany you while racing, including tracks from such artists as Gravity Kills, Sevendust and Fear Factory. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

The game is an average playing experience, especially compared to Gran Turismo, Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit and other PlayStation racers. There's also no way to save during the Class, which means you have to compete on all six tracks in one sitting. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Production Credits

Executive Producer: Chris Downend

Senior Producer: Montgomery Singman

Producer: Allen Edwards

Associate Producer: Alex Cabal

Assistant Producer: Nate Schaumberg

Production Assistant: John Chowanee

Lead Programmer: Derrick Yim

Programmers: Owen Flatley, Darrell Dennies, Gary Strawn

3D Artwork: Scott Boyd, Dan Fuller, Jon Marlowe, Heather Merrill, Michael James Parisi, Troy San Jose, John Xu

2D Artwork: Andreas Yaki Arellano, David Chai, David Cockerill, Chin-Han Hsu, Patricia Pearson, Todd Rosenthal

Senior Brand Marketing Manager: Steve Allison

Product Marketing Manager: Greg Sarrail

Licensing Manager: Gabrielle Benham

QA Manager: Brian Gilmer

QA Lead Analyst: Arnold Galano

Documentation: W.D. Robinson ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

Test Drive Off-Road 2 is a huge improvement over the original title with courses you can actually see while driving. The pop-up has been minimized substantially and each course feels more structured instead of this vast, open terrain found in the first title. While before it was hard to know exactly where to go, this time you'll drive through tunnels, across shallow rivers, up rocky cliffs and down steep hills without ever wondering if you're going the right way. Another potential plus is that each course feels long; we're talking six minute races without laps--just one long stretch of land that has you racing from point A to point B. This is more realistic than driving around in circles and you'll notice that the scenery changes instead of seeing the same things over and over again as you would with laps.

The bad news? The game still isn't much fun to play! The graphics are a big upgrade, that's for sure, but they are still a little dated compared to other 1998 PlayStation racers (the game uses a modified Test Drive 4 engine). While buying different vehicles is an interesting idea, you're really "forced to acquire certain vehicles of each class just in order to compete in the World Tour. For example, you begin the game with 21,000 credits and can choose from either a Cherokee (SUV class) or Jeep Wrangler (Safari class). Once you choose your vehicle, you have no choice but to enter the specific Class; the rest will be locked until you earn enough money to buy another vehicle (you get 1,500 credits for each race you come in first). Play then involves competing against five other computer drivers on each of the six main courses.

Winning races is not hard if you keep two things in mind: (1) hitting a tree will mean your computer competition will race by you no matter how far ahead you think you are, and (2) computer drivers rarely move away from driving in a straight line. Since they don't swerve to avoid water, mud pits or other sloppy terrain, you can use this to your advantage and gain some serious ground. Don't hit an obstacle and you should easily place first. Thus the game becomes more of a test of endurance than that of a challenging, competitive race.

Unfortunately, the replay value is not high due to the limited features. You either Single Race on any of the unlocked tracks or enter the World Tour, consisting of five separate events that only differ in the types of vehicles allowed to compete. You can't race a second player, change the weather, alter the performance of your vehicle, or even choose different paint schemes. Adding insult to injury is that the "twelve" courses are really only six, unless you believe reverse tracks (earned by winning the Classes) should counted separately. All in all, Test Drive Off-Road 2 "is worth a test drive if only to occupy some time before something better hits the road, nothing more. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

The graphics are markedly improved over the original as you can see into the distance without objects blinking right in front of your vehicle. While there are some rough edges here and there, the courses look realistic with varied terrain and beautiful skies. Unfortunately, the dashboard view is missing (replaced by the standard first-person view) and the game has some trouble maintaining a fluid frame rate when the computer opponents are on the screen. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

The music seems ordinary at best, despite the inclusion of "real" bands for the soundtrack. An announcer will say "awesome!" whenever you catch some air (there are quite a few jumps on the courses), and the sound effects are fine. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

You can save up your money to purchase a Range Rover (125,000) or Saleen Explorer (175,000) but there are not enough features to keep you coming back. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

The nine-page manual (not including credits) should give you some indication of the game's depth. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide