With Test Drive Unlimited, Eden changed the racing genre and even if their wide dream racing on Oahu quickly became eventless they have sky-high ambitions for the second …

You know what it usually looks like. A few menus, a virtual garage, a hell of a lot of feared rides, and a big load of fenced off tracks to go round and round on. With Test Drive Unlimited, Eden wanted to expand the experience. Give you a life outside the cars, a fancy Mexican brick villa on the sunny Hawaii and a better feeling of how it actually is to be a part of some exclusive club for owners of Aston Martins or Ferraris. This is something that Eden with Test Drive Unlimited 2 wants to expand further; to really give a complete feeling of how it really is to be a true sports car cruiser.

One of the unique aspects of Test Drive Unlimited was the enormous game-world. More than 1500 kilometres of road was available to drive on, located on Oahu in Hawaii. This feels like nothing compared to Test Drive Unlimited 2 which is a whole 2.5 times bigger and is enacted on the Spanish island of Ibiza, mostly known for its gigantic beach parties. One of the reasons that you’ve chosen Ibiza is because the variation in the environment. Here, dense forests crowds with enormous flat surfaces, big mountain groups with picturesque ruins and of course modern cities.
One of the big gaming news is that you this time will be able to compete together with buddies in co-op. One person is the mapreader and will steer the driver through the courses, which will give a massive advantage if you manage to negotiate the road in a good way. Otherwise much is what it used to be, you can cruise along the Ibiza streets and challenge someone to a bit of racing when you wish. The multiplayer lobby has also been replaced by another system that lets you explore the opponents rides while they get ready to race.
The end result almost reminds you a bit of an online role-playing game where a group of players together can start their own car clubs, race against others or just drive around and enjoy together along the twisty roads of Ibiza. Well, or off them, now there’s also well ventured SUV’s to drive around in for better use of the areas that haven’t been paved into something fun. Eden has also been working on real damage models so you’ll be fine twisting metal, scratch paint and/or just wrap your ride around a big tree after some careless driving.

To get anywhere in Test Drive Unlimited 2 you obviously need money. But there is also a system with experience points divided into four sections this time. Eden was a bit secretive around the whole thing during our visit, but if you’re not a rally-ace, maybe you’re better at the social part and may get your coveted points that way. So in a nutshell, you can reach success, both by daredevil driving, by being chased by the police or just by staying alive. What you then earn you can spend on a little more luxurious living. Maybe you’ll pimp your shack to become more than just a appendage to the garage, get the latest fashion for your driver, equip your car better or get different types of sponsorship for the car club, as a bigger and better club will give you better possibilities in the entertainment establishment.
At a first glance, graphically there are better games than Test Drive Unlimited 2 , but when you start to study it more deeply the amount of detail is almost astonishing. And you can’t forget that Test Drive Unlimited 2 is almost as much related to sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto as it is to normal racong games and there is not a square centimetre of Ibiza that you can’t drive on. And despite that you are sometimes far away from the roads, everything is worked out in detail with lots of little secrets to discover. Furthermore, the day has finally got its 24 hours, so now you can race both during the day, night and the hours in between which gives Ibiza a highly varying character.

Test Drive Unlimited was never as noticed as it actually deserved to and modernised the racing genre quite a bit. With test Drive Unlimited 2, Eden takes the full step and tries to create a full simulation of the life as a super rich sports car cruiser, and it looks extremely good.

By Jonas Mäki

Cuando se anunció, Pep se preguntaba si Test Drive Unlimited 2 estaría ambientado en Ibiza; todo apuntaba a que así sería. Ahora se confirma, por el último número de GameReactor, que Ibiza acogerá las carreras de secuela.

Aparte de esta confirmación, en la revista también se habla de una extensión dos veces y media superior a la del original (con lo que podemos contar con un terreno bastante, bastante tocho para conducir), la inclusión de deportivos utilitarios al plantel de vehículos y un ciclo de día-noche de 24 horas. También se habla de un modo cooperativo que parece muy dado a bromear sobre él: mientras un jugador conduce, el otro tiene que leerle el mapa. Suena bastante terrible. Por suerte, para contrarrestar el efecto letal de este aparentemente ridículo modo de lectura de mapas, también se han añadido daños a los coches, por lo que si elegimos mal el desvío que le decimos a nuestro compi lo mismo terminamos con el buga hecho añicos.