Need for Speed: Underground 2 - Retrospective 

I feel called out...

This game not only gave me so much fun when I was a pre-teen, it's my reason that I want to tune up my first car

Underground 2 to Carbon were so heavy on the 2000s aesthetics and for me it certainly work in their favour, the cutscenes are chessy great and the art design is memorable from cities to cars. They also aged well despiste their minor annoyances.

Still my favorite NFS game to date, the atmosphere, the city map, the verticality of the city, its such a nice world to race in

In those era these need for speed has such a different vibe that you dont get in post 2012 NFS games.

Honestly, the cutscenes, the energy of cinematic cuts and thriller-horrorish type, felt like a 10/10 movie. This is what games are missing today. We never saw the driver, we were the driver. Today everything is spoiled, bunch of random characters 0 creativity. Recycled garbage hehe. Thanks for nostalgia!

PC version of this + widescreen fix = heaven

holy shit, aint no way 19 years passed since this g(old) launched

Don't get me wrong, I love Underground 2 as much as the next guy. But Underground 1 will always take a special place in my heart. In fact, iirc Underground had open world map in development, but due to time constraints it had been scrapped. One can only imagine if Blackbox wasn't forced by EA to release Need For Speed games annually. And that not even counting various NHL, NBA and Skate games developed on the side at the same time.

One of the best games ever growing up, I actually just brought a mint copy not long ago haha

I love the depth you went into, two things to note though 1: in europe they gave us the peugeot 106 instead of the civic, i prefer the civic haha 2: the brand of parts does have an effect on cost, you get a discount on any brands you are sponsored by and i thinknthe decals may have had an effect too

If I remember correctly, NFS U2 was released in 2004. But in 2012 from the Philippines, this game was as new as anybody else. I saw this game getting played everywhere near local internet shops in my place. This, and Most Wanted 2005. What I like about this game is that, the car runs slower than the latest ones, you can see the area around you more clearly. It's like vivid memories flashing back again. You know, cars running at 140 MPH, it's not as wacky as Heat or Unbound, or Most Wanted reboot, and I miss that part. Edit: Most Wanted 2005

In my country Australia around 1999 to 2006 there was a huge car culture here where everyone would Do up their cars and take over either major intersections or industrial areas. There were a lot of violence that came with it especially with the Noble park riots of 2005 but I was obsessed with these car cultures and The fast and furious along with need for speed underground one helped with my obsession.

The level of customization you can make with your cars was insane. Missed playing this game.

I remember that long ass 5 laps race stretched across the entire bayview map, not sure if it was the final race. I also recall that you unlock full bodykits only after you finish the game!! which was outrageous cuz you had no reason to show them off anymore.. at that point you just replaying previous races or wandering the empty map.

I feel the comic book cut scenes aged way better than whatever we got from most wanted

The thing about the Star rating for cars is you could just have one of your cars to tack on as many visual things as possible while keeping your main driving car clean. Just make sure to tune the engine enough to get to the photo spots in time tho.

My opinion is very much that I have made better videos in the past, and that I will make better videos in the future. I think my enthusiasm for this style of game has waned after doing Most Wanted, Carbon, Undercover, and now this one all in such quick succession. I am excited to work on The Run and (probably) Driver: San Francisco; they should provide a welcome change of pace. Vote on my content's direction www.allourideas.org/MitchellDiedrich 👀👀 Come join the Discord discord.gg/4j5GRSMfcU Support the Patreon (why would you do this?): www.patreon.com/MitchellDiedrich Watch me stream? www.twitch.tv/mitchelldiedrich I also Tweet twitter.com/mxtchxll Studies show that channel members are 2-3x better looking and are up to 40% cooler than non-members. ru-vid.com/show-UCy2_huIuBrz6pBAd9kaB-gwjoin

I´m replaying this right now. It aged really well. Yeah ok the graphics are dated, but it still looks nice, the progression is rock solid (almost like an rpg) and it´s just so much fun to slowly build up your shitty starter car to an absolute monster of a machine. sooooo good

Nostalgic Vibes, NFS Most Wanted, Carbon and Underground 2 are by far my favourite NFS games of the Franchise. ☯️👌

Underground 2 isn’t just a game, it’s part our 90’s baby culture. Just like G-Unit, Fast and Furious, MTV, Nickelodeon etc

Quick note: The manufacturers matter a little. If you have the decals of that specific manufacturer on your vehicle, upgrades using that manufacturer can be purchased at a discounted price!

One of the 3 games i played last year (MW, C, U2). Had a huge stroke of nostalgia and euphoria seeing them with your jokes. Thank you, Mitchell Diedrich 😁😁

the production quality of your videos has improved so very much over the last couple of months. excited to see where you're taking this channel to in the future

18 years... i still remember playing the demo on burnout 3 way back when lol

NFSU2 is the "you should not to meet your heroes" type of game. It was my fav when i was a kid, but playing it as an adult...Started at least 3 times, but never finished it. Especially i hate URL races. But i know i will finish the game some day.

Dammit now that I'm 26, I'm only finding out all the fan service characters in UG to at least MW talk with non-stop sexual innuendos and puns. I started playing these games when I was 10.

Man i remember this game was 18 when it came out. So sick... I remember this dude my friend knew, had a riced out civic and i went to his house and he was playing this. Was the first time i seen it.

The Australian version didn't get the Acura RSX or the Civic coupe at the start. Also, Brooke Burke was a major hottie.

I remember the first time playing nfs underground 2 i accidentally soft locked myself by buying upgrades for my car without realizing that they effect the final parts of the game, where the star rating go hand in hand with the customization, so the game wouldn't spawn any events and i was confused on what to do so i just drove around and went against freeroam racers but after roughly 2 hours i figured out that visual customization would effect star rating meaning you're forced to rice out your car

This video just made my night. I was reminiscing with an old friend about "the good ol days" which included him coming over to smoke bowls and take turn playing this game. We were 23 yrs old...it feels like another lifetime. You got a new subscriber, dude.

I wish they finished the highway construction. You can use the updated bridge and tunnels during drag races.

I feel they took a loooot of concepts from both high profile titles such as GTA III/VC, but also Midtown Madness. The open city and direction arrow and race type come to mind. And MM1/MM2 came out in '99/'00 respectively

Why so unconfortable? You look fine! Perfect alt country musician look lol 😜👌.. Still hoping for a 1+2 remake

I discovered your channel recently and tbh man I am absolutely loving it. The editing that you are putting into this is so clear and I am all for it. Keep it up man. Can't wait to see more.

Dude your channel is popping off i subscribed thanks for the nostalgia!

Nice video, explaining un-mentioned stuff like aspects on the map were unique to this video only. Here are some corrections and fun facts about UG2: • The "Caleb" you're racing against at the end is the guy who crashed you out 2 years earlier, he mentions it at the cutscene before the race. • Body parts "do" affect performance, but it is a lot simpler. Basically, if you get a spoiler (or a bumper IIRC), the tuning options for aerodynamic unlocks. Long as you have one body part it doesn't matter. This is why both UG2 and MW2005 speedrunners buy a spoiler as early as possible. • The Star rating limitations are checked in a very basic matter. The second you enter free roam with a car with enough star rating, the new photography events appear. If you don't want your car to look like an abomination, you can buy expensive parts, exit to freeroam, enter the garage, and un-equip all of the parts you don't want. You can do the events no matter the CURRENT rating of your car. • You can press "T" (i think its dpad on controller?) and scroll to the right to see your career progression. If you're a kid that just opened the game you'll probably get stuck in stages due to star ranking or race count (Blackbox' titles were relatively shoddy and rushed, it'd take days to explain every since-beta changes, concepts and development issues in Blackbox... Let's just say, have you wondered where the drag races take place? Map has been shrunk (there was going to be a desert themed area above the airport, with possible drivable train tracks). • Did you notice that the StreetX events take place in the Drift locations from UG1? Another possibly cut-corner due to dev time. • Unironically, the Toyota Corolla from the starter selection is by far the best car in the game. The sheer amount of cornering ability is uncomparable to any other car, you can basically turn 1.5 to 2 times as much as other cars, making you take corners way faster. • In European version of the game, instead of Civic and Miata at the start, there is a Peugot 106 and a Vauxhall Corsa, the Miata unlocks next to the SUV's, and the civic is completely gone. You can use the ExtraOptions mod to have both regional cars, among a lot more little tweaks to play around with.

Hot Take: Underground 1's card handling felt better and cars looked better than 2. So I'd push Carbon of the Top 3 because The weird car tier system.

The cutscene at the start of the game when you go to the Car Lot will be different if you do any of the races on offer, also the cutscene shows you in an RX8, not a 350z. Also, the cars you get at the start depend on the game's region.

The remarks are legit clever and well delivered. I haven't even finished watching this vid and I LOVE IT

Having to drive like you are insane to fill up nitrous is a small but so rewarding little touch. It incorporates an extra level of decisionmaking and risk-reward mechanic into the game. I can see how they excluded it for Most Wanted's police chases. But I wish it got in more recent NFS titles. I loved heat. But a nitrous system like this would have been so much better.

Being on camera is hard as shit, great work on the intro and keep it up

Back when this game was released, the car tuning scene here in Slovakia was insane. People just modded and tuned their cars like crazy thanks to both Fast and Furious series and Need for Speed Underground 2. And oh boy, I was a part of all this craze being a teenager back in 2004-ish. So besides all the nostalgia and all the other shebang, this game also had a massive cultural impact on the car scene. I still like re-installing this game from time to time and give it a nice, nostalgic run now myself being 35 years old.

Yes its old, but it doesn't need to be abandoned, it just need something new a refreshment, more cars graphic mod pepega mod overhaul etc. These will revive the game, but unless its online things will be tough

I used the Nissan 240SX until the end. I loved this car. Awesome video! And a great history lesson.

I think we can all agree. Underground 1 solos all its successors. The Adrinalin rush that game gives at high speeds is fucking insane and no other game could come close to it. That's my two cents about it. Take it or leave it xd

"is it true?" yes. it is. It's basically the template for open world racing games

"No one considers downforce over he!l yeah that looks sick" - best quote of 2000's race games

You look so different from what I pictured in my head.

Wasn't expecting a WWII lesson but I'm not complaining either

22:34 that guy in the traffic: guess, Imma just disappear.

Cool fact: the cutscenes from the begining are recorded in Underground 2, but the events happen in Underground 1

16:15 - if you pick SUV race in the garage menu you can enter this race with regular car. And it looks kinda comical. I am not sure if it was patched by on disc version on PC you can do it this way. In this same menu you can also find hidden races you had missed. The races you missed you can find marked as unfinished or without your time in the info - not sure how. It is too long ago to remember.

I haven’t played this game in almost 10 years. I would love to play it again soon.

I know the video has been out for a while and this is a 04' game lol, but I completely disagree about your comments on performance upgrades being specific instead of general upgrades. Most car lovers are going to appreciate that upgrades actually mean something and you're not just doing "generic upgrade 1". It also allows you higher levels of customization, like for example you could have a car be fully maxed out but not add turbo to keep it NA. And the great thing about this game is that the car sounds actually reflects that, it's truly amazing sounds for an 04' car. You can actually feel the difference in each upgrade. Starting and finishing the game with my starter car Vauxhall/Opel Corsa (europe version) was an amazing experience. I also feel like the specific options for performance go really well with the dyno tuning system. In my opinion, they achieved a near perfect balance between arcade and realism for a NFS game. Introducing some more realistic concepts like setup tuning (that are actually functional and somewhat realistic) with a game that handles in an extremely arcade way is a great concept.

Honestly, i love UG2 (it's my favourite NFS) and i love fine tuning the cars in the dyno (yes i'm one of the 4 people who actually takes time to set cars up in racing games instead of sticking with the default). I remember exactly how different my RX7 felt in URLs compared to StreetX event for example.

I always come back to this game, mostly after 2 years or so i make time to fully finish it, do extra stuff and leave it again

Ahh the memories. The reason why I want a 350z

I remember when you'd put the speaker in the trunk the music's bass would boost! That was so amazing to me as a kid 🤣

For those who don't know, Bayview South Market where the casinos are is a real world location inspired by Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas

Great video! 👏

I love ya man. Keep making more videos

12:20 That was my favorite speedometer 🤩🤩😂😂🥹

The cut scenes were the freaking best what lol

Underground 1 was amazing as well. And is what got me into car culture. Hot pursuit 2 got me into nfs and underground got me into that. While i believe nfsu2 was a bit better of a game. Nfsu has a more soecial place in my heart. Either way. Nfsu - carbon is still my favorite era of nfs and its popular for a reason.

Your explanation of World War II force my hand to click the subscribe button

i could watch you give me history lessons honestly. your voice is nice to listen to.

This was one of my first PC games ever played and back then I was unable to understand what's the dialog about. I was treating this game as an RPG and it was amazing. I've had the same experience with MW, Carbon and Pro Street. Scuh a good time!

great video! thank you mitchell

Yes this makes me feel old, 31 to be exact. But iam so glad that this was part of my youth. UG1, UG2, MostWanted and ProStreet I still play today, while modern NfS titles dont really appeal to me.

There's even a nos glitch I found in this game. Idk if it still works. But, there's a road that goes under a highway close to the airport, if you boost with nos and jump the hump, you hit under the overpass, crash and land and gain double the nos for some wierd reason.

I think my favourite part of this game was how good all the cars sounded. Most of what came later was shyte. Hopefully newer ones will do a good job of integrating ATG's engine simulator

Just bought the game yesterday I’m loving the drag race mode

The Corolla, a starter car, is the fastest car in the game due to having more grip than any other car, so much so that it's like playing a different game, especially it's go-kart like handling on the street-x events. Once all parts are unlocked, 240SX is best for drag, but can overrev the engine, and RX7 or RX8 are almost fast as the 240SX in drag, and don't overrev. The Volkswagen Golf rewards the most drift points. For career mode, if not interested in getting the best performance, which car you use doesn't matter much, since the game will handicap based on your car. Body parts don't directly help performance, but unlock or increase the range of tuning settings (such as spoilers unlock downforce tuning). Engine tuning is mostly about reducing the left side bars to maximize power, except for drift mode. The SUV events can optionally be skipped and run using a car on the World Map at the next stage. On the PC, if running an event from the World Map, you need to start race, immediately pause and restart race to get full rewards. After each stage 2 through 5, there will be at least 8 events not run because those events are sponsor specific, but you can run those from the World Map. Trivia - the game assumes player chose Skyline when playing Underground 1, although the RX7 was faster (and 30 or so cars unlocked by end of Underground 1), and the scene where the Skyline is rammed is Lower Eastside from Underground 2's map.

Its interesting to hear about all those old NFS games before i started playing the franchise and especially read all the comments going on nostalgia that i can't relate, let alone see an appeal of Very interesting

I'll always remember the time i went into a KB Toys back then when this game was about to be released "or it was already released" and there was this huge TV right next to the counter playing the game's intro over & over. I was so hooked by that video alone that i forgot what i came to the store for and i remember begging my dad to get me the game so badly, man was i not disappointed when i had it in my hands and started playing it back at home and spending hours on it like i was possesed or something. This game and NFS Underground shaped my love for cars to a extend and i'm glad it did.

I wasn't expecting learning about WW2 after clicking on a NFSU2 video

The cutscenes are amazing 🤣

i had NFSU2 and "Killradio - Scavenger" banging in my ears and i was happy :D

My 1st NFS game. Loved it and the soundtrack. Burnout 3 was a classic too.

humor is top tier, subscribed

23:18 sorry for my english, but if someones wondering what is happening in the story of nfs underground 2. here you go So basically in the first cutscene, the player are being rammed by some bald guy with the scythe tattoo in his hands. Of course us, as the player doesnt know what the motive behind this. 6 months after the incident, you are back to bayview and you meet rachel. you get your first ride and you start racing in the bayview, winning event, getting sponsors, etc. Eventually, you somehow cross the paths with some shady gang that led by a guy called Caleb. As you win races against them, you hear more about their shady work in their attempt to control Bayview's racing scene, such as manipulating sponsorships against both you and rachel. After you winning some of URL, one of Caleb's gang member defect from them and joined your crew. Turns out the guy who rammed you in the first cutscene is Caleb. As you gain more reputation in the bayview, Caleb is infuriated and start to challenge you race as a final race in nfsug2. Here some fun fact : Caleb is one of Hector Maio's acquintances from Need For Speed Undercover (In case you dont know who is Hector Maio, he is one of Nfs undercover antagonists)

Just bought a 23 WRX and put on this game soundtrack and drove around all night.

this game was my entire childhood... i never enjoyed any other nfs more... this is a legendary game

I love this channel you have me laughing I want more videos like this 😂😂😂😂❤

I remember cars being so expensive and difficult to get in this game, to the point where you really had to grind for a car and that was so tedious, I'm surprised you left that out, or maybe I was just really bad or don't remember well

finally someone speaks out the truth. NFSU1 was much better than NFSU2. Just having more cars, customization and an open world doesn't mean the game is better. Pacing is the key to turn the game into a masterpiece.

You can enter SUV races with regular cars if you go to your garage and select the races from the map. Hated the suv races personally. 16:22

Production quality of your videos is good but they really need some background music to not feel so tense

I also have to mention it; this game made everyone who had a junkyard car (Honda Chitbicch, or Foord Fuk-us) with the exhaust cut off made the junkyard car fast!

best voice in any videogame youtube channel

Underground 2 car customization still feels special to me idk why

It's not "Street X". You read it as "Street-Cross", just like MotoX or RallyX, all include cross-country driving/riding and off-road. Picture StreetX as Rallycross but with tuner cars on industrial tracks.

Rare fact: body parts affect the car physics, even in same grade, with the same aerodynamic in dyno, different bumpers and spoilers have different handling, also stock wheels make handling much worse. Its not my fantasy, its true, i was a pro player in nfs u2 and spent a lot of time building cars

I really suggest putting on light bg music and if it's going to be about early 2ks games, put on jungle dnb, goes well. Great vid!

The thing I remember most from playing Underground 2, was how I was driving randomly through the city, only to then get a text message frantically telling me some Decal Designer Legend is just finishing their last day in the city, and it may be my one and only chance to catch them and buy some one of a kind decals for my car. When I got there, Did I like any of the Decal Designs? Idunno. Did I make sure to buy one, and parade it on my car for the rest of the game? Absolutely. edit: Oh, and on my second playthrough I made sure to do all the races before turning in the green car for the first time, and all the Lady acquaintance did was send a text after each race, only to then threaten diplomatic sanctions on me.

4:26 after finally playing unbound, I can understand fully why you said this.

No the cutscenes don't suck. They're so memorable and stand out, first time i saw this as a kid i was going absolutelty insane!

This game is about 90% of the reason the Nissan 350Z is my 3rd favourite car of all time. The other 10% is it looking cool. As far as 2S-2D sports cars go anyway.

one thing you got wrong: if you are sponsored by certain brand from contracts, those parts are a bit cheaper.