Ford Racing 2 Review

Few racing games are established as either Gran Turismo quality or worthy of a purchase. Ford Racing 2, surprisingly, falls into both of these categories. Not only is the price low for such high quality of a title ($10), but it is also fun, includes great multi-player, and will entertain you for a long span of time.

Ford Racing 2 includes over 30 vehicles in 7 categories (all of which must be unlocked) and ranged from the ’60 Mustang to the Thunderbird to Taurus. FR2 also includes 16 different tracks (all of which must be unlocked), which range from a military base, to ancient ruins in a jungle, to a Miami-like city, and more.

Multi-player allows you to go up against a friend, in which you select the number of laps and whether to play with CPU or not, along with how many, if you decide to play with them.

If you don’t have a friend to play with, you can play solo on each track that you have unlocked in the Ford Collection. You can also play mini-games of sorts in the Ford Collection, whether it is Time Attack, Duel, Elimination, etc., all of them are fun and will keep you motivated to continue playing.

As stated earlier, you must unlock cars, courses, and challenges by playing in the single player mode. In total, you will find over 30 different challenges, all of which you use different cars. At the same time as unlocking things, you are in fact testing and improving your skills.

The central part of FR2 is the race itself. X is used to accelerate your vehicle, while O is used for reverse and the left analog stick to steer. Each car has a different speed and handling, which gives certain cars advantages and disadvantages over others. While some car’s handling is loose, another might be tight and hard to turn. A key to victory in FR2 is concentration; however, if you are behind, you can catch up somewhat easily by making conservative driving moves.

Some of the vehicles that are found in FR2 seem familiar, from Starsky and Hutch, maybe? Each course is nicely mapped; turns and straight-aways feel like they are in the right places. While some courses are repetitive (e.g. Military Base and Ghost Town), each is still detailed and unique in their own way, with excellent lighting, though not as good as say, Gran Turismo 3.

FR2’s soundtrack is far from stellar. In fact, the rock part includes only 3 songs. If you put it on all soundtracks, it will be a grand total of around 6-8 songs. One or two of the songs are directly taken out of Gotham Games’ other title, Starsky and Hutch. Here’s a suggestion, turn on the radio or throw a CD in your CD Player, sit back, relax, and race. After all, there is nothing more American than racing, right?