ATV Offroad Fury 2

"A game that deserves to be tried by everybody"

ATV Offroad Fury 2... a sequel to a supposedly good game, which I never played. ATV Offroad Fury 2 is a fun game, but it has some flaws, but overall it is a good game that simply deserves to be played. Here’s why.

First of all, the graphics. They didn’t “wow” me like many other games for the PS2 have. For example: there aren’t any super-awesome CG cinemas like in..say...FFX. But, then again, this is a sports game, sports games don’t really even have CG cinemas. Anyway, back to the in-game graphics. Everything looks realistic enough, like the trees and trails. But what brought the graphics rating down for me is the fact that the developers didn’t pay enough attention to the actual detail of everything. Crowds look like paper cut-outs. ATV’s don’t bend and break after bumping into things. Mud doesn’t get kicked up when you start spinning out. But, overall, the graphics are good enough, and I could live with them.

Graphics: 8/10

Now for the sound. This is one of the high points for ATV Offroad Fury 2. The ATVs sound incredibly realistic. There are different engine sounds at the appropriate times. The crowd boos when you fall off your ATV, but when you pull off an incredibly insane trick, it starts cheering. The music has a good selection, from techno to rock. There are some excellent songs there, like KoRn’s Here To Stay. But then, there are some bad ones, like What’s Goin’ on Mekon? too. Thankfully, you can edit the playlist to your desire. Everything sounds exactly the way it should.

Sound: 10/10

OK, now for the most important part, the gameplay. Overall, the
gameplay is VERY good, but there are some things that will tick people off. The ATVs turn surprisingly sharp, but it only takes a few minutes to get adjusted to this. The pre-loading system is ingenious. It works like this, at the bottom of a hill, hold down on the analog stick. Then, at the peak of the hill, slam the analog stick up. The better you time this, the more air you get off a jump. The AI is also not too hard, but not too easy either. If you want to win a race, then you have to keep on trying. Some tracks take practice. Overall, the AI is just right. Tricks are also surprisingly easy to pull off. There are a lot of them, and you can link them together to form combos. You get more points for combos than you do for individual tricks. (duh) Although, if you keep on doing the same trick/combo again and again, you get less and less points for it. By winning races, you gain profile points, with profile points, you can unlock more gear and ATVs. You have to work at it if you want everything.
Now, for the cons of racing. Sometimes, when you do so much as let your ATV go halfway off the track for a split second, the timer begins saying you have to go back to the place where you went off the track, or get your ATV reset at that place. This is ultra-annoying, and in my opinion, this game doesn’t allow you enough freedom around the track. I mean, there are absolutely no shortcuts whatsoever in the entire game. (At least as far as I’ve seen there are none.) Also, when making contact with AI riders, I always seem to fall off, instead of them. The only way I can get the AI riders to fall off their bikes is to literally land on top of them.

Gameplay: 9/10

The lifespan for ATV Offroad Fury 2 depends on the type of gamer you are. It also depends on whether or not you have a network adaptor. That’s right, this game has online play. The online play is good for the most part, the only problems I ever have are some “jumps” by other players at the start of a race, and the lead clock, which seems to go haywire during online play. As for unlockables, there are oodles of them. From tracks to mini-games. From goggles on your player to new ATV’s. There are just tons of them. The actual game progression is fairly decent, too. There are different types of competition. For each competition there are amateur and pro classes. For each class there is a normal and expert difficulty. As you can see, there are quite a few competition possibilities. If you want to pursue the incredible task of unlocking everything, prepare to be playing this game for a looooong time.
That being said, you can play this game for a while, especially with internet play, but the question is whether or not you will get bored of it.

Lifespan: 9/10

Buy or rent?

I say rent first, yes I know I gave it a good grade, but some people just won’t like this game. That is OK. This is the sort of game that people can come to hate easily. I just happened to be a person who liked it a lot. But, regardless of whether or not you’re a racing game fan, you should at least give this a try. You never know. You might just get hooked.

Final Grade: (not an average) 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/10/03, Updated 02/10/03