I’ve been meaning to get to a review of Real Racing 2 ($9.99) for a little while now, but the game is just so big and so fast that writing a complete overview would be like trying to change the tires on a moving car.
So instead of trying to write a “buy it or don’t” type of piece, I’ve opted to just share my thoughts of the career mode experience. I’ve dumped 7.5 hours into the game so far and am only about 33-50% through career mode, so I’ve still got miles to go before I sleep.
DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR?
One of the strangest things about starting a career in Real Racing 2 is how ridiculously difficult it is to find your first car. You’re given only $25,000 in a game where most of the vehicles cost much more, so it’s up to you to go through almost every single retailer until you find a car that you can actually buy. At the very least, the game should fade out the retailers you simply cannot afford to save the player some confusion.
REAL RACING, TOO
As I’ve stated in a previous piece, I’m no racing fanatic, but the presentation of cars tearing down the track is so impressive that even a newbie like myself can appreciate why people like this stuff so much. The career mode is divided into five tiers, and I’ve only completed two thus far. I’m playing the game on medium difficulty with the brake assist set to zero (so it’s all up to me to make or “brake” a turn).
The competition in the first two tiers can be tight, but the cars are never quite so fast that a single mistake can cost you the race. You’ll tend to top out at around 170-180 mph and many tracks feature quick, forgiving turns where even head-on collisions with the wall are just minor setbacks. In fact, it was during these two tiers that I began to say to myself: Wow, Thomas, you’re actually getting good at this! Look at you, always in first place! Good boy!
Then I reached the third tier. The game calls it the “Grand National” with a series of 10 different events, but I see it as a swift kick in the nuts. The cars are speedier, the drivers downright aggressive, and the curses coming out of me are faster and more furious.
To put things into perspective: before the third tier, I could usually place first in an event after one or two tries. It simply required patience, knowledge of the track, and liberal use of the brakes around the corners. However, when I first hit the third tier I was finishing consistently in 16th, which is also known as last place. I learned quickly what the rears of all the other cars looked like, but it took me an extra two days of to finally take (and hold) pole position in a race.
The tricks seem to be really, really learning the tracks, as well as anticipating how brutally aggressive the AI is going to be. I try not to participate in dirty racing, but the AI has no qualms about ramming you from behind and taking your rear wheels out from under you, causing you to fly screeching into the dirt. Add to this the fact that — unless there’s a qualifier — you’ll start every race off in 16th position, and you’ve got a lot of angry bumper car action to deal with…except that bumper cars don’t usually fly along at 180 mph.
So as of the third tier, Real Racing 2 has transformed from a fun little pastime to an incredibly intense pocket-sized challenge. It’s the kind of game I’ll sit down with, furrow my brow over, and mutter curses both soft and loud to. But it’s also one of the best rushes I’ve ever experienced in a racing game, let alone an iOS title. I’ve paid much more for much less on the PSP.
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EXTRA RAMBLING GOES HERE
The last bit I wanted to mention in this Real Racing 2 piece is how much it makes me want an iPhone 4. There are other apps like Camera+ that make me want the newer model’s higher resolution camera or extra processing power, but few apps have highlighted the difference between the Retina and non-Retina displays like Real Racing has. The game flies on both the 3GS and iPhone 4, but it is *much* easier to tell the difference between, say, the pixels that represent the racing track and the ones that represent the wall on an iPhone 4.
In fact, I actually feel like I have to use the full-screen (no car dashboard) view on my 3GS because the cockpit view simply takes up too much of my screen. That’s not to say that I can’t see enough of the stuff around me with the cockpit view…but to say that I can’t see *anything* with it up. All of the in-game details tend to become mush with the cockpit present, and anything but the full-screen mode feels far too blurry to navigate. Ah, well.
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