I love the Test Drive games, but when it came to taking them off-road I'm not an enthusiast. I must confess, I never played the original Test drive Off- Road. So when it came time to review Test Drive Off-Road 2 I felt it would be only fair if perhaps I did play the original. So i picked up a copy and took it for a "test drive". (sorry, bad pun) I was not impressed. The original Test Drive Off-Road was not what I would call a break through game. This game featured more pop-up than most children's pop-up books. Of course this game is two years old now. So perhaps it was good for its time, I doubt it was great. I remember Hardcore 4x4 being better. Now fast forward to Test Drive Off-Road 2. What a difference a couple of years makes. TD Off-Road 2 is superb. More trucks to select, more tracks around the world, and much better graphics. These Off-Road vehicles are true to their real life counter parts. The Dodge Ram, Ford Explorer, Range Rover, The Hummer both military and non. Which is a Test Drive Off-Road exclusive I might ad. Plus a ton more, 20 vehicles in all. All of Test Drive's Off-Road vehicles are modifiable and upgradeable too. Test Drive Off-Road 2 has some excellent tunes much like its urban street counter part Test Drive 5. Some of the bands providing these truck'in tunes are Gravity Kills, Fear Factory, and Sevendust. Test Drive Off-Road 2 features Dual Shock analog controller support. So be prepared to feel every bump and tare in the road. The only bit of detail they left out was to allow the cars to get dirty after romping through the mud. Test Drive Off-Road 2 is probably the best off-road racer I've played to date. Rally Cross 2 is also a contender for that title as well, but the reason I give it to Test Drive Off-Road 2 is because I love to play as the real name trucks. You can have a lot of fun with Off-Road racing in video games, but you can't fantasize about driving fictional vehicles. And making a mess of them.
PUBLISHER: ACCOLADE
GRAPHICS: 8 SOUND/MUSIC: 8
CONTROL: 8 ORIGINALITY: 7
FUN/REPLAY: 10 SECRETS: 9
OVERALL: 8.5
(thanks to ign for the screen shots)