Gran Turismo 2 is the kind of game you choose to take along if you’re planning to be stranded on a desert island for the rest of your life. (Be sure to remember the Playstation. You’ll also need some kind of machine to convert coconuts to electricity.) The depth built into GT2 is nearly absurd, almost as if, once finished with their product, Polyphony jammed the remaining space on the disc with extras until the CD was completely full. This depth is couched in a beautiful package that is both easy to learn and difficult to master, the perfect curve of gaming erudition. The only flaw is that, while the game itself is deep, the gameplay is not so varied. If you are not a great fan of racing games, you will most likely grow bored with this game before you come close to completing every last corner of it. Still, it offers a solid hundred hours of entertainment for even the average player, and for the racing lover, it is an achievement of stunning proportions.
The first thing you’ll be astonished by is sheer variety of cars, you can find minivans, compacts, low-class Japanese and Korean cars -- the kind of stuff you might have on your garage or parked out on the street. But at the same time we have rare birds like the Lister Storm, Dodge Viper, and TVR Tuscan; these are powerful automobiles topping 500 or even 1000 horsepower. It’s a crazy combination of everyday vehicles and supercars that lends the game a feeling of verisimilitude and completeness. It’s also a joy to drive in a video game the car you drive in real life, and unless you’re very wealthy or drive some kind of rally vehicle, the Gran Turismo series is probably your only chance to do so. Notably missing from GT2 are the big three European sports-car makers -- Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche -- but their lack is not really felt due to the inclusion of equally excellent but less well known manufacturers and tuners from countries as diverse as England, Belgium, Australia, Japan, and the United States.
The arcade mode allows you to enjoy racing many of these vehicles on any of the game’s more than twenty courses. However, the real meat of the game is the simulation mode, and it is here that racing fans will spend hundreds and hundreds of hours. Beginning with just 10,000 dollars and no car, you work your way up the ladder, racing to win money and buy new cars. You can also take your current ride to the shop and upgrade it with all kinds of performance-enhancing parts: turbochargers, tires, new brakes, and suspensions, virtually anything you can dream up. The racing itself is nearly flawless. Precise handling is present throughout the lineup of vehicles, but the way in which cars handle around tight corners or hairpin bends differs significantly. When you switch from one drivetrain type to another, i.e. real-wheel to front-wheel drive, it’s almost like having to learn the game all over again. Nevertheless, the game is well-designed to encourage skilled power-sliding and early braking, just as in real life.
The music here is nothing spectacular, mostly a collection of thumping rock tunes along with some synthesized electronica. It’s often drowned out by engine noises and tire squeals anyway. The main problem, though, is that in a game of such length it’s impossible for a soundtrack not to grow repetitive. On a disc packed tight with cars and courses, one can hardly expect the inclusion of enough music to accompany a hundred or a hundred fifty hours of play. It’s purely forgettable, but it serves its purpose well enough -- music is not an essential part of what Gran Turismo is trying to create. At least while you’re racing. More memorable than the racing tunes, in fact, is the menu theme, a light little synthesized piece that doesn’t get too boring as you make vehicle modifications and buy new cars. The whole audio realm is certainly the weak point of the game, but it won’t ever get you down.
The whole experience of GT2, the skyscraper of lifelike simulation that has been built floor by floor, beginning with the cars and continuing with the racing physics, is surmounted by a great radio antenna with the amazing visual presentation it brings us. On courses almost too beautiful to be real, some leafy and green with trees, some amidst the bright lights and deep shadows of urban environments, yet others on racing ovals surrounded by packed grandstands, you’ll be racing cars that simply steal the show from these amazing environments. Full of color and grace, they are truly amazing even as you’re driving, and in replays and menus they look spectacular. Perfectionist details like smoothly curved side mirrors and slightly mirrored headlamps, the soft curves of voluptuous vehicles like the Tuscan Speed 12, and the shining grilles of Mercedes and BMWs accentuate the car bodies, each of which is rendered carefully and uniquely despite their vast number. Truly, these are some of the best visuals on the Playstation, and stack up well against some of what was seen even on the Dreamcast and PS2.
Gran Turismo is a series that has built its reputation on realism in every facet -- graphics, racing, and car selection. The failure to include vehicle damage is a strange clash with this, but otherwise the series prides itself on being true-to-life. Once again in GT2 the creators have succeeded in this goal, creating the most realistic racing simulator yet developed for the Playstation. In terms of pure fun -- and by “fun” I mean the nearly epileptic degree of action and speed demanded by some racing gamers these days -- there are better games than Gran Turismo 2 on the market, certainly. But for the single player looking for a deep, engrossing experience that will truly take over his life for a month or so, Turismo 2 is the tops.
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