Game Reviews

Reckless Racing 2

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| Reckless Racing 2
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Reckless Racing 2
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| Reckless Racing 2

Arcade racers need to get their corners right. Anyone can do straight lines, and most people can do cool jumps, but when you turn into a corner you need to feel like you're balancing on the fine line between awesome drift and catastrophic accident.

Reckless Racing 2 straddles that rubber streaked line with aplomb, and then throws in expert track design, hyper-addictive gameplay, online multiplayer, and more content than you can rev a v8 at.

This is pocket racing at its finest - a delightful, petrol-stinking blend of engine tinkering and breakneck speed that will have you returning to the start line again and again.

Suspension of disbelief

The core of the experience is Career mode, which sees you leading a racer from cheeky upstart to world champion through a series of races and challenges. Every challenge you finish and every race you complete gives you cash, which you can spend on upgrading your vehicle or buying a new one.

There are a few control schemes on offer, which range from tilting your phone to steer to manipulating an on-screen steering wheel with your fingers. The default setting, which has on-screen buttons for steering and acceleration, works just fine.

You can change the assists you receive as well. To start with, a continuous line shows you the best place to be on track and when you should be braking, and a mini-map gives you an idea of what's coming ahead.

Cutting corners

Races are fast and furious, none of them lasting more than a couple of minutes. You start at the back of the grid and - using your driving smarts and a bit of brute force - you have to work your way to the front of the pack.

Opponent AI is just aggressive enough to make the game challenging, but not so bad that rival racers drive you off the track at every given opportunity. You'll usually find each tournament has one driver who's better than the rest, and he'll quickly become your nemesis.

Different challenges keep things interesting, some making the driver with the fastest lap the winner and others eliminating the last-placed driver at the end of every lap. You need to keep on your toes, pay attention to what the game tells you, and try not to flip your car into a ditch.

Racing stripes

As well as playing Career mode you can play through the different levels of Arcade mode to earn more cash to spend on upgrading your car, or take park in single events to try and further increase your bank balance.

The online modes let you duke it out with up to three other players using the vehicles you've built up in Career mode. It's smooth and responsive, and reasonably well populated too.

Everything about Reckless Racing 2 screams quality. It's a brilliantly constructed game, from the main menu to the soundtrack, everything is polished and buffed to a chromium sheen.

When you're tearing through those corners, sending up a cloud of dust into the windscreens of your opponents, you know you're playing something a little bit special.

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Reckless Racing 2

Fast and furious, Reckless Racing 2 raises the bar for iOS racing games through a combination of deft handling, gorgeous looks, and addictive gameplay
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.