Sequel September 2 - Dirt 2 (PS3 - 6) Quick Review
Our second stop in Sequel September is the follow up to Colin McRae's Dirt, Dirt 2. In the sequel to this great game from CodeMasters, we're going to explore not only the good and the bad, but also what changed between the first game and this one, because I'll tell you right off the bat this one doesn't feel like a follow up, it feels completely re-vamped and brand new. So let's get to it.
The Good
- Slight Departure From Rally. In the first game, the main focus of the races were straight-up rally races. You're out on a non-circuit course, trying to drift and slide your way through multiple sectors all by yourself to set the fastest time. Here in Dirt 2, they put more of an emphasis on the fun races. Returning are the classic Rally, Rally-Cross, and Rally-Raid races. But along with them are some great new modes like Last Man Standing where every twenty seconds, whoever is in last place is eliminated from the race until there's only one man left. There's also Gate Crasher, where you're on a rally course with a timer counting down, and you have to smash through foam gates to add more time to the clock, and whoever finishes with the most time wins. My personal favorite of the new modes though is Domination. In this mode, you're racing around a circuit course with a handful of other drivers, trying to set the fastest times in each sector, and at the end you're awarded points based not only on your finishing position but also how many sectors you dominated over the whole race. These new modes are a lot of fun and are a great addition to an already fun racing series.
- Actual Rally Set-Up. The way real rally races work is every car is technically on the course at the same time, just broken up by staggered take-offs from the starting point. In the first game, they didn't do that, they just loaded you up and you had the course to yourself and your only threat was the land around you. In Dirt 2, they bring in the staggered starts, so not only do you have to worry about whats around you, you have to worry about what's in front because if the guy in front of you crashes out, you most definitely have to avoid him when you make it to his crash site or you'll be out too.
- New Tour Mode. There's no pyramid of races to climb this time around. You're given instead a number of locations all over the world with different events in each area. Each location also has a specific focus, meaning you'll see more of one particular race event in that area. For example Croatia is a location, and there they are Rally-heavy. So if you're more into the classic rally style events, you'll be hanging around there for a while. There is still a level-up system which you have to progress to unlock further races in each area, as well as a few of the X-Games tours which are also new to the series.
The Bad
- Buddy System. Dirt 2 tried to include more real-world rally drivers, as well as their voices and a buddy system. The point of the buddy system is if you race well with others, you can unlock special head-to-head events if they decide to buddy-up with you. It's a really cool idea, but it definitely isn't perfect. In one race, I was battling hard to win at the end, constantly knocking doors with the guy I was fighting with causing his voice to keep popping up to pretty much yell at me to stop, there was plenty of room on the track for the both of us. After the race, he decided to buddy-up with me so I unlocked him as a new friend and a head-to-head challenge with him. It just seems very confusing that you can practically run some guy off the course and the end of the day he's like "You're pretty cool, we should hang out and race more often. Maybe catch a movie, watch the sun set and the stars come out."
- Turn Calls. In every rally racing game I ever played growing up, the turns in rally events were graded by difficulty, so you're driver would call them out to you like in real world rally racing. If you had a "Left One" turn, it pretty much meant you were coming up on a left-turning hairpin, and it gradually worked it's way down to being "Left Six" which meant a slight ess-curve. Dirt 2 features a new grading system where the turns are either "Easy", "Medium", "Hard", or "Hairpin". I get that they probably did it to make it more accessible to more players, but it really makes me miss the true system because for me personally it's easier to set myself up for the corners that way. Again, I realize it was probably so they could make the game a bit more main-stream, but an option to choose between the two systems would have been nice.
Is it Worth It? / Improvements
Just like it's predecessor, Dirt 2 is more than worth it. So much so, in fact, that you'll just about forget the first one even exists. Everything about this game has been improved from the first one. The graphics, the driving mechanics, literally everything. I much prefer the actual tour mode over the pyramid, it gives the game a more smooth transition for racing because you actually get an RV which travels with you from spot to spot, so it feels more natural throughout. CodeMasters did a great thing with Dirt, and they heavily improved on it for Dirt 2.
You can get Dirt 2 for around $15, although some retro stores I've noticed tend to hike the price on this one up to $20 sometimes, and even others drop it down to $10 (as you can see in the picture I got mine for $10). Obviously you'll personally want to make sure you find it at the lowest price possible, but no matter where it falls in the $10 - $20 range, Dirt 2 is easily worth it's price.
The Good
- Slight Departure From Rally. In the first game, the main focus of the races were straight-up rally races. You're out on a non-circuit course, trying to drift and slide your way through multiple sectors all by yourself to set the fastest time. Here in Dirt 2, they put more of an emphasis on the fun races. Returning are the classic Rally, Rally-Cross, and Rally-Raid races. But along with them are some great new modes like Last Man Standing where every twenty seconds, whoever is in last place is eliminated from the race until there's only one man left. There's also Gate Crasher, where you're on a rally course with a timer counting down, and you have to smash through foam gates to add more time to the clock, and whoever finishes with the most time wins. My personal favorite of the new modes though is Domination. In this mode, you're racing around a circuit course with a handful of other drivers, trying to set the fastest times in each sector, and at the end you're awarded points based not only on your finishing position but also how many sectors you dominated over the whole race. These new modes are a lot of fun and are a great addition to an already fun racing series.
- Actual Rally Set-Up. The way real rally races work is every car is technically on the course at the same time, just broken up by staggered take-offs from the starting point. In the first game, they didn't do that, they just loaded you up and you had the course to yourself and your only threat was the land around you. In Dirt 2, they bring in the staggered starts, so not only do you have to worry about whats around you, you have to worry about what's in front because if the guy in front of you crashes out, you most definitely have to avoid him when you make it to his crash site or you'll be out too.
- New Tour Mode. There's no pyramid of races to climb this time around. You're given instead a number of locations all over the world with different events in each area. Each location also has a specific focus, meaning you'll see more of one particular race event in that area. For example Croatia is a location, and there they are Rally-heavy. So if you're more into the classic rally style events, you'll be hanging around there for a while. There is still a level-up system which you have to progress to unlock further races in each area, as well as a few of the X-Games tours which are also new to the series.
The Bad
- Buddy System. Dirt 2 tried to include more real-world rally drivers, as well as their voices and a buddy system. The point of the buddy system is if you race well with others, you can unlock special head-to-head events if they decide to buddy-up with you. It's a really cool idea, but it definitely isn't perfect. In one race, I was battling hard to win at the end, constantly knocking doors with the guy I was fighting with causing his voice to keep popping up to pretty much yell at me to stop, there was plenty of room on the track for the both of us. After the race, he decided to buddy-up with me so I unlocked him as a new friend and a head-to-head challenge with him. It just seems very confusing that you can practically run some guy off the course and the end of the day he's like "You're pretty cool, we should hang out and race more often. Maybe catch a movie, watch the sun set and the stars come out."
- Turn Calls. In every rally racing game I ever played growing up, the turns in rally events were graded by difficulty, so you're driver would call them out to you like in real world rally racing. If you had a "Left One" turn, it pretty much meant you were coming up on a left-turning hairpin, and it gradually worked it's way down to being "Left Six" which meant a slight ess-curve. Dirt 2 features a new grading system where the turns are either "Easy", "Medium", "Hard", or "Hairpin". I get that they probably did it to make it more accessible to more players, but it really makes me miss the true system because for me personally it's easier to set myself up for the corners that way. Again, I realize it was probably so they could make the game a bit more main-stream, but an option to choose between the two systems would have been nice.
Is it Worth It? / Improvements
Just like it's predecessor, Dirt 2 is more than worth it. So much so, in fact, that you'll just about forget the first one even exists. Everything about this game has been improved from the first one. The graphics, the driving mechanics, literally everything. I much prefer the actual tour mode over the pyramid, it gives the game a more smooth transition for racing because you actually get an RV which travels with you from spot to spot, so it feels more natural throughout. CodeMasters did a great thing with Dirt, and they heavily improved on it for Dirt 2.
You can get Dirt 2 for around $15, although some retro stores I've noticed tend to hike the price on this one up to $20 sometimes, and even others drop it down to $10 (as you can see in the picture I got mine for $10). Obviously you'll personally want to make sure you find it at the lowest price possible, but no matter where it falls in the $10 - $20 range, Dirt 2 is easily worth it's price.
