Graphics-wise, there is no better freestyle racing game out there than ATV 2. The quads look great, the riders look even better and the environments are amazing. The only little thing that could be improved is the crowd in the stadiums, but I am not going to penalize the game for a minor detail such as that.
The best way to get a great perspective of the detail is to play the game in first person mode. Become the man In the helmet and see the screen as you would if you were actually on the quad. This is the most difficult way to ride the bike, but the most fun. The reason I stated this in the graphics portion rather then the game play is for one little reason. Just watch the throttle hand on your rider: yep, the thumb hits the gas the same time you hit the button. So awesome!
It seems that every new game now has a soundtrack and they are more then often getting repetitive. There may be new songs and new bands, but it's just the same stuff all the time. This is no different in this game with such bands as Korn, Cypress Hill, Filter, Alien Ant Farm and System of a Down. I am not knocking any of these bands, but these games need a new edge for a high score.
The ATVs sound great and make the necessary noises when needed. Except that the engine seems to go idle when you are in the air even though you have the throttle pinned. The crowd is involved with ooohs and awwws when you fall or pull off tricks. They also scream for you when you pull into first place.
Most of you know I am a sucker for online play, and it tends to add a slight bonus to my score in this area. I don't need to add bonus to this game though because the game already has a great setup to make the replay value high. It's stated that it has 40 tracks to race on, different environments (Stadium, Waypoint), different game styles (race, freestyle, mini-games) and of course championships to win. This game has hours of enjoyment for everyone.
You are thinking, if it's so good, why not a 10. Well, the online play actually hurt the final score in this one. I don't like how you only get to race 3 other riders, I don't like that there is no ranking system or stats present to show how many races you have won and I don't like that I have to hit the reset button to go back to single player mode after I have destroyed the online competition. So after all of that I only took off one point, because online play is still amazingly fun and rather quick when comparing it to something like Socom.
