"Here in my car
I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
it's the only way to live
in cars." - Gary Numan, "Cars"

Obviously, Gary Numan had never experienced the terrifying adrenaline rush of a full vehicular wreck when he wrote his career-defining hit. If he had, one can imagine his outlook on safety inside a wheeled steel coffin may have been somewhat bleaker. However, developing this particular point of view comes with a fairly high degree of danger attached to it – not many folks have access to the thrills offered by a full-scale crash-up derby, and fewer still have the intestinal fortitude to risk their lives just to laugh while they t-bone a Dodge Charger at top speed.

With this in mind, I suppose we can forgive our tragically overlooked '80s pop wunderkind. For the rest of us, we now have an out thanks to the miracle of 3D games. Okay, so that isn't the smoothest segue I've ever crunched through, but Flatout as a franchise is far from soft or streamlined anyway, so it still sort of works. Today we're talking about Flatout 2, a game that stuffs destructive vehicular mayhem and the latest in alt-pop radio rock down your throat. Binge on the chaos; purge the guilt over property damage.

The basic breakdown is this: Flatout 2 is a 3D racing simulation game with a heavy leaning toward arcade-action, due mostly to the extreme violence that is so essential to the personality of the franchise. The only other series that does this is Burnout; however, Flatout seems to have a certain punk-rock "psychobilly" sensibility that gives it a dirtier, meaner mood and atmosphere. It is essentially a mutant crossbreed of track-racing styles and full-scale demolition derby. For this reason, while playing this game, you may find yourself at constant internal odds, deciding which you prefer: coming in first or doing the most damage and launching your driver through the window at the highest possible velocities.

As you may have de-"deuced" from the "2" in Flatout 2, this is a sequel. What it does differently than its predecessor is fairly extensive: spectacularly improved graphics, a wider variety of track settings, a wider list of vehicles to choose from, a much larger library of current alt-rock music for the playlist, multiplayer support, and a more detailed mini-game system. Basically, Bugbear just took everything that defined the original and made it better.

Graphically, Flatout 2 is spectacular. The detail is extremely sharp, the models are fully fleshed out and realistic, and the lighting is warm and natural. My only criticism on this front is that the bloom-lighting is heavy-handed, and light reflections are unnaturally bright. As a result, the night levels are the best-looking.

The racing arenas now span all manner of locations, pushing Flatout a little bit closer to its contemporaries. This time around, you'll be causing obscene damage in forests, fields, deserts, canals, city streets, and professionally built racing circuits. Each of these six locations have between three and six tracks to them, giving you a total of 33 areas in which to bomb around. This doesn't even count the demolition derby areas, the specialized event circuits, or the stunt mini-game structures.

The vehicles this time through are far more than just thrashed-out rusting hulks. Now you can select from three classes of motorized destruction, from the junkers to truly elegant, not-even-street-legal engines of speed. There are 40 different cars and trucks that can be unlocked throughout the game, each fully customizable via the upgrade shop. The best part of the new high-class machines is the much further fall from grace as you annihilate your ride. They start out gleaming, and they don't end that way, I assure you. Why is that so much fun to watch?

The music included in Flatout 2 is more robust than the original; however, it's not customizable at all. If you're a fan of Wolfmother, Fallout Boy, Audioslave, Papa Roach, etc., then you're up for an auditory experience that easily matches the game itself. It's much like listening to your local FM "rock" station cranked to full volume. ("99.3 C-F-O-X, the Fox rocks!" I'm sure that you have a station just like it wherever you live.) However, if you're not a fan of these bands or this kind of music, your only recourse is to turn off the music and leave your media player of choice running in the background. I guess I've gotten spoiled by other racing titles that allow you to slot in whatever custom MP3 files you wish. It's a strange criterion point to pass judgment on; how can I say it's a bad thing when they've done such a great job compiling such a massive list of contemporary pop-punk-a-roll?

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the multiplayer support. LAN and GameSpy-powered online matches are offered, as well as a ‘take turns’ party mode where several friends can trade off doing the stunts. The online play is excellent; FlatOut 2 is perfectly suited to going up against other people. The server browser leaves something to be desired however. Due to the lack of a mouse pointer in the menus, you can’t really do anything like sort servers by type, or number of players, etc. It’s functional, but about as elegant as on old pair of scuffed up army boots. Beyond this though, the online component really helps extend the re-play value of the game. It helps that there seems to be a fair number of people playing at any given time too, I didn’t see many empty servers during my time playing.

Overall, I really enjoy blasting around in Flatout 2. It's somewhat juvenile, but that's a pretty big part of its drawing power. It's a digital portrayal of the ugly side to motorized vehicular sports: metallic, mechanized destruction and speed. Where it loses steam is in its inability to clearly define itself as a racing game or a demolition derby. The attempt to fuse the two hasn't quite set properly. I find it distracting when I just want to gun the acceleration and race, but everyone else on the track is hell-bent on keeping the attrition rate high. I also found that the physics don't seem to properly approximate weight, although it's hard not to laugh when you're locked into a dizzying series of mid-air flips. This, like my other criticisms (overuse of bloom, lack of control over the music), seems fairly minor. When you look at all of the things Flatout 2 does right, these issues come across as quite insignificant: It looks amazing, it's fun, and it's stuffed full of features that will keep replay high and dollar-value at a premium. If you like racing titles that are more about action and mayhem than they are about showroom boasting, then you owe it to yourself to add this game to your collection.

Score: 8.0/10