ATV Offroad Fury 2

Offroad Fury’s core gameplay focuses on keeping momentum up throughout the track by finding the best way around the various jumps and bumps scattered throughout each track. It takes some trial and error, though for the most part, the AI opponents seem to be on the same page as the player (on the normal difficulty, anyways). They will occasionally mess up jumps or turns and end up launching off their vehicles. If you slam a landing too hard or smack into an obstacle, you will also probably fly off your vehicle, too. You can also take a hard turn and tip your ATV over entirely, though I've only bailed a few times because of that.

This game's championship mode makes good use of all its different race styles, letting the player choose from Enduro, Supercross, Nationals, and Freestyle right away. Nationals are the series’ regular outdoor tracks, Supercross takes place in a stadium, and Enduro is the classic free-roaming checkpoint racing style. Enduro reuses the environments from the National tracks, taking away some of the uniqueness, though they play better than in the previous games. The National tracks have more polish of the three modes, including some nicer visuals, and some fancy new water physics, as well as mud sliding, and ice sliding. The Supercross series is far more straightforward visually, though it’s just as difficult to master. Each one of these championships has two different sets of tracks to choose between.

This game's Freestyle mode is a new addition that tries to tap into the Pro Skater formula. Every level has the same set of goals. The first objective is to drive into some 'green targets', similar to the SKATE objective from THPS. Most of the green targets are located on the ground or on small jumps, making them easy enough to get in one attempt. And that's why the 'red targets' goals exist! These red targets are far more annoying to reach, as a lot of them are stuck high up in the sky, and require awkward set-ups plus some luck to hit right. They're difficult, though ironically, the ‘Pro’ Freestyle red targets are much easier than the Amateur Freestyle ones. Probably because they take place in the smaller stadium environments!

The final objectives in Freestyle mode are based on score. You either know how to do it or you don't. The tricks in this game are awkward to pull off, especially with the ramps they throw at you in some levels. The button combinations themselves are awkward, with the hardest tricks requiring you to hold down two face buttons and a trigger button while flicking the analog stick. You need to complete most of these objectives just to earn a bronze for Freestyle, so I might recommend skipping over it if you aren't a self-punishing completionist.

Thankfully, the main racing modes are where the true quality lies. Some navigation features are added to the gameplay, including a somewhat reliable 'crazy taxi' arrow, and accurate arrow markings that are placed on the checkpoints. Most of these tracks feature the same rhythmic jumps and tight turns, so keeping your momentum is the most important part of getting good lap times. If you botch a section with large jumps, you’ll likely end up losing positions from your lost speed. And if you're playing on expert mode, you’ll lose the race from this lost speed alone!

Once you finish every event on normal difficulty, you are faced with expert, which I can again only recommend to self-punishing completionists. Expert Enduro is not too challenging, but Expert Supercross and especially Expert Nationals will give the player some trouble. Many of these races will hit the player with the 'make one mistake and lose the race' mentality that only gets stronger the further you progress. While you can unlock tracks or ATVs by progressing through the game normally, you can also use ‘profile points’ to purchase them. It’s a welcomed new feature, considering how long you might have to grind out these expert events to unlock everything otherwise. Of course, even if you skip out on the Expert difficulty, there is enough content to make this game a worthwhile experience.