Title: Gear.Club Unlimited 2: Tracks Edition
Developer: Eden Games
Publisher: Microids
Genre: Racing, Simulation, Arcade
Number of Players: up to 8 players
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: August 27, 2020
Price: $19.99
Aside from the Mario Kart games, I have very limited experience playing racing games, especially realistic racing games. I played a bit of Gran Turismo on PS2 at a friend’s house years ago and one of the iterations of Burnout on PC and also tried Need for Speed on the Wii U and those I think are the only other racing games that I remember playing outside of the Mario Kart games.
Gear.Club Unlimited 2 is a sequel to Gear.Club Unlimited that was originally a mobile game that got ported to the Switch a couple of years ago. That game apparently did well enough on Switch to warrant a sequel. This time around, the sequel is a Switch exclusive and offers a better experience than the first game, or so I heard, I haven’t played it yet. I also heard that it was a bit rough when upon release, with input lags, frame drops, and other technical issues impacting gameplay. Fortunately, two years later and a few patches here and there from the developers, the game now plays quite good. The load times are still quite long, especially upon booting up the game, but aside from that, that game has a solid performance most of the time.
Yeah, the game came out back in 2018 and I’m just reviewing it now. Why is that you ask? Well, the game received a massive paid DLC update recently. With this update, the game is now the Tracks Edition, which includes all previously released content, plus additional tracks, including the 24 Hour Le Mans circuit. I honestly don’t know much about cars, especially racing cars, but I come here for the races, so let me provide a bit of an insight on the game with that in mind.
In this game, you play as a rookie driver and you have to prove yourself as a driver for a racing club. One day, a driver did not show up and you are tasked to replace him. From there, you have to climb the leaderboards by racing against other drivers from other clubs and make a name for yourself.
To be honest I was quite surprised that I ended up enjoying playing this game. The game offers different difficulty options when it comes to driving the cars. You can choose to drive in full auto mode or full manual. Since I don’t have much experience in driving cars in real life, I just stuck with auto mode and it was ok. You can activate drive marks on the road that you can follow for the optimal path during races to assist you on driving through road curves so you will know when to break and what not. Crashing to other cars also doesn't damage your car, so you will only lose some speed when you do. I probably would wish for an option to show physical damage on cars to make it a tad more realistic but at the end of the day, it’s all good. By the way, you can press X if ever you make a mistake while on race to rewind to a few seconds back to have a second chance. This is a good feature in the game and can lessen frustrations for those who really take their racing games seriously.
Aside from driving, you also get to customize cars. Customize them from the color to additional graphic designs to modifying the engine and tires, etc. And in this game, you will be driving and customizing MANY cars. The base game itself already has some 50 cars to choose from and this last DLC provides you with much more. Choose from many different manufacturers, like Porsche, Mercedes, Nissan, Lotus, etc. The cars are divided to different tiers (classifications that factor in max speed, max acceleration, power, etc.), and as you progress to the story mode, you get to unlock and buy new cars, and you can customize each one that you own. Since you are a member of a racing team, you have your own garage, where you store your cars and also where you can install different workshops for your car upgrades. These workshops can be upgraded further so that they can provide more upgrades.
The game offers more than 250 races across different kinds of environments, divided into tiers, and subdivided further into exhibition races, challenge races, and story-related races. It can take you north of 20 hours if you want to complete the campaign mode. Aside from the solo campaign, you can also try the online multiplayer mode to battle with other players around the world. Matching with others online is quite difficult, though, and you probably would rather stick to playing solo or if you have up to three other friends, you can play local multiplayer.
Overall, Gear.Club Unleashed 2: Tracks Edition is the best iteration of the game so far, which will surely delight any car-loving individual out there. Even without the DLCs, the game offers enough content to really keep you playing. In my opinion, this game is one of the best racing games on Switch right now that gives a good bang for your buck. So if you are a fan of the genre, go and buy this game and you will surely love it.
REPLAY VALUE: High
PROS
- Cool visuals, from the realistic car designs and animation to tracks design and presentation
- You can switch from one music playlist to the next on the fly while racing
- The rewind feature makes you go back and correct mistakes during races
- Stable performance most the time
- High degree of customization options
- Customization options are gradually added as you progress into the game
- Lots of cars to drive and race with
- Race tracks have multiple weather systems, road types, and races can take place during day or night time
- Has a good feedback loop system that will keep you playing
CONS
- Very long load times
- The frame rate is capped at 30fps and it would have been better if it was 60fps
- The game crashed at least three times
- Bland soundtrack
- Difficult to find matches during online multiplayer
RATING: 4/5 Cars and Glory
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