The manufacturer drives are a little less exciting-you basically just unlock these by racing in one make of car a handful of times, then get four races using that brand-but they’re still a welcome way to break up the pace of your career. That’s equally true of the new one-off invitational events, which offer a focus on a particular vehicle, discipline, track type, or historical era.
The races throughout career mode also feel more authored this time around, as well, with series that keep you on your toes by mixing up tracks and weather in a satisfying way. You can no longer jump straight into a top tier motorsport, and even once you get to the highest level of competition there are now other disciplines to try out up there. You still don’t need to fret at all about unlocking cars or tracks-the content is yours for the taking, from the moment you boot up the game-but once you lock yourself into a career you’re forced to make actual choices and build up experience season after season.
The other main reason the freedom of the game’s quick play races seems more fitting now is a beefed-up career mode that allows for a more traditional sense of progression. You want to set up a 250-lap race that cycles between a blizzard, pouring rain, and sunshine the whole way? You can, and it’ll be an interesting experience thanks to the vast improvements to the game’s dynamic track conditions. You want to put Ind圜ars on an ice track? Go for it. I found the extreme level of freedom in the first game to be somewhat paralyzing, but the approach works much better this time around, thanks in part to how many new toys and options have been added to the sandbox. The game offers a healthy selection of cars, a frankly ridiculous assortment of tracks, and a wide selection of racing disciplines. If Project Cars 2‘s fundamental driving experience clicks for you, there’s an incredible amount you can do with it, too.
I get the sense that even with a hundred more hours of practice under my belt I would still sometimes feel like the controller is a hindrance, not a tool. Others feel like a constant struggle to find an impossible balance between force and finesse to succeed, like you’re trying to hammer in a nail with a Fabergé egg. Some are an absolute dream to push to the limit, or to push past the limit and throw around a corner sideways. To wit, I can easily post clean laps with some cars the game lists as the most difficult to control, yet I sometimes struggle with those the game says are the easiest. There’s no doubt that some vehicles just feel better than others, not necessarily because they’re “easier” but because they’re a better fit for how Slightly Mad has abstracted away the imprecisions of using an analog stick and triggers. If I had to point to any single major shortcoming in this core gameplay, it would be inconsistency in translating the experience onto a controller. Once you put in the effort, the realism goes from daunting to liberating, especially, in my experience, with the new rallycross events, where you essentially need to flip off all the assists if you want to have any hope of success. I tend to be a little Potter Stewart when it comes to handling models in racing sims, but Project Cars 2 passes my test with flying colors. It’s a vastly different beast from the first game, and a much more demanding one, but it works. The simulation, the meat of the experience, the tires-on-track bit, is quite impressive. Let’s start with the positives, because I do want to make sure I give Slightly Mad credit where it’s due. If the original game was a daft supercar, Project Cars 2 is an awe-inspiring hypercar that might singlehandedly redefine driving if it didn’t burst into flames for no apparent reason every 45 minutes. The metaphor still holds true this time around, only developer Slightly Mad Studios has amped up both halves of the formula. In my review of the first Project Cars, I compared the game to the sort of high-end, aspirational automobile that eschews refinement and cuts corners in pursuit of doing one thing-speed-exceptionally well.