ATV Off-Road Fury 2

(SCEA for PS2)
by Eric Chon

Extreme games have seriously outlived their welcome. How often can we have some sport where the object is to do tricks and be “extreme to the max” and still have it be fun? Especially when the original point is to race and the tricks become “icing” on the cake? It becomes monotonous and ultimately unsatisfying.

I was a big fan of Tony Hawk for awhile. Here was a game that gave you goals to accomplish in addition to a free-style mode where you could just go and do anything you wanted. You had a wide arsenal of tricks to choose from and you could attempt any one of them anywhere on the map. But in ATV Off-Road Fury 2, things are different, and worse for it. The major point of the game is to race. But you’re also trying to perform outlandish stunts whenever you hit big air, and the two don’t combine well. For much of the game, you don’t have free-roaming levels where you can attempt anything and everything, you’re stuck on a track that goes around and around. And when you do choose a “free play” track, you’re constantly looking for jumps to perform tricks rather than being able to do it whenever you want. This just isn’t that much fun.

At least the graphics are decent and the free-roaming levels are massive. There are tons of extras to get (completing races gets you points to buy stuff, like in Tony Hawk) but they’re mostly cosmetic: New costumes and helmets and crap. Maybe this game appeals to the general extreme-sports fan or even the ATV fan, but it hasn’t made a convert out of me.
(www.us.playstation.com)