If you have any connection to the Philippines, you should know that for the past year, all CSR Racing fans living anywhere except the Philippines have been intensely envious of you. The reason is that the long-awaited sequel to the series, CSR Racing 2, has been available in the Philippine App Store for 12 months. Fans were biting their nails, complaining, and registering fake accounts, but they had to be patient. Finally, the sequel was released worldwide. The frenzied fan base immediately pushed the game into the top 6 apps and dropped the PvP mode. If you’ve been on the sidelines all this time, join in! Everyone with a smartphone should know about CSR Racing 2.
How do you play?
Two supercars are roaring at the starting line. Both are about to take off to see who will be the first to reach the half-kilometer mark. No turning right or left — just straight ahead. The auxiliary elements include a manual transmission, nitrous oxide, and spare parts installed half an hour ago in the garage.
The first and most important news for all newcomers to the series is that you don’t need to drive in CSR Racing. That is, at all. It’s not provided for. Before the start, you accelerate, trying to keep the tachometer needle in the green zone, and then shift gears at the right time, guided by the same green color. An unknown force presses the gas pedal, and you just watch the supercar race by — a side view, as if filmed by a high-speed cameraman. Oh, yes — don’t forget about the nitrogen tank, it’s also under your jurisdiction.
CSR Racing is often criticized for reducing races to two simple mini-games, but this is not entirely fair — it’s just that the focus here is different. If you want to show off your driving skills, go to Real Racing or Need For Speed. In CSR Racing 2, you don’t win on the track, but far beyond it.
After the introductory race, the power rankings, and the plot setup (complete nonsense: supposedly your team’s cars have been stolen, and you’re looking for them), the game spits out a map of the city. It’s littered with icons: career races, story races, online races, cups, cups, cups… And the further you go, the more invitations you get; after three hours of playing, it seems like you’ll never get through it all.
The hierarchy in CSR Racing 2 is fundamentally simple. Cars are divided into five “tiers”: from Volkswagen Golf to a hellish race car in the spirit of “Project Satan” from Futurama. To move from one stage to another, you need to defeat a team of racers, which is different at each stage. But this is extremely difficult to do — the guys race in souped-up cars, and the boss’s car has the spirit of Daimler Gottlieb integrated into it. You can’t win without upgrades, but with them… who can guess first?
Of course, they cost money — and that’s where the scattering of cups comes in handy. Some simply pay money, some give out upgrades, and some reward you with keys. You can then exchange them for a pack of spare parts or even win a car. At the same time, you can join a clan, and you also need to complete missions — they accumulate in a separate stack.
As a result, the first few hours of CSR Racing 2 bring back memories of returning to work after vacation. Everyone wants something, shouting, promising, demanding, while you just shake your head in bewilderment or philosophically contemplate quitting. But you quickly get sucked in, rapidly racking up points: you win one cup, then another, go online, beat three spectators… awesome! New achievements, horizons, and cars are always within reach, which is why it’s hard to quit CSR Racing 2. It comes down to the standard pattern: three more races, and then I’ll call it a night. No, maybe two more… or three. But no more than ten, I swear. Someone else’s, of course.
As a result, the first few hours of CSR Racing 2 bring back memories of returning to work after vacation. Everyone wants something, shouting, promising, demanding, while you just shake your head in bewilderment or philosophically contemplate quitting. But you quickly get sucked in, rapidly racking up points: you win one cup, then another, go online, beat three spectators… awesome! New achievements, horizons, and cars are always within reach, which is why it’s hard to quit CSR Racing 2. It comes down to the standard pattern: three more races, and then I’ll call it a night. No, maybe two more… or three. But no more than ten, I swear. Someone else’s, of course.
And when a couple of luxury foreign cars are gleaming in the garage, money with imported engines is flowing like a river, and you’re about to blast off into space — CSR Racing 2, suspended in midair, falls. After winding up three kilometers of introductory tinsel, the authors couldn’t figure out what to do next. The cups are running out, your career isn’t taking off (they’re tearing your beloved Chevrolet Camaro to shreds there), and the story missions are even worse. That leaves online play — but in its current state, it’s simply unplayable. Random selection of opponents, their “blurred” parameters, constant connection drops. And, of course, bets — you can easily lose your entire fortune by accepting a challenge from an unassuming guy in a Focus. You can avoid these “first world problems” if you start paying. Then the previously impassable story races will once again begin to change like a kaleidoscope, online will shine with old colors, and clan warfare will acquire minimal meaning.
How does it look?
On the App Store and Google Play pages, the illustrations are immodestly labeled “in-game screenshot.” This is, of course, a euphemism: if the game looks like this anywhere, it is only in the imagination of the developers. But CSR Racing 2 is really beautiful — not like in the pictures, but quite, quite beautiful. The polished metal of expensive cars glitters in the sun, smoke billows from under the tires; there is a sharp lack of women in bikinis and canary yellow neon lights. Racing is an easy genre to produce, and it’s quite easy to turn it into a “national treasure” exhibition. Hence the impressive picture, but only for the first few hours.
Conclusion
CSR Racing 2 has all the qualities of a (good) freemium hit. Despite its primitive mechanics, you can immerse yourself in the game for hours, sometimes against your own will. Waking up on your day off, tapping the icon, and waking up closer to evening with no money left on your card is not such an impossible scenario. CSR Racing 2 is a beautiful, colorful, and high-quality racing simulator that can either brighten your life or steal it. And then leave you by the wayside because you got too carried away and are no longer on the same path — you need to recruit newbies.
Nothing new, though. This happens with all free-to-play games, which are home to millions.
Pros:
- Beautiful graphics;
- Lots of cars, modes, cups, tracks, and achievements;
- Well-thought-out tuning.
Cons:
- Not the most loyal free-to-play model;
- The races themselves are just a name.
