You ever have one of those days where people are just driving so terribly, that you imagine in your mind crashing into them and causing lots of destruction? Well if you do, there are remedies to that, such as talking to a therapist or psychotherapy. Are those methods too expensive for you? Luckily, video games exist where you can take out all that stress on polygons and pixels with Three Fields Entertainment’s Danger Zone 2.

Danger Zone 2 is the sequel to 2017’s Danger Zone, made by ex-Criterion developers, mostly known for their entries in the Burnout series. Danger Zone 2 takes inspiration from Burnout’s Crash mode, where the objective is to crash into oncoming traffic and deal as much vehicular damage as possible, earning medals to progress. Like Crash mode, Danger Zone 2 has various effects and power-ups to cause even more destruction. Some of these abilities and power-ups consist of the Smashbreaker, which makes your car explode in a rather spectacular fashion, and a blue lightning bolt which greatly accelerates your vehicle.

The previous Danger Zone took place in a rather bland and boring looking crash test facility, which grew tiring on the eyes. Thankfully, the developers took notice of this and made Danger Zone 2 take place in the open world, hosting various locations within the United States, the United Kingdom, and even Spain. Due to the sequel taking place on the roads of the Earth, there are now optional mini-objectives in each mission added to the task of reaching the blast zone. These mini-objectives do a nice job adding some variety and some of them are quite engaging. If any of the mini-objectives are completed, you earn a guaranteed bronze medal, which is required to unlock the next mission, but you still need to reach the crash zone intact.

The controls of the sequel manage to be tighter than the original. As the game is heavily crash and score based, it has a nice arcade-like feel to it. Turning is responsive and the physics are wild. Even the slightest tap into another car can send it sailing across the freeway. The more responsive controls also leave less mistakes to be made, and manage to be more forgiving in earning a high score, unlike the near perfect precision and luck needed to earn platinum medals in Danger Zone. Contrary to the one or two platinum medals I earned in Danger Zone in my first go around, I earned about five platinum medals for Danger Zone 2.

One of my biggest complaints of Danger Zone was the vehicle variety. Danger Zone 2 not only adds more vehicles to crash into, it also adds way more vehicles to do crashing with, and was a much needed improvement. The destructive power of a truck, the high speed of a formula car, and the sleekness of a sports car are all welcomed additions to this game. Each new vehicle has its own weight, air control, and even special abilities. The formula cars and sports cars have a boost meter, which does tie into certain objectives, and the truck is able to crash into any vehicle without wrecking itself. New tricks include the option to slam into other cars, and one can even angle the direction the cars crash into, such as left if you hold the left mouse button and right if you hold the right mouse button. There is also a rather nice slow-mo effect when going off ramps that can show off a more cinematic angle that makes the scenery pop out in a whole other way.

Unfortunately, there are still some issues that were present in Danger Zone that are carried over to the sequel. Like the previous game, Danger Zone 2 has no musical score whatsoever. I understand that Three Fields Entertainment is an indie company with a small team so I could let the lack of music slide the first time, but a second time is just inexcusable. I’m not asking for licensed music, just an instrumental tune or three on the main menu or something. The graphics are rather nice for a small team, but the vehicle detail damage is just like the first one, where it simply looks like it was painted on. Because of the new features added, and that crashing into every car this time doesn’t put you in a totaled state, this lead to some collision issues. I experienced one moment where various objects got stuck within the model of the car, causing sparks to fly everywhere. Another moment had me clip right through the ground when going too fast and colliding with that magic pixel to send me to a never-ending descent. There was even a time where crashing into multiple vehicles could potentially make your car greatly accelerate for a moment. These all happened to me more than once each, but not enough to be a detriment to my enjoyment.

Morality wise, Danger Zone 2 is similar to Danger Zone. You take your vehicle and crash it into other vehicles and blow them up. As the first game took place in a crash test facility, the danger of having people driving those vehicles was non-existent. This time, with the mayhem taking place on highways and roads, there is the implied effect that people might be driving these vehicles now. Nonetheless, I did not see any models inside the vehicles, nor were there people walking about.

Danger Zone 2 in the end, is an improvement over the original in almost every way, but for better and worse, it manages to be more of the same. People who were obsessed with Burnout’s side mode, and people who enjoyed Danger Zone, will get a good amount of entertainment from the much improved sequel due to the improvements and additions made. People who are still waiting for that true spiritual successor will have to continue to wait, but hopefully not for long. I personally feel that $20 is an acceptable price for something that was only a side game of another series, but those who are still on the edge may want to wait for a sale. The game is safe for most ages, but one may want to sit down with an especially younger child and talk about the implications of crashing before handing them this game to play.

--Cinque Pierre