Street Outlaws 2: Winner Takes All

Developed by Team6 Game Studios and published by GameMill Entertainment, Street Outlaws 2: Winner Takes All, is a street racing game. Released on September 21, 2021, for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC, this is the second entry of the franchise. Powered by Unreal Engine the game shows a clear improvement from previous entries in regards to visuals and graphics.

Street Delight

Street Outlaws 2: Winner Takes All has an extremely simple premise, that provides players with little to no background or story. The title acts almost like a spoiler in regards to what happens here, you participate in a series of illegal street races, and the winner takes all - plus the title of National Champion.

Tag line tries to sell players on the idea that somehow the stakes have been raised, in comparison to the first game, but this feels like the same game - but prettier. In fact, aside from the vehicles themselves and well-produced trailers, characters and level design feel out of place in comparison. It is as if all the design money went into the cars, which is not bad per se, however it feels like you are playing two games at once.

While it is true that the game tries very hard to pay homage to the street scene, it ultimately disappoints, even if its intentions are good. Racing across the United States should provide distinguishable scenarios, circuits, and races, but instead, we get a barrage of straight lines that blend together. For a 20-hour campaign game to accomplish this level of staleness and repetitiveness is a feat itself.

Good Mechanics, Bad Mechanics

The game has appearances from Ryan Martin, AZN, Lizzy, Big Chief, and other prominent characters of the series that it is inspired by, but that doesn’t really add much. On the contrary, their participation via voice lines, scrip, and audio grant the game an aura of low-budget title. During racing the audio is fine, but it pales in comparison to more recent titles like Forza Horizon 5.

Conclusion

The gameplay is pretty repetitive, and customization options run out pretty quickly, even with the strenuous amount of convincing the game does on how versatile and in-depth it will be.

Not all is bad, very deep-down there are some cool mechanics that demonstrate how the game understands what drag racing feels like, such as the burnout mechanics, and heating up your wheels at the correct temperature. And that’s about it, a great mechanic that very quickly becomes a tiresome chore for players.

PROS

• Good Mechanics Ideas

CONS

• Poor Execution
• Games Feel Repetitive
• Customization Isn’t As In-Depth as Marketed
• Low Variety of Circuits
• 100% of The Budget Went To Car Design
• Voice Lines and Audio Is Poorly Developed
• Not Worth Full Price
• 20-Hours of Campaign