Colin McRae: Dirt was an unexpected thrill ride for me. From the beautiful menu system to the exceptional feel of rally racing on the edge, I couldn’t get enough of Dirt. I had not experienced a rally game prior to Dirt and I really just soaked everything up about that game. When I heard a sequel was on the way, I was very excited, and I was extremely surprised by the result.

Dirt 2 has been one of my most cherished experiences for as long as I’ve been playing video games. I absolutely love this game. It’s not perfect but as a fan of racing, in any style or capacity, you’ll be hard pressed to find another title that exceeds the racing experience you get in Dirt 2.

Career Mode employs a progression experience through the single player campaign that takes you to various locations across the globe to compete. As you complete events, you gain experience points that unlock more events and locations as you level up. There are a variety of event modes to compete in along the way, from traditional rally racing to buggies and trophy trucks to lap-based races around short circuits. Unfortunately, there’s not as much traditional rally racing as I would have liked. I certainly appreciate the variety, and a game of only rally racing events would not have had the replay value Dirt 2 does, but giving it a more prominent focus would have been more interesting to me.

Throughout the campaign you’ll travel from location to location in your RV, which is where the navigation takes place. In one corner you’ll find the events you can participate in, in another you’ll find access to multiplayer. Step outside of your RV and you’ll see the sights of the country you happen to be in at the moment. Codemasters provided another innovative menu system with Dirt 2 and this one really gives you a sense of traveling the world while racing for the win.

As you progress through the ranks, you’ll be constantly rewarded with bonus money and liveries. Dirt 2 does a good job of rewarding you early and often. I didn’t feel the rewards were all that interesting. Sure, the bonus money was great as it afforded me the opportunity to buy new cars and outfit them with the required upgrades to compete in higher level events. The rest felt like novelty items that were there just to be there, not really to effect the racing or give you purpose to work to collect them.

The visual appeal of this title is nearly perfect. The environments are as detailed as anything you’ve seen. It’s hard to appreciate the detail put into the game as you fly by it, but if you take a moment to look at the stadiums and towns you race through you’ll see the stunning detail put into each one. The lighting and shadows in the game really add a nice touch of realism, as does the motion of the puddles of water along the trails.

Dirt 2 provides a progression system for the multiplayer experience as well. What you do in each the single player and multiplayer modes are exclusive. That feeling of starting over in terms of experience points really put me off. I’ve put in some significant time in single player where I’m currently a level 46. I’ve raced a few times in multiplayer, but only enough to be in the single digits for my level. While the multiplayer mode offers a great experience, practically seamless from the single player experience, I’ll probably reserve putting any real time into it unless a friend or CRR reader wants to jump into a game.

Dirt 2 is a great racing experience, regardless of the style of racing you’re primarily interested in. I was never much of a rally fan until Dirt, and Dirt 2 only further strengthened that stance. The Career Mode will provide many hours of fast paced, wheel to wheel, racing excitement and is easily worth the purchase. Couple that with a deep and finely tuned multiplayer experience and you’ve got a racing title sure to provide countless hours of fun.

Rating: 9.2

This review is based on the Xbox 360 retail version of the game purchased by Skeptical Gamer.