Losing the race before the light turns green - Street Drag 2 Quick First Impressions
Street Drag 2 has a long way to go before it’s an enjoyable racing game. Although the game includes a wide range of options to customize and decorate vehicles, it’s not enough to overlook the terribly designed user interface, archaic and boring visuals, repetitive gameplay, and frustrating progression walls.
TIME PLAYED
I played Street Drag 2 for two and a half hours and managed to complete a couple of difficult races and most of the challenges in the first tier of the game’s world map exploration. There are five tiers in total.
PLATFORMS
Street Drag 2 is available on Android and iOS. I personally played on the Samsung Ultra S22 and found the game to run pretty smoothly.
WHAT’S AWESOME
• Vehicle customization. Although I struggled to navigate Street Drag 2’s interface, I eventually got the hang of the game’s vehicle customization feature. Once I understood which vehicle components I needed to upgrade and their effect on my driving performance, I started to focus more on acquiring better parts—and there were so many upgrades to purchase, alongside multiple other vehicles to buy. I could also extensively decorate my vehicle in various different colors, patterns, and decals, which was pretty awesome.
WHAT SUCKS
• User interface. Street Drag 2’s user interface is terribly designed and not beginner friendly. Unless you’re already a car expert, navigating these menus cluttered with specific details about vehicles is overwhelming. At one point, I was trying to upgrade my car and make it run faster, but I had no idea if I needed to purchase more compression or torque. Although there was an in-depth tutorial and some guides, it still wasn’t enough for me to make sense of all the features Street Drag 2’s menu interface entailed.
• Driving. Street Drag 2’s gameplay doesn’t capture the speed and excitement of an actual race, so much as it feels like just pressing a couple buttons. Since the focus is entirely on straight drag races, I never had to exercise actual control over my vehicles. Instead, the gameplay consists entirely of pressing down on an acceleration pedal and tapping a button to shift gears. Add in an occasional nitro boost, and that’s all there is to driving in Street Drag 2. These limited mechanics felt tremendously repetitive and boring.
• Visuals. Although the vehicles in Street Drag 2 might look a little polished, the menu interface, world map, and environments all look primitive. This might be a little harsh, especially considering Street Drag 2 is still in early access, but the visuals were an eyesore.
• Progression. Street Drag 2’s most frustrating feature is its progression wall. The game has an element that functions similarly to energy or stamina in most games, where it’s slowly consumed while playing. However, in this case, that energy is only replenished by watching an ad, purchasing a refill using in-game currency, or subscribing to the game with a monthly fee. I sorely disliked this element, especially whenever I wanted to continuously play and progress through the game and earn resources to upgrade vehicles.
SHOULD YOU PLAY IT?
No. If you’re not extremely interested in racing games generally and drag racing games specifically, Street Drag 2 is likely to be just as big a disappointment for you as it was for me. The game has some way to go before it’s even remotely enjoyable. Maybe Street Drag 2 will cross that finish line one day, but in its current form it isn’t fun to play at all.
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