Regardless of the platform, racing games tend to be the cutting edge of realistic graphics. It helps, of course, that it’s much easier to make a sturdy body of reflective metal look good than a moving, breathing character with facial expressions, cloth, and hair. Racing games can generally be divided into arcade racers and racing simulators, with the simulators sporting the most realistic physics and the most impressive graphics. EA’s Real Racing 3 and, more recently, 2K’s 2K Drive have been the premiere mobile racing games. Gameloft’s arcade racer, Asphalt 8, is pretty too, but now Gameloft is trying its hand at a gorgeous racing sim — GT Racing 2: The Real Car Experience.

I installed and loaded up GT Racing 2 onto my iPhone 4S without any issue at all. I was immediately impressed by its gorgeous graphics. Every car and environment is beautifully detailed and the lighting system is awesome. That is, reflections look great — and each course can be raced in four convincing environmental conditions: day, twilight, night, and rain. Awesome models, environment, and lighting team up with a smooth framerate to make GT Racing 2 the new king on the block for most realistic-looking game on iOS. Especially if you’ve never seen RR3 or 2KD in action (but even if you have), GT Racing 2 is an impressive thing to see running on a phone.

In a direct numerical comparison with its competitors, GT Racing 2 has a few less tracks and a few more cars. The different times of day and weather conditions are a nice feature that makes its 13 tracks stretch a bit further than they would otherwise. Its 67 cars are all licensed — spanning 35 manufacturers and years ranging from 1955 to 2013. In-game, the cars are divided into 7 tiers indicating their overall capability. Most cars can be unlocked with coins, though a few can only be unlocked with cash (the premium in-game currency) and a few others can only be unlocked through the completion of in-game events.

Each car you own can be painted as well as upgraded in four different ways (top speed, acceleration, handling, and brakes). Upgrading takes real time and a hired mechanic. There’s a grid of nine mechanics to buy in-game with the premium currency. They’re really expensive, but once you’ve unlocked them, they’re yours to keep. When you want to perform an upgrade, you select which mechanics will work on it. The better their cumulative skill, the faster your upgrade will finish. You can always skip an upgrade timer with in-game cash, but they’re pretty reasonable. You won’t be able to drive a car while it is being upgraded, but you can drive your other cars as much as you want. That’s the extent of timers though. Unlike Real Racing 3, you will never have to wait on repairs for your cars to be road-ready. Sure, I’d love all upgrades to be instantaneous, but GT Racing 2 at least puts it entirely in my control when I want to wait for a timer. As long as I don’t start an upgrade, I can keep driving my car as long as I want.

GT Racing 2 offers four ways to control your car, two with virtual controls and two with tilt controls. All control options offer a button for manual braking, but only one offers manual acceleration. I played with all four and adapted quickly. The tilt controls are the best for refined steering (especially at maximum sensitivity), but the virtual steering wheel is a close second. Steering and brake assistance are enabled by default. When they’re on, the game gently guides you toward the highlighted “perfect path” and slows you down automatically if you’re taking a turn too fast. They’re great for beginners, but like all racing games, you get much more control of your vehicle when they’re off.

The game also offers four camera angles that you can rotate between on the fly, using a camera button in the top right corner. The exterior views and bumper view are great, but the cockpit view pales in comparison to RR3 and 2KD. Don’t get me wrong, the cockpit view is more than usable and offers access to side- and rear-view mirrors (just like it’s competitors). The biggest problem is that the camera is kind of stiff — it feels like it’s attached to your headrest instead of your helmet. Also, the level of detail in the car just isn’t the same as in the other games. Your car’s dashboard doesn’t react at all to how you’re driving (e.g., a moving speedometer) and even when you’re turning as sharply as possible, the driver never turns the steering wheel as far as 45 degrees in either direction. Like I said, the cockpit cam is perfectly usable, it just is one obvious area where GT Racing 2 is lagging behind its main competition.

The “AI” in the game takes another note from Real Racing 3. Instead of racing against the computer, you’re actually racing against the recorded performances of other players. The game draws a spread of different race times for you to play against, so each race will have some bad players and some players that are pretty good. You end up seeing some funny crashes where a player totally missed a turn, but you’ll also race against quite a few very challenging players that hold on to first place for a long time. The game is balanced pretty well though, and any race that’s too hard can be made much easier after two or three upgrades to your vehicle. One annoying thing about racing other players is that when you hit them, it really slows you down but it barely slows them down, if at all. In the end, I think racing other players is a cool idea, but AI is probably a better way to go unless you’re racing other players’ immaterial ghosts.

Gameloft has always delivered top-notch production values, but it’s pretty recently that they’ve delivered so much in the way of original content. I don’t think they’re all the way there yet, but they should be lauded for the progress they have made. Their free-to-play is getting a lot less evil too. The timers in the game are totally reasonable and the premium currency isn’t awful. Later upgrades start costing cash instead of coins, but at least the game throws a decent amount of cash at you for completing achievements and leveling up. I love that I don’t have to wait for cars to be repaired, but then that’s just a knock against Real Racing 3.

At the end of the day, GT Racing 2 is just a lot of fun to play. The car physics are probably a little too arcadey for a game positioning itself as “The Real Car Experience”, but it still leans closer to the simulation side of things. I think diehard racing gamers might find that it fits a unique niche next to Real Racing 3 and 2K Drive. On the other hand, GT Racing 2 is definitely good enough that it could easily become the only racing game for a gamer who’s only got room for one serious racing game in their life. Either way, it is definitely worth checking out, if only to see the latest and greatest in mobile racing graphics.

Note:

GT Racing 2 is currently only available in the Canadian App Store. You can download it for free via this iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/gt-racing-2-real-car-experience/id589113075?mt=8