The base gameplay is fun, and it builds on the first game well enough. There are some things that I personally find annoying, like certain game modes, that others may not, so I won't comment on that really. What I really like about this game and the first one is the way drifting feels and how it gives you boost, much like how Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing works. I'd still just recommend getting the first game though and leaving this one in the dust. What's added isn't really worth it in the long run, and I only got about 7 hours of enjoyment before I felt like putting it to rest.

The UI is broken, the menus can be difficult to navigate as your position gets reset pretty often (and their design is just not that great overall, for instance the campaign has a weird map system instead of just laying out the objectives in an easy list). The multiplayer is completely dead. Custom tracks can still only be loaded in time trial mode. The perk system is a downgrade from the first game. The game has some weird Epic integration that seems completely unnecessary and apparently didn't even ship with the original version of this game.

On top of that, it seems like a lot of users, mostly on Steam Deck, can't actually play through the campaign due to cutscene issues. There has been no update to solve this. That's not a good sign. I would avoid this one, buy the last one instead if you're looking for some fun racing.

I wish I had looked more into the reviews and discussions for this before buying it because I'm feeling some pretty big buyer's remorse right about now (which is even worse considering I bought this with a Christmas gift card). Of course, the one time I don't look at reviews I get shafted. I enjoyed the first game and this looked like more of a good thing, so I thought, hey, what could go wrong...?