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GEAR.CLUB UNLIMITED 2
review | SWITCH
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Publisher: Microids.
Developer: Eden Games. Released: December 2018. Genre: Racing. Other versions: PS4; XONE, PC. Posted 8th April 2026. By Tom Clare © 2026 |
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Eden Games’ mobile-to-Switch port of Gear.Club, itself a spiritual successor to the Test Drive Unlimited games, went down pretty well in 2017, thanks to a combination of strong visuals, accessible gameplay, fun garage tinkering, and a lack of serious competition on the platform. Its sequel, 2018’s Gear.Club Unlimited 2, represents a step forward. Fans will observe solid progress in terms of visuals, performance, handling, and design that’s better suited to a console experience, though one or two shortcomings leave it short of a definitive recommendation.
There’s a tenuous story, but one that allows the game to feel a little more inviting than its predecessor. The player must work their way up the street-racing ladder, from unproven rookie to king of the roads. This is achieved through a number of racing series, as you work up from Grades A to D, with cars getting steadily faster as you progress from hot-hatches to sports cars, exotics, and finally hypercars. As in the first game, there’s a veritable hoard of single events to help bolster the prize pot, whilst the nifty customisable garage space makes a welcome return. This feature suffers a lot less slowdown than previously, with the player able to add all manner of tuning garages, car display units, and general decorative objects, including aquariums, arcade cabinets, chairs and plants.
GCU2's racing is more competitive than its predecessor, and with improved handling, it's good fun.
Gear.Club Unlimited 2’s events feel a little less like a never-ending sequence of unrelated, drip-feed DLC and a bit more like a console-first driving experience. There’s far less slowdown plaguing the menus, whilst the races sport better graphics, more engaging presentation, and a greater depth of handling. Courses are also far longer, with the 60-second bursts of the original replaced with meatier layouts lasting anywhere between two and six minutes each.
Settings are a little more interesting, too. The racing landscape is split into four areas. You’ve Glaciers; these icy mountain passes make a decent first impression, with their narrow, slippery switchbacks, whilst Dead Rivers mixes dirt tracks with open canyon roads, allowing players to really open up the throttle, tackling some thrilling, high-speed sweeps. The coastal drives of the aptly-named Dream Bay are enlivened by colourful towns that hide some technical sequences. Finally, there’s Giants Valley, the centre point of the map that features countryside driving. The handling is weightier than before, once again allowing novices some driving assists and a rewind feature to ease them in, but delivering really good, slide-friendly simcade possibilities when they’re switched off. As well as suffering fewer difficulty spikes, the AI offers a more consistent challenge. Players won’t be able to ram-raid their way into the lead by the first corner, instead having to race their way to the front. This makes for more engaging, less lonely racing.
Settings are a little more interesting, too. The racing landscape is split into four areas. You’ve Glaciers; these icy mountain passes make a decent first impression, with their narrow, slippery switchbacks, whilst Dead Rivers mixes dirt tracks with open canyon roads, allowing players to really open up the throttle, tackling some thrilling, high-speed sweeps. The coastal drives of the aptly-named Dream Bay are enlivened by colourful towns that hide some technical sequences. Finally, there’s Giants Valley, the centre point of the map that features countryside driving. The handling is weightier than before, once again allowing novices some driving assists and a rewind feature to ease them in, but delivering really good, slide-friendly simcade possibilities when they’re switched off. As well as suffering fewer difficulty spikes, the AI offers a more consistent challenge. Players won’t be able to ram-raid their way into the lead by the first corner, instead having to race their way to the front. This makes for more engaging, less lonely racing.
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The visuals also fare well. The cars play a starring role, with tremendous models and excellent lighting effects, whilst pockmarked roads, pastel skies, and various points of a day/night cycle also impress. Mid-range scenery looks a little dated, with denser elements such as rocks, trees and fences looking quite low-rent, whilst on some courses, there’s also some pop-in from time to time. However, this isn’t too distracting, and it doesn’t spoil your fun. A soundtrack comprising rock and electronic tunes offers a limited audio range, but they’re energetic and catchy enough to fit the bill, even if a few tracks start to grate by the end. The guttural engine notes are excellent, though.
As a sequel, Gear.Club Unlimited 2 can be commended for taking several decent strides in the right direction. However, there are still some issues that see it struggling to keep pace with the best of the Need for Speeds and Forza Horizons. Loading times are noticeable, especially upon booting up, and the multiplayer is disappointing. There aren’t many simcades that offer four-player split-screen, but though it runs okay, the lack of any computer-controlled competitors (even in two-player) feels like a regression. The result is a bland, somewhat anticlimactic experience that could have been much more, especially given what was hinted at in the first game.
As a sequel, Gear.Club Unlimited 2 can be commended for taking several decent strides in the right direction. However, there are still some issues that see it struggling to keep pace with the best of the Need for Speeds and Forza Horizons. Loading times are noticeable, especially upon booting up, and the multiplayer is disappointing. There aren’t many simcades that offer four-player split-screen, but though it runs okay, the lack of any computer-controlled competitors (even in two-player) feels like a regression. The result is a bland, somewhat anticlimactic experience that could have been much more, especially given what was hinted at in the first game.
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Gear.Club Unlimited 2 features some pretty lighting effects and lovely car models, a clear step forward from its predecessor.
Then there’s the track design and the nature of the longevity. Both, it should be noted, are better than in the original. 35+ hours of racing represents good value. GCU2 is well-suited to both portable sessions and longer spells in front of the TV, and is ideal for return visits. However, though many of the routes look nice and the handling ensures fun racing, the layouts feel very procedural in design. The same sweeps, corners and roundabouts crop up in very similar form, repeatedly, and with little elevation change and few meaningful scenic points, the geography of the map never feels like a properly connected sequence of roads. In this sense, the design lacks creativity and immersive qualities, the courses feeling individually unmemorable. Like the first game, GCU2 heavily recycles races and layouts to create the illusion of a vast lifespan. Sometimes, this is massively overdone: you shouldn’t have to battle through 18 additional races to win an already-beaten rival’s car.
Still, there’s a lot of good to be said for Gear.Club Unlimited 2. The racing is fast and fun, its selection of cars a modest improvement over the first game, provides a decent range of experiences and the garage remains great fun to tinker with. On the whole, it also makes better use of the Switch’s architecture. It isn’t the best simcade racer on the market, but it is one of the best on Nintendo’s hybrid system, and as it can often be found for peanuts during eShop sales, it’s well worth a try. It’s just a shame a little more progress wasn’t made on the split-screen multiplayer side, as that really could have helped it stand out from the crowd.
Still, there’s a lot of good to be said for Gear.Club Unlimited 2. The racing is fast and fun, its selection of cars a modest improvement over the first game, provides a decent range of experiences and the garage remains great fun to tinker with. On the whole, it also makes better use of the Switch’s architecture. It isn’t the best simcade racer on the market, but it is one of the best on Nintendo’s hybrid system, and as it can often be found for peanuts during eShop sales, it’s well worth a try. It’s just a shame a little more progress wasn’t made on the split-screen multiplayer side, as that really could have helped it stand out from the crowd.
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VERDICT
"Eden's sequel represents a step forward in gameplay and presentation terms, providing the Switch with a diverting simcade title. Worth investigating, provided you can forgive its disappointing course design and lacklustre multiplayer." OVERALL: 7/10 |
OTHER 2010s SIMCADE RACERS REVIEWED
Forza Horizon 2 (2014, Xbox One)
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Driveclub (2014, PlayStation 4)
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