The difficulty levels also lacks some sense, easy and medium is almost too easy and hard is indeed HARD, I found myself unable to beat the opponents in one of the URL races even with a maxed out car at that given point in the game (granted it's wasn't the fastest car money can buy in the game nor had i fiddled with with it, but still I should be able to at least hang on to them).

In fact there isn't much different between Underground and Underground 2, Underground 2 misses the exactly same things as Underground, mainly that you can't damage the car in anyway, but this is a general thing for NfS games up to this point (bar Porsche). The graphics and sounds has of cause improved but in the game play and last ability categories it hasn't change much. This game is not very different from NfS:Underground (nor should it be) except that it's a new town and you have more cars and visuals to choose from (to be expected) and a few new types of races (street X and a new Drift variant). Starting up from where Underground left, you arrive in Bayview and must once again start from scratch by pimping and enhancing your ride and rise through the ranks.