Taxi Chaos 2 review: Not your typical Crazy Taxi clone

When you think of overlooked racing games that deserve a sequel, you probably think of titles like DriveClub, Blur or Split/Second. You probably don’t think of Taxi Chaos, a widely panned Crazy Taxi clone released in 2021. And yet five years later, we have Taxi Chaos 2.

It’s a surprising choice for a sequel, suggesting that the original sold enough copies to justify a follow-up. That’s probably because there hasn’t been a new mainline Crazy Taxi game in nearly 25 years, disregarding compilations and mobile spin-offs.

While Sega is developing a modern reboot, it’s remained silent since its 2023 announcement, leaving the door wide open for imitators like Taxi Chaos to capitalise on it’s abscense.

Inevitably, Taxi Chaos 2’s core gameplay borrows heavily from Sega’s arcade taxi racer. You play as Vinnie, a veteran taxi driver who returns from the original game (if you can remember their name from the first game, we salute you), and speed around a fictional city collecting passengers and delivering them to their destinations within a time limit. Rinse and repeat.

The faster you reach the destination, the higher your fare. Likewise, keeping your customers satisfied, represented in a happiness meter, by avoiding accidents and dropping them off on time, will result in a higher Uber-style driver rating. 

To its credit, this sequel is less derivative than its unoriginal predecessor, which was an unapologetic Crazy Taxi clone. In the follow-up, some passengers have special requirements for transporting heavy loads that weigh your car down and affect the steering or extra cargo that must be towed in a trailer.

It’s a shame the dialogue isn’t as varied, however. Passengers repeat the same inane comments like “this must be a new speed record!” or “now that’s taxi driving!” incessantly, with different voice-overs reusing the same dialogue. You’ll sometimes even hear the same line repeated after only a few seconds. It makes you want to tear your hair out after a while. 

Crazy Taxi with a futuristic twist

What really sets Taxi Chaos 2 apart, however, is its futuristic premise. The new release replaces the original game’s sunny New York-inspired New Yellow City setting with San Valeda, a city ruled by AI-controlled ‘TaxiBots’ that have largely replaced human taxi drivers.

This twist gives the sequel a stronger, science fiction-infused identity than its unoriginal predecessor. It’s not entirely far-fetched, either, considering that companies like Waymo are already trialling self-driving taxis on public roads with no human drivers.  

It’s also the setup for the new story mode, something the original game lacked. Split into four chapters with short animated and voiced cut scenes, it sees Vinnie and inventor Cleo, who also returns from the first game, team up to overthrow H.A.N.K., the nefarious AI mainframe that controls the army of robotaxis.

Each chapter sees you complete a shift split into three parts of the day, each featuring different objectives to complete such as meeting fare targets or maintaining a high driver rating, before you can unlock the next chapter.

You start in a rusty banger, aided by an on-board AI voiceover to help you navigate the city. As you earn more money from fares, vehicles can be upgraded with new body styles, including a parody of a Pagani Zonda and a London taxi.

Vehicles are split into three distinct classes with noticeable differences in performance and handling. Heavy vehicles can ram traffic out of the way, while Sport vehicles have faster acceleration and higher top speed. As the name suggests, Drift vehicles are easier to slide around corners.  

As for the driving, vehicle handling feels tighter than the previous game, with snappier turning circles making it easy to weave through traffic and navigate sharp turns, so you rarely need to use the handbrake. It’s a more arcade-like experience than the contrastingly realistic Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator.

That said, the cars feel too light, making collisions feel weightless, with vehicles bouncing off each other when they collide.

Likewise, the map design is a vast improvement. Compared to the original game’s flat, uninspired environment, San Valeda offers greater verticality, with steep, winding hills, driveable ramps and rooftops. This makes the world more enjoyable to explore, rewarding you for learning the layout to find shortcuts.

Although the area is still relatively small, landmarks such as a construction site and docks give it character. Unfortunately, however, the bland visuals let the environment down. 

Graphically, Taxi Chaos 2 looks clean and, unlike the last game, runs smoothly on PlayStation 5, but the charmless, Sims-style art direction lacks identity, making it look like a mobile title at times.

Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo Switch version fares worse, suffering from blurrier image quality and a lower frame rate, even on Switch 2 (there’s no native Switch 2 version despite it being otherwise current-gen only, but it’s backwards compatible). It’s still perfectly playable, but the drop in visual quality is noticeable.

Platform driving

Like most taxi driving games, the loop of picking up and delivering passengers can get repetitive, but Taxi Chaos 2 attempts to keep the experience fresh by introducing new mechanics in each chapter.

Aside from leaping over traffic, the jump mechanic, unceremoniously borrowed from Crazy Taxi 2, was mostly redundant in the first Taxi Chaos game. In the sequel, it’s a necessity, helping you avoid random roadworks or burst waterpipes that can suddenly block your path.

In these scenarios, the game turns into a platformer rather than a driving game. Jumping over obstacles and utilising the environment to find alternative routes can be thrilling.

The TaxiBots don’t take kindly to you stealing their fares. As you drive around, these Tesla-style robotaxis patrol the streets and chase you down if they spot you.

Once you reach a certain point in the story mode, special power-ups can be equipped to defend attacks. Like Sonic Racing CrossWorld’s gadget system, you can equip up to two weapons, which are assigned to the face buttons for easy access. These range from shockwaves that blast vehicles into the air to turbo boosts and aquatic tyres that let you drive on water for a short time.  

Stuck in traffic

Upgrading your taxi and saving up to buy new ones adds a sense of progression, but the grinding required can feel excessive. Day shifts take long to finish, and there’s an unfortunate difficulty spike around the midpoint with tougher goals required to unlock the next chapters.

Not only do you often have to reach a specific driver rank to unlock story chapters, but you must also meet a certain cash saving requirement, making it difficult to spend money on new vehicles or upgrades without slowing the story progression.

Frustratingly, if you fail to complete any specific objectives after a long shift, your driver ranking won’t increase even marginally, even if you earn money from fares.

Adding to the frustration, the TaxiBots become overly aggressive. In later chapters, swarms of robotaxis constantly surround and mercilessly ram you, sapping the initial fun of the high-speed chases. Combine this with the weightless collisions, and the combat doesn’t feel satisfying.   

Beyond the story campaign, there is also a traditional arcade mode, with increasingly difficult objectives and unlockable abilities across multiple rounds condensed into a single session.

Like many indie driving titles, there is no online multiplayer or split-screen, reducing the replay value once you finish the campaign, though global online leaderboards in the arcade mode provide some high-score competition.  

Perhaps it’s the lack of The Offspring blaring through the speakers (the generic soundtrack is a poor substitute) or the weightless driving, but as hard as it tries, Taxi Chaos 2 can’t recapture the energy and exhilaration of Sega’s classic Crazy Taxi series. It does, however, offer a different take on the well-established formula, and is all the better for it.

Overall, Taxi Chaos 2 is a sequel nobody asked for, but it’s a markedly better game than the original.

The bar isn’t exactly high, and while the story mode progression can be frustrating at times, this is one of the better Crazy Taxi clones in recent years, with enough interesting ideas that make it worth going along for the ride while the novelty lasts.  

Score: 6/10

“Crazy Taxi meets I, Robot”