Excellent semi-realistic rally game.
It isn´t that different from other racing games, its just executed better.
You simply drive races (most of them aren´t even against enemies but against the clock) without much additional jazz. You can´t blow up stuff like in Burnout and you can´t tune your cars like in Need For Speed Underground (you can change a few technical parameters, though) and there´s no story in the campaign or realistic rally events like in ColinMcRae.
So what´s so special about RC2...
-The graphics are spectacular!
Download a video and see for your self. They look absolutely beautiful. The cars reflect the environment in real time, the damage effects look cool, the environments are stunning and it runs smooth no matter what.
The rock solid appearance of the game is further enhanced by small details like the nice looking trails you leave behind when driving through mud, your car getting dirty and even little birds sitting on the road that fly away if you drive near them.
-The gameplay is done "just right".
Its not a hardcore simulation like ColinMcRae. Its more on the arcadey side of things, but that´s not to say it is totally unrealistic.
The cars throttle faster than in real-life, they are lighter so they jump a little higher and they drift hard but are rather controllable while doing so. You can´t kill the engine with wrong shifts and you get a new car for every race, so you don´t have to drive a full event with your f***ed up car like in ColinMcRae. The roads aren´t that bumpy so the cars are more controllable throughout the game.
Yet the game is still realistic enough to look and feel realistic. You can execute realistic looking drifts, you car drives differently on different grounds and it can be damaged both visually and performancewhise. Well, there´s no better way to describe it as saying that its done "just right".
-The sound is good for the most part (at least there was no point where I though: This is wrong) and you can use your own soundtracks. I recommend doing so because the ingame soundtrack is boring.
There´s a lot of content too. There´s a huge number of tracks (with reused trackparts, but that doesn´t matter. The races are still very different from each-other!) and a huge number of different cars. What more can you ask for? Live support? Yes, it has that too.
My opinion is, that if you are remotely interested in the subject and you aren´t looking for a pitch-perfect simulation you should definitely get this game!