The plot revolves around the Player's customizable avatar, who is offered the chance to enter a series of tournaments and progresses through the game in order to eventually become the winner of the Solar Crown by defeating a number of NPCs in various races.

Tess berates the Player for arriving late; she considers firing them, but seeing as they are a car enthusiast, she has second thoughts, and asks them to escort her to the Sant Antoni de Portmany club, in exchange for entering them in the Solar Crown.

Not wanting to lose to a rookie, Tess and her father Stuart Wintory, another contestant and sponsor of the tournament, rig the competition to prevent the Player from winning.

The championship ends with a colossal time trial race around Oahu, where the Player becomes the ultimate winner of the Solar Crown.

Oahu has also been renewed graphically to stay up to date for the new game, and each island features a 24-hour cycle and dynamic weather.

[6] However, modders restored the Windows version's online functionality via mods like TDU World, TDUniverse, and the largest of the three, Project Paradise 2.

[7][8][9] Destin Legarie from Destructoid gave a negative review of the game, awarding it a score of 4 out of 10 and commented that Test Drive Unlimited 2 was "surrounded by a bug filled world, glitchy gameplay, and a core mechanic that doesn't function".

Otherwise, he criticized the theme, commenting that "for a game so obsessed with image and lifestyle, TDU2 is hilariously, if endearingly, uncool" and concluding "it's just a shame it sometimes needs to escape from itself".

He finally stated that Test Drive Unlimited 2 "might be lacking in most critical areas, but this is one instance where the sheer quantity of features prevails since their structure is thoughtful enough to make this game more than just a lazy vacation".

He did not like the "ugly character models" and voice acting in the game, considering that it "will annoy at first and then grow to intolerable levels as they're repeated constantly".

[17] According to BigBen Interactive, as of December 2016 estimated sales for Test Drive Unlimited 2 were put at roughly 1.8 million units sold.

[18] At release, the game suffered from a series of reoccurring bugs, particularly on PC, which can seriously affect gameplay, and which prompted the studio to disable the multiplayer functionality due to connection and server issues.

[19][20] General issues included: server blackouts, repeatedly dropped connections, inability to add friends in-game, and many other advertised online features malfunctioning or not functioning at all.

Several patches have been released to resolve the issues,[21] as well as several free or fee-based downloadable content packages and individual items (i.e., new missions, cars).

The initial download is free but the virtual vehicles carry a real-world cost in the form of in-game 'tokens' obtainable for real money.

A patch has been released to fix some of these issues, including the activation of the Club feature, which was disabled to correct exploits in the system.

However, just as it was for the previous iteration of Test Drive Unlimited, the patches never did seem to be fully successful in addressing the issues and fixing the glitches and bugs encountered by players.