- Title: Need for Speed: Undercover
- Publisher: EA
- Developer: EA Black Box
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: Racing
- Pros: Fast, mindless gameplay; good career progression; good sound; easily join races
- Cons: Framerate issues; a bit too easy; having an open world city is pointless here; option to spend real money on in-game items
Need for Speed Undercover places you in the role of an undercover cop trying to work their way into the world of illegal street racing. That means racing and beating the other street racers as well as delivering stolen cars and running from the cops to prove you are legit.
The career mode gives you several race and chase types including having to stay ahead of a rival for a specific period of time, checkpoint races, circuit races, and “Cost to State’ (total damage) or “Evasion” where you have to get away in a certain amount of time police chases. The best part about the career mode is that you can instantly enter any event through the map screen or you can press down on the D-Pad while you are driving around the city to enter events that are near your current location. Strangely enough, you can actually drive to the events in the game world and can only enter them in the ways I described. Personally, though, I don’t mind this too much, but it does make having the open city to drive around in pretty much pointless, as there is literally nothing to do other than enter races. And I love that you can upgrade, tune, and customize your cars and even buy new ones all through the menu.
Gameplay
With all of that said, however, there are some high points and you can definitely still have fun with it. Because it is mindless and easy, and because of the way the events are laid out and their generally short length, Need for Speed Undercover is an amazingly laid back experience. It isn’t like the recently released Midnight Club LA, for example, where the A.I. is beating your brains in and you have to rush everywhere and it is all kind of a hassle. Undercover is all about just cruising around and listening to music in a car you completely customized, and you don’t really have to worry about anything. Personally, I think there is room in the genre for a more laid back and less stressful racing game.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, Need for Speed Undercover is a decent looking game with nice cars and a fairly detailed city to drive around in. Honestly, the game looks a heck of a lot like Most Wanted, so if you liked that game’s color palate and softer look you’ll like Undercover. What you won’t like, however, is the incredibly unstable framerate, pop in, and surprising lack of traffic on the roads. During police chases or races where everyone is bunched up, the framerate takes a pretty noticeable hit. Not to unplayable levels, but it isn’t pretty. The framerate issues seem downright strange, though, when you consider that there is basically no traffic out on the roads, and what traffic is there magically pops into existence just a couple hundred feet in front of you.The sound is fairly decent. The story is told through cheesy FMV sequences and most of your communication is through cell phone calls, but the actors all do a decent enough job. The engine sounds are the standout aspect here, and are very good overall.
Bottom Line
One final thing I want to say is that like the last NFS game, you can spend real world money (MS Points) on in-game items in Undercover. Please, for the love of everything that is good, don’t do this. You unlock everything by normally playing through the game, so even though it is tempting to fork out some cash to upgrade your car or something, don’t do it. This is a business practice that should not be supported.
