Need for Speed Undercover is the
latest title in EA’s long-running Need for Speed series. Featuring an emphasis
on story and police chases, Undercover harkens back to the glory days of the
series when games like Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit. Unfortunately, Undercover
doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, instead feeling like a retread
of previous titles. Still, if you’re a hardcore Need for Speed fan, there should
be plenty here to get excited about.
The story in Need for Speed
Undercover is pretty light stuff, and really nothing to get too excited about.
You are an undercover cop who gets drafted into a situation where you’ll have to
help bring down a crime syndicate from the inside. You’ll run a series of races
in order to work your way up to the top of the heap, gaining prestige and making
friends (and enemies) within the syndicate in order to take on those in charge.
The storyline unfolds in stylized cut scenes, featuring well-known actors like
Maggie Q and Christina Milian, but it feels like a pretty generic straight-to-video
narrative, as far as a film would go.
Undercover presents you with an open
world, allowing you to explore the city as you see fit in order to find races
and shops to purchase upgrades and new cars. Additionally, there are some ways
to get to the racing without scouring the map, including pressing down on the
d-pad in order to skip to the next race, or open your GPS Map and find the next
one.
In many ways, Need for Speed
Undercover feels a lot like Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Cop pursuits take
center stage in a lot of situations. The cop AI is pretty good, as they’ll often
try to make use of shortcuts and will give you a pretty intense chase, more so
than in previous Need for Speed titles.
Aside from the focus on cop chases,
there’s really not a lot here that feels terribly different from anything you’ve
seen from the series. The races are simple fare, often having you do lap races,
or “point A to point B” style races. Occasionally, you’ll do specialized races
where you’ll have to remain a certain distance in front of a single opponent or
even coup a certain amount of damage while being chased by cops, but most of
what’s hear feels repetitive and old hat at this point.
The car physics have the same
loose-handling arcade feel as the rest of the series, albeit with a few minor
changes. The game makes it easier to perform moves like burnouts and 180-degree
turns, giving it a more cinematic feel than previous games. However, the game
still feels a little too floaty, and muscle cars are especially lousy to drive,
as they’ll whip all around the road and hardly turn at all around a tight curve.
Undercover gives you some pretty
basic edits for your garage of vehicles. As you progress through the story,
you’ll unlock more cars, and earning money will allow you to purchase upgrades
for your vehicles. While tuners will be able to purchase upgrades for individual
parts for your car, like new tires or suspension, you can also buy full kits for
your either power or handling for your car should you have the money. In a
strange twist, you’re actually able to purchase car upgrades with Microsoft
Points should you be short on actual funds.
You can also autosculpt your car as
you could in previous Need for Speed games, tweaking and customizing your car’s
aesthetic in some pretty cool ways. This doesn’t really have any bearing on how
your car performs, but is pretty fun to do nonetheless.
Graphically, the game looks pretty
good, with great looking cars and damage effects, as well as a pretty big city
to explore. There are also some pretty good special effects that really help
create the sense of speed. However, there are some problems, namely lousy
framerates that bog down when the racing gets intense. This can get so bad that
it can affect the gameplay, which is very frustrating.
The sound and music fare pretty
well. The voice work, which includes dynamic police banter over the radio,
sounds very good, and the soundtrack features a nice blend of artists including
Nine Inch Nails, Pendulum, and Justice.
Need for Speed Undercover doesn’t
add any new elements to the formula, instead taking elements from the past few
years and putting them altogether while adding in a pretty lackluster story.
Fans of the series and its high points like Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit 2 will
enjoy the focus on police chases, while everyone else will likely want to wait
for the game to get some real changes in the coming years.
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Gameplay: 7.0
The racing modes are the same as they’ve been for years now, as the street
racing will feel very familiar to those who’ve played some iteration of the
franchise in the past five years. The game’s handling feels a bit more cinematic
than previous iterations, and pulling off impressive moves is a bit easier.
Muscle cars still handle very lousily.
Graphics: 7.5
The car models are well rendered and the environment looks pretty solid with
little instances of pop-up, but the constant framerate hiccups are a drag.
Sound: 8.5
The voice (and FMV cut scene) work is nicely done, with police banter
sounding responsive and adding a nice element to the cop chases. The soundtrack
is also pretty solid.
Difficulty: Medium
Concept: 6.5
Undercover doesn’t really bring anything new to the table and the story is
nothing to get excited about.
Multiplayer: 7.0
The game supports online play for up to 8 players. The races are the same
that you’ll encounter in the story mode, with the addition of the cops and
robbers mode, which pits you on opposing sides for a team-based cat and
mouse-style game.
Overall: 7.0
Need for Speed Undercover makes a good attempt to recapture the visceral
sense of racing that the series made its name on, but doesn’t bring much new to
the table.
