Need for Speed Undercover Review

EA's Need for Speed is one of the longest running video game series ever in the racing genre. Previously released, Need for Speed: Pro Street, didn't score too much, but it is still being bought by fans of the series.

The latest sequel of the Need for Speed series, NFS: Undercover, was released on November 18, 2008. It looks like a more enhanced version of NFS: Most Wanted with the same type of cop car chases and some upgrades in graphics and game play.

Story:

In Need for Speed: Undercover, you take the role of a skilled street racer who is under constant supervision of a lady police inspector, played by Actress Maggie Q. She will guide you to make a bust on a smuggling operation taking place in the Tri-City Bay area. As you go undercover you are on your own. Like the previous NFS games, beautiful cut scenes will explain the whole story as you make your way through the game.

Environment:

Need for Speed: Undercover features a massive world of three cities linked with each other by an extensive highway system. You can roam around the cities at your own will but, there are no benefits to exploring the environments as there are no hidden items or events to discover and no rewards for finding shortcuts. Like the prequels of NFS, when you enter a race, the side roads are often blocked by concrete barriers. Though, this will keep you on the race course. But, this doesn't sounds practical for an open world game.

You can either drive to the nearest race event or open the GPS map to choose the event. Races include point-to-point sprints, circuits and checkpoint races. Intense highway battles challenge you to pull ahead of your opponent and stay ahead for a set amount of time. You can also get into intense cop chases and if you manage to escape from the cops, you will gain cash.

Online races support up to eight players with a variety of sprint and circuit courses. Online gameplay also includes cops and robbers mode that splits the players in two teams with robbers collecting money from different points and cops hunting them down. Though, robbers have some advantage over the cops but, each player gets the chance to play on both sides before the final score is summed up.

There are a lot of exotic vehicles in Need for Speed Undercover, including some unreleased cars such as Nissan 370 Z. Players can tune cars to their preferences and upgrade different attributes.

Players can modify their ride according to their own preferences. There is a wide selection of after market parts including body kits, vinyls and a lot of rims to choose from. But, if you want to show off your ride, the vinyls won't appear in online races.

Gameplay:

In terms of gameplay, Need for Speed Undercover is extremely easy. Roads are wide open and there is hardly any traffic on the freeway and the AI opponents can be easily left behind. There are no options in the game to change the difficulty level.

The cop chases are thrilling and at the same time annoying. You very rarely get caught by the cops but, loosing the cops can take a lot of time. In order to loose cops you can either take short corners or you can also drive through pursuit breakers. Driving through pursuit breakers will smash a building or obstacle that will block the way of the cops, hence disabling them to move further.

Need for Speed Undercover's performance is drained down by some technical issues. The sun strikes directly in the eyes of the gamer which makes it difficult to turn through tight corners that suddenly come in your way. And the shining roads make it even worse. The frame rate drops consistently, particularly in the PS3 version of the game.

Conclusion:

Overall, I think Need for Speed Undercover lacks challenge and struggles technically. Though, the framework for a strong game is present in Undercover, but the final game doesn't come close to contend with games such as Burnout Paradise.