Another of the Need For Speed series. Most Wanted was awesome, Carbon was rubbish while ProStreet was nice it it’s own way. So what does Undercover have to offer?
The Story
The player is set in the story as a police officer, who goes undercover into the criminal underground of Tri-City, a fictional city where the game is based. The player has to take on dangerous ‘jobs’ and compete in races in order to infiltrate and take down a ruthless international crime smuggling syndicate, consisting of illegal street racers and car thieves.
Source, kinda reminds you of The Fast and the Furious movie.
Gameplay
I think I need not elaborate much. The game is pretty much Most Wanted again, everything in broad daylight but your involvement is a little different.
Need For Speed : Undercover – Game Review
The police chase are pretty much what you’ve seen in Most Wanted and Carbon, perhaps with more twist as you get to play TAKE DOWN this time where your objective is to take down other cars, police or not.
There’s the DAMAGE system too, which pretty much feels like the one in ProStreet.
Need For Speed : Undercover – Game Review
What I didn’t like about the Gameplay was the new LEVEL-UP thing, it’s sort of like some RPG game. Each time you level up, there’s an increase with your car’s ability. Yes, it’s totally funny. So suddenly my car has better braking abilities?
Need For Speed : Undercover – Game Review
Anyway, you get to gain points as you do stunts or dangerous acts. More points give you more bonuses and all but personally I just ignore them and drive like the wind. Emoticon
The car upgrade options were simplistic as usual, don’t expect the modification options like those in Gran Turismo here.
Need For Speed : Undercover – Game Review
Getting from race to race was alright, a quick press on the TAB key brings you to the race that’s shown at the bottom of the screen.
Graphics and Sound
Graphics and sound is usually not a concern when it comes to the NFS games, the worst I ever saw was NFS:Carbon. I didn’t like it, you could see how I rated it. I didn’t manage to review ProStreet though.
Need For Speed : Undercover – Game Review
Anyway, the sound and graphics are great as usual. Finally we get some decent soundtrack this time. Graphically it’s awesome, however I find that the game lags not due to the graphic detail but the loading of the objects.
Need For Speed : Undercover – Game Review
For example if I was going really high speed on the highway, I get jerking effect all the time and from what I observe it’s just how the system has to keep loading the objects. Emoticon Despite the high framerates I got with high-end graphic cards, reducing the graphic detail somehow helps a little.
I also didn’t like that there doesn’t seem to be an option to turn of the in-game scenes, like say the slo-mo camera zooming when a cop is spotted, or like when you crash into a pursuit-breaker. Emoticon I don’t like these scenes as it interferes with the gaming experience.
Need For Speed : Undercover – Game Review
I also had problem screen-capturing this game with my usual software, in the end I had to use FRAPS. Emoticon With so many huge BMP files, in the end I decided to cut down the # of pictures for the review.
Network / Online Gaming
Online gaming experience was decent, even with my horrible TM Streamyx connection I managed to finish quite a number of games, even though I’m almost always the last of the pack. Emoticon
Interface seems to be a little odd, that after I joined a group game I can’t seem to return to any lobby to hunt other games.
Conclusion
Overall a good game. If you played Most Wanted before then this would be great for you, it might not be as good as Most Wanted but it certainly is one of the better ones around. If you’ve only played Carbon or ProStreet before, then this game would be awesome for you.
Ratings
Need For Speed : Undercover – Game Review
