Need for Speed: Undercover

Need for Speed: Undercover brings back the old gameplay everyone loved, but it’s so easy, lazy, and buggy that not even your average hotrod grandma will enjoy it.

Let’s face it, Need for Speed: Most Wanted was probably the best street racing game you could possibly play. The cars were so hot, the sense of speed so violent, and the world so large and fun that it was a must for any fan of street racing. But then Need for Speed: ProStreet came and ruined the series completely with it’s racing, plain old racing. No cops, no cars to hit, and worst of all, no free roam to explore. So EA learned its lesson, right?

Wrong. In face, it has another lesson to learn. Apparently they don’t know about someone who tests games. Either that or that person isn’t doing there job correctly. There are tons of glitches in the game, both graphically and technically. For example, imagine a scenario. You see a shadow on the road. Then after getting close to it, you find out it’s a car. That happens with every car. But sometimes, after crashing into the car, it magically disappears. Now you see it, now you don’t. Not only that, because if you crash onto a truck head-on (you touch the front of the truck), the truck will stop and then give you the illusion that a couple is in there getting it on. Seriously, it just starts shaking up and down and doesn’t stop. Maybe this should have been rated M. Or it’s just that the game wasn’t programmed and tested right.

Not only that, but the game plays like a slideshow when you actually get up to speed. The low frame rate ruins the sense of speed you should be getting.

Anyways, the main game has you playing as just another racer doing a bunch of races trying to get to the top. You might as well skip the cutscenes and get the races over with. It shouldn’t be too hard. The A button is a click away and the “racers” drive like your grandma, so just skip it. Even the boss races are pretty boring.

If you’re looking for interest in free roam, you might as well turn away. Free roam is no different than in Most Wanted besides the optional motion controls. There’s almost nothing to explore except the open road. The jumps are pretty boring too. In addition, I easily recognized several roads from previous games, so don’t expect to find anything new. The city is pretty lifeless also, not just because there aren’t pedestrians, but also because you’ll see the same white van with possible drug dealers in it at least every minute.

During free roam, there are of course cops still. But you might as well break all the laws you want. The cop chases are so lazy. The cops in Undercover try so effortlessly to find you. Just bump into a few cars and they’ll be behind you already. The longest pursuit I had lasted not even 2 minutes. To make matters worse, the game doesn’t tell you why you’re being chased. It tells you the number of infractions you did, but it doesn’t tell what they are. It’s pretty annoying when you’re being chased and you don’t know why.

I also found the EA Trax (not a typo) pretty boring. Where are all the good rap artists that made Most Wanted hood? Where’s T.I? Oh yeah, he’s in jail as of now, but he wasn’t during the development, I’m sure.

Well, that’s all the bad stuff. Sounds convincing,  right? It is, but to be fair, I should mention the good things. The game does shine in quite a few things. Free roam is horrible, but at least the map is pretty big considering what you’ll be doing. Looking for trouble? There’s also a feature where you can press a button, and if you confirm that you want it, you can start a pursuit. If you do start from your Safe House, then you’re too likely to escape the cops, but it’s a neat feature. Also, if you thought you got out of that pursuit, you’re wrong. The cops will still look for you, even when you escape. Luckily, there’s also a new feature that shows on the radar where the cops are. That’s right, no more looking at that puny arrow to figure out where they are. Now you’ll absolutely know where they are.

When you break it down, Need for Speed: Undercover is just another racing game. But it’s less than that. Despite the [short] list of new features, it is still filled with bugs and glitches that manage to ruin the gameplay completely. It’s addicting, but it’s definitely a guilty addiction. If you’re looking for a good racing game in the NFS series, try Need for Speed: Most Wanted. That doesn’t have the motion controls, but at least it has everything you could want in Undercover.