Need for Speed Undercover

I have been a fan of the Need for Speed series for many years. In fact, seeing the Need for Speed Undercover box on my desk made me reminiscent of the days when I would play Need for Speed Porsche 2000. Yet, after spending some time with NFSU, it made me wonder if the developers even bothered testing the game before letting it loose upon the world…

Developed by EA Black Box, Need for Speed Undercover has been released on every platform imaginable, including the iPhone. In a nut shell, you take the role of a police officer going undercover in Tri-City. You are tasked to compete in various car-related events in order to infiltrate a bunch of street racing criminals.

One would postulate, had they ever played a Need for Speed game prior to playing this one, that there’d be a selection of different racing events. Winning each event would reward you with an amount of in-game credits which allow you to purchase upgrades for your car(s) or buy a new ride, whilst avoiding the motor head style customisation that a racing simulator like Forza or Gran Turismo would offer. If you assumed this, then you’d be more or less correct.

Graphically, Need for Speed Undercover is a disaster. At its best, the frame rate is low enough for you to notice constant skipping, but whenever you turn a corner, crash into something, or have more than one car on display, frame rate drops are so prominent that it almost feels like the console isn’t up to the performance requirements of the game. On top of that, the road looks constantly wet – even though it’s sunny all of the time – and cars are rendered with PVC textures. Absolutely everything has a shadow, to the point where it has made me wonder how much I actually notice actual shadows when I go outside. It’s truly disgusting, and does make me ask the question “did anyone actually bother playing this before it left the development studio?”.

Loading times are something of a hindrance as well. I didn’t bother installing the game, and perhaps doing so would have decreased the duration spent waiting, but honestly, the loading screen looks exactly like something I would expect to see at my local Odeon cinema; you know the short clip they play that lets everyone know that the film is about to start, but reminds them to turn off their mobile phones? I almost got popcorn…

Whilst Need for Speed Undercover is an open-world game, it may as well not be. I mean, exploring the world only costs you money, as you get fined for speeding or breaking things, and any events available can simply be jumped to from the map. In fact, every event finishes where a new one starts, so once you’ve endured the game’s endless loading times, all you have to do is press down on the D-pad, and lo behold! you’re back on that loading screen once more. In addition to that, whilst Tri-City is fully explorable when you’re not in an event, as soon as you jump into one you are restricted to where ever the yellow and black 90s racing game themed barriers lead you, so you can forget about choosing your own route.

Difficulty doesn’t really pop up and surprise you at any point. In fact, the most difficult scenario I stumbled upon was during the introduction to the game where I had to take control of the car featured in the cut scene and escape from the cops before being told what the controls are, though naturally I figured them out relatively quickly. The thing is, Need for Speed doesn’t even progress down the difficulty line, because as you get further into the game, you make more money, allowing you to upgrade your car to keep it on the same level as the opposition. I honestly think I’d have a harder time putting together an Early Learning Centre 4-piece puzzle.

Anyone who has played Burnout Paradise would notice that Need for Speed Undercover is trying to be exactly that, which is a shame really, because all-in-all, Burnout Paradise wins every time. Everything down to the soundtrack is worse with Need for Speed Undercover, and considering you can pick Burnout Paradise up for less, and have DLC available to you, it’s clearly the better choice. I always considered Need for Speed to be the street racing extraordinaire, leaving the racing simulation to more serious games and letting Burnout deal with the exciting crashes, but now it has just become a worse and more expensive version of a game that has revolutionised open world racing.

Quite how Need for Speed Undercover has been well received by other review publishers, I don’t know. I suppose if you can ignore the lousy frame rate, the lack of difficulty and the fact you’re paying for an open world game that might as well be menu-based, you might, maybe, enjoy Need for Speed Undercover. If that’s the case though, you’re probably the sort of person who should go and get your hands on copies of Lips and Skate-It as well. The rest of us will have fun trying to get 8 cars on top of a barn without crashing.