I’m not quite sure where to begin this review; the extremely ridiculous and laughable story line, the astounding frame rate that leave you wondering if there was a QA team at EA for this game, the graphics that look the same as (or worse than) NFS Most Wanted (hint hint: it’s been a few years since MW came out!), or the difficulty level that makes this game more suitable for a 2 year old kid.

STORYLINE
First off, I understand that this is supposed to be an arcade game but the “storyline” is so childish it makes me wonder if the person in charge of it had any grasp of the outside world. You basically play an undercover officer who has to go deep into the underground racing scene and ironically take out racers -by racing them! Throughout this interesting process you have to earn the respect of a gang of tough-wanna-be folks who somehow have managed to get their hands on exotic cars. You will also be forced to sit through plenty of cut scenes that add negative value to the game.

GRAPHICS
You all remember NFS Most Wanted right? And you remember when it came out right? That’s correct, in 2005 exactly 3 years before Undercover was released. So that means the graphics must have gotten much better right? The answer would have been an obvious yes if you were dealing with any game other than NFS Undercover. During the same time span Rockstar’s Midnight Club series has had its game engine replaced while EA has been busy at work (perhaps, hardly at work, with all the enjoyable all-expenses-paid trips for their developers to drag, drift and other racing events around the world) worsening NFS’ graphics. For example the frame rate is so poor that you just cannot believe this game has actually made it to the stores; sometimes racing feels like going through a PowerPoint presentation (the lag is that high). The roads are the same as what they were in Most Wanted with no improvements. The scenery in the horizon looks just terrible for a game like this -very little details if any at all. Not to mention the poorly generated light beams that are basically in the shape of circles filled with either white (headlights) or read and blue (cops) colors. Furthermore the cars just look awful due to lack of acceptable details.

GAMEPLAY
Race in a very boring “open city” with a difficulty level equivalent to Midnight Club LA’s Very Very Very Very Easy mode (hypothetically). That’s pretty much it. While the difficulty does increase after a handful of races or so they aren’t challenging enough at all. Some of the racing modes include circuit, time attack, and sprint. Of course, the cops are back and they perform exactly as they did in Most Wanted so not much to talk about here. Let’s move on to handling now: it’s poor. For example you run into a wall at full speed and somehow your car makes it back on track, in the right direction with little loss of speed. The GPS of your map is very unhelpful as it does not show the direction properly. As a result you will often find yourself traveling in the wrong direction (this happens especially when you are on a highway and you have to take the next exit -you will most likely continue going straight because that’s what the GPS shows!).

The only interesting part of the gameplay aside from the decent cop chases would be the action camera Slow-Mos (again, a feature inherited from previous NFS games). Let me also point out the very unrealistic sense of speed which has been the case for ALL NFS games. Driving at 200 km/h feels like going at 60 km/h no kidding. And last but not least, the drafting feature is overly exaggerated in Undercover. While drafting does occur in real life you never see a 50 km/h boost in speed in 2 seconds as a result of driving behind another car. Not to mention that in reality you must be driving at a relatively high speed in order for drifting to work. Oh did I mention the very limited option you get when “customizing” your ride? Unlike other street racing games all you can do is choose between 2-3 pre-designed kits in addition to customizing the wheels. This means you cannot pick front bumper #1 with rear bumper #3 and hood #5. This gives you far less freedom in customizing your ride even compared to previous NFS games.

SOUND/MUSIC
Cars sound decent and close to actuality, until you perform a burnout. That’s when you hear this ragging sound that is far from what a car revving at high RPM would sound like. The music selection is not bad. In fact that would be one of the good features of NFS Undercover. The rest is fine.

Bottom line, this game should have been released 4-5 years ago. NFS Undercover feels like a poorly tested, buggy, and out-dated game that significantly fails in entertaining its fans and other adrenaline-rush enthusiasts. If you are looking for a much more fun game then be sure to check out Midnight Club LA.

Score

C-