Need for Speed Undercover is the latest installment of EA’s racing chain. This time, an undercover job (obviously) will be in your hands and you shall play as a wheelman to know where the smuggled cars went. You will be under Chase Linh which is Maggie Q and plainly all she will do is talk to you. For this review, I will chop it into bits so that I will be able to cover most of the game’s aspects and I will be using the Nissan GT-R most of the time.
THE GAME ITSELF
It’s pretty much the same as Need for Speed Most Wanted because most of the time, cops will try to take you down even though you’re not speeding. What amazes me is that the cops recognize you when they see you around again. Although the cop thing is not gonna help with the race, I think the cops in this game were sharper than before. Unlike MW, the cops here appear and run opposite your car, making you stop if you don’t notice them because they will crash head on to you. Which is pretty annoying for some of us because we hate repeating and repeating the race. Other than that, rechargeable Nitrous, speedbreaker and heat levels were shifted back.
NEW STUFF
There are new stuff in the game although it might not be appreciated that much. The game itself has the largest EA world created with several highway links to three different places. In the race types, new ones were highway battle, Cop escape, Cost to state and outrun. In Highway Battle, it’s the same as a Sprint but it is “Wangan” straight with minimal traffic which makes it nice to drive around that thrash your opponent easily. Cop escape is also similar to MW except that the whole city is open for you to hide somewhere unlike in MW where you should keep on outrunning cops in one circuit. Cost to State makes you damage anything in front of you, beches, signs, cars and even cops. You’ll have to damage enough to get through to this type of race. In Outrun, you play cat and mouse with one opponent with, again, the whole city or world open to you, much like Tokyo Xtreme Racer or old Wangan Midnight games.
There’s also a new feature which Maggie Q called “In the Zone”. She said that when you are “IN the ZOnE”, your speedbreaker and nitrous will refill quicker than normal. This will also create a nitrous brake light beam effect from the back of your car and glows your tach when you are in the zone. That feature will be gone once you hit any barrier of wall. You will get the feature when you do a lot of stuff like airtime and near miss.
Another new thing is that this time, the AI is using a real life cop car which is the Nissan GT-R. Also, cops are using choppers so that it will take time before you shake them off.
Yup, definitely a GT-R. Run!
NO NEW CARS, NO NEW GRAPHICS
Yep, I think most of the cars there are apparent in previous titles and if ever there’s a new one, it is not that good although I would like to make it a point that the new Nissan 370Z is an exception, makes me wonder this car might have a bias. The Nissan GT-R and the 911 GT2 were there while there are cars being removed such as Subaru Impreza. Even though the environment has changed, the graphics didn’t. When I saw the game, I preferred the new graphics that the Need For Speed ProStreet had. It’s was back to rubbish wheel designs and reflective roads. Although there is a new type of bodykit which is named “Integrated” which makes the car look better. It might compensate to the rubbish designs of the old era but I don’t think it will compensate that much.
That’s integrated bodykit for you. (whut?!)
BAD GAME PHYSICS
It’s also the same as MW when turning. At some point you will be forced to use the speed breaker in order not to let your opponent pass you when you turn in like a stupid person because you’ll crash on a wall. I hate using speed breaker because it interrupts me looking for another button to press so that it can make me corner better. The cars tend to slide badly when you encounter jumps which is pretty annoying. It may be good because it really happens in real life but sometimes the slides were too exaggerated.
RANTS~!
The game itself is not even gonna reach satisfactory rating. One because it’s like a repeat of the MW. Another, the new features may be good but they’re not gonna lift the game up the ranks. Cars may be accessed with ease but tuning all cars will not be necessary. For example, once I got my hands in the Nissan GT-R, I tuned it up and used it all the way. I did tune the Zonda and the Porsche but I did not use them. Once you’ve tuned the high end cars, most of them have the same specs. That is why in this review, I’m just using a GT-R. The graphics suck because they kept on repeating the same design. I was expecting it to be more like the Prostreet. Prostreet cars have better reflections compared to this one. The new bodykit series is really great, I admit, it made the Evo X look better unlike the exaggerated wide bodykit for Race.
When I read reviews for NFS on PSP, I always optimistic towards the game. Like the Prostreet, I liked the damage modelling and wondered why is it not included in the latest. Why are the improvements not implemented on the new installement? I’m really an NFS fan but it seems that the interest is fading away. Right now I have NFS Prostreet because I enjoy the physics of the game and the online feature. If I played Undercover online, it will be no challenge. really.
This game is nice, in terms of its story. I admit, I liked the story more rather than the game. The story made me continue the game because I’m always interested on what will happen next. Other than than, it felt like I was back in Most wanted but this time on the side of the cops being a puppy to them. 😀
Gallery:
LifeDrive 
Recent Comments