Having realised that Carbon was a little bit rubbish, and ProStreet was an aquired taste that wasn’t really in keeping with the Need for Speed’s demographic of mod-hungry Supra drivers, EA have gone back to what was the best in the recent games: Most Wanted. Bringing back the flashing blue-lights of the fictional city’s Police force was a bright idea and clearly Black Box have been playing a little Burnout since the last in the series given the sun-bleached, Paradise-like 160km of road you’re free to drive around.
As ever, this latest Need for Speed-er is a petrolhead’s wet dream. The introduction throws you right into the driver’s seat of a souped-up 350Z, and from there even the basic cars pack some serious punch, with the upgrade path to a sporty Elise barely 15 minutes into the game via a generous pink-slip arrangement. The premise is the usual hocum, although this time the cut-scenes are entirely FMV with apparently famous actors, although what they’re doing here, against seedy lighting and smoke-filled offices, is barely acting.
Regardless. The movie sections are a means to an end, a big HD arrow pointing you, the undercover cop, to your next objective. It’s closer to the first The Fast and The Furious movie than EA have been before, with similar twists and the same route up through the ranks to the top racers in the city, who are naturally involved with all kinds of nefarious, no-good antics such as car smuggling and dodgy haircuts. Your GPS points you to the next location, but a tap of the d-pad transports you instantly to the nearest race if you can’t be bothered driving there.
Around the city’s districts are a few hidden shops, both performance-wise and also for visual modifications. Although you’re free to pause the game at any time (if you’re not currently racing, obviously) and change, boost, swap and mod your car in the garage, if you’ve not found the required shop in the map you can’t make the modification. That is, unless you pay. Real money. Yes, EA have introduced an in-game system whereby if you can’t be bothered to wait until you level up, or find the right location on the map, you can use your real, hard earned cash. A quick tally suggests there’s £35 worth of upgrades to be had, and you can even leapfrog the difficulty curve and buy the top-end cars.
This, in our opinion, stinks. Sure, you’re not forced to do this, but sudden spikes in the AI’s ability suggest that a few quid to jump to a Skyline wouldn’t be money badly spent. Whether or not you oppose this type of in-game progression is entirely up to you, but we’d imagine that if you’re the sort of person that can happily spend £3.99 on a virtual t-shirt in this time of recession and uncertainty then surely a similar amount to unlock a few high-end cars wouldn’t be an issue. Again, it’s entirely optional, but the way it’s presented doesn’t sit well with us.
And our problems with the game don’t end there. Although the vehicles in the game looking absolutely stunning (seriously, better than Gran Turisimo 5 Prologue) with some gorgeous lighting effects and beautiful environments, the game runs like a dog. It’s roughly 30FPS, but even in the very first intro the game manages to drop to single figure frame rates seemingly at random. This can occur at any point in any race, and doesn’t seem to be restricted to a specific camera view or even the number of racers on screen, and does indeed ruin the game’s sense of speed and makes handling the cars considerably trickier than it should.
And yeah, there’s also the handling. Whether it’s the huge understeer, the ridiculous deadzone on the analog sticks or the floaty physics we’re not sure, but bundled altogether even the usually reliable motors like the Lotus drive like shopping trollies. Granted, we seldom take 90 degree corners at 80MPH in real life, but when you’re resorting to pinging off barriers and other cars because the brakes don’t work and the handbrake acts like a magnet to the nearest wall, races just aren’t really all that fun. Combine all this with rubberbanding AI like you’ve never seen before, and, well, it’s hard to recommend.
If EA can patch the framerate issues and tweak the handling, Undercover could be a great game. The map is massive, the range of cars superb and when not in motion the visuals are breathtaking, and the game sports a massive array of online modes in which fans will find much to enjoy. The game’s problems, however, outweigh anything it has going for it because they’re essentially game-breaking. Whether the game was rushed at the end to make the usual November release-spot we don’t know, but as it stands this is absolutely only for the hardcore Need for Speed fans prepared to look past the issues. Everyone else should look for either EA’s own Burnout Paradise or Rockstar’s Midnight Club: LA for their arcade racing action.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:33 am
So much for going out and buying this today then, the banner is nice by the way.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:52 am
Yeah it’s a let down - a nail in the coffin for this series it seems now.
What EA SHOULDA done was to use Criterion’s stellar Burnout engine, woulda been awesome! Oh well…
November 21st, 2008 at 11:54 am
Shame, I bet a lot of folk were hoping for a flashy sequel to Most Wanted, which was amazing. Back to Burnout then!
November 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm
midnight club ftw!!!11!!!!!
November 21st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Despite this game getting panned by the critics, I still saw loads of chavs buying this down at my local Game. I’m starting to think that the quality of the NFS games is irrelevant now. As long as they exist they shall sell by the truckload.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:00 pm
We’ll i’ll still be heading town town to get it, and on a side note, im not a chav.
nofi Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 1:15 pm
It’s actually not a bad game, but the framerate and the handling really drag it down. Hopefully they can be patched.
The cars look amazing though.
3shirts Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Framerate is more important to me, the cars look great in GT5:P but it also stays super slick. Better looking cars but a much worse framerate is a deal breaker for me.
Most wanted was great but ProStreet wasn’t so I was looking forward to this one.
Rubberband AI annoys the hell out of me too, it’s a lazy way to keep the game competitive and renders all the modding etc pointless cos they’ll always keep up and misjudged final corner will ALWAYS lose you the race.
GamerRiley Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I agree 3shirts, how can you have a decent racer if the framerate doesn’t hold up. Get this right worry about how the cars look afterwards.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:27 pm
good review.
tuning your car in these sort of game is always a low point for me. because to be honest….i dont have a clue wot im doing haha. sure, i can make the car look like the ultimate pussy wagon but it wouldn’t be much better than a tractor for driving!
November 21st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
What a downer, I loved Most Wanted and hoped this one would bring back some of the flair that was lost in Carbon and Pro Street. Oh well I might get it when it’s cheap anyway but I will stick with Burnout for now
November 21st, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Please get rid of the fucking ugly ads! I though TSA was better than this, I’ll just go to IGN if I want ads. -.-
nofi Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Cheerio.
3shirts Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
If you pay all the hosting costs for them, I’m sure they gladly will.
fredrikpedersen Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I’m just saying, it ruins the look of the site.
colossalblue Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 3:27 pm
but it means there can be a site to ruin the look of.
Personally I think the themed backgrounds are nice and the ads are not significant or intrusive. I’d rather this than pop-ups and those bloody flash adverts that make it difficult to find the close button.
fredrikpedersen Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Those are the worst kind, yes. But there was a site here since mid ‘07, without ads.
nofi Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
This /absolutely/ isn’t up for public discussion either way, sorry.
colossalblue Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 3:46 pm
But it wasn’t as big or as popular or in need of as much bandwidth on its servers.
I don’t think anyone is getting rich off the adverts on here and I don’t think they would be here if they weren’t neccessary. Unfortunately we just have to put up with advertising, it’s the way of the capitalist world I’m afraid.
GamerRiley Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Nofi personally I think the site looks great. I ain’t suckin up to ya but credits given where credits due. The Need For Speed background looks rather nice.
benny boy Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 4:25 pm
It’s hardly a bad ad anyway. It adds a nice warm glow to the side of the screen.
jonny_bolton Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
After the review lets hope the ad men don’t get you the sack like that bloke at Gamespot who rated Kane & Lynch badly whilst the whole site was sponsered by the game…
keep up the good work by the way, loving the site, been here for a few months and it’s the only place I go now.