Review of Need for Speed: Undercover

This is the best Need for Speed ever on the Wii. I now own the following for my Wii:
Gamecube versions of NFS Underground, Underground2 and Most Wanted
Wii versions of Carbon, ProStreet and Undercover

From a most playable/most fun point of view Most Wanted has always been best in series (we all know that).

For the record, Underground was first with amazing pseudo-realistic graphics. Underground2 was first with an open world driving concept (still limited but the first in NFS series). Most was first with Cop Chases (and a few other features). Carbon has a good plot, a great big world that could be explored, and strange hard-to-learn controls (if you learn them the game is great, what a pain though). ProStreet had great new driving mechanics and updated real-damage modelling that were fun, great racer, too bad it's got such dull environments and gets monotonous after a while (I've played through half of it hard and solid, finally entered some cheats and now am driving an amazing customized Ford GT that dominates every other car in the game LoL).

Finally we have what is supposed to be the new best-of NFS game, undercover.

This is the first to have truly movie-quality video (as opposed to the stylized video of previous NFS games). I wish they'd stylized it again though, it is a bit jarring compared to the look of the game, the earlier games made FMV blend better with the game and it allowed us to overlook the pretty-good but not great acting. The acting in this isn't bad, but it's not something you'd watch by choice if it was on TV imho. So video is ok but I don't love the look of it, not nearly as bad as some reviews have said though.

I believe that the plot is EA's way of making good on supporting the police and the law while still offering underground racing and police chases. I believe they came up with this concept well and I can't see how else they could have done this concept without becoming "bad influences" again (a big complaint against EA in the days of Carbon, Most Wanted and Underground). So deal with it, use your imagination and don't laugh at the plot - it's not stupid at all and as always it does match up with movies we pay good money to go see :-)

What EA did right:
- brought back police chases
- you get to drive police cars at times!!
- police choppers (hey, that's not FAIR LoL)
- tougher cops at later parts of game (REALLY tough)
- easier racing mechanics from prostreet (this is a fun game, not for someone looking for super tough try and again and again racing, this is way more fun but won't last the hardcore racer very long, good for the Wii imho and I for one am tired of swearing through Most Wanted's "restart race" button clicks)
- big(ish) worlds you can explore at will (a good thing to learn if you're going to outrun cops, don't underestimate how important learning your cities is...)
- Most Wanted's breakable obstacles to throw off cops (and the animations are great for them considering their purpose, why would someone say they're lame? wtf do reviewers expect?? it's a tiny part of a huge game and the animations are far better than in Most Wanted)
- best graphics ever for a Wii/Gamecube racing game (yes, better than in Most Wanted imho despite what some reviewers have been saying, I think people are looking at the 3 year old Most Wanted with rose-tinted glasses sometimes, it has it's share of issues....)
- great sounds, great soundtrack, speedbreaker is back (YAY!!), all the best control features from previous games are here
- all new stunts you can perform at high speeds!!
- good upgradeable cars (too bad they used the limited upgrading based on how advanced you are that was in the underground series, but as long as you're patient you'll get good upgrades. And for the record (again to the reviewers out there), since the game is so much easier to beat with a tricked out car, why would EA be stupid enough to allow you to trick out your car fully at the beginning? you have to ADVANCE through the game to improve enough to get to the next level. This is a game, and a fun one and one that will take some time to complete but not because you have to keep trying over and over again, it's just got a good long sequence of events and levels to complete (from what I can see so far). Well done imho.
- wide roads without too much traffic gives me a chance to really have fun racing, it's again all about the fun aspect. I prefer this system, but there are a few small lanes and there are highway scenes with a ton of traffic to weave through as well so don't get too comfortable!

What EA may have missed the boat on:
- in an effort to minimize how much detail is needed on screen so they can render better quality cars and nicer detail and better models, EA has gone with the older game coding trick (also in gamecube NFS games) of reducing the variety of on screen colors to smooth everything over and speed up some rendering. Hence the dawn/dusk racing times and yellowish colors. Very standard design trick for games. It's a tradeoff. But it can get a little glaring to drive into the sun half the time. PS - I didn't see anything strange about the sun movement - try driving into the sun and see how it moves around when you're following a gradual curve... (again to reviewers).
- cars honestly do sometimes take a while to appear in front of you, no doubt a technical trade-off but one that I wish they could have avoided... it doubt it's a bug as much as a limitation based on what they were trying to do. But I don't think it was a wise move - I'd rather see badly rendered cars in the distance that improve as they get closer than well rendered cars appearing out of nowhere... but at the speeds we're racing it's understandable and not that much of a problem so far for me
- on other platforms you can pay real money to upgrade your car. that's just lame and shouldn't have been done. I'm happy that feature doesn't seem to be in the wii version (at least I haven't come across it yet)
- the police have suddenly started becoming too difficult for me as I advance through the game. Maybe I suck at avoiding them... I don't know, but MAN they're hard to escape now, earlier in the game they weren't bad at all. Maybe Most Wanted was like that toward the end too, I don't know, I never finished that game...
- some framerate issues (on the other consoles, Wii is fine), haven't seen that on my wii that I can recall... EA must be pushing the limits of the consoles with this game (or just has some bad code in there LoL)

Summary: great game, underappreciated by reviewers so far, the graphics look to me better than in most wanted (I played both back and forth to come to that conclusion) and are much better than in prostreet (due to prostreets dull worlds, not the rendering engine). Carbon had some great graphics sometimes but was a strange game to control, I'd say this is going back to what Carbon was trying to do and doing it better. It truly is the best of carbon, most wanted and prostreet plus a bit of underground2 thrown in for good measure.

A couple of imho minor runtime issues, some average acting and empty-ish roads don't make it a bad game to me, in fact it's a more fun racing game than most wanted was (open roads are WAY more fun), the AI is just right and the busy freeway sections make up for that if you want it, not to mention fantastic cop chases!

PS: other cars on the road are modeled better than I recall seeing before in NFS, up close they look great, and you don't get that annoying green station wagon appearing in 30 different parts of town at the same time like you did in Most Wanted LoL. And the real damage modelling is great, even better than in Pro Street. ReallyUndercover is like Carbon without drifting, Prostreet on the streets, Most Wanted with updated graphics/gameplay,underground with more open worlds, better sounds, better graphics and less frustrating crash situations.


If you own a wii this is the best racing game there is. Get it.

Other platforms? maybe stick with your burnout or whatever...



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