My heart is broken, but I have to do this. The world needs to know the truth about Need for Speed: Undercover, and that's what I am going to give you - the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but first of all, let's take a look into my Need for Speed-related past, shall we?
When I saw the original
Need for Speed, around 1995-1996, if I recall it well, I was simply stunned. It was love at first sight, and despite the fact
Need for Speed II got away from the impressive realism of the first game in the series, I spent countless hours playing split screen matches with a friend of mine.
Although Need for Speed III and IV, subtitled
Hot Pursuit and
High Stakes, came with various new things, the big step - and the apex reached by the Need for Speed franchise was
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, released almost a decade ago, in 2000. Since this is not today's topic, I will only say this: I loved it from first second, I love it, and I will always love that game!
Next, came along the beginning of the end -
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, saved by the presence of a BMW in the car list(I loved that car). After that, the tuning madness started with
Need for Speed: Underground, and old fans started to wait. The wait for a real Need for Speed game, and we're still waiting now, in 2008, after 12 games in the series, including Need for Speed: Undercover...
..but let's leave the past where it belongs now, and move on to what you've been waiting for, the one and only PlayerzBlog...
Need for Speed: Undercover PC Review
Just look at this - Need for Speed: Undercover is available for an amazing range of platforms, probably more than the cars available in the first Need for Speed game:
PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Portable, iPod Touch, iPhone, N-Gage 2.0! Anyway, that doesn't necessarily make it better, it only gives it better chances to be purchased and played by more people, and that's all. These being said, let's check the plot, graphics, gameplay, and the amazing things I discovered in the time I spent with this game...
Need for Speed: Undercover - The Plot
Some people enjoyed ProStreet simply because that game didn't have any silly plot, but this time things have changed - you're UNDERCOVER! Yeah, right, just think about this - you're a cop, and you have to infiltrate the street racing gangs in Tri-City, but once you're inside the first gang...you have to "take out" your team mates, because "you don't have to raise suspicions." I don't know exactly where did they see this, but I missed that movie where the cop infiltrates a gang and starts killing all members, just to avoid being uncovered!
Anyway, if you think the above sucks, think once again - did you see "
The Transporter?" Watch it if you have the chance, it's a great action movie, and I am sure those into Need for Speed: Undercover also saw it, since you will end up facing some missions from a mysterious customer, asking you to deliver some packages here and there.
OK, "The Transporter" is one thing, but what about "
Gone in Sixty Seconds?" Yeah, I know, the blonde Angelina Jolie is totally smokin' in there, but think about the plot of that movie, and the part of the game here where you have to steal "six cars within 48 hours." Expensive exotics, of course. Nothing in common, right? Suuuuure...
The people involved in those useless movie scenes intended to keep you connected to the "story" include international movie star Maggie Q, as detective Chase Linh, your hot high heels contact, American television actor David Rees Snell(the big, bad wolf) and Christina Milian, as Carmen Mendez, a hot chick that you get to race a few times and even save her from the bad guys.
All in all, the plot and those cutscenes are nothing more but money and time diverted from things that really matter, like graphics and gameplay, as we're going to see right away...
Need for Speed: Undercover - The Graphics
"
Look, mom, I discovered a new Pixel Shader function, it's called Blurrrrr!," said the little programmer, and its poor drawings, once animated, started to look better... that's exactly what happens in Need for Speed: Undercover.
The environment lacks detail, colors lack any trace of life, and cars are EXTREMELY UGLY, as you can see in the screenshots around here - those in ProStreet were done much better, and I am not the only one to say this. After enabling 6X AA, the cars still have jagged edges, which is absolutely incredible!
Since I ran the game using an older Radeon X1950 Pro video card, I could say that performance was decent, although I was amazed to find that, after enabling antialiasing and anisotropic filtering, my framerate increased. Well, that's not the only unbelievable part of Need for Speed: Undercover, but we'll talk about unbelievable stuff in the game a bit later...
For now, just let me conclude that the graphics are outdated and ugly.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 looked better, honestly! I think "disaster" is best word to describe Undercover's graphics, but wait and see what's next...
Need for Speed: Undercover - The Gameplay
In Undercover, you start off with a highway chase, and once you evade the cops, a boring introductory cutscene tries to tell you more about what's going to happen. In fact, it tells nothing, because you'll basically play around a lot of races in the different game modes available, and sometimes receive "special missions," most of them without any introductory cutscene.
When talking about game modes, it's not my pleasure to tell you that the
Drift and
Drag races are gone, leaving us only with
Circuit, Sprint, Highway Battle(similar to "Canyon Duel" from Need for Speed: Carbon, only that this time you're on a highway with heavy traffic),
Cost to State and
Evade, two modes where you should do some damage and evade cops, or simply evade.
Last part worth being mentioned when talking about gameplay is that your driver gains levels, these levels giving you various (random) skill bonuses, and unlocking new cars and parts. Basically, you get to play a lot of repetitive races, and it all gets boring pretty quick, if you're not into wasting time tuning your car and posting photos online... but let's get to the really amazing parts of the game - you'll love them, but fiiirst...
...here's what PC gamers who will dare to buy and play Need for Speed: Undercover are losing:
Criminal Scramble (Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable only) and
Chase Down (PlayStation Portable only) are two game modes not available
for PC users, allowing you to play as the cop, chase and bust criminals.
Need for Speed: Undercover - The Incredible Stories
I could have named this section "bugs," "lamest parts of a silly game," or something similar, but let's leave it this way. If I could rename this game, I would call it
Need for Speed: Unreal, and here's why...
First story - I just stole a Bugatti Veyron - the fastest production car on Earth, as we know it. The cops are somewhere behind me, and I am cruising on the highway at 361km/h. Officially, this car could go faster, but in the game, it stops here. So far, so good, but hear this - suddenly, two police SUVs overtake me with over 400km/h, and since they were a few hundred meters behind only second ago...probably some F-16 plane was pushing them, I have no idea!
Second incredible story, although it happened more than once. I am cruisin', and suddenly I see a car being lifted a few meters in the air, and thrown away. Once, it happened with a bus! Poltergeist?!?
Needless to say, damage is as "realistic" as usual - after losing my wing, the car still remains in control at over 300 km/h, and once you see your Porsche taking 90 degrees turns at 250 km/h, there's only one thing remaining for you to do, but I'll keep that on hold for now.
One more, then I'll go... what about being busted? I know, it's not a pleasant situation, but take a closer look at the whole scene. Did you get it? OK, let me tell you about it...
I am being chased by the cops. It all happens on the highway. I manage to go through a few Pursuit Breakers and take down some of them, but they finally get me. On the highway, in the sun. Then, I get a CGI cutscene, with troopers jumping on me...in a parking lot! And when you think this happens in the 12th installment of a notorious racing game, all you want to do is draw...
Need for Speed: Undercover - The Conclusion
I guess someone will be glad to receive my copy of the game as a gift. Unfortunately, my hamster can't use a computer. Hmmm...and I think he would also find his wheel more interesting than EA's disaster... ehem, "game."
If I had to award some scores, here's what I would gladly award to Need for Speed: Undercover these -
Story: 0/10
Graphics: 2/10
Sound: 4/10
Gameplay: 2/10
Originality: 0/10
Tilt Factor: 5/10
Overall: 2/10
The soundtrack, pretty good, as usual, the wide range of cars and parts, as well as those BMWs I really enjoyed seeing included can't save Need for Speed: Undercover from being nothing more than an abysmal title. I am sure that its name will help it sell too many copies once again, when compared to the fun provided for your money, but let's hope this will happen for the last time.
Not even Jesus can save Need for Speed: Undercover, and the only thing remaining to be done I mentioned a bit earlier is this - go to Control Panel, enter Add/Remove Programs, and uninstall it. Take the DVD carefully, order some gift packaging, and send it to your worst enemy... but don't forget to drop a comment below and share with the rest of us your opinion about this so-called "game."
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Comments
Comments (1)
Comments (2)
Comments (33)
Comments (1)
Comments (3)