The leveling system itself is hit or miss. While it does add depth and something else for achievement point hounds to stress over, do we really need it? Plus, it’s a clearly faulty system– the game rewards players for winning races and missions, while it also rewards for doing stunts or beating record times. Experienced players will continue to rack up more points, allowing themselves to progress through the game quicker, while those new to the game may get stuck at a certain level.
You know that feeling that something is so corny it’s cool? Like you just have to watch it just to see how bad it gets? You’ll feel right at home with the game’s cut scenes and story. In‚ Undercover you play as an undercover detective armed with the cause of taking down a group of street racers believed to be involved in an illegal smuggling ring. The story is moved along with full live action cut scenes–and yes they are as cheesy as they sound.‚ Some of these scenes make made for TV movies seem like Oscar winning works of drama.
What’s worse–they often don’t make sense with the gameplay. Say your partner (played by Maggie Q) tells you to gather intelligence on a member of the street racers in question. Nine times out of ten you’ll be racing or trying to knock them off the road. Did I miss something? How do we get information if they’re lying in a heap on the side of the road?‚ The story of‚ Need For Speed Undercover is predictable and acted incredibly cheesy, but it’s like a train wreck- you just have to watch them.
Standing still,‚ Undercover is a treat — the city looks amazing (the day and night time effects, like the sun setting on the city are downright amazing), and the cars realistic and downright gorgeous. However, it’s a completely different story when things start picking up–a huge problem for a game dealing predominately with racing.
There’s really no other way to say it– the frame rate on‚ Need For Speed: Undercover sucks. In some missions, when there is an incredible amount taking place on the screen at one time, the frame rate begins to crawl (especially online). There are many larger, and busier games than this that don’t suffer from nearly as many lag problems.‚ Undercover does a great job of recreating that sense of speed, but the frame rate issues make these efforts seem wasted.
Need For Speed Undercover was a hefty project, and it seems like the developers tried to take on too much at once. Fans of the series should find much to like here, but major gameplay, presentation and functionality issues will turn targeted casual gamers and newcomers to the series away in a hurry. If you don’t have a soft spot for the‚ Need For Speed series, you’d do best to stick to games like‚ Burnout: Paradise,‚ Midnight Club or even‚ GTA IV, who accomplish everything‚ Undercover attempts to and more.
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