Need for Speed: Undercover Review

All weaknesses aside, NFS: Undercover has its moments of excitement, albeit they are quite brief. Highway battles can be quite enjoyable and the fact that you are being pursued by law enforcers keeps you on your toes during the single-player mode. The return to cop chases made way to modes such as Cop Take-Out, Cost to State and Escape, both of which are fun. Essentially, all of these modes boil down to either outrunning the police or demolishing stuff on the road in order to get their attention.

I rule the road!

She's about to vomit.

The only remaining challenging is to try and dominate every event by achieving the best time with as little mistakes as possible. It's a shame that dominating races isn't too difficulty either. Customization isn't without faults as well. More powerful cars are needed very soon in the game, though they become unlocked at later Wheelman levels. Meanwhile, you are not allowed to purchase certain upgrades to improve the performance of less powerful vehicles in your possession. This gets a bit frustrating. Basically, they should've allowed you to buy upgrades at an earlier stage.

When all is said and done, Need for Speed: Undercover is a shallow experience unworthy of predecessors like Need for Speed: Underground or Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Also, like I said, the cut-scenes fail to immerse you into the story, with faces like Maggie Q making few corny statements like: "You're in deep, just where I want you to be!"

Now, the game does bring back a bit of the old NFS spark thanks to the inclusion of cops and certain events. You are also able to play online against other players in a rather cool and entertaining team-based Cops and Robbers mode. Regardless, EA rushed this one out the door and they did a lousy job of hiding it. Consequently, the market gets a mundane, technically flawed racing game deprived of any appealing facets. Lessening the challenge is another setback, guaranteed to ward off those who appreciated older NFS games (well, those that came before Pro Street anyway).