Need for Speed Undercover Xbox 360 Review
Having been a big Need for Speed fan since Road Challenge on the Playstation, i've always been fascinated by games which focussed on the illegal street racing world and in Need for Speed Underground 2 i found a near-perfect blend of excellent soundtrack, decent graphics, a seamless open free-roam world and finely-tuned gameplay. This was arguably the best street racing game on the last-gen.
Most Wanted was a big hit for EA when it launched on various consoles in 2005, including the PS2 which i had at the time (and still do). The game was fantastically put together, merging high speed police chases, refined gameplay, slow-motion features allowing the player to get away from tight situations, and the open world was back for real.
Following two disappointing titles in Carbon and ProStreet, EA returned to its roots with Undercover, focussing yet again on open world underground street racing (ProStreet was not open world, and Carbon attempted to focus on semi-legitimate racing) game, once again, implementing police chases, car customisation and a return to the grimey world of illegal street racing. Only this time, the roles were changed; you were an undercover cop working with the criminals themselves in a bid to hunt down the men at the very top.
Admittedly - in hindsight - the storyline in Undercover is pretty laughable; you're an unknown cop who appears to have several appearances (rear view mirror and cutscenes show two very different characters), who is led into the underground world of illegal street racing, and whose sole aim is to bring down a Chinese street thief who has apparently stolen a very valuable piece of high-end technology (though we never find out what this item is or what it does, we simply see a GPS-like gadget).
Maggie Q (no, i've never heard of her) and Christina Milian both appear, the former plays a detective (who, it turns out, was working with the bad guys all along), the latter helps the character throughout the game and eventually saves his ass in the finale.
Whilst the core gameplay and design of Need for Speed has always been the same and acknowledged as such, the repetitive nature of recent entries in the series has been severely criticised and although the game does very little wrong, it also does nothing new. The new 'Highway Battle' mode is terrible; small accidents can cost a player a race in seconds and traffic will always find a way of messing things up at the last moment ie moving lanes with very little thought or road-awareness.
All other normal race modes are back though some are naturally harder than others. Police are notoriously hard to outfox on some occasions, though at other times they will blatantly drive past you with little care or attention. Most races are fairly standard in that, with the right upgrades you can beat the opponents easily, only mistakes by the player will cost them the pole finish or the odd obstacle in the form of a mis-guided random vehicle will ruin any chances of success.
Gameplay is as excellent as in any other NFS game. The basic controls feel fine and whilst i never used the slow-mo controls, they are always welcome. Whilst NFS has clearly never prided itself on realism, being able to control a Lamborghini Gallardo at 221 mph around a sharp corner still feels very strange, though of course this sort of control wins races so who am i to complain?
The graphics are for the most part very polished. Some details look very last-gen but on the whole, there are no complaints. Frame-rate is solid 95% of the time, though obviously where there are huge pile-ups (later on in the game this is more common), the game does slow down a lot.
Aside from the odd annoying sticking-out ramp, idiotic van driver pulling out at the most inopportune moment, or superman-like opponents managing to catch up to you within seconds of a devastating crash, the game has few truly frustrating moments (one or two races towards the end left me with huge relief upon completion due to ridiculously good AI).
Quite why this game has been slated by so many reviewers both in magazines and on the web i have no idea. I personally found it to be hughly enjoyable and arguably the best Need for Speed game on the current generation of consoles. I just hope the next entry (already confirmed) is as good.
Summary: Despite the odd technical issue and the annoying enemy AI, Need for Speed Undercover offers a fantastic choice of high speed chases, races and spectacular thrills.
Score: 9/10
3 comments:
You said that the plot was laughable. I wonder what your opinion is on plots in games in general, Which games in your opinion have the best plots. Are these the ones that are made into films or not. (Max Payne, Lara Croft). What makes a good game plot. Is the plot even important?
You give the game a 9/10, which I disagree with, mainly because you dont make the case for such a score in your review. The only positive things you highlight are gameplay control and graphics, which you go on to provide counterpoints to the only positive things u say by stating that, 'NFS has clearly never prided itself on realism,' and , 'Some details look very last-gen[eration]. You should have made a stronger case for the 9/10 score, which I feel you didnt. You spent so long on its faults and its things to improve that you somewhat neglected its positive traits.
Personally, i felt the comparisons to Most Wanted (probably the best game in the series) justified the high score. Perhaps on reflection, 9/10 is a little too high but an 8/10 score would also be fair. The graphics are on the whole, decent, and the gameplay is as great as it is in Most Wanted. I've read elsewhere that the sense of speed is lacking but i can remember on more than one occasion having to pay close attention to the screen due to how blurry the environments had become due to the speed of the car.
As for game-to-film conversions, Max Payne shows how not to treat such an idea. The game's plot, whilst a little far-fetched, is fantastic and the film doesn't do a very good job of portraying the game's events. I have not seen the Tomb Raider films so i can't comment on them.
A good game to film conversion requires enough dialogue and non-action sequences to maintain the casual gamer's interest, whilst also staying true to the source material.
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