Modern-day street-racing, drug-smuggling, car-stealing crime syndicate types sure have it pretty good. They gather round their Aston Martins and Porsches, decked out in expensive clothing, stunning women on their arms. They scratch their unshaven chins and cook up plans for the next heist, all while tapping the buttons on pricy cell-phones. They race and they party. They star in movies, TV shows, and, most recently in "Need for Speed: Undercover."
Sequel No. 12 in the decade-and-a-half long "Need for Speed" series, "Undercover" combines trends found in games past -- melding the tuning culture of "Underground" with the police chases of "Most Wanted" -- but offers no major innovations. And while the story, gameplay, and graphics are flawed, the game can be entertaining so long as your mind is shut off.
As the title implies, the player takes the role of an undercover law-authority figure type. Guided along by federal agent Chase Linh (played by Maggie Q of "Live Free or Die Hard"), your mission is to infiltrate rampant crime syndicates of the fictional Tri-City through - you guessed it -- street racing.
The game offers six or so event types, split into races and police chases. That number seems low, as the Speed series has always been one to experiment with a large number of race types. Previous iterations had top-speed runs, drifting, drag racing, and tight canyon-road races, yet none of these makes an appearance in "Underground." The sole addition to regular circuit and sprint races is the Highway Battle, which pays homage to the Shutokou Battle (Tokyo Xtreme Racer) series. In this mode, you must lead your opponent by a defined distance at top speed through traffic. These races are highly entertaining, as you'll find yourself frantically diving from lane to lane at 150 mph in an effort to avoid crashing.
Police chases play like they did in "Most Wanted" with two modes: Escape and Cost to State. The former requires you to make a getaway while the latter requires you to do a specific amount of damage to city property. The police are more aggressive than ever; they'll take every opportunity to run you off the road. Good thing the controls are tight and the handling is forgiving.
An arcade racer, "Undercover" skimps on the simulation for ease of play. The game boasts a Heroic Driving Engine as a feature, which amounts to a set of moves the player can do to perform power slides, J-turns, and so on. The Nitrous Drift is performed by pressing the nitrous button mid-corner (the manual tells you to "get ready for some mad countersteering") and supplies your car unholy amounts of grip, akin to an "add downforce" button. At times, I relied on this button more than the brakes. Enter a turn too fast? Turn, lift, and add nitrous. Laws of physics? "Undercover" scoffs at laws.
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