Need For Speed Undercover Preview

Last year’s Need for Speed title was a bit of a departure, bringing the series from the neon glow of illegal street racing to the professional tuner racing circuit. However, while it did things differently from its predecessors, Need for Speed: ProStreet was ultimately met with mix reactions critically and commercially. For the next title in the Need for Speed franchise, EA Black Box is again taking the series to a new setting, this time emphasizing story elements more than any previous NFS game.

Need for Speed: Undercover pulls out the stops, offering a Hollywood inspired storyline and some star wattage courtesy of film star Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III, Live Free or Die Hard). The gameplay itself seems to feel quite familiar to pre-ProStreet NFS games, reintroducing the police aspect to the mix as well as one-on-one car battles similar to the Canyon races in Need for Speed: Carbon. Fans of the series should get a kick out of the game’s faithfulness to the franchise, with the new story elements offering a nice touch.

NFS: Undercover lives up to its namesake by putting you in control of an undercover agent trying to clean up the streets of the Tri City Bay Area. The game’s story unfolds through live-action cutscenes with real actors, including the aforementioned Maggie Q as your partner, Chase Lyn, a federal agent looking to break the criminal underworld’s grip on the city.

The driving mechanics don’t feel far removed from those of other entries to the series. The game still walks the line between realistic vehicle handling and arcade style racing, allowing you to perform a lot of crazy driving tricks while not feeling too terribly floaty.

The gameplay will basically unfold through a series of car chases, with you as both chaser and, um, chasee. This was showcased to us through two modes on display, the Highway Battle and the Police Chase. The Highway Battle has you chasing down a suspect and trying to catch up to them on a busy highway, all the while dodging other cars and other road hazards. The Police Chase was familiar territory for the NFS series, where you had to employ some truly skillful driving maneuvers in order to successfully evade the cops. The AI was quite put together as well, as the police cars would do some pretty crafty things in order to take you out.

Graphically, Need for Speed: Undercover looks pretty good. While there were some early issues, like some strange artifacts and slowdown, these will probably be fixed before the game launches in November. Once they clean it up, Undercover should be a great looking game, with atmospheric lighting and great car models.

Need for Speed: Undercover is shaping up quite nicely, offering some great production values and the tried-and-true gameplay mechanics. Fans of the series should keep an eye out for this one.