GameKiq's ReviewRodio is a series in which we round up and examine various gaming sites' takes on a particular game. Today we look at Need for Speed: Undercover.
In an attempt to return to the franchise's glory days, Need for Speed: Undercover developer Black Box attempted to recall what some say may have been the best of the NFS series: Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit. The game brings back the "oh shit, let's run away from the cops" dynamic from those games, while factoring in some of the hot new street cred that the games have been testing out in the Underground branch of the NFS brand.
Reviewers around the web, though, don't seem to be too impressed. Let's check out what they have to say.
Gamespy [Score: 3/5]
"If there's one thing that Need For Speed fans have been clamoring for, it's a return to the race-from-the-cops gameplay of NFS: Most Wanted, arguably the high water mark of the franchise. Undercover delivers that, with plenty of overenthusiastic police pursuits. But it doesn't add any memorable new features to the formula, and a plethora of minor annoyances make it feel like the franchise has substituted nostalgia for innovation and polish.
...a game that struggles to justify its retail price."
GAMER.tm [Score: 8/10]
"Racing is fun and comes in various forms, and from the simple circuit and sprint races to getaways and one-on-one battles there’s enough variety in them to keep them interesting. However, it takes some time for them to ever start offering a challenge. You can easily play for several hours without losing a race. This is flattering at first – making you feel like you must be some kind of driving genius – but it’s not long before it you realise that maybe your opponents aren’t really trying all that hard. The handling is positively generous, enabling you to take corners like a pro even in the crappiest of cars. You can use ‘Heroic Driving’ skills to pull off drifts, powerslides and handbrake turns. These along with your 'In the Zone' meter rack up points and multipliers, encouraging you to drive with style.
...Simple and easy to interact with. ...Should have you entertained for weeks.
IGN [Score: 5.0/10]
"One of the bigger things hyped about the title since its first showing is the presentation and its live action cutscenes. By and large, these fail to do what was intended in a pretty big way. Most of the scenes feature one of two sequences - a bunch of jackasses in a back alley talking trash to the camera before or after a race, or Maggie Q sitting in a room and telling you what you should be doing next. The whole thing winds up being pretty laughable and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Maggie will tell you that you need to do to get on the inside of a racing group in order to get dirt on them, and then after a race she'll say "We have enough, let's move in." How did that help at all? They're going to just bust someone for street racing while they're tied to drug trafficking? You do run missions where you steal cars, make "special" deliveries and things like this now and again, but you never actually see any sequences that show how the cops are putting the evidence together or anything of that sort. It could have been so much better, but it falls very flat. It's also so overacted that you can't help but wonder if there was any sort of scene director on site because this is the stuff you see on the first day of acting school.
...While the gameplay is a big miss, the graphics don't help the case either. The game is very bland looking, with only reasonably detailed cars and a city that almost entirely lacks a sense of life. There are no pedestrians, there's very little traffic and on the whole there's very little to convince you that people actually live and work there."
GameRevolution [Score: D- ]
"The open-world environment serves little purpose and is merely there to give the illusion of depth and detail. Any available event can be played and replayed at the push of a button, obviating the need to drive anywhere. While many of the events take advantage of the game’s open environment, there’s no real need. The city and its outlying areas are relatively small, and considering how few alleyways and hidden paths there are, Undercover is incredibly limited in scope.
Events include basic sprint and circuit racing, as well as a handful of special event types. These latter events differ only slightly in their goals, ranging from winning a race, destroying a car, escaping the cops, or a combination of any of the above.
Regardless of what these events are called, they all blend together indistinguishably. Very early on, you’ll begin to think that you’ve played all that Undercover has to offer. Not much further into the game, you learn just how right you were. “Repetitive†doesn’t even begin to summarize how dull this game gets."
DarkZero [Score: 6/10]
"Slow and steady may very well win you a metaphorical race, but in reality that rather hairy tale is very much at the core of the biggest problem Need for Speed: Undercover has. Aside from the spectacular, rather abrupt opening, a significant portion of the first half of the game borders very close to monotony. The AI of the other drivers do their utmost to let you win, the tracks lack bends, are devoid of any remarkable scenery, and the cars available offer no sense of speed.
...However, even though it is a step in the right direction, the game still lacks appeal in a number of other areas. In its current form, regardless of all its innate flash and colour, it is quite a few notches away from being a must buy. So when all is said and done, NFS: Undercover it best described as a steeping [sic] stone for the series, one that offers hope that EA can achieve better things in the future."
On Metacritic, Undercover grabbed a 56/100 for Wii, 60/100 for PS3, and 65/100 for the Xbox 360 version. Over at GameStats, it checked in at 6.6/10 Press Score for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions and a 4.6/10 Press Score for the Wii incarnation.
Check out a few screenshots below.
