Metareview -- Need For Speed: Undercover (Multi)

by Justin McElroy { Nov 19th 2008 at 10:00AM }

Curse you, Need for Speed Undercover! Curse you for getting our hopes up with Maggie Q-laden FMV sequences and tales of being inspired by our lord and savior the Transporter (hallowed be his name). Curse you for having the most promise of any NFS in recent memory but still letting us down.

Game Informer (70/100): "Part of the problem with Undercover is that it has no clear focus. After taking a detour with NFS: ProStreet, EA seems content to return to the pre-ProStreet era like it never happened. While this may not be a bad thing, Undercover refuses to move the needle forward from 2006's NFS: Carbon, and in some ways is a step back."
1UP (B): "In many ways, Need for Speed: Undercover is like a 'greatest hits' package of ideas and concepts that we've seen the franchise play around with since Need for Speed: Underground turned the series on its head five years ago. Undercover revels in street culture, much like both of the Underground games, while putting a greater emphasis on cops and car chases like Need for Speed: Most Wanted."
GamePlayer (65/100): "There's no getting around the fact, however, that Undercover is basically Most Wanted with a new lick of paint. Can somebody please green-light Hot Pursuit 3? Surely the open-world horse has been well-and-truly flogged?"
IGN (50/100): "Need for Speed Undercover is a poor game with a ton of problems, both technically and in terms of design. The open world design is completely lost as you can't actually drive to any event, many races are closed off which means no cross traffic, and it's incredibly easy. The presentation could have been good but winds up feeling totally contrived and confusing at times."

Tags: metareview, need-for-speed-undercover

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ThePhoenixLament @ Nov 19th 2008 10:08AM

The NFS franchise can't seem to catch a break. And that's partly the devs fault of course.

I really want to play a NFS game but the reviews for this game and the last one prevented me from spending my money. Not when there are such big games in the works that are guaranteed to be fun.

el serpiente @ Nov 19th 2008 11:05AM

You forgot to say "fuck sony!".

You're losing it man...

Bill Kutargi @ Nov 19th 2008 10:09AM

Need for Speed, I'm demoting you to "Need for NO speed". You will hang up your cars and take a bicycle from the cabnet, DISMISSED!

Viridium @ Nov 19th 2008 10:11AM

"There's no getting around the fact, however, that Undercover is basically Most Wanted with a new lick of paint."

Might still have promise for me as a bargain bin game then, but looks like it's a pass in general. :(

D_Average @ Nov 19th 2008 10:14AM

It will be many years before Need for Speed trumps last years Burnout Paradise.

Emophia @ Nov 19th 2008 11:31AM

Burnout was this year.

January or February.

D_Average @ Nov 19th 2008 12:03PM

No biggie, my comment will be accurate in 40 days or so

2PeteShakur @ Nov 19th 2008 10:33AM

Dirty @ Nov 19th 2008 10:34AM

Might help if the focused on Next-Gen consoles instead of releasing it for every console ever made. It worked for Dead Space.

el serpiente @ Nov 19th 2008 11:07AM

But the janitors would actually have to clean the building if they weren't doing the wii ports...

NeoK-182 @ Nov 19th 2008 10:44AM

what sucks is that EA has 2 need for speeds in the works at any given time. so the next one will probably suck just as bad and hopefully the one after that EA will actually learn from.

Slaytan @ Nov 19th 2008 11:33AM

They need to have 2 Need for Speeds (like Fifa and Fifa Street) One should be a driving sim and the other a fast and furious wannabe.

Marty @ Nov 19th 2008 11:41AM

I really wanted this game to turn the franchise around too... oh well, guess I'll have to wait for the next game.

On a side note, I think this is one of those rare cases lately where a somewhat high profile game has gotten a meta and nega review in the same article (oooh, burn!).

dvnt @ Nov 19th 2008 11:48AM

WTF, why do they insist on "driving" this series into the ground? Most Wanted was fun as hell and then they went the ricer route with Carbon so I passed that one up. And the concept for Undercover sounds cool but it seems they managed to F it up.

This piled on top of the letdown Burnout: Paradise was (to me anyway) leaves me with no arcady racers! What gives?

Bones3D @ Nov 19th 2008 11:56AM

I absolutely agree we need a next-gen follow-up to the Hot Pursuit series. NFS: Most Wanted was an ok game, but there weren't enough great police pursuit elements to the title to really make it rise above NFS: Hot Pursuit 2.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming Wheelman game, but I can't help thinking it'll probably be a disappointment after a few hours.

In the meanwhile, GTA4 has it's problems in the opposite extreme... it's almost too realistic, not allowing for over-the-top getaaways.

I guess what I'm looking for is a mix of Driver, Burnout and movies like "The Chase", "The Blues Brothers", "Bullitt", "Gone in 60 seconds (modern version), "The Italian Job" (Micheal Caine version) and "The French Connection", devoted almost entirely to pursuits across a massive map, complete with hundreds of potential high-speed choke points you can use to eliminate your pursuers one by one.

dark_inchworm @ Nov 19th 2008 11:56AM

This series has blown chunks for years. Don't even bother revamping the brand, just leave well enough alone and discard it entirely in favor of something new and genuinely entertaining.

WiredKnight @ Nov 19th 2008 12:07PM

No surprises here.

offday @ Nov 19th 2008 12:25PM

The last good Need for Speed was Need for Speed Underground. And I mean just the first one. That game was amazing. The second one just sucked, though.

StuScotsLazyEye @ Nov 19th 2008 12:40PM

God damnit, this makes me want to reinstall NFS II...what a game, what a game.

Long live the classic NFS series! (Hot Pursuit 2 and before)

Edge @ Nov 19th 2008 1:36PM

Honestly, the more people say, the more interested I am. I love the police chases and getting to events isn't something I want to spend my time doing. The concept of open world for me only applies when there is something worth doing in an open world... like running from the cops post-race. The lack of difficulty kinda worries me though.

npChaos @ Nov 19th 2008 2:25PM

What it lacks in difficulty it makes up for in annoyance and persistence. They really force the police element, even more so than Most Wanted. It's sorta like its trying to be Hot Pursuit, but not trying to be Hot Pursuit in the most meta way possible.

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 19th 2008 2:57PM

when i heard christina milan was going to be in the game that sounded an alarm....
bad game needs hollywood hottie to sell copies.

Shawn @ Nov 19th 2008 3:14PM

I have it for 360. I played it for about 5 minutes after putting it in my disk drive....it froze. I restarted my 360 thinking it was that. It wasn't. It froze again for the 2nd time. and 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. All my other games run fine on my 360. So I contacted EA customer support. lol After being put on hold for 30 minutes they told me to delete any old NFS game data that I might have had on there before. So I did. Did it work? NO! Guess alot of people are having this problem on PC too. Seems to me like EA was too lazy to work out some last minute glitches. I refuse to buy any more EA games. Mirror's Edge sucks as well =)

motorforum @ Nov 19th 2008 3:24PM

It coulda been top *IF* EA used Criterion's Burnout engine, that way, we could all been evading the coppers in all sorts of vehicles'n bikes! Oh well, let's hope they do justice to the remake of Road Rash then... (wishful thinking!) :)

Is this actually going ahead? I quite enjoyed Jailbreak, but the original on LIVE Arcade with HD graphics would appease me, to be honest. I miss Road Rah more than any other franchise.

3cubed @ Nov 19th 2008 3:30PM

I don't mind if the game is more of the same as long as it isn't ProStreet.

Itsacat,justacat @ Nov 19th 2008 4:53PM

EA are a company that seem to take one step forward and two steps back. They release some adventurous new IP's like Deadspace and Mirrors Edge (even if it is abit of a gimmick) but are still content to flog the proverbial dead horse for a brand thats dead in the water. More Deadspaces, less crap please EA.