EA still has it

Understand this. NFS Undercover is one of the best racing simulation games created for the PC. If you didn’t, you either need English lessons or a good spanking on your stubborn buttocks.

In a spate of horrible mediocrity with two downright shitty games namely, NFS: Carbon and NFS: Prostreet, EA did a dreadful infraction to NFS’ loyal fans, who, year after year wait, with bated breaths to illegally download th… oops, to buy the shiny DVDs (inside the legally correct enclosures) of their latest NFS releases. In fact, the general gamer mood was so dismal post-Prostreet that the anticipation that usually precedes an NFS release was displaced by genuine doubts and total skepticism on EA’s ability to deliver better and still better with each of their successive products(oh, apart from hotter and hotter females in their NFS games). But, surprisingly, EA bitchslapped the critics and gave fans world over a reason to get non-sexually excited with their latest, action-packed, adrenalin-pumping package that is Undercover.

The game starts in the fashion of an essential Hollywood action flick, with a necessary dumb background plot, and leaves you in Tri-City Bay to forward an investigation as an undercover cop, from behind the wheels of a Nissan 340SX, NFS style. And if you have cataract-free eyes, you notice super-hot Maggie Q back from Die Hard (click screenshots to get a larger view) in the opening cut-scene, who acts as the commanding officer of the investigation for the rest of the game. EA has done away with free roaming in this one with no hope of the concept appearing in any future games and instead navigation and event selection is done through a GPS map (as with each game after Underground 2). Undercover has, however, reverted to high-speed cop chases, and thankfully to the city roads, à la Most Wanted. Keeping with the Hollywood spirit of the game, ‘Jobs’ have been introduced wherein, you are required to either race with specific opponents or to deliver ‘hot’ cars to specific destinations while going hood-to-hood with the cops. The direct focus on providing the player with a movie-esque experience has, unfortunately, resulted into race types being reduced to five, viz. Sprints, Checkpoints, Circuits, Outruns (Yippee!) and a new grade called as Highway battles – A high-speed, traffic intensive version of the Outruns. No cause for major worry though, as the storyline develops in a sufficiently intriguing manner with decent acting and impressive dialogue delivery from the cast, a throng of compelling characters and a well-placed background score, all of which will strive to keep you engaged to your PCs for a respectable minimum of 40 to 50 hours.

The graphics are lush, flush and plush (which are all synonyms, for the want of a better word) and are the best I’ve seen in a racing game outside of the Burnout world. Your car looks speedy even when it’s still and an absolute monster when it’s moving, the cop cars look like they were created to send you to afterlife and the tress look like you could kill the engine and start picnicking under one of them. In short, the graphics go a step ahead to make driving an unadulterated pleasure, but have the bad habit of bringing your 8800 GT down to its proverbial knees. This is a Major issue with the game as it badly performs even on high-end machines resulting in major drops in frame rates, desktop crashes and irritating, jerky gameplay. Apparently, the developers have been watching too many youtube videos as they've installed a buffering system in place wherein your screen freezes during races and you have to wait for the rest of the track to load in order to continue further. And that, is exceedingly frustrating when it happens near a turn as it results into a certain crash. And it usually does.

EA’s sound department has a good taste in speedy, eclectic music which shows when you run around on Tri-City Bay roads enjoying tracks from a comprehensive list of artists. Tuning options are a bare minimum but conspicuously effect the way you drive. A new Wheelman level-up system is in place that increases your tuning skills at each successive level. The physics haven’t been tinkered with much from the past games and the damage modeling, as with the earlier titles, is for plain viewing displeasure.

I understand that all major sites and game critics have slammed the game underground (pun unintended) in their reviews and complained of it being aimed at the popular market, of it being an unfinished, uninspired, unchallenging and an unoriginal coaster product and definitely one of the worst racing games ever but I, apart from lifting my two fingers to show them peace and to calm them down, have only this to say to them – “This game does not lack depth. Play it a little more and you will enjoy it. It’s easy to criticize games and drive people off gaming, but try the opposite. Think of this game as redemption of this series post-Prostreet.”

To conclude, EA has delivered a product it needs to be proud of. However, a lot of work is still required and they’d certainly be fooling themselves if they were to be satisfied with their current level of commitment to pleasing NFS’ fans. And trust me when I say that I've completed 90% of the game and something inside me or inside the game still makes me want to play it more. It's at least addictive, if not a chart-topper.

If you’re deliberately giving this one a miss, you deserve to be castrated.