Metascore
65 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 18
  2. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Undercover is significantly more fun than ProStreet and offers far more long-time playing motivation as well. [Issue#17]
  2. While still a good driving game, Undercover tries too hard to be like "Most Wanted" and fails at delivering a solitary, genuine experience. Fans of the series will get what they want, all others should wait until Need for Speed (hopefully) picks up an innovative pace again.
  3. It hurts to say it but, “the need for speed” is lacking in this latest rendition.
  4. What`s up with the Need for Speed-series? This game cannot compete with its rivals in any aspect. The old elements of the game are quite good, but the new ones seem to be unbalanced and ill-conceived.
  5. Instead of being some kind of "Best of" Need for Speed: Underground is nothing more than an uninspired generic racing game with high hardware requirements. It's a good game, but still very disappointing, because the good parts of the game are just like in NfS: Most Wanted and the new bits don't work very well.
  6. Too many promises came with new installments of NFS series but not all were fulfilled. There is a great feeling of driving superb cars and some modes are cool but the rest? We have seen it before – and done better. [Dec 2008]
  7. Without pursuits, this game would be an overly-easy, bland rehash of earlier racing titles, devoid of any actual plot. As it stands, it could be attractive to any PC gamer looking for a new racing game. But with Burnout Paradise coming to the PC in February, some may find it prudent to wait. [January 2009, p.57]
  8. Need for Speed returns to its roots with hokey cutscenes, wild cop chases, and solid racing action.
  9. One can't help but notice that the franchise has seen better days.
  10. Gets boring quickly. [Feb 2009, p.82]
  11. Need for Speed Undercover is one of the biggest bluffs of this final quarter of 2008. Far from catching the spirit of "Most Wanted", the game of Black Box fails in its proposal because of an excessively easy campaign and because of its "shock-car" style driving.
  12. Slog through the first few hours of Need for Speed: Undercover and you'll find something worth playing. But should you have to? [Feb 2009, p.96]
  13. Neither the need or the speed. [Jan 2009, p.82]
  14. The imposing list of supercars and the exciting showdowns on the motorway don't make up for lots of technical glitches and gameplay issues. This game looks like it was released six months early. [Jan 2009]
  15. The game modes are not particularly intense, and the vehicles, although very detailed, fail to offer the feeling from the best of the series.
  16. 60
    Need for Speed: Undercover is a game that both satisfies and disappoints on a regular basis. While the chases provide top-notch thrills and spills, you can’t help but feel like you’ve just done it too many times to really care anymore.
  17. As a racing game, Undercover is just mediocre. As a Need for Speed title, it's a failure of the century.
  18. 50
    Need for Speed Undercover is a poor game with a ton of problems, both technically and in terms of design.
User Score

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 131 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 31
  2. Negative: 18 out of 31
  1. AigorUppercut
    4
    The game has a known recipe that has been out there for some years now: nice cars, open world, cheesy FMVs. . . But it lacks the shine of the previous installments of the NFS franchise. Somehow related to Need for Speed Most Wanted (mainly because of the police chases) the resemblence ends right there. It's impossible to compare such a good game like MW to Undercover. The physics are awful (all the cars handle as if the road itself was made out of rubber), the car customization system is very limited, and it's difficulty rises from a very (VERY) easy start to end with a nonsensical dificulty as you reach higher levels, whereas oponents cars can outrun you every single time, even when you use your NOS to pump some juice into your engine, the AI goes faster and faster until their car crashes into something or you pass along it with your NOS bar empty. Perhaps you may think that I'm overlooking some important aspects like graphics, sound and others. Yes, the game looks really good and has an acceptable soudtrack, but gameplay is always my main concern and that's where NFSUC fails. To all those things that I critizised in the upper paragraph, you may add the ridiculous high system requirements required to experience a pleasant game experience. Even when my system is far from being high end (an e7300 with 2Gs of RAM, coupled with an overclocked 512mb HD 3850) the game on highest settings (no Vsync) ranges from a minimal 32 to a top 48 FPS, with 45 being the most common value. That sounds nice, but the game suffers from random FPS drops and suttering. And it's not the processor or RAM, when checking CPU usage the game never reached more than 3/4 of it's total capacity. This issue is common, even with stronger systems (q6600, 4Gs, 8800 GTS) the anomaly persists and it gets very annoying when your car is racing at 350 km/h and you suddenly find yourself in danger because the game stuttered and left you in the wrong side of the road with little time to react. And NO, the official patch did nothing to solve this issue. So, taking all that's been said, my humble advise is to stay away from this one. It seems that fans of the good'ol NFS games will have to understand once and for all that EA will keep smearing a good name with lousy, unfinished games. Full Review »
  2. The game, from the start, was pretty fun, exciting, and so on, but later, when I got through half of gameplay, everything gets harder, some races are just impossible to win. Just saying, to play this game, you need really good skills, otherwise you couldn't possibly win a race. And there is one minus about cars. You cant pick ANY car, and win whole game. You need to choose it wisely, check stats, and so on, but it sucks. Every car I really like, for example BMW M3, have fu***d up handling. It isn't possible to drive with it! Example: On NFS: MW I could possibly win game by every car. Another minus. On dual-core CPU's Autosculpt will freeze your game. And I couldn't possibly find any patch for it. Deal with it. EA possibly will never, ever, ever make almost perfect game, like NFS:MW (2005) Full Review »
  3. sdfsdfsdfdsdf
    10
    good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good Full Review »