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Need for Speed Undercover

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3.8 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 18 critic reviews
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Based on 63 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: EA Black Box

Genre(s): Racing, Driving

Players: Multi

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: November 17, 2008

Summary

Need for Speed Undercover has players racing through speedways, dodging cops and chasing rivals as they go deep undercover to take down an International crime syndicate. The game heralds the return of high-intensity police chases and introduces the all-new 'Heroic Driving Engine' -- a unique technology that generates incredible high-performance moves at 180 miles per hour during breathtaking highway battles. A mix of computer graphics and live-action movies immerses gamers in the rich world of the Tri-City Bay Area. The city’s open-world environment features over 80 miles of roads, including an enormous highway system that sets the stage for highway battles. These high-speed, high-stake chase sequences push players to the limit as they fight off cops and opponents while whipping through traffic at 180 miles per hour. An intelligent new A.I. mechanic delivers a realistic and high-energy action driving experience. Going back to the franchise’s roots, Need for Speed Undercover features more aggressive and intelligent cops whose sole purpose is to take down the player quickly and by any means necessary. Need for Speed Undercover also features the series' signature car customization, real-world damage and realistic driving physics. The game includes some of the hottest licensed cars such as the Audi R8, BMW M6 and Lexus IS-F. [Electronic Arts]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Need for Speed Carbon Need for Speed Most Wanted Need for Speed ProStreet Need for Speed Underground 2

Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Gamers.at

Undercover is significantly more fun than ProStreet and offers far more long-time playing motivation as well. [Issue#17]

PC Games (Germany)

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.

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GameZone

It hurts to say it but, “the need for speed” is lacking in this latest rendition.

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GamingXP

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.

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GameStar

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.

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PC PowerPlay

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]

GameSpot

Need for Speed returns to its roots with hokey cutscenes, wild cop chases, and solid racing action.

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Cheat Code Central

One can't help but notice that the franchise has seen better days.

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LEVEL (Czech Republic)

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]

PC Zone UK

Gets boring quickly. [Feb 2009, p.82]

3DJuegos

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.

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PC Format

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]

PC Gamer UK

Neither the need or the speed. [Jan 2009, p.82]

PTGamers

The game modes are not particularly intense, and the vehicles, although very detailed, fail to offer the feeling from the best of the series.

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G4 TV

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.

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Play (Poland)

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]

Absolute Games

As a racing game, Undercover is just mediocre. As a Need for Speed title, it's a failure of the century.

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IGN

Need for Speed Undercover is a poor game with a ton of problems, both technically and in terms of design.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 3.8 (out of 10) based on 63 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Christian Z gave it an8:
Story Mode just wasn`t long enough. Beat the game in less than 3 days. Now what.....? Other than that the game engine and graphics where outstanding.The maps are HUGE and the A.I. was right up there with any other game you play against a computer(Artificial Intelligence).Overall a good game.

Aigor Uppercut gave it a4:
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.

{Rx} i807 gave it a7:
So close yet so far. I love you EA. BUT come on. I can run Crysis full out at 57 FPS with no problems. Even on low settings in N4S I was consistently tearing. As Red Code Has said A SUV that does 200+? a Porshe that when you drive barely keeps up. But a Porshe police cruzer that womps a Mclaren F1? But beside the negatives I enjoyed the game. Largest map by far. For an arcade it was a little easy to handle the cars. The game has so much potential. I hope you clean it up for the next NFS.

red code gave it a1:
Congratulation EA! I know, NFS is an arcade Game but this here is ready for the worst Game Award 2008. I mean come on an Police SUV is faster else an tuned Sportcar? Faster like an bugatti veron? i mean did EA investigate any mind in this game? maybe not... it looks like a game to make somehow cash! I'm deeply disappointed about this 49€ Investment. I had rater spent this money for people in need. Cheers!

Tuure gave it a2:
The game doesn't bring anything new to the series. Just like every EA-game so far... Unrealistic handling, boring storyline, boring races with nothing new to them etc. This game was just like playing Carbon, except the graphics were amazing and the best so far. There's few new things, such as taking out some "gang-members" by crashing into them which was just stupid. The game ended by taking out some other street-racers and that's it, also the game was way too easy. I have bought few NFS's, but I'm not gonna waste my money on any of them anymore.

Mark K gave it a10:
Those other people dont know what they are talking about. I believe that the developers at EA and BlackBox have outdone themselves once again to bring enjoyment to the racing game scene. I understand there are other racing sims out there but none like the Need For Speed Franchise. I have owned every version since the beginning of the franchise. I own it for both PC and PS3. EA and everyone else that was involved in the making of the game... keep doing what you do best and that is making the Need For Speed franchise better and better every year.

Christian P. gave it a3:
The good thing first, to get it out of the way. NFS Undercover has a great variety of cars and they look nice. The cutscenes are well done, from an aesthetic point of view. But that's it. The important bits like car physics or opponent AI iare a joke. The opposing racers rely on a totally random rubberband AI and the "revolutionary" cop AI consists of passing and ramming. No discernable strategy, no finesse, just plain stupid brute force. Add to that a completely broken graphics engine that doesn't run well even on machines that way exceed the system requirements and looks like it's three years old to boot, restrictive copy protection and a lack of polish that is totally inexcuseable in the light of a game like Race Driver GRID and you have the opposite of entertainment. If you value your money, please stay clear of this game. It's time EA changes developers and lengthens the developement cycles on their games instead of rushing half-baked cash-in attempts out of the door.

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