The other game I’ve been playing recently (in combination with Fallout 3, see below) has been Need For Speed Undercover. I am a fan of the arcarde racing series having completed all modern iterations (Underground, Underground 2, Carbon, Most Wanted, Prostreet) and having played some of the older ones too. The last release, Prostreet, aggravated a lot of fans by moving away from the illegal street racing theme of underground and its kin and moving to a professional racing system. EA have either listened, or saw reduced sales of Prostreet, as we are back in the illegal street racing scene in Undercover, albeit as an undercover cop.
It seems odd to be talking about story when discussing an arcade racer, but Undercover tries really hard to wrap story around its gameplay. From the bad boys style intro (sweeping seaside city vista, follows helicopters into car chase) to the copious live action video, the developers have obviously tried to make this less arcade racer, more Fast and the Furious: The Game. Thankfully you can quite happily ignore all this fluff, mission/story based races will normally tell you what to do when you start them, even if you ignore the cutscene beforehand.
On to gameplay. The game is set over a large, free roaming area which you will probably ignore completely in favour of using the GPS map to quickly skip between races. A useful new feature is the ability to push Tab and immediately enter the nearest (or just received mission) race. This means the time between races is minimal and you can quickly go from one to the other without downtime.
Race types are a mix of old favourites and new blood. Sprint, Circuit and checkpoint are back along with newcomers Highway Battle and Outrun. If you remember the drag races in Underground which took place on a highway with traffic, take the frustration of that, multiply it by 40 and that’s highway battle. Outrun is pretty simple, stay ahead of your opponent for a minute or so while driving around the city, wherever you choose. There are also various story missions which involve “taking out” other drivers, which are a yawn fest. Ctach up to them, ram them and their health goes down a bit, rinse, repeat. Really uninspiring gameplay and should have been axed. I have yet to see any drift races, which is a shame.
As I said we’re back in the illegal street racing scene so Cost to State, Escape and Cruiser disable races are back as are pursuit breakers.
I have found Undercover to be far more frustrating that other iterations so far. As an arcade racer it is incredibly forgiving (roaring around corners at 200km/hr with no loss of traction) but opponents are incredibly unpredictable. I have been 12 seconds ahead in a circuit race to either just win (by less than a second) or just lose, because one car out of the pack suddenly catches up. It is amazingly aggravating to see a car with similar specs to yours catching up to you on the straight despite travelling at full speed with your nitrous going. This is especially true on the Highway Battle races. Roaring down a four lane highway trying to either get ahead or stay ahead of your opponent while avoiding heavy traffic can be a huge adrenalin rush. Having to do the whole bloody thing 6 times over because your opponent gets a mysterious speed burst and roars past you, leaving you with no way to catch up has caused me to smash my desk many many times. Having to sit through the scripted intro each time doesn’t really help either.
I cannot explain these mysterious speed bursts. I am in the early stages of the game, still driving a tier 3 car (with pro parts) so it may just be their car is that much better than mine but it does seem incredibly unfair at times.
Bullshit computer cheating aside the racing is fun. Tracks are varied, some take place in the city, some in the surrounding hills, some in construction sites. Even on my older PC the game looks good and that is with pretty much everything turned off. I was able to scale down the settings enough for it to run well on my old P4 which is always appreciated.
All in all I am enjoying Undercover. Ignore the story guff, try and forgive the random speed bursts your opponents get and it’s great fun.
I’m off to try this Highway Battle again. Attempts 1-6 didn’t go so well and my fist if getting sore from hammering my desk.