Need for Speed Undercover is the worst NFS I ever played.
In this game you no longer play the role of a street racing outlaw, but a police officer gone undercover… in the world of street racing of course. The game starts with you driving a Nissan 370 Z and trying to lose the cops on a highway. When you hit the first roadblock, you are rewarded with your first cinematic. You'll be getting plenty of those throughout the game. So in the first cinematic your superior officer is talking to a hot Asian woman about you going undercover. After that, you are reintroduced to the game and driving a Nissan 240 SX. Your job is to keep racing and build your wheelman reputation. This reputation attracts the attention of other street racers, that will offer you jobs and if you win races against them you'll get pink slip cars. Also, the more your wheelman reputation grows, the more of the city, cars and tuning parts are unlocked. All of that is important in order to beat your opponents.
This game has a different perspective than other NFS, because you will steadily increase you driver skills and you can win races in two ways. Every time you start an event, no matter if it is a sprint, circuit, cost to state and so on, you have a certain time to beat. If you finish the event over that time, you'll simply win, get cash and reputation. If you finish the event under the time, you'll dominate. By that you'll get more reputation and your driving skills will improve. Every time you advance a wheelman level, you'll get additional driving skills. These skills are available for every car you drive. If you can dominate all the events, your skills will increase to the max.
The cars of the game are well designed and have good handling in general. There are 4 tiers of cars, in three categories: American, European and Japanese. These tiers reflect the cars performance: 4 being the lowest and 1 the highest. Unlike NFS Most Wanted, you can't get a Volkswagen Golf with performance stats as high as a Bugatti Veyron, through upgrades. You will have to change your car to match the other cars you opponents have. Which is good, because I doubt a Golf can reach 400 km/h without breaking up...
So far so good, but for me it's obvious that the producers of this game don't know many things about cars, because there are some serious errors. For example: The McLaren SLR 722 is in tier 2 when it should be in tier 1 without a doubt. The Corvette Z06 is in tier 1, while other cars like 911 GT 2 and Dodge Viper SRT-10 are more powerful and faster in the real world and are included in tier 2. The Nissan GTR is also a tier 1 car, which is not correct, because it is slower than a GT 2 for instance, which is a tier 2 car. And last but not least, why in God's name are the NFS producers so impressed by the Audi R8? Why are they including it tier 1 and make it go faster than a Carrera GT and SLR, when the real R8 is slower on track and in a straight line that a 911 Carrera S. The R8 has only 420 BHP, not 600+. What's so damn good about his car? The looks don't make it a Batmobil. The producers need to check out some car sites before making a game.
Modifying cars is nowhere near as fun as NFS Carbon and Most Wanted or Underground 2. You have fewer possibilities and most of the body kits and rims look bad. Performance upgrades are cool and seriously improve the stock car. You can also tune your engine, transmission, drivetrain, suspension and so on in order to adapt your car to different situations. More horsepower for straight lines, more grip for twisty roads...you get the idea.
The graphics are ok, nothing too special but not bad either. The world looks good, but the cars really steal the show. They look very good and on high details they look almost lifelike. The sounds are also pretty good, although the will repeat in similar cars. Music is great. You no longer get stupid heavy metal tracks that sound awful and when you are in the main menu, tuning cars, the tracks are very relaxing, clearing your head after tough races.
And now let's talk about the bad and so damn annoying parts of the game. NFS Undercover has plenty of bugs and annoying moments. On many occasions, this game will make you throw your computer out of the window. How can a 2 meter wide Bugatti Veyron tip over in a corner??? How on Earth can that happen? Also, I was doing 380 km/h on a highway and the police SUV caught up to me and passed me like they were jet planes? What the hell is that about? Physics are really stupid. Your car will sometimes hit invisible obstacles when in a corner, it looks so NOT realistic when flipping in the air and other very frustrating things. Also, the highway battles will make you freak out, because even if you have a Zonda or Carrera GT, in some races opponents with inferior cars will give you a hard time. And let's not forget about the almighty Audi R8, which is like a rocket, when the real life car is total crap compared to a Veyron, Mclaren F1, Carrera GT or Zonda and so on.
This game needs a patch soon because of all the technical issues. When you modify cars in quick race, the game will crash on the regular basis, making it even more frustrating.
As a conclusion, this NFS is the worst I played. It does have some good parts, but in the end it will make your brain go wild because it is so damn annoying and stupid. So thanks EA for ruining the best racing simulator series!!!