As an avid fan of racing games, I am offended by Need
for Speed: Undercover. Having seen games such as Burnout Paradise,
Grid, and Pure
this year, a substandard effort such as this barely deserves a second
thought. However, Undercover is the latest installment in the
most recognised racing game franchise, and by that virtue itself,
it is a game that demands every gamer's attention.
So while every new Need for Speed game is worth your attention,
is this one worth your time? Short answer -- No. Undercover
is a technical mess, but we'll come to that later. With this game,
Black Box have attempted to make the player feel like the star of
an action movie, complete with live-action cutscenes with supposedly
Hollywood-level production values and "professional" actors,
including the star of the game -- Maggie Q. She's even on the cover;
and here I was thinking I'm the star.
For the player to feel like the star of an action movie, every
event and every race should somehow be connected to the story. But
here, you're forced to compete in anywhere from five to ten generic
events between each story cutscene followed by a driving mission.
These cutscenes are appalling, both in terms of production quality
and acting, which often reaches low-budget porn levels.
You play an undercover cop, who is tasked with infiltrating the
underworld and recovering a top secret that would help dismantle
their network. Maggie Q plays Chase Linh, your handler. Up until
the final stages of the story, she plays no role whatsoever, besides
the completely unnecessary blink-and-you-miss-it cutscenes every
so often. The story is uninventive and never really makes you eager
to know what happens next.
Text: Sameer Desai | Photographs: Black Box
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