Need for Speed: Undercover is the 12th installment of the popular racing video game series Need for Speed, developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts (EA). It was released on PlayStation 2,
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Portable,
Nintendo DS, and mobile phone platforms in November 2008.
The game was later released on the iOS on April 27, 2009. According to
EA, the game has sold over 5.2 million copies on all 8 platforms
combined. Need for Speed: Undercover is also the very last Need for Speed game to be released for a sixth-generation gaming console (in this case, the PlayStation 2). Undercover is the last of the Second era of Need for Speed games, although it is the first game in the series to use the current logo's typeface.
Undercover was the last game to be developed by EA Black Box, until Need for Speed: The Run.
Undercover features a new open world map (like the Midnight Club
series) consisting of 109 miles (175 km) of road and a large highway
system, making it the largest Need for Speed "world" EA has created so
far.
The game's environment consists of four boroughs: Palm Harbor, Port
Crescent, Gold Coast Mountains, and Sunset Hills (in the DS version the
boroughs are Metropolis, North Port Crescent, South Port Crescent and
Riverton). In the Wii and PS2 versions two boroughs are copied off Need for Speed Most Wanted and put into different positions.
These four boroughs make up the city, Tri-City, presumably a city
located on the Gulf Coast or on the California Coast although the city
itself heavily resembles Los Angeles.
The road system includes four water crossings, going clockwise: the
Main Guy Causeway (Ocean Expressway connecting Sunset Hills to Port
Crescent via man-made island), the Vale Causeway (Sunset Hills to Palm
Harbor), the North T Causeway (Man-made island to Palm Harbor), and the
Memorial Tunnel (Port Crescent to Palm Harbor). Undercover also
features a new continuous highway system. In previous installments,
highways were relatively small circuits concentrated within separate
boroughs. In Undercover, the main highway circles Tri-City, with
each of the four boroughs sharing a piece of the larger circuit. The
longer highway length gives a more realistic shape, with long straight
areas, gentle curves, rest areas
and large interchanges. Lastly, the entire map is open from the start of
the game, unlike previous installments where boroughs had to be
unlocked.
The police system is similar to Most Wanted and Carbon.
It uses a similar bar graph at the bottom of the screen that moves
between the blue "Evade" (shown as green on PS2 and Wii), on the right
side, and the red "Busted", on the left side, depending on the player's
speed and proximity to police.
The "Cooldown" period after evading pursuing police units returns as
well (shown in light blue), along with heat levels, speedbreaker and
pursuit breakers. Also similar to Most Wanted and Carbon,
police vehicles range from generic city patrol cars to federal pursuit
cars accompanied by police rhinos (SUVs) and helicopters.
Unlike previous games, the type of police that appear is not entirely
dependent on heat levels (i.e. high level police can appear at low heat
levels and vice versa) but more on the player's wheelman level (i.e.
progress through the game). At a high wheelman level, federal police
will immediately join the pursuit, even if the player was at a low heat
level. Common police tactics such as road blocks, rolling road blocks,
spike strips, and PIT maneuvers are all featured, although some are
only used by federal police. In addition, the player gets to drive a
police vehicle in a mission in career mode, which consists of stealing a
Nissan GTR state police car. The other police cars cannot be driven except in a multiplayer game called Cops and Robbers.
In the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions, however, other than in the
mentioned mission (in these versions the cop car is a Lamborghini
Gallardo - there's no GTR in them), the player earns from Chase Linh
three police cars in career mode (Mustang GT, Lamborghini Gallardo and Porsche 911 GT2)
after reaching certain parts of the game, which can be driven in a
"chasedown mode", where the player has to arrest a certain number of
racers, earning money as a reward.
A damage system returns to Undercover, but differs from the prior title ProStreet
in that the damage is only cosmetic and does not adversely affect
performance.
However, a car can still be "Totaled" in the new "Highway Battle" mode
(except PlayStation 2 and Wii) and in some missions in career mode.
During these missions a car damage bar is displayed, which indicates the
amount of damage done to the player's vehicle. The primary goal of
these missions is to deliver certain cars without totaling them. In
general, damage is automatically repaired after every career race or
police pursuit, unlike in ProStreet where it had to be repaired by the player at a cost (either money or a "repair marker").
The damage system has been updated, which is more detailed given that
scratches and dents could now be seen on the player's car (which
represent minor damage), or heavy damage such as entire sections of the
car ripped off (like bumpers, hoods etc.) or large deformations or
dents. Police vehicles can sustain damage but in a different way than
they did in Most Wanted and Carbon. Instead of the damage being made up
of static models (although doors, trunk doors, hoods, bumpers and
sirens could be broken off), the damage models are now flexible, and
each area of the car can suffer from none, light, medium, or major
damage (unlike Most Wanted or Carbon where each area can be in only two
states of damage, undamaged or damaged). Many minor hits to different
areas will gradually make the sustained damage more and more severe.
The customization of cars is similar to Need for Speed: ProStreet
but has been enhanced on the level of graphics and detail. The new
color palette and the "matte" paint were improved. The game also
features aftermarket parts like Carbon did. As a bonus, EA added a vinyl similar to the vinyl of the BMW M3 GTR in Need for Speed: Most Wanted that was continued as a bonus car in "Carbon".
The player can gain wheelman (i.e. reputation) points as they progress
through the game's story by participating in missions, winning races or
performing flashy maneuvers in a police chase. In turn, this grants the
player access to bonus missions, adding a small RPG-like element to
game play.
The game also uses in-game advertising, featuring the T-Mobile Sidekick.
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