Need for Speed Undercover Updated Hands-On

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We got behind the wheel of Need for Speed'slatest instalment. Find out if Undercover is looking ready to race inour hands-on look.
               
                                        EA has been pretty clear that Need for Speed Undercover is more of aspiritual successor to Most Wanted than a follow-up to last year'siteration, ProStreet. It has brought back police pursuits, but it'salso bringing the series up to date with what it claims will be anexpansive open world and a deeper story mode, complete with a leadcharacter who gains experience along the way.

                                                Need for Speed Undercover substitutes neon glitz for European cool.
                    
Undercover takes place in three distinct cities in the fictionalTri-City Bay. Gold Coast Mountain, Sunset Hills, and Palm Harbor willoffer three different regions to explore, and all of them areaccessible from a main interstate highway. To give you an idea of thesize of the world, the game's developers at EA Black Box said it wouldtake eight minutes to navigate across at top speed, and 160km ofdrivable roads are available. Black Box is working on a streaming worldthat loads as needed, and with the main menu also loaded into the world(appearing as a pop-up) there will be no breaks from the action, unlessyou're jumping online for a race against friends. Xbox Live andPlayStation Network will be supported, but there is no localsplit-screen multiplayer. In addition to embarking on missions, you'llbe able to free-roam around Tri-City Bay as much as you like, and atany time you can bring up your GPS device to jump directly into races,sprints, highway battles, and pursuits.
While we still haven't seen much of the storyline, EA revealed that a character played by Hollywood actress Maggie Q (Mission Impossible III, Die Hard 4.0)will recruit you as a federal officer at the beginning of the game tohelp bust an underground car-smuggling operation. You'll graduallyinfiltrate the crime syndicate, building on your reputation as youclimb the ranks by taking jobs. This is where Undercover gets its name:You'll have to complete your jobs while facing off against cops, usingthem as your foil in the process. Some of the cutscene cinematics looktop-notch, and hopefully the story will be just as solid--it's unusualto see developers go to this length to include a storyline in a racinggame. EA has used a photographic technique known as magic hour (used inmovies such as Transformers and 300) to film some ofUndercover's cutscenes, giving it a warm, soft "late in the afternoon"visual tone. The in-game world will also cut straight to full-motionvideo, with the world being rendered behind the FMV, which is designedto increase the seamless feel.
We tried out a new game mode called Highway Battle on a stretchof the Southeast I-20. Essentially a point-to-point race against otherstreet racers with the goal to win by 1,000ft (305m), this particularchallenge is one of the easier tasks early on in the game, with onlysome light traffic to navigate around. A nifty onscreen meter will showyou how far behind or ahead of the pack you are, and once your carreaches the top of the meter, you'll have completed the challenge.Variable traffic in Undercover means you shouldn't experience the samerace twice. Vehicles will indicate when they're changing lanes and willvary their speed, so you'll need to keep an eye on the surroundingtraffic. You'll also be able to draft behind other vehicles, butgetting too close may result in a high-speed collision, bringing yourrace to a quick halt. You can use vehicles to create havoc foropponents and police, by creating pileups and accidents. Damagemodelling will also be part of the game, and the team is working onimprovements over ProStreet.
Pursuit mode looks like it will be just as thrilling as thehighway battles. The object of the challenge we played, dubbed GrandTheft 5-0, was to steal a cop car from a police station carpark andevade the pursuing officers in the process of taking it to a garage.The chase takes place in Sunset Hills, which has a more industrial feelthan the other areas, complete with warehouses and derelict land. Whilethis race wasn't too difficult, we were told that police AI willincrease as the story continues, forcing you to become more adventurousas you progress. Like in the highway battles, you'll have an onscreenmeter showing your distance from your competition, and you'll need togain a sizable lead before you can escape. Not content to merely chaseyou, cop cars will also ram your vehicle and set up barricades,although we didn't see any spike strips deployed as they were in theNeed for Speed games of yesteryear.
Because you're stealing a vehicle for commercial interest, you'll needto make sure you don't damage it too much during the sprint. While youneed to keep your vehicle looking tip-top, you can earn extra pointsfor causing damage to public property--the greater the damage to policecars and council property, the better. If you get busted, an amusingcutscene will be triggered, showing you trying to escape the clutchesof the fuzz, with a look almost straight out of Cops, complete with a blurred face.

                                                Don't blink--the car models and environments look great.
                    
EA considers Undercover to be a more contemporary look at car culturethan previous games, and it includes a wide range of exotic Europeanimports, including Porsche, Jaguar, and Audi. The approach was summedup by the game's producer, who said, "Neon is dead; the bat machine isin." While the game--and real-world car culture--may be maturing fromgreen neon and dragon decals, car customisation will still be included,and you'll be able to makes changes to car body parts, such as wingsand bonnets, and add paint jobs, nonstandard parts, and vinyl--allavailable for the different manufacturers featured in the game.
Need for Speed Undercover looks like a fresh and interestingdirection for the franchise, retaining the white-knuckle actionexpected of the series while adding open-world, cinematic cutsences andbeautifully detailed European imports (complete with damage modelling)to the mix. Stay tuned to GameSpot for more in the run-up toUndercover's November 21 European release (the game will launch onNovember 17 in the US).

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