Need for Speed: Undercover is Overbroken (Maggie Q says QQ)

Need for Speed: Undercover sounds like a decent game. A supposed return to the good form of Most Wanted from 2 years ago. Sadly that’s not the case.

The game starts off predictably enough – you’re an undercover cop sent by Maggie Q to do some sleuthing on some street racers – totally Need for Speed-ish storyfare. Too bad though that the cutscenes and any of Maggie Q’s appearances aren’t much to look at, both lengthwise and qualitywise. I’d personally like to see Maggie at least more than 2 seconds every 10 races, and possibly more than just her elbow or her hip.

Cutscenes aside, the gameplay is typical NFS fashion, sans the brutal cops and the frame rate. Yes, NFS Undercover runs horrible on next-gen systems. Which is baffling enough given the low graphical quality of it. Which leads to crappier ways to play. Shortcuts become chug-filled debris fields of doom, where a few jumpy frames might, and will, cost you the race.

Crazy frame rates aside, it sounds, feels, and plays, like a Need for Speed game, albeit the PS2-era frame skips.