Need For Speed Undercover Preview

EA’s Need for Speed franchise has always been at the forefront of the racing genre, transplanting players into a variety of different settings, including the underground world of illegal street racing up to the professional circuit. Now, EA is shooting for a more story-driven approach with their latest, Need for Speed: Undercover. Featuring some acting talent from stars like Maggie Q and Christina Milian, the game focuses heavily on cut scenes and story elements, with a plot that draws heavily on driving-focused action movies.

Announced only back in August, the game is currently set to launch in a few weeks. GameZone was given a crack at the most recent preview build in order to see if the gameplay was on the same level as the production values. For the most part, the game played very similarly to the rest of the franchise, with the same type of arcade-style handling and high speed chases that the series has made its bread and butter.

Undercover begins by throwing you right into the middle of the action, as your character is in a high-speed pursuit with the cops. However, the cops do eventually catch you, and you’re given an ultimatum: spend a hefty amount of time in prison, or help them infiltrate a crime ring with ties to illegal street racing and bring it down from the inside.

The game puts you in an open-world situation, allowing you to drive around and take on special missions throughout the city. You’ll find yourself performing more pursuit-style missions than in previous Need for Speed games, but the majority of the basic mechanics feel similar. If you’d rather jump to the nearest racing event without exploring, you can do so by pressing down on the D-Pad.

As in other Need for Speed titles, Undercover allows you to acquire new cars with different stats as well as tweak the ones that you have. The game features the Autosculpt feature that allows you to create modifications to your car. While these mods are purely aesthetical and do not affect performance, but it’s still pretty cool to be able to go in and get creative with your rides.

Graphically, the game looks quite clean. The environments and cars are very detailed and move pretty fast, and there are some nice special effects throughout.

Need for Speed: Undercover is looking to add a new story-driven element to the mix while keeping the fast-paced arcade action that the series is known for. Look for it to release on November 17.