xLAN - Need for Speed Undercover

Need for Speed Undercover by Shango
	Genre: Racing Release Date: 21 Novemeber 2008 Developer: EA Games Publisher: Electronic Arts Rating: G Platform: PC
I was really pleased to get my hands on this title as my last touch of a NFS title was too long ago. I recall that the last time I played that it had been quite challenging to master the driving skills required to make a reasonable race of some of the tracks. I also recall being impressed by the graphics and the realism of the environment and rarely got tired of playing it. The other thing I was interested in was the storyline which after the hype, sounded a little simplistic to me but I wanted to see how it stacked up against some other titles of the genre. I realised how far the NFS franchise had come when I saw the city scenes and the road environment. The cityscape just begged for a full throttle thrash out around the traps.
To be honest I had a ball. This was fun. Simplistic sure, and pure arcade, but “tons o’ fun”. I really enjoyed the races, the evasions and pursuits. The roads lend themselves to the insane speeds expected of you in the role you were taking as an undercover Cop trying build a reputation as a driver and the sheer joy of losing the nine cop cars that had been trying block and stop you. However after my first half a dozen races I was feeling a bit flat. I shrugged it off and kept playing and while I was getting enjoyment out of the races there was a constant nagging feeling that I was missing something here
	I kept pushing on through the various objectives and cut scenes and slowly it dawned on me.ion. This was as good as it gets. It wasn’t going to get any better than this. The game had at least one element going for it to make it a fun ride but the ‘Story Line‘ was quite the thinnest excuse for a cut scene I have seen in a long time and there was little cohesion between the races and the story. While I realise that this was pretty much an Arcade style game, the pretensions and hype that it was a game with a plot and storyline sort of ruined the big experience for me.
Once I lowered my expectations I found the game is one of those I’ll probably keep installed because I can jump in any time and have a thrash around without worrying too much about game progress. If EA/Black Box had invested more in the storyline this could have been an almost great game. It has some great action moments and a lot of roadway to explore and become familiar with but in the end it falls a little flat. Disappointing that it’s potential was not fully exploited but fun to have around. NB: Gossip alert… the NFS team have been given their marching orders Confirm/Deny ?