The 2008 twelfth entry swapped Rockport for an undercover police story set in a fictional bay region, and drew mixed reviews for its live-action scenes.
Undercover is a 2008 street racer that casts its player as an undercover officer in the fictional Tri-City Bay region. It drew mixed reviews and sold 1.4 million copies in the United States. Released on November 18, 2008, it was followed by Shift in 2009.
Need for Speed: Undercover is the 2008 twelfth entry in the Need for Speed series and the follow-up to ProStreet. Its main mode casts the player as an undercover police officer who infiltrates a street racing scene in a fictional region called Tri-City Bay. It was released on November 18, 2008 across several platforms.
Reviews were mixed, and US sales reached 1.4 million copies. Online services closed on September 1.
What is Need for Speed: Undercover about?
Undercover puts the player inside a criminal syndicate that smuggles stolen cars, working for an FBI agent and the local police. Players race in illegal street events, steal cars for gangs and gain standing with the gang and the police. The story turns when the player learns who is really running the operation.
The player works for the Tri-City Bay Police Department as an undercover officer, and the first call comes from Lt. Jack Keller, who briefs them on a region-wide street racing investigation. An FBI agent named Chase Linh joins the case, with the aim of breaking up an international syndicate that moves stolen cars.
The game keeps the Most Wanted and Carbon style of play, with a bigger choice of licensed real-world cars and an RPG-style progression system in the main story mode.
An undercover officer who steals cars for gangs, only to find that the federal agent beside them was the real criminal.
Where is the Tri-City Bay setting?
The game is set in the fictional Tri-City Bay region, mostly during daytime between sunrise and sunset. It has four boroughs linked by highways and an open world map of about 109 miles (175 km) of road. The look draws on Miami and on coastal locations the developers visited.
The four boroughs are Palm Harbor, the downtown district, and Port Crescent, an industrial port with a naval base. Gold Coast Mountains has observatories and wind farms, while Sunset Hills mixes suburbs with rural farmland.
Each borough connects to the others by highway. On the DS the boroughs carry different names, and on the Wii and PlayStation 2 the setting reuses two boroughs taken from the Most Wanted map.
How does the story unfold?
Chase Linh is a federal agent, and the player poses as a new racer to infiltrate a syndicate that smuggles stolen cars. The first gang the player joins is run by Hector Maio and his brother Zack, and the player is later drawn into a crew led by Gregory McDonald.
Carmen Mendez, a gang member, befriends the player, and the brothers quickly give the player car thefts to carry out. Once the jobs are finished, Chase wants the gang taken down, the brothers included. Once Hector's gang is off the streets, the player heads to Sunset Hills.
In Sunset Hills the player joins a crew of Gregory McDonald, a former officer; Rose Largo, an honour student turned criminal; and Brad Rogers, a former boxer. Working the crew's races and jobs, the player is told by McDonald to steal a car from Chau Wu, the Triad leader of the syndicate.
When Chau confronts the player, he offers to ignore the theft if the player helps recover a car he needs, believing McDonald's crew took it. A meeting with Carmen suggests someone else was responsible. The player is then told to arrest McDonald and his crew, but the stolen car cannot be found in their hands.
Carmen asks to meet, and she reveals that Zack and Hector had unknowingly taken the car from Chau. She asks the player to get rid of it. When the player takes possession, Chau calls with delivery instructions to a warehouse, and he reveals that he knows the player is a police officer. Chase has been kidnapped by Chau's people to force the player to comply.
On delivery, Chase reveals she is a corrupt federal agent who had been working with Chau. The car held evidence of his activities and a large sum of cash. The earlier crews the player took down had been murdered by Chau's Triad, and the player was framed for those killings.
Chase then turns on Chau, killing him and a henchman, and frames the player for the murders as she escapes with the money and evidence. Now the player must run from the police, but Keller stands by them.
On Keller's instructions, the player takes down Chase before she can leave the region, which offers the only route to clearing their name. After her arrest, Keller praises the player for recovering the evidence and for staying true to the undercover role. He reveals that Carmen struck a plea bargain and testifies against the arrested crews. The player later drives her to the local university, where she studies to be a medical student.
How did the events, cars and modes work?
Undercover keeps circuit, point-to-point and checkpoint races, brings back police pursuits and adds Outrun and Highway Battle events. Cars come in four classes, Exotic, Tuner, Muscle and Sport, across three performance tiers. Players unlock more cars as they level up and defeat criminals in the story.
Outrun is a challenge in which the player overtakes a rival and stays ahead for a set period. Highway Battle requires staying ahead of a rival on a highway while dodging local traffic. It can be won instantly by pulling far ahead, or lost by falling behind.
Career mode is the main story. Like Most Wanted, the player completes racing and pursuit events, and many events allow a domination, which means beating a set time record. Story events earn money, experience called Wheelman Rep, and a performance bonus.
Gaining experience raises the Wheelman level, which unlocks larger performance bonuses, new cars, upgrade parts and additional events. Jobs are story missions, for example one that involves taking a criminal's ride out of action. The Wheelman level also affects police aggression, since higher levels bring more tactics and vehicle types into pursuits.
Career mode starts players with a limited set of cars, and the selection grows as they level up. Earning cars by defeating criminals in the story is the other route to new vehicles.
Players can pick any event from the map, or use a hotkey to jump to the next highlighted event. Replays pay less cash. Cars, upgrades and tuning happen at the safehouse instead of in separate stores.
Damage is cosmetic only, except in Highway Battles and Jobs, where a car can be totalled. On some editions, police vehicles can be driven once they have been unlocked in the main mode.
How did multiplayer and split-screen work?
Players can go online on the PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and DS editions, while PlayStation 2 and Wii offer split-screen. Mobile phone editions have no multiplayer. Online events include multiplayer Sprint, Highway Battle and a team game called Cops and Robbers.
Cops and Robbers runs over two rounds. In the first, Robbers collect flags and carry them to set areas for points, while Cops try to arrest them. In the second round the teams swap roles, and the team with the highest score wins.
PlayStation 2 and Wii get two events the others lack. Lap Knockout drops the last player past the end of each lap, and Timed Circuit makes the leader at the end of a set number of laps or time the winner.
How was the game made?
Undercover was built in a 16.5 month cycle after EA split the Need for Speed team into two groups. Action films such as The Transporter were a source of ideas for the game, and it and it used a brand-new mechanic, a sandbox style and an all-new damage system.
EA CEO John Riccitiello said the previous game, ProStreet, was not good, and he promised that the next title would be a clear step up. He also said the team had been split so that each group would work on a two-year cycle while releases alternated between them.
Frank Gibeau, who ran the EA Games label, said the series would go back to its roots after ProStreet's sales fell short of hopes.
A Porsche concept featured in the game was brought to life from a brief description before being approved by Porsche. Senior vehicle concept artist Andy Blackmore described the process.
A few days before launch, EA revealed some plot details in a video that showed the player evading the Tri-City Police Department.
How did critics respond?
Critics gave Undercover mixed reviews. The main targets were the game's difficulty, its story and setting, and its repetitive elements. Some editions received lower scores because of severe problems. They complained about easy difficulty, repetitive events and weak textures, while some praised the car selection and handling. The live-action cutscenes drew near-universal criticism for poor acting.
IGN scored the PlayStation 3 version 4 out of 10 and described it in harsh terms. The review recommended rivals such as Midnight Club: Los Angeles and Burnout Paradise, and it noted that the open world felt wasted because events could only be started from the map.
The Xbox 360 and PC versions scored higher than the PS3 version, which had more severe problems.
1UP.com called the game only fairly successful, but it praised the car selection and the tighter handling. The leveling system drew criticism for resembling grinding. Empty traffic, open roads and weak AI drew complaints about how easy the game was, though one reviewer suggested this might be a way to attract a wider audience.
Live-action cutscenes received almost universally negative reactions, with critics saying the videos were badly acted and purposeless. Some compared them to films by Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich. IGN also criticised the disconnect between the undercover story and the racing, since the police work was never shown on screen.
GameSpot criticised the PS3 frame rate, which gave that platform a lower score than the Xbox 360 and PC versions.
How did the game sell and what came next?
Sales in the United States reached 1.4 million copies for Need for Speed: Undercover. It was followed by Shift in 2009, by the Nintendo-exclusive Nitro, also from 2009, and by the World MMO in 2010.
Online services closed on September 1, and by 2021 the game was no longer sold digitally in online stores. Mobile phone editions had appeared in 2009, after the console launch.
