Been wanting to write a Steam review for this game. I feel that Steam Users do not give Need For Speed: Undercover the merit it deserves. Sometimes its just blatantly misrepresented, and I am taking it upon myself to clear up all these misconceptions and *ahem* idiotic reviews. Sure, as of right now there are plentiful good reviews, but the bad eggs always show up and make whats a delicious cake, a sour tasting dessert. Before I being an accurate review of NFS: Undercover, I will mention the most egregious reasons for not recommending the game.

This Isn't The Version I Played.

No, it isn't. The version these people played was most likely the PS2 version. Or if my assumptions about Steam Users are correct, they might've even played the PSP or DS version. I really don't know anymore.
The PS2 version of NFS: Undercover is a downgrade since it doesn't have the hardware to actually run the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. So its an entirely different game... well an unfinished game, quite frankly. It utilizes a map from a previous NFS game with a few tweaks here and there (they forgot to update the minimap, so you'll turn since it shows on the map, but then crash into a wall). Its buggy as hell and is a complete mess. Worse than the 6th generation versions. How the hell did these people not see the screenshots and think "this looks different, maybe I should do some quick research before I buy this game based totally off impulse."

EA is selling an outdated version of Undercover on Steam, while they have the fully updated one on Origin.

You've probably seen this one many times. It is true that Origin has the complete and updated version. But it isn't all that hard to find the patch anyway. A quick search in your preferred search engine will yield a plethora of results. Not hard to patch either, copy the files to the directory. Steam Users are entitled these days I guess. I'm not saying EA shouldn't have patched the Steam version, but it's not a big deal. 3 new cars and a challenge mode is all you get. Oh, and also framerate issues, and missing shadow textures. Fantastic.

Review Time

Ok, now that pleasantries are out of the way, let's actually talk about the game. In short, it's meh. From a emotional standpoint, I love it. However, I keep review professional and this game is just not AAA material. NFS isn't known for being AAA either. The most prestigious NFS racers aren't even that good either (Most Wanted, Underground, Hot Pursuit 2). Undercover is just another pretty good arcade racing game. So don't expect too much from this game if you decide to purchase it.

Gameplay

Undercover is an open-world racer, featuring a multitude of race modes to play spanning across 3 distinct regions. You've got your classics with a couple new ones thrown in. Point-to-point, circuit, checkpoints, etc. The drive feel is very subjective. Some people hate it, I love it. It feels like you have just enough control but still will get thrown out of funk if you mess up. You just have to try it and see. Heavy cars feel heavy and light cars feel light. The physics don't go all whack and throw up 10 feet into the air for clipping a car like in Most Wanted and Underground, which is a plus in my book. As you progress you get access to new vehicles to purchase and customize however you want. (Apparently 20 layers isn't enough for some people.) There's upgrades you can purchase to max your car to its fullest potential and a simple yet powerful tuning system to make your car control exactly the way you want. If you feel the handling is a little wonky, try giving it some tuning. Some people don't use this feature and then complain the handling is "slippery" or "airy". Airy? The hell? Also, there's this strange RPG like system called WheelMan Rep that increases stats, like Handling, Top Speed and the like. So the handling is sh*t at first. It gets better, and the tuning helps a lot if you do it right. The difficulty is on the easy side, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some like it easy, others like it hard. A difficulty option would be nice, and there is one for quick races, the campaign is lacking in this regard unfortunately. You could switch to a slower car or give it a crap tuning if you find you're getting bored. There's a good variety of events and some do have a difficulty jump. But the racing is the easy part. The big takeaway from Undercover isn't its racing, its the pursuits. The police in this game are absolute beasts. They will crush you and kill you, then kill you again. And if you get caught, that's one ticket on your vehicle. Three tickets and that car gets impounded, permanently so be careful. There are "pursuit breakers" to take down cops. Usually some kind of breakable object to stop them in their tracks so you don't have to rely on losing them. Some events have you escaping the cops, some breaking lots of stuff, some taking out a set number of cop cars, some delivering a car with minimal damage while evading cops. Lots of good stuff if you take more than 30 minutes to get to that.

Graphics

Ok, I will admit, the graphics are pretty bad. I think overall it looks pretty. It doesn't hurt my eyes and its not ugly. I'm not expecting GTA V or Uncharted 4 with this game. But I do have a problem with the glitches. Sometimes shadows will pop up too late, or textures will bug out. It's strange looking but not too distracting. The patch everyone complains about not having makes all this worse too.

Story

Are you seriously playing a racer for the story? Bro, grow up. Seriously though, its got some production value. It's not offensively bad and cheesy like Most Wanted, but its still cheesy. You are an undercover cop trying to bust a bunch of illegal street racers. Featuring romance, betrayal, hot girls, plot twists... Asian people? Don't take it too seriously. It won't blow your socks off, or challenge your preconceptions, but it will at least give you some motivation to keep playing.

Sound/Music

Black Box has always had a way with sound design in their NFS games. The engines, tire streaks, crashes, burnouts, etc. all sound simply amazing. Its very high quality. The soundtrack is hit or miss depending on your tastes, but I personally don't HATE any of them but I would prefer if a specific track was played instead of another specific track. Undercover has a diverse selection and you're bound to like some of them and probably grow used to the other ones as well. The police radio chatter is especially well done. Much better than Most Wanted. The voice actors really gave it their all with this and it shows. Remarkable performances. Lots of diverse phrases, and very realistic too. Sometimes the Coppers will even shout through a megaphone for you to pull over.

Conclusion

NFS: Undercover isn't going to be the best racer you ever play, but it might be a good one to you. It's all taste really. When you see a game is hated and loved, its all a matter of preference. I love it. Some don't and that's okay. But don't give bullsh*t reasons for it being bad. Give an actual review. Hopefully I've given you enough reason to try the game out, and you can always refund it... if Steam isn't being the greedy corporation they always are.

VRAM Usage: 1301-2000 MB
CPU Usage: 23-40 %
RAM Usage: 2.8-4 GB
Frame Rate: 87-395 FPS
Graphics Settings Used: All High 1920*1080 FullScreen
Input Used: Keyboard + Mouse

8/10 Because this game is in my heart and soul

My System:

Intel Core i5 4460 at 3.50GHz | 12GB DDR3-2000 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2000 MB VRAM | Seagate ST1000DM003-1ER162 | KINGSTON SUV400S37240G | ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. H81M-A (SOCKET 1150) | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit |

Worth you money this game!

P.S I bought this game at 2.49€

Been wanting to write a Steam review for this game. I feel that Steam Users do not give Need For Speed: Undercover the merit it deserves. Sometimes its just blatantly misrepresented, and I am taking it upon myself to clear up all these misconceptions and *ahem* idiotic reviews. Sure, as of right now there are plentiful good reviews, but the bad eggs always show up and make whats a delicious cake, a sour tasting dessert. Before I being an accurate review of NFS: Undercover, I will mention the most egregious reasons for not recommending the game. This Isn't The Version I Played. No, it isn't. The version these people played was most likely the PS2 version. Or if my assumptions about Steam Users are correct, they might've even played the PSP or DS version. I really don't know anymore. The PS2 version of NFS: Undercover is a downgrade since it doesn't have the hardware to actually run the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. So its an entirely different game... well an unfinished game, quite frankly. It utilizes a map from a previous NFS game with a few tweaks here and there (they forgot to update the minimap, so you'll turn since it shows on the map, but then crash into a wall). Its buggy as hell and is a complete mess. Worse than the 6th generation versions. How the hell did these people not see the screenshots and think "this looks different, maybe I should do some quick research before I buy this game based totally off impulse." EA is selling an outdated version of Undercover on Steam, while they have the fully updated one on Origin. You've probably seen this one many times. It is true that Origin has the complete and updated version. But it isn't all that hard to find the patch anyway. A quick search in your preferred search engine will yield a plethora of results. Not hard to patch either, copy the files to the directory. Steam Users are entitled these days I guess. I'm not saying EA shouldn't have patched the Steam version, but it's not a big deal. 3 new cars and a challenge mode is all you get. Oh, and also framerate issues, and missing shadow textures. Fantastic. Review Time Ok, now that pleasantries are out of the way, let's actually talk about the game. In short, it's meh. From a emotional standpoint, I love it. However, I keep review professional and this game is just not AAA material. NFS isn't known for being AAA either. The most prestigious NFS racers aren't even that good either (Most Wanted, Underground, Hot Pursuit 2). Undercover is just another pretty good arcade racing game. So don't expect too much from this game if you decide to purchase it. Gameplay Undercover is an open-world racer, featuring a multitude of race modes to play spanning across 3 distinct regions. You've got your classics with a couple new ones thrown in. Point-to-point, circuit, checkpoints, etc. The drive feel is very subjective. Some people hate it, I love it. It feels like you have just enough control but still will get thrown out of funk if you mess up. You just have to try it and see. Heavy cars feel heavy and light cars feel light. The physics don't go all whack and throw up 10 feet into the air for clipping a car like in Most Wanted and Underground, which is a plus in my book. As you progress you get access to new vehicles to purchase and customize however you want. (Apparently 20 layers isn't enough for some people.) There's upgrades you can purchase to max your car to its fullest potential and a simple yet powerful tuning system to make your car control exactly the way you want. If you feel the handling is a little wonky, try giving it some tuning. Some people don't use this feature and then complain the handling is "slippery" or "airy". Airy? The hell? Also, there's this strange RPG like system called WheelMan Rep that increases stats, like Handling, Top Speed and the like. So the handling is sh*t at first. It gets better, and the tuning helps a lot if you do it right. The difficulty is on the easy side, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some like it easy, others like it hard. A difficulty option would be nice, and there is one for quick races, the campaign is lacking in this regard unfortunately. You could switch to a slower car or give it a crap tuning if you find you're getting bored. There's a good variety of events and some do have a difficulty jump. But the racing is the easy part. The big takeaway from Undercover isn't its racing, its the pursuits. The police in this game are absolute beasts. They will crush you and kill you, then kill you again. And if you get caught, that's one ticket on your vehicle. Three tickets and that car gets impounded, permanently so be careful. There are "pursuit breakers" to take down cops. Usually some kind of breakable object to stop them in their tracks so you don't have to rely on losing them. Some events have you escaping the cops, some breaking lots of stuff, some taking out a set number of cop cars, some delivering a car with minimal damage while evading cops. Lots of good stuff if you take more than 30 minutes to get to that. Graphics Ok, I will admit, the graphics are pretty bad. I think overall it looks pretty. It doesn't hurt my eyes and its not ugly. I'm not expecting GTA V or Uncharted 4 with this game. But I do have a problem with the glitches. Sometimes shadows will pop up too late, or textures will bug out. It's strange looking but not too distracting. The patch everyone complains about not having makes all this worse too. Story Are you seriously playing a racer for the story? Bro, grow up. Seriously though, its got some production value. It's not offensively bad and cheesy like Most Wanted, but its still cheesy. You are an undercover cop trying to bust a bunch of illegal street racers. Featuring romance, betrayal, hot girls, plot twists... Asian people? Don't take it too seriously. It won't blow your socks off, or challenge your preconceptions, but it will at least give you some motivation to keep playing. Sound/Music Black Box has always had a way with sound design in their NFS games. The engines, tire streaks, crashes, burnouts, etc. all sound simply amazing. Its very high quality. The soundtrack is hit or miss depending on your tastes, but I personally don't HATE any of them but I would prefer if a specific track was played instead of another specific track. Undercover has a diverse selection and you're bound to like some of them and probably grow used to the other ones as well. The police radio chatter is especially well done. Much better than Most Wanted. The voice actors really gave it their all with this and it shows. Remarkable performances. Lots of diverse phrases, and very realistic too. Sometimes the Coppers will even shout through a megaphone for you to pull over. Conclusion NFS: Undercover isn't going to be the best racer you ever play, but it might be a good one to you. It's all taste really. When you see a game is hated and loved, its all a matter of preference. I love it. Some don't and that's okay. But don't give bullsh*t reasons for it being bad. Give an actual review. Hopefully I've given you enough reason to try the game out, and you can always refund it... if Steam isn't being the greedy corporation they always are. VRAM Usage: 1301-2000 MB CPU Usage: 23-40 % RAM Usage: 2.8-4 GB Frame Rate: 87-395 FPS Graphics Settings Used: All High 1920*1080 FullScreen Input Used: Keyboard + Mouse 8/10 Because this game is in my heart and soul My System: Intel Core i5 4460 at 3.50GHz | 12GB DDR3-2000 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2000 MB VRAM | Seagate ST1000DM003-1ER162 | KINGSTON SUV400S37240G | ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. H81M-A (SOCKET 1150) | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit | Worth you money this game! P.S I bought this game at 2.49€