Need For Speed Underground Review
by: Brandon

Platform: Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, and PC (The version reviewed was a PC copy)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Black Box
Size: This game spans across 2CDs (PC) and 1 disk on platforms
Category: Racing
Players: One, but up to 4 players via broadband internet
Release Date: 2003
Difficulty: Medium



Introduction

To begin this review i must confess i had an ugly disposition to this game because i think the whole Import Scene is Phooey. After about 10 minutes of play i thought it was alright. Then after multiple nights and way too many hours i found myself liking this title very much. This though does not come without alot of little things that one might not like to see in their games. If you plan to get this title for the PC i strongly suggest trying the demo before you buy, and this is mostly because the game is very graphically intensive, even on the lowest possible settings it was still hammering on my ol' NVIDEA GeForce 2 MMX 64mb card.

But hey if you can play it the games choice of roughly 20 cars should come up with atleast 1 ride that appeals to you, my personal favorite is the Toyota Supra.

Oh yea, let it be known that online the racing will be cross platform, so PCers can race their ps2 friends over the net


Story - 6/10

When it comes to story this game is way lacking to what one might expect to see. There are some FMVs but they are very rare, you will for the most part encounter what little story line their is in "Go Underground" mode via speech. The whole concept of the "Go Underground" mode is based around becoming the best in the city and doing whatever it takes to get there. For some this can do the trick to get you hyped and ready to stomp on the gas but in my opinion a nice story line is always a great addition to a game.

What story the game has can become very monotonous because its set in a single city spanning over a decent amount of tracks, but there sure is'nt 111 different tracks. Sometimes it seems like what you recieve for what you did was pointless...or a why did they give me the next level of whatever but not the matching level of a different part type so that i could match the exterior looks.

The AI is very agressive which to me is a nice turn around from the AI racing a set path without differing..but to begin with the traffic would hinder this anyways. Of course with an agressive AI trying to put you out can be very annoying at times making you wishing you could fight your opposition.


Gameplay - 9/10

This game has a very well rounded drift orientated style of racing which can be very fun at times. You encounter four different race types that you can play through including Sprint, which is a race where you race from one location to the next. You will also see Drag Races, the idea to a drag race is pretty straight forward, you start lined up and the first person to the finish line is the winner. Next up you have circuit, in circuit races you have to go around a set path for numerous amounts of laps. Circuit mode also has the Knock out varient where every lap the person in last place is done racing, racing will then go on until their is only a person left in first place. The last mode to check out is Drift mode, in this mode your objective is to rack up as many points as possible by powersliding around the track and avoiding hitting walls.

Now we get to the menus which were actually put together well making having to browse through them actually pleasent. The modification process is very bare when it comes right down to tweaking anything..infact you cannot tweak anything on the car, its all made by set choices.


Graphics - 10/10

The looks to this game are absolutely stunning, and i am missing out on alot of them because my video card just cannot do it. The cars are modeled beautifully, infact you can usually see decent looking emblems and badges on your car while your touching up its looks. The tracks look great, I have not seen any huge problems with "jaggies" but for you PC goers these looks come at a cost, and quite a hefty one at that, i would doubt you will be playing it on a card with any less ram than 64mb on it.

Sound - 8/10

The Sounds of the cars are recreated very nicely and with the correct car the sounds will give you the feel of power, or with the wrong car you will be able to pick out its rice sounds miles away. Oh yea, this game is THX Certified so i wouldnt expect anything less when it comes to audio.

Now with the EA Traxx, in previous EA games i have played they usually had atleast half of the list filled by people nobody knew. Although these tracks werent bad i guess EA felt it necessary to fill this title with all sorts of big name rappers and rockers alike. But for any of you people who are anti twards certain genres you have the ability to turn trax off, or if your sportin' an Xbox you have all the tracks ripped to your hard drive to keep things bumping while your racing.


Final Report - 8/10

Don't get me wrong, this is an excellent title and worth the money if you have the internet gaming capabilities, if not you might find the game to get very monotonous and not really fun at all. The music could have been selected better, i was in disagreence with most of the tracks. They could have thrown in more features to tuning your ride, or maybe gave what they already had some more depth.

Basically if your in the mood for a nice arcade style racer this is your title, but if you want alot of freedom to tweak out your settings you should definately look up something different like Gran Turismo 3 (ps2 only). Also once you get into this game have many hours free that night as there is a good possibility you will need it after starting into "Go Underground" mode.