Need For Speed Underground Review

Developer	EA Games
Publisher	EA Black Box
Genre	Racing

If games like Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, Animal Crossing, and The Sims taught us anything, it’s that gamers enjoy accumulating stuff. And truthfully, it doesn’t matter if that “stuff” is useful or not. Just hoarding anything they can is more than enough for the player, and we adore games that allow us to do so. It’s addictive, and it keeps us playing even if there is boring moments of play from time to time. Hoarding never gets old.

Essentially, Need for Speed Underground is a racing game for hoarders. Not merely an arcade racer, and certainly not a sim, Underground finds a comfortable spot in the middle, and not surprisingly, does an incredibly good job of it. There are a few gameplay flaws, as well as some design hiccups, but on the whole, Underground is exactly what this series needed, and we couldn’t be happier with the new direction.

Gameplay – Gone are the days of driving a handful of exotic, unaffordable rides that you’d never in your life get your hands on. Underground places you in the middle of the tuner scene; a world full of reasonably priced sedans and hatchbacks, all of which can be transformed into pocket rockets when tricked out with some heavy modifications. In terms of mods, there are a lot. There are hundreds of brand names for literally thousands of different combinations in which to customize your car, both visually, and in performance. In fact, individualizing yourself from everyone else is the underlying beauty in Underground. With the number of cars only being in the 20’s, the near-limitless customization options make it feel like there are hundreds of cars. Visually, there are upgrades you wouldn’t even think of included here, and make a very clear cosmetic difference to your ride. There is window tint, neon, decals, vinyls (which can be layered up to four times), body kits, spoilers, rims, hoods, etc. Literally hundreds of upgrades are at your disposal. You can customize your paint job, and even paint parts of your car to match (or contrast) the rest, like your brake calipers. There is gloss paint, metallic paint, and luminescent. The number of customizing options is staggering, and it’s easy to see why there will be no two cars alike.

In order to “get” Underground, you’ve got to have the right mindset. That is, visually upgrading your ride is as important as upping the performance punch, if not more so. You’ve got a reputation meter, and that can only be increased by making your car more visually appealing. The more you tinker with the way your car looks, the more your reputation meter increases. That reputation meter will help to unlock different race tournaments, which is critical to progressing in Underground mode, the game’s career (and by far, the best mode in the game). Due to the way most driving games are made, gearheads may not see the point, as a car’s muscle comes secondary here. If you’re playing Underground and have no idea why you’re worrying about how your car looks and why you should care about that when there are performance upgrades to be considering, you fundamentally don’t “get” it, and as a result, may not enjoy the game because of it.

It’s a shame too, because Underground has got some fabulous gameplay options, mostly lying in Underground mode. Here, the player gets to experience everything the game has to offer. The race modes are fairly varied, considering how limited they could be. Instead of giving the player only circuit races, Underground comes with a fully-realized mode for drag racing, and is actually one of the game’s defining modes of play. In Drag, you must shift (no automatics), and must do so at the right times in order to win. If you’ve got nitrous oxide, you can utilize it as well. The thing about the drag sequences is that the idea isn’t tacked on; the control scheme has been changed (you don’t actually “steer”, but instead merely tap right or left to change lanes to avoid traffic and obstacles, as well as draft other cars for a boost) to fully support the mode of play, and even the onscreen HUD changes to be of better service to the player.

There is a Drift mode to accompany the others as well. This mode seems to be the one tacked-on afterthought of a mode at first, but after extended play, not only is it fun, but it’s yet another element of Underground that helps to break up all the circuit races and sprints. The point in Drift is to do as much stylish powersliding as possible. The longer the powerslides, the more points you accumulate. Linking powerslides together is challenging, but well worth the effort.

The final two race styles are your standard Circuit and Sprints. Sprints are simple point-to-point races, while Circuit races are lapped. There is also a Lap Knockout, which the car in last position is eliminated every lap until only one car is left. In all modes, you are on the road with three other cars, and each is just as intense as the other. Races are always challenging, and there are plenty of butt-clenching moments, as the computer A.I. is very smart; they seem to show animosity toward you if you play dirty, and retaliate when necessary. They do make mistakes, though not as often as the player, and they are capable of avoiding seemingly inescapable crashes. There are 111 races in Underground mode, and as the number of races goes up, the A.I. begins to get a bit cheap. Making one mistake during a race will lose it (and you have to win every race you enter to be rewarded; after all, second place is only the first place loser), and the opposition rarely make a mistake. This doesn’t really begin to happen until you are halfway through Underground mode, but even during some early races, you’ve got to be on your game, or you’re done. The cars all handle very nice, so the controls aren’t ever an issue; essential when racing in such intense challenges, and is part of what makes Underground such a joy to play.

As insane as some these races are, you are rewarded for your efforts. At the end of almost every race, you unlock something that you can do to your car, whether that be visual or performance, or you may even unlock another car altogether. You can earn yourself different magazine covers (that do nothing, but the idea is cool), and if you’re ready to go with another ride, you can trade in your car for another. But sadly, you can’t own any more than one car at a time.

We understand the idea of being a part of the tuner culture, and we understand that most street racers only own a single car, but it’d be nice to at least be able to own two at a time. For the most part, the rewards system is paced fairly well, but unlocking some of the performance upgrades can take a good amount of racing before becoming available. Thing is, once they’re unlocked, they’re underwhelming. As we mentioned earlier, Underground is no sim, and yet the way your car earns performance increases is still disappointing. You unlock performance parts in levels and packages. For example, performance pieces are grouped together in kits, such as weight reduction kits, nitrous levels, and engine mods. Each category of mod can be upgraded by three levels. At each level, you can choose from three or more packages that contain parts from various manufacturers. Thing is, all of the packages are equal, so it doesn’t matter which package you choose; the only thing you’re actually choosing are the names in which you’ll eventually adorn on the sides of your car. Truthfully, it’s kind of nice that we don’t have to tinker with the smallest details to get performance out of our cars. But the mods themselves all do the same thing, and are essentially unlocked just as you need them. Performance upgrades are unlocked the same way as everything else in the game, but you don’t stand a chance in races unless you buy them as soon as they are available. It makes the whole idea of strategizing on what to buy and when unneeded, which is a shame. It makes the process feel too linear, and with the robust amount of options at your disposal for everything else, it disappoints knowing how simple and lackluster the actual performance elements of the game are (except for the Nitrous Oxide. Nitrous rocks and significantly improves your chances of success).

If there is one thing we distinctly didn’t like about Underground from the get-go, it’s the story elements. For one, these serve to be nothing more than a waste of time, and secondly, they are so incredibly corny and decked out with cheese that we couldn’t decide whether it was funny or embarrassing. Turns out we were embarrassed. The team tried too hard to give the culture it’s props, and in doing so, turned it into one of the saddest moments in videogame CG cinema history. What’s more, the characters in the game resemble what you’d expect from a marketing suit trying desperately to be cool. Thankfully, they aren’t long and don’t appear often, but just the idea of them being there to begin with is bad. But then actually watching them is offensive. Yes, we were actually embarrassed by them, they’re that bad. Just stop. Please.

The PS2 version of Underground is online, and while a nice diversion, the game doesn’t support voice, nor a keyboard, so communication is limited to a soft keyboard onscreen. Since communication is a no-brainer for games of this type, we’re kind of surprised that EA didn’t include it. There are simple head-to-head challenges, as well as four-player races in any of the game’s modes, in which players on PS2 can race PC players as well. There are even stats that EA keeps track of, and this leader board is probably the most tantalizing of Underground’s online features. The Friends list, which is nice for like-minded racers who enjoy racing with a distinct group of players, is a great addition as well. Otherwise, the online mode is very bare bones, and has nothing on other online enabled games that actually make network play a focus. In addition, EA’s famous firewall issues continue to plague any gamer who is playing behind a firewall. Prepare to open a few ports or you can forget about hosting a game. Someone with the assets EA has should work to remedy this immediately.

Graphics – Some of the most stunning graphics to ever be found in a videogame are right here. Sometimes there are games that are released that no matter how good they are in any other area, the graphics knock you out every time you look at the screen. Need for Speed Underground is one of those games. Stunningly gorgeous in ever single respect, Underground is one of those games that will be remembered as being one of the most beautiful games on the system. The reflections shining off the cars as they scream down the wet-looking reflective streets is dazzling to the eyes, and makes for all sorts of delicious eye candy to admire.

Though there isn’t much time to admire anything at the speed you’re going. Underground’s sense of speed is amazing, and sets the bar for others to follow for the future of racing games. Street lamps blur, the screen shakes, and your Dual Shock vibrates violently, especially when kicking in the Nitrous. Underground’s presentation is probably the best any racer has ever offered, period.

The framerate does tend to stutter a bit. Though not necessarily something that happens constantly, it does happen enough to be noticeable, and at times, it actually affects gameplay. As the PS2 attempts to keep up, the frames will stutter, and you’ll see your car go from one place on the track to somewhere only inches away, but yet is enough to throw you off at times, especially because you are driving at such blistering speeds. Also, since the game takes place in a single city and at night, all of the tracks look similar. There are sections that will mesh with other segments of different tracks, and really, that’s the only track variety there is to be found in Underground.

Sound – The audio package is a satisfying one, though the licensed tracks are limited for a game that is 111 races long. You tend to hear some songs much more often than others, and since you can’t customize which songs you want to hear, you may end up hearing more tracks than you care to before finding what you actually want to hear. It’s a good thing then, that most of what you’ll hear in Underground is pretty good stuff; an eclectic mix of hip-hop, rock, techno, and house music from a variety of acts, including Lil’ John, Static X, Rancid, Mystikal, Crystal Method, and Rob Zombie.

Sound effects of the cars are pretty top-notch stuff, though we didn’t notice much difference from car to car. The voice acting for those embarrassing cutscenes we mentioned earlier is fairly decent, being more a victim to a bad script than bad acting.

Bottom Line - Despite some small annoyances, Need for Speed Underground is the very best in it’s class, paying close attention to the culture in which the game is tailored after, and offering great gameplay to back up the gorgeous graphics and thousands of upgrades for the hoarder in you. The only real problem with the game’s concept is that if you’re a fan of the Hot Pursuit series, there isn’t a whole lot here that relates to the franchise at all. What’s more, if you’re not interested in the tuner concept, or you’re a car simulator fanatic, this game could potentially be far less enjoyable. Underground is still an arcade racer at heart, which is more about fun than about spark plugs. But couple it with the nearly-limitless customization options that give the game increased replay value, and then add in some online play, you’ve got one of the most complete racing packages on the market. It’s good to see the series go in this direction. Need for Speed Underground is a keeper, and a definite contender for racer of the year.

Review by Brendon Hivner