Need for Speed: Undercover

 PC
User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 394 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 99 out of 394
  2. Mixed: 159 out of 394
  3. Negative: 136 out of 394
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  1. kndr
    May 23, 2021
    1
    One of the worst nfs games ever.

    They tried to do third most wanted but ultimately failed. They failed so hard. Police chases are unfun and not satisfying. Sun blind your eyes and without that you see how weak the atmosphere is. Soulness and empty. Now for the most important part: Car handling is sh1t. It is just terrible. When you can't do car handling right in a game about    One of the worst nfs games ever.

    They tried to do third most wanted but ultimately failed. They failed so hard.

    Police chases are unfun and not satisfying.

    Sun blind your eyes and without that you see how weak the atmosphere is. Soulness and empty.

    Now for the most important part:

    Car handling is sh1t. It is just terrible. When you can't do car handling right in a game about racing your game is already doomed to fail. You just lost the game, mission failed.    … Expand
  2. szogyenyi
    Aug 9, 2014
    0
    Believe me, BELIEVE ME, you don't want to play with this game! It's sooooo horrible! It's just another: "Hey, put some **** to the table!" - EA game. I can't believe this game was made by the same studio who developed Underground 2. Noi, no, no, i can't. I just can't. The story is horrible, with full of cliches, and the live action videos are sooooooooo bad. Tri-City is the child ofBelieve me, BELIEVE ME, you don't want to play with this game! It's sooooo horrible! It's just another: "Hey, put some **** to the table!" - EA game. I can't believe this game was made by the same studio who developed Underground 2. Noi, no, no, i can't. I just can't. The story is horrible, with full of cliches, and the live action videos are sooooooooo bad. Tri-City is the child of Palmont city and Rockport. the AI still bad, the tuning is poor, the cars handling are terrible, the AI cheats again, etc, etc, etc... This game just don't work! That's all. The only way to buy it if a guy give me an Xbox360 copy for free, or for 2 euros. No more. This game can't cost 50-50 bucks, NEVER! It's a shame they sold it as a AAA game. No. No. I just want to go back time and stop making this **** I want to rewrite history! I don't wanna live in a world where NFS Undercover exist! Even the name!… Expand
  3. OnlyFails
    Jul 18, 2013
    3
    Yeah, fun game but way too frustrating.
    You piled with 8+ police SUV's and expected to destroy them along with the additional police cruiser that spawns every 60 seconds.

    You do this for every cop chase scene, it gets real old and boring real quick.
  4. DM7
    Mar 11, 2014
    0
    i recently bought this, because it was having a 75% off on steam, and wow it is bad, no wonder its only $2.49 (after discount).
    and it wasn't even able to make me want to play it more, i tried to force myself to play it more, so that at least i got my money's worth. but the game is too easy and it makes it very boring, and it got poor performance, nothing special with the graphics (i know    i recently bought this, because it was having a 75% off on steam, and wow it is bad, no wonder its only $2.49 (after discount).
    and it wasn't even able to make me want to play it more, i tried to force myself to play it more, so that at least i got my money's worth. but the game is too easy and it makes it very boring, and it got poor performance, nothing special with the graphics (i know its an old 2009 game, but there are a lot 2009 games with better graphics than this trash), the acting is so bad, i can't even watch the cutscenes, and the script is also trash,

    and also maggie Q acting is as bad as always, man i bet they spent a lot hiring her, because of her looks, but her acting is terrible, she really should consider something else than acting.

    totally a waste of money, not worth it even when its 75% off, i don't think its even worth it even if EA giving it away for free, HDD space is more precious for other rather than installing this trash, and my HDD is 3TB, so i don't have a capacity issue, but this game doesn't even worth sitting in my HDD.    … Expand
  5. Screwdrivervasy
    Dec 13, 2015
    1
    Могла бы быть лучшей nfs - наиболее удачные трассы,отсутствие нахер не нужных дрифтовдрагов прочей хуиты, однако EA Black Box обильно полила всё кетчупом, угробив игру в зародыше. EA **** - всё, к чему прикасаются становится говном. Уникальный талант. Нахуй такие игры.Могла бы быть лучшей nfs - наиболее удачные трассы,отсутствие нахер не нужных дрифтовдрагов прочей хуиты, однако EA Black Box обильно полила всё кетчупом, угробив игру в зародыше. EA **** - всё, к чему прикасаются становится говном. Уникальный талант. Нахуй такие игры.
  6. AigorUppercut
    Mar 8, 2009
    4
    The game has a known recipe that has been out there for some years now: nice cars, open world, cheesy FMVs. . . But it lacks the shine of the previous installments of the NFS franchise. Somehow related to Need for Speed Most Wanted (mainly because of the police chases) the resemblence ends right there. It's impossible to compare such a good game like MW to Undercover. The physics are The game has a known recipe that has been out there for some years now: nice cars, open world, cheesy FMVs. . . But it lacks the shine of the previous installments of the NFS franchise. Somehow related to Need for Speed Most Wanted (mainly because of the police chases) the resemblence ends right there. It's impossible to compare such a good game like MW to Undercover. The physics are awful (all the cars handle as if the road itself was made out of rubber), the car customization system is very limited, and it's difficulty rises from a very (VERY) easy start to end with a nonsensical dificulty as you reach higher levels, whereas oponents cars can outrun you every single time, even when you use your NOS to pump some juice into your engine, the AI goes faster and faster until their car crashes into something or you pass along it with your NOS bar empty. Perhaps you may think that I'm overlooking some important aspects like graphics, sound and others. Yes, the game looks really good and has an acceptable soudtrack, but gameplay is always my main concern and that's where NFSUC fails. To all those things that I critizised in the upper paragraph, you may add the ridiculous high system requirements required to experience a pleasant game experience. Even when my system is far from being high end (an e7300 with 2Gs of RAM, coupled with an overclocked 512mb HD 3850) the game on highest settings (no Vsync) ranges from a minimal 32 to a top 48 FPS, with 45 being the most common value. That sounds nice, but the game suffers from random FPS drops and suttering. And it's not the processor or RAM, when checking CPU usage the game never reached more than 3/4 of it's total capacity. This issue is common, even with stronger systems (q6600, 4Gs, 8800 GTS) the anomaly persists and it gets very annoying when your car is racing at 350 km/h and you suddenly find yourself in danger because the game stuttered and left you in the wrong side of the road with little time to react. And NO, the official patch did nothing to solve this issue. So, taking all that's been said, my humble advise is to stay away from this one. It seems that fans of the good'ol NFS games will have to understand once and for all that EA will keep smearing a good name with lousy, unfinished games.… Expand
  7. dumle
    Jan 24, 2013
    0
    Absolutely terrible. Dont go anywhere near this game. Four years after release and they still havent bothered to fix the numerous technical problems that plague this game. For me the game was completely unplayable and the little time i spent in the game was a complete mess with boring races, unskippable cutscenes and a ton of graphical problems. Stay away.
  8. dudebrit5
    Aug 24, 2011
    0
    Dude, this is the WORST ever of EA's game, why just they released this games with no good spec? There is no any other thing to make player satisfied to this game, since I bought this game I think "This games would be awesome". But when I played it, the game turn into a **** Nobody would play that game, it make me boring and suck. Maybe they gave it HD features like in the NFS ProStreet, orDude, this is the WORST ever of EA's game, why just they released this games with no good spec? There is no any other thing to make player satisfied to this game, since I bought this game I think "This games would be awesome". But when I played it, the game turn into a **** Nobody would play that game, it make me boring and suck. Maybe they gave it HD features like in the NFS ProStreet, or satisfaying cop dude like in NFS Most Wanted. EA just selling **** they have no sense at games, and I tellin' ya nobody got to play this game!… Expand
  9. leonardo2360
    Mar 25, 2016
    1
    bad gameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
  10. SrCre
    Mar 10, 2020
    4
    [ ] Perfect
    [ ] Awesome
    [ ] Good
    [x] Good Bad
    [ ] Fail

    Não vejo necessidade em escrever um longo texto analisando uma arte, a nota é apenas um conselho para saber o quanto ela vale para sua vida.

    I see no need to write a long text analyzing an art, the note is just a piece of advice to know how much it is worth in your life.
  11. namDa65
    Feb 5, 2012
    3
    This game is pretty bad and a quick cash-in for the need for speed franchise. The live action cutscenes are porrly acted, and the gameplay bland. The environments and cars have no life to them at all and it feels like a game from 2002.
  12. ivarswe
    Nov 6, 2012
    2
    No no no EA has killed another need for speed
    physics are terrible, its very annoying to drive and the story are crap. I also had some problem installing this on my computer. I do not recommend this.
  13. Twirlybob
    Aug 30, 2012
    4
    The game, from the start, was pretty fun, exciting, and so on, but later, when I got through half of gameplay, everything gets harder, some races are just impossible to win. Just saying, to play this game, you need really good skills, otherwise you couldn't possibly win a race. And there is one minus about cars. You cant pick ANY car, and win whole game. You need to choose it wisely, checkThe game, from the start, was pretty fun, exciting, and so on, but later, when I got through half of gameplay, everything gets harder, some races are just impossible to win. Just saying, to play this game, you need really good skills, otherwise you couldn't possibly win a race. And there is one minus about cars. You cant pick ANY car, and win whole game. You need to choose it wisely, check stats, and so on, but it sucks. Every car I really like, for example BMW M3, have fu***d up handling. It isn't possible to drive with it! Example: On NFS: MW I could possibly win game by every car. Another minus. On dual-core CPU's Autosculpt will freeze your game. And I couldn't possibly find any patch for it. Deal with it. EA possibly will never, ever, ever make almost perfect game, like NFS:MW (2005)… Expand
  14. SankalpG
    Feb 23, 2009
    2
    I really have nothing to say about this game. I installed it on vista. HUGE PROBLEMS. I gave it another chance. Installed on XP. MORE PROBLEMS. Indeed and the worst part is that I don't find much of a difference between this game and the Most Wanted. I hope if you're thinking of getting this game, get Burnout Paradise instead.
  15. TonyGrosinger
    Nov 30, 2008
    4
    Great cars and looks real nice. Cops are unreasonably fast however and very stupid. On all cop chases you will be driving along and instantly spawn 15 feds in SUVs that can go over 200 mph. I don't believe that that is realistic in any way at all.
  16. JugalShah
    Dec 2, 2008
    2
    The game is disappointing as it tries to be like NFS-Most Wanted with high HD requirements like higher RAM & graphics. There was a much higher expectation from this game but it failed. Wild cop chases,cut-scenes & excellent driving cars makes it a bit cool; but it has tons of problems whilst playing the game which annoys the user & makes it unenjoyable!! NFS should make it a lot better!!The game is disappointing as it tries to be like NFS-Most Wanted with high HD requirements like higher RAM & graphics. There was a much higher expectation from this game but it failed. Wild cop chases,cut-scenes & excellent driving cars makes it a bit cool; but it has tons of problems whilst playing the game which annoys the user & makes it unenjoyable!! NFS should make it a lot better!! Better luck next time guys!!… Expand
  17. redcode
    Jan 5, 2009
    1
    Congratulation EA! I know, NFS is an arcade Game but this here is ready for the worst Game Award 2008. I mean come on an Police SUV is faster else an tuned Sportcar? Faster like an bugatti veron? i mean did EA investigate any mind in this game? maybe not... it looks like a game to make somehow cash! I'm deeply disappointed about this 49
  18. Tulatin
    Nov 25, 2008
    0
    A big, boring game that seizes your hand and throws you where your'e supposed to go in the city. It's far too easy and the driving physics are terrible. Beyond that, the vehicles sound like the bastard child of a singer and a ricer rocket. Perhaps the only redeeming quality of it is the return to an arcade field, but who are we kidding? Don't waste your time, don't A big, boring game that seizes your hand and throws you where your'e supposed to go in the city. It's far too easy and the driving physics are terrible. Beyond that, the vehicles sound like the bastard child of a singer and a ricer rocket. Perhaps the only redeeming quality of it is the return to an arcade field, but who are we kidding? Don't waste your time, don't waste your money, don't even waste the packets, and if you do, for the love of god, don't waste a DVD9. Maybe EA can bundle it together with ProStreet and sell the NFS: Shit Pack to recoup some losses. Or maybe they just need to develop Big Rigs 2 next.… Expand
  19. MarkoMunko
    Dec 12, 2008
    0
    WOW this f**king game runs slow on my rig with a 9800GT (top 10 tier GPU) with numerous glitches and bugs replete throughout every area... You would think it was made by Atari but alas the franchise that should have been great, never was, and thus NFS: UnderDeveloped reflects the virtues of it's creator EA. I did not enjoy this game, and in order to get a steady framerate on anyWOW this f**king game runs slow on my rig with a 9800GT (top 10 tier GPU) with numerous glitches and bugs replete throughout every area... You would think it was made by Atari but alas the franchise that should have been great, never was, and thus NFS: UnderDeveloped reflects the virtues of it's creator EA. I did not enjoy this game, and in order to get a steady framerate on any decent system you've got to disable most of the graphics options making this game look WORSE than its predecessors in order to acheive a similar framerate. Sorry guys you've failed on this one... add that to the list I suppose...… Expand
  20. JohnMcCain
    Dec 24, 2008
    1
    Rehash mix up of Most Wanted, Prostreet, and Carbon. Totally sucks and isnt worth the 60 dollar shelf price.
    Price dropped to 40 and still isnt worth it. If it was released at 20 or 30 than I would rate it higher for being great budget ware, but this is a long running big name franchise. EA should hire better studios.

    Shut Down BLACKBOX!!!
  21. Tuure
    Dec 30, 2008
    2
    The game doesn't bring anything new to the series. Just like every EA-game so far... Unrealistic handling, boring storyline, boring races with nothing new to them etc. This game was just like playing Carbon, except the graphics were amazing and the best so far. There's few new things, such as taking out some "gang-members" by crashing into them which was just stupid. The game The game doesn't bring anything new to the series. Just like every EA-game so far... Unrealistic handling, boring storyline, boring races with nothing new to them etc. This game was just like playing Carbon, except the graphics were amazing and the best so far. There's few new things, such as taking out some "gang-members" by crashing into them which was just stupid. The game ended by taking out some other street-racers and that's it, also the game was way too easy. I have bought few NFS's, but I'm not gonna waste my money on any of them anymore.… Expand
  22. LukeM.
    Nov 21, 2008
    1
    Best Game Ever!!!!
  23. ChristianP.
    Nov 25, 2008
    3
    The good thing first, to get it out of the way. NFS Undercover has a great variety of cars and they look nice. The cutscenes are well done, from an aesthetic point of view. But that's it. The important bits like car physics or opponent AI iare a joke. The opposing racers rely on a totally random rubberband AI and the "revolutionary" cop AI consists of passing and ramming. No The good thing first, to get it out of the way. NFS Undercover has a great variety of cars and they look nice. The cutscenes are well done, from an aesthetic point of view. But that's it. The important bits like car physics or opponent AI iare a joke. The opposing racers rely on a totally random rubberband AI and the "revolutionary" cop AI consists of passing and ramming. No discernable strategy, no finesse, just plain stupid brute force. Add to that a completely broken graphics engine that doesn't run well even on machines that way exceed the system requirements and looks like it's three years old to boot, restrictive copy protection and a lack of polish that is totally inexcuseable in the light of a game like Race Driver GRID and you have the opposite of entertainment. If you value your money, please stay clear of this game. It's time EA changes developers and lengthens the developement cycles on their games instead of rushing half-baked cash-in attempts out of the door.… Expand
  24. shaun37
    Oct 26, 2011
    4
    Horrific cannot describe this game, it is quite simply the worst need for speed I have ever played. I cringed at the 'story driven' cut-scenes, the handling is too iffy, even for an arcade game, and the races.. no words. Presentation wise, graphics are okay and the engine sounds are fine, but the voice acting is just plain bad. Car variety is decent and luckily cop chases are still fun.
  25. Cooldude731
    Jul 26, 2012
    4
    This game is one of the worst titles in the series. The storyline is okay, but gets boring quickly. The graphics are barely any better compared to Most Wanted and Carbon, but there is no guarantee the game will run smoothly. The first machine I played the game on, had well above the Minimum and around the Recommended specs and the game was super-choppy. Now if a game is laggy when you haveThis game is one of the worst titles in the series. The storyline is okay, but gets boring quickly. The graphics are barely any better compared to Most Wanted and Carbon, but there is no guarantee the game will run smoothly. The first machine I played the game on, had well above the Minimum and around the Recommended specs and the game was super-choppy. Now if a game is laggy when you have met the Minimum specs clearly there is an issue with the coding itself. The computer players and cops are very stupid and the physics itself for the game are terrible. The choice of cars were good, and the world you drive in (Tri-City Bay), was actually very well done, but too bad it wasn't put on a great game.… Expand
  26. dandalis
    Oct 30, 2016
    4
    Horribly rushed game with abysmal PC port. So freakin rushed that even they have WRX STi files in the game folder but not in the game. How cool is that. Also auto sculpting on PC is broken, every time i try it my game freezes and crashes. Theres too much sun glare in the game which can cause eye pain for more sensitive people and annoy the hell ouf the rest. Video settings wont save unlessHorribly rushed game with abysmal PC port. So freakin rushed that even they have WRX STi files in the game folder but not in the game. How cool is that. Also auto sculpting on PC is broken, every time i try it my game freezes and crashes. Theres too much sun glare in the game which can cause eye pain for more sensitive people and annoy the hell ouf the rest. Video settings wont save unless you fiddle with compatibilty settings. Atleast the game runs fine once you get all that crap sorted out.

    But even after that game still is just sucha mess with horrible driving mechanics, insane rubber banding, OP as hell cops. Car sound quality take a big hit compared to Pro Street and previous games where all the cars sound muffled once you get up to speed. Atleast cars themselves are well modeled and cosmetic damage simulation works decently enough. Story is pretty cringey, but for game of this type it kinda suits. Open world itself is simply boring looking with lack of attention to detail and roads you race arent any better.

    Maybe an extra year of development could have helped this game become ateast decent, but EA's greed had no time to spare.    … Expand
  27. r03vg
    Apr 15, 2020
    2
    А чего графика такая мыльная? А что с физикой не так? Нормально же было все, зачем сломали? В это невозможно играть.
  28. Izoeros
    May 11, 2022
    3
    qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq
  29. Blackboxsucks
    May 31, 2023
    0
    People are calling Ghost and criterion and modern NFS are bad and forgot that **** box made this unplayable dog water
  30. EasternUNO
    Dec 20, 2022
    0
    The worst NFS game which was ever created. I have been playing all NFS since Underground 1 and I am definitely skipping this one even though we are in 2022 and there are graphics redux modes available, car handling improvement etc. I played this game when it came out in 2008 and since then I did not touch this game. It's really terrible trash.
  31. Grabuss
    Jun 29, 2023
    1
    It's the worst NFS game ever made, seriously, there are so many wrong things about BB UC version. The graphics are making me vomit, the handling & physics are the WORST in the NFS series, how could you mess it up this badly??? the sense of Speed vignette is also garbage, the story is terrible, the police chases are not satisfying at all, the AI is G.A.R.B.A.G.E it literally makes me wantIt's the worst NFS game ever made, seriously, there are so many wrong things about BB UC version. The graphics are making me vomit, the handling & physics are the WORST in the NFS series, how could you mess it up this badly??? the sense of Speed vignette is also garbage, the story is terrible, the police chases are not satisfying at all, the AI is G.A.R.B.A.G.E it literally makes me want to rage quit and destroy my computer and let's not forget so many bugs that are still present in this game to this day, the customization has been severely downgraded for some strange reason, engine sounds are bland, it's like BB didn't even try to make them at least more alive. The only really good things about this game are the soundtrack and the car list, that's all (which is why my rating is 1/10). And people who really love this game, have trash taste, seriously, there are way better NFS games out there. I do not recommend buying this version, I really had a lot more fun with the PS2 and PSP versions (which is crazy because, for example, the handling is very good in PSP & PS2, unlike the BB version).… Expand
  32. xcale
    Mar 6, 2023
    3
    Another unnecessary released Need For Speed. Terrible physics. It would be better if it had never came out of undercover.

Awards & Rankings

27
#27 Most Discussed PC Game of 2008
23
#23 Most Shared PC Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
65

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. PTGamers
    60
    The game modes are not particularly intense, and the vehicles, although very detailed, fail to offer the feeling from the best of the series.
    Read full review
  2. Cheat Code Central
    70
    One can't help but notice that the franchise has seen better days.
    Read full review
  3. G4 TV
    60
    Need for Speed: Undercover is a game that both satisfies and disappoints on a regular basis. While the chases provide top-notch thrills and spills, you can’t help but feel like you’ve just done it too many times to really care anymore.
    Read full review
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