Need for Speed Underground

The Need for Speed series has been around for a good number of years, which is a testament to how popular the franchise is and how far EA is willing to take it. The latest incarnation is Need for Speed Underground, a retreat to the underground world of illegal streetracing. For the most part, the series has always been excellent in many respects. Despite a few gripes, Underground holds up that mantra, offering a robust gameplay experience. It takes pages from other racing titles in terms of speed (Rockstar's Midnight Club I & II), style (Micosoft's Project Gotham Racing), and customization (Sony's legendary Gran Turismo franchise). Does Underground surpass all of these games in each respective category? Maybe not, but it comes damn close and deserves your time anyway.

Back some odd months ago in our preview of Underground, we put a heavy emphasis on the effort that the developers were placing on speed. They even brought in a visual-effects specialist from films to help out. The final project is the fruit of their efforts, and the velocity these vehicles race at is very convincing. Impressive visuals add to the racing, and never have I seen a “motion-blur” effect used in such a terrific way. Granted, the motion-blur creates the illusion that the cars are blazing along faster than they actually are, but few racing titles look so cool. Unfortunately, our preview also outlined a few stutters in the framerate, and EA hasn’t cleaned that up, the game continues to choke a bit when hitting top speeds.

The landscapes you'll go through look quite good, but I imagine most of you won't have much time to enjoy them when you're careening down the streets. In addition, the solid amount of licensed car models (Toyotas, Acura, and so on) look slick, and customizing the appearance of your rides make the whole visual package even sweeter. The developer obviously has a love affair with reflective surfaces, as the wet roads and vehicles alike shine like diamonds.

Sound-wise, Underground is nothing special but it gets the job done. The soundtrack is a mixed assortment of tracks that you'd expect from a game of this ilk, with your bag of rap, rock, and techno-type tunes. Nate Dogg, Petey Pablo, and Rob Zombie are just a few of the artists you'll be jamming to. Every vehicle sounds realistic, and swapping in different engines usually equals varied audio. However, when the game trys to throw in cutscenes, the voiceacting is too cheesy, but thankfully, these scenes are kept to a minimum.

Underground gives the player a nice amount of racing modes to choose from. Drag racing is a straight shot in an effort to beat times and overcome challenges and obstacles. Shifting properly is top priority here. Secondly, drift racing is you alone on a track, powersliding around turns. Using the emergency brake is key, but this mode bored me after a bit. The main meat of the game is called Go Underground, spanning 111 races, attaining reputation and upgrades. When I say 111, I don't mean 111 different tracks, since alot of the races appear on varied versions of the same track. This "career" mode should last you for a little while, and I enjoyed it for the most part.

One particularly cool aspect of Underground is being able to tinker with your car. This has obviously been done in many racing games, but I admire the inclusion of upgrades nonetheless. One can choose between either performance parts (better braking, new engines, nitrous, and the like) and visual upgrades (new headlights, taillights, stickers, spoilers, and more) from brand-names. The customization isn't mind-boggling and never gets incredibly deep, however, and I found myself more interested in creating a sweet appearence to impress my buddies in muliplayer.

Need for Speed Underground does a host of things right, great graphics and sweet upgrades included. Even though I sense that EA could have tuned the game up a bit more around the edges, GC-owners looking to purchase a wildly fun racing title will find that here. The learning curve isn't too hard, and those familiar with fast, arcade-style control will feel right at home. Just remember to breathe when you race, with the occasional blink. And don't worry about leaning so close to the TV. You're gonna need to.