Need for Speed Underground

"Brush up on your curse words..."

Graphics - 10/10. Gorgeous. No complaints at all. The motion blur effect is great if you have the hardware to run it.

Sound - 8/10. Cars sound OK, but could sound better. The soundtrack is pretty good, and as an added bonus, you can shut off the songs you don't like. Not a lot for ambient sounds, though hearing the other cars rev their engines in approval during Drift mode was a nice touch.

Non-Gameplay - 9/10. By non-gameplay, I'm talking about the selling point of the game, customization. There are a good number of parts to put on the cars to improve their appearance, and a lot of paint colors to go with it. Whether you hate the cars or not, there's just something about making a stock car into something of your own that works great, and helps to keep your interest.

Gameplay - 5/10. No real problems with the physics or controls. Everything is fairly responsive. The cars handle a bit looser than simulation games, but a lot of people will like that more. The reward system is a little iffy, with some of the more difficult races not seeming to be worth the reward, but the style point system is great. I'm going to split this up for the three main race modes.

Drag Mode - 8/10. Implementation is excellent. Shifting at the right times will do a lot of good. Over-revving or short shifting will hurt you a little, just as it should. Two points off, though, for random traffic. It's a pain to be winning with all perfect shifts and lose because a stray minivan crosses the road right in front of you.

Drift Mode - 9/10. Drifting is a blast. Traction is intentionally lowered to accommodate sliding through the corners, and the scoring system works well. One point off for the randomly updating leaderboard. It seems to update based on where you are in the run physically, and what the other racers did at that point, so it may seem like you're in the lead, and then you get to a point where another racer finished their drift and jumps over you.

Circuit/Knockout/Sprint - 4/10. For a game about street racing, it sure didn't use common sense in circuit races. First off, supposedly they race at night after everyone has gone to bed. So why is there so much traffic? That always seems to appear after blind corners, right in front of where your turn is taking you? Secondly, I don't know many people who race circuits through town, but I guarantee you they wouldn't ever put themselves on a track where they could find their car wrapped around a post in the road. This isn't much of an issue until later in the game, but it becomes a big issue, and it can get frustrating to the point that nuns would swear at it.

Overall - 7/10. It is so much fun when you're not swearing at it that it's worth enduring the frustration. But barely.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/23/03