Need for Speed Underground

"one word to describe this game: OMGWTFROFLMFAO"

You might be wondering "yo whats up with the title"... yeah well sorry its my description of the game. Hahaha. The thing about Need for Speed Underground (NFSU) is that it can be "OMG" immersive to "WTF" frustration.

I'll name some of the highlights of the game. First of all, the graphics. EA has done themselves a godly favour, because THESE GRAPHICS ROCK!!! If you enable the options that is... :P but if you have motion blur on with all settings on, trust me, you'll have NEVER seen a racing game of THIS caliber before.

Once you speed past 100 MPH, motion blur kicks in and it is because of motion blur, racing in NFSU is so fun and immersive. YOur vision starts to blur in with each other and racing suddenly turns from pansy sunday driving to FULL FLEDGED UNDERGROUND RACING! The motion blur is like art itself, and it truly sets NFSU apart from other games. But the blur is not the only highlight of the game. All 20 something licensed cars are beautifully rendered. When put onto one of the MANY detailed tracks of the NFSU city, the game just becomes awe-inspiring.

NFSU is made mostly for, ofcourse, racing. There's a quick race option, but Underground mode is the heart of the game. You play the "storyline" of the game in Underground mode, and you start a new car from scratch and turn it into the ultimate racing machine on the streets through its 111 races. Through the process of these 111 races, you can trade in cars, place in performance boosting parts, and customize your car.

The customization is endless. There are so many different options from front bumbers to side skirts to roof scoops to muffler tip. Neons to Headlights to almost every majig there is to making your car look like the ones you see on "Ride with Funk Master Flex" (no, no SUVs or bullet proof jeeps) No, wait, that's a bad example. There's ONE thing you'll remember about when you play this game. The Fast and the Furious series. The game is so stemmed into its traditions you almost feel liek Michelle Rodriguez everytime you press NOS and than fly over a hill and crash. (hahahahaha)

Okay, the good things about the game aside, now comes the games dark parts. EA has done themselves a godly favor by making great graphics, but the AI is just utter utter b.s. Race 75+ and you'll get what I say. The A.I. doesn't play by the same rule you do, and they'll have no trouble coming from behind you 20 seconds to 1 second in merely 3 seconds. The reason for this is the darn "Catch-up AI" that everyone complains about. And it ain't pretty. I've found myself SO frustrated that I have at least thrice gone hysterical and psycho because of this game. And when your race 95+, and when time is EVERYTHING, the AI just turns you off with its 300 MPH feats where it drives FLAWLESSLY to pass YOU.

A.I. AT LEAST chipped away 2 points, but my other complaint is that, Underground mode, while interesting, gets VERY repetitive and has almost no replay value other than getting unique parts you didn't get before. Underground mode is basically a fullload of 111 races forced insdie a little box with a few voice clips to introduce you to your race. Not only is there is a weak storyline, (okay its a racing game but still) the tracks, while aplenty, are VERY repetitive. After seeing the first 20 it starts to look all the same everytime (but different, set apart in different parts of this 'city') set at night, you start to doze off a bit while racing.

Oh I should probably mention oen more thing. The traffic A.I. is nonexistent. I swear, those guys are out to sabotoge you. If you're driving straight at them, they won't budge, making racing a patience standoff between your mental self, to whether you wanna ram right through the traffic car, or do you wanna drive around him. Usually, it ends up you ramming into the traffic and getting halted to a complete stop. Since most likely you'll see the traffic, than some other car magically appears right in front of you and by than you'd have little time to react.

Kudos to the drag race and drift modes though, since they bring a change of pace and variety to the endless point to point races and stupid A.I.

Oh yeah, I guess I'd also have to throw a bone to the Online mode, available only if you've PC or PS2. It's great and all, and it's fun because you're able to look at each others cars. But the 4 (or 3 or 2 or 1) man racing gets really annoying, since you'll be playing with PS2 players and they LAG SPIKE every race.

All in all, NFSU is still no matter a GREAT game, great graphics, great music, sound, and customization. But A.I. and repititive tracks can get you VERY VERY frustrated.

6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/26/04