Illegal street racing was around for quite a while, but it was definitely popularized by The Fast and the Furious. Since than, a whole new car tunning subculture had evolved. Need for Speed: Underground will let you take a look into the illegal street racing scene directly from the safety of your home. Hot cars, girls :D, car modding, the sense of speed, it's got it all.

Let's start from the beginning.
The story is quite simple. You're a new racer and you're trying to get to the top by defeating other racers. You start with a stock car, and as the game progresses you upgrade your car with performance and visual upgrades. There are a lot of upgrades, so it's safe to say every player will probably make a unique car. In the beginning you will meet Samantha (Cindy Johnson), a fellow street racer and your guide trough the game.
The plot reminds me of a high-school teenage drama. There is a cool guy, a leader of the Eastriders, the best crew out there who happens to have a hot girlfriend, also a street racer, Melissa (Amy Walz) that you're into. Of course she doesn't notice you at first, but as you progress trough the game you get more, and more popular.

The racing part is done very nicely. There are 5 types of races, circuit, sprint, drift, drag and lap knockout. Below, I will explain every one of them.
Circuit
Race with up to four opponents on a loop track.

Sprint
Race from point A to B

Drift
You drive on a short loop track, and attempt achieve the most points by drifting your car.

Drag
You race on a straight track in order to obtain the top position. Computer handles your steering so you could focus on shifting gears correctly. You can only switch between lanes. This type of race has been portrayed in The Fast and the Furious.

Lap Knockut
Same as circuit, except the last player to finish the lap is out.

Racing is usually easy, but game may be unforgiving if you make too many mistakes. One of the things that the races miss is the fact that there are no cops. Although they would probably make some races even harder, I missed the cops. Another thing that the game was missing was the replay mode. We had a bad replay mode in Hot Pursuit 2, but at least it was something. I regret not being able to see some moves I pulled during the race.

Graphics are pretty great. Car textures are great. Makes you feel like the car is real. Roads are very reflective, giving them the wet look.
When you hit the Nitrous Oxide button, the screen gets all blurry, similar to the effect of Enterprise going to Warp. That fact that the blur effect is so strong, sometimes causes you to hit obstacles because you didn't see them.
The traffic cars are too simple. They don't look like real cars. More like they're made of cardboard.
Tracks tend to be repetitive. All the tracks are located in the same city, so many different tracks share the same parts and landmarks.

After all, this is a pretty great game. It's got it's good sides and bad sides. I'd recommend it to everyone.



Review by: Mario User Rating: 5/5
Reads: 222
Added on Sep, 26th 2007 04:00 PM (16:00)