The Need For Speed series has now gone from powerful sports cars racing in exotic locales around the world, to foreign import cars racing in the streets of an urban city at night. Enter Need For Speed Underground, where true illegal street racing comes to life. Let's see how this latest installment in the Need For Speed series compares to its earlier counterparts.
In the Underground mode, or story mode, you start out as a no-name, wannabe street racer. Through detailed cinematic cutscenes, you get to meet Samantha, who is an experienced racer herself and helps you become top racer. You are given $10,000 to start out with and a very limited selection of cars to choose from, since the rest of the cars are locked. Eventually after doing a large number of races, 112 to be exact, you unlock all the cars, which include such cars as the RX-7, Skyline, Tiburon and the Supra just to name a few. There are twenty cars in all and throughout the course of the Underground mode you can trade your car in for another one. After purchasing your car you have the ability to completely customize it. When it comes to the different parts for your car everything has a certain level. For example, you will start out with a stock engine in your car, but can than later upgrade to a level 1 engine, which will of course give you better top speed and acceleration. Eventually when unlocking all the parts level 3 will be the highest you can go for everything. This system of upgrades makes it easy for anyone with a limited knowledge of cars to upgrade their car.
When choosing your performance and visual upgrades you can choose which manufacturer you want. Performance part upgrades include new engines, drivetrains, nitros, turbos, exhaust systems, weight reduction kits, tyres, suspension and fuel systems. Visual part upgrades include things such as new spoilers, rims, side skirts, front and back bumpers, headlights, taillights, hoods, roof scoops, neon underglows, tinted windows, decals, vinyls and different types of custom paint. Besides just using the paint for your full car you can also paint the spoiler, rims, and engine. After beating Underground mode you will unlock all the colours which include chameleon colours that change depending on how you look at the car. You can also choose to have four different layers of vinyl on your car at the same time. There are literally hundreds of vinyls to choose from. When combined with all the other parts you can buy, there are nearly unlimited combinations of how you can customize your car.
After beating Underground mode you also unlock all the different tracks. Need For Speed Underground doesn't take place in different locations like the previous installments in this series. In fact, it only takes place in one big city at night, but there are so many different roads and short cuts that it makes for a large variety of tracks to choose from. You can go straight into Quick Race, customize a car, choose a track, and drive away. There are four different races to choose from: drag, circuit, sprint and drift. Drag is requires little in the way of descriptions. You just drag race down a straightaway against four opponents. You have to shift perfectly or you may blow your engine or fall behind. The circuit race consists of you doing a certain amount of laps around a street track against four opponents. The sprint race is just like the circuit race, except there are no laps. You start at one destination and end at another. The drift is when you do a certain number of laps around a very slick track by yourself. You have to power slide around the turns perfectly to gain the highest points.
If you have grown tired of playing the Underground mode or Quick Race mode than you can head out online. Once online you can choose any of the cars that you previously customized. You then choose what type of race you want to do and a list of chat rooms will show up. When you choose a room, you can talk to people, join an already set-up race, or challenge another player to a race. A meter shows up by your name which shows people how good their internet connection is. However, the majority of the people online have connections in the yellow or red which slows everything down, and sometimes this makes it impossible to have a fair race against each other.
The AI in the single-player aspect of the game is done well. It's not overly challenging, but it's not too hard either. Sometimes the AI drivers will unrealistically stick with you throughout the race. But occasionally they will crash into a wall or wipeout around a turn, which makes the game more realistic. If they drove around the track perfectly without ever screwing up, it would make for a very hard and an unrealistic driving experience. And speaking of crashes, unfortunately there is no damage modeling on the cars - but this does mean you won't have to worry about scratching your paint.
The graphics in Need For Speed Underground are nothing short of stunning. From the environments to the cars themselves, everything is very detailed and life-like. The main visual effect that will catch your eye are the reflections. Your car will produce smooth flowing reflections from the lights and surroundings throughout the race. The puddles also produce the same reflections, but sometimes it feels like there are a few too many reflective surfaces. Some more visual effects are the light glares and the motion blur, which gets blurrier the faster you go. Both of these effects take some time to get used to and they can be turned off, but when combined with every other visual aspect of the graphics it makes for some of the best graphics ever seen in a racing game.
The sound effects are equally as good. The sounds are all very detailed, and you'll hear such things as other cars honking at you and the screeching sounds of burning rubber. And when shifting you can hear the detailed sound of the blow-off valve on your turbo, or when hitting your nitro button you can hear the boost of speed you get. All of these sound effects make for a very involved racing experience.
Conclusion
Need For Speed Underground is without doubt the best one in the series. With a combination of the graphics, sounds, and the Underground story mode, it makes for a great racing experience that you won't soon forget. But it's a shame that it's lacking such things as a replay mode. There are some very close races swerving in and out of traffic, but you'll never be able to watch them again and again. Even though Need For Speed Underground may have more of an arcade feel to it, and may not get the simulation fans excited, it's definitely one racing game that's not to be missed.
