A few weeks ago, CEO John Riccitiello had a mea culpa. He said Electronic Arts was torturing the folks at EA Black Box with a 12-month development cycle. Basically, the studio there had to produce a new Need for Speed every year, and the rigorous schedule was taking its toll.
Acknowledging this, he decided to make a change, according to GameIndustry.biz. EA split the dev teams and gave them more time to work on games. As EA Black Box transitioned to this plan, they also made another title in that span. It took about 16 months, it stars Maggie Q ,and it doesn’t look half bad.
Need for Speed Undercover brings the series back to its open world form, after a bit of experimentation with standard races in Pro Street.
As an undercover officer, players enter the world of underground street racing and try to find the criminals responsible for making the fictional Try-City Bay Area a dump. The game is spread out over three regions: Palm Harbor, Port Crescent and Sunset Hills.
Each area has its own characteristics, but overall, they’re connected by miles of freeways. How big is the game? I asked Justin Oliverares, the product manager, and he said that it takes about 10 to 12 minutes to circle the beltway around the game.
Playing the game, we went through three types of races. They were found by looking over the map and clicking on them. The first event we played was the Highway Battle, which plays like a chase scene out of the Matrix Reloaded.
Players basically race against an opponent through freeway traffic, weaving in and out of cars. Highway Battle has a Burnout feel to it except this time you’re dodging cars, not running into them.
A bar on the left side of the screen measures your progress. The team also introduces the pursuit break, an ability that slows down time so that players can make those tight passes between a minivan and big-rig. But this time around, EA Black box is stingier with the ability isn’t abused as it was in Need for Speed Carbon.
The second event was the Chase. From what we saw, the main character appears to steal a car and is chased by police. To avoid getting arrested, he has to lose the cops and get into a chop shop.
This is where the new control tweaks will help. EA Black Box has made it easier to pull e-brake U-turns in the game. Successfully, pulling it off allows players to move in a new direction and infuriate officers trying to break down the car.
Fans driving down the street will also notice that damage is being done to the car. Like in Pro Street, Undercover features vehicle damage though it doesn’t impact performance. But that doesn’t mean the cars are indestructable. Players can still smash up their car enough that it won’t start anymore.
And if players do get arrested, they have some funny scenes where the hero flees from the police, but to keep his identity secret, the team blurred out his face as it were an episode of Cops.
Lastly, I played through the Sprint event in a more rural part of the Tri-City Bay Area. It was a good old street race and what I noticed is that the surface of the roads have a profound effect on your car.
Part of the race was through dirt and it was hard to hit those curves as I slipped and slid all over the place. When you hit a wet-looking asphalt (it seems as if all the roadways in the game are covered in a glaze), the car moves better. I had more control.
So there you go. That’s how the gameplay side of the game is. For more about the game, you can check out an earlier post about the new theme of the game and the story.
As for racing fans who can’t wait to get their hands on the game, they’ll have to wait later this year. Need for Speed Undercover comes out Nov. 18.
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