Back when the Xbox 360 launched three years ago, it included the annual “Need for Speed” game.  The 2005 installment, entitled “Most Wanted” was actually a breathe of fresh air.  Leaving their typical strategy of race, fix-up your car, race again formula on the side, they included an actual story mode with cut scenes and a unique artistic style.  You basically raced your way up the underbelly of illegal street racing in order to take down the kingpin.  The formula worked for me (especially as a launch title) and I was interested to see where EA would go with the material.  Of course, they went back to their normal racing roots with their next two games, and I lost interest.  This year, enter “NFS: Undercover.”  Instead of calling this game “Most Wanted 2”, they opted for a new title, and this ironically lead to a new game experience.

Don’t get me wrong- this game is not bad…it just could have been much, much more.  Sure, the cutscenes and bad acting are back, but the options and features are so limited that I felt the game could have used more development and polish.  The opening cinematic is pretty awesome, so your adrenaline will be charged to start the game.  After that, disappointment may prevail for some.  This game tried to blend the success of “Most Wanted” with “Burnout: Paradise” in the sense that you can drive around to stop lights to start a race.  This would have worked out much better had the game come out last year.

Some of the race types are pretty cool, including Outrun and Highway Battles.  In outrun, the objective is to pass your opponent and hold the lead for a full minute.  With oncoming traffic and obstacles in your path, the driving skill of your opponent is the last worry you have.  Highway Battles consist of racing and weaving through traffic until you attain a 1,000 foot lead.  Though these (and a few other) modes are pretty fun, the game oddly had no difficulty control.  Since the game cant be tailored to suit your needs, none of the game proved challenging until I hit Level 6 or 7 events.  It seems to take a long time to unlock most of the city, and that hinders the overall enjoyment.  You will find yourself having a blast going through the race modes, but a little disappointed to find how slow the game development is.

The online modes are pretty fun, including the new Cops and Robbers mode. In this mode, the players are split into two teams (you can guess what they are) and one team searches for money while the other attempts to halt their getaway.  It is frantic and fun, and it proved to be a fun way to develop your evasion tactics.  The maps are well designed to accompany the mayhem, and EA really made a valiant attempt to cover up the games miscues.

For me, the overall need for speed seemed to be missing.  Sure, the environments looked pretty and blurred when the nitrous was hit, but I didn’t feel the excitement of previous games.  I remember playing “Underground” or “Most Wanted” and actually jolting when I hit the nitrous button and engaged the opponent.  I don’t know how this was left out, and maybe I am being hyper critical, but I just felt like the mayhem of evading and ramming your enemies outweighed the feel of real speed.

Overall, the game delivered on some fronts and failed on some others.  Though the Cops and Robbers and various single player modes made the game enjoyable, the terrible pacing, lack of depth and crappy cutscenes ruined the experience for me a little bit.  I would recommend this game to fans of the racing genre, but casual gamers may get a little annoyed by its failures in certain areas.  The event types are interesting, and the online is fun on many levels.  However, the lack of difficulty options may bother some and I couldn’t stand how long it took to open up fresh tracks and environments.  Most will not be a disappointed but there are better racing games out there.  Either way, this is a for sure rental.

Game Rating: B minus