This game suffered through development hell. This game was originally called nfs the chase and was planned around a month before most wanted shipped. The original plan was to make a sequel to most wanted and then make the chase, but their forced yearly schedule tied their hands and prostreet was the filler game in between so the main team could finish the chase. During that time, blackbox was also working on NBA Playgrounds and Skate, so they were crunched pretty hard. That's the main reason this game is the way it is. Also, the story was originally supposed to have branching choices and multiple endings, but since they had to rush the game out, they just used whatever material they finished and called it a day. This really could have been the greatest nfs game if they had more time to finish it.
just remember that, if the game came out only a few years later, it is a 100% fact that Pitbull would have been all over the soundtrack. we narrowly avoided disaster
Undercover is actually an amazing example of how important the choice of game engine. Think about it, Undercover has the exact same mechanics and gameplay elements as the most successful NFS games. On paper its a copy paste success, but because of the ridiculous stiff handling it ends up being a mess
Wasn't the "handling model" called something like "Heroic" or something? It was printed on the box where they hyped it up. I remember feeling like, "hopefully it's not too arcade compared to ProStreet"... The hype text gave me a feeling that they wanted to steer clear from the ProStreet's more mellow and weighty feel.
Its like a worsened version of prostreet with almost of all of assists turned on and buffed, pro street is the best on pc if you turn all the assists off
Worst part is? It had potentially to be incredible. The idea of you being an undercover cop and hunting other races and blending in sounds incredible. They literally could have copy pasted NFS Carbon and improved some aspects as well as whatever the fuck was going on in the story.
Thats the worst part for so many games from recent years. Sooo many games that had so much potential... just look at fh4/5. And i still dont understand why we havent gotten an nfs underground 3 yet thats literally what so many people want night time, open world, street races, tuning etc
I don't know, I feel like MW'05 is practically UC but executed better in almost every way. You not knowing that you helped an undercover cop even enhances the story a bit, and the story for the most part makes sense. UC is just "this happens _and then_ this happens" with no logic nor rhyme and there's no salvaging it.
@@shira_yone MW has a major hole in that literally EVERYBODY saw the twist with Mia coming if you saw the cutscenes The only way that could have been interesting is if you the player were actually a reformed undercover cop. Now THAT would have been interesting.
@@andrewrogers3067 maybe it's just me but I don't really get what is so interesting about playing an undercover cop, especially as it pertains to gameplay. Rival/racer takedowns, transporter jobs, escort/tailing missions, etc, are some of my least favorite thing to do in a street racing game. Btw if you want that _"working undercover to bust down some racers and organization"_ street racing game fix, I actually recommend The Crew 1. It's practically UC if done a bit more competently with 10 times the content + variety and map size.
If I'm not mistaking, prostreet was made by a small team and it was in the process of making at the same time as undercover, and undercover was made by a different big team. So it is even worse.
you forgot to mention one crazy thing about the handling and physics. If you use nitrous when turning into a corner, you can achieve insane levels of grip that your car will turn like some rollercoaster ride, and this applies for ALL cars in the game as long as they have nitrous. They messed up the handling big time, I'm guessing its because they used the NFS ProStreet car handling and tried to make it more arcade, when they could have just taken the handling model from NFS MW or Carbon.
They could’ve been more focused on the criminal scene of the racing culture. Like maybe more deeper into the crime scenes. Also they could’ve used the busted cutscenes in which Q T E could be used to decide if you get busted by the cops or you steal a cop car and continue the police chase.
I didn’t know much about game development, but even my 8 year old self knew at the time that something was seriously wrong with Undercover. Especially after playing it’s previous entries to completion
Apparently BlackBox had to develop this in like 8 months time and with half of the team only. Yeah that was expected. You should try project Reformed for UC, fixes all the Graphical/Performance/Physics issues. It amps the game from bad to decent or even good if you ignore the story
this game helped ME a lot personally, I was on vacation in the US and had no friends since I was only there for a month, and this game was really FUN, I loved the cheesy cut scenes and grinded the story to see every single one. I remember seeing the opening cutscene almost 50 times because the game kept crashing on my laptop haha. The game ran at I think 20-30 FPS max since I didn't know about graphic settings back then. and I got nearly every car! it was a fun game for kids haha. going back to it, it was WAY easier to see through the graphical problems since I mostly thought it was my laptop, but it was unfortunately overall a poorly optimized game .
Sooooo... This was done in around 6 months of actual development, right? That's not pretty. It's even worse when you realize that rivals had a comparable dev time and, glitches aside (but even then they're greatly reduced on console), it's a rather polished and complete game in comparison
The game was actually Black Box's reattempt to make something like Most Wanted again (their previous rellease 'Pro Street' was a sales failure), but ended up failing this one aswell (the game felt rushed to be honest).
i actually enjoyed undercover back then and im probably like the only person who feels that way lol. also people hate on the color scheme and blur of the game but i actually find it kinda aesthetic and nostalgic. Everyone always wants better and more realistic graphics so much that they dont even appreciate more stylized graphics anymore. For some reason the undercover graphics are kinda like how life felt back then and how i saw things cause they kind of capture some nostalgic emotions.
You get more rep/skills if you dominate the event and driver skills somewhat alleviate some of the handling issues. And the word you are looking for when you mentioned that the handling is weird, is that the handling model doesn't suit the city and the map.
In regards to the race with Rose, I think it is implied that Nickel cut the brake lines on the player car. He and Rose are seen together a lot when you are building your reputation with G-Mac and it does kind of seem like Rose starts taking a liking to the player, so Nickel attempts to derail the possibility of Rose falling for the player, he also is the most likely to do such an action given his criminal history.
As a kid, I played a weird pirated version of the game that had absolutely no cutscenes in it. It was honestly much better that way, trying to imagine my own plot connecting all those story missions together. I also remember being disappointed by all the cop cars being so plastic compared to MW and Carbon's more or less realistic damage. That said, it's still one of my favourite games because of it weaving story missions and racing together, probably why I enjoyed Payback as well.
pirated versions tends to cut back on the game sizes (oftentimes deleting cutscenes) so they can make more of them with CDs rather than having less with DVDs (which also consequentially means easier to download for countries that have bad internet connection) so there is that.
This game holds a very weird place in my head. I still own the CD and the box, yet I don't remember jack shit from it. It's so garbage my mind erased it from my memory.
it's weird asf how forgettable it is. obvs I harped on it pretty aggressively, but it wasn't the worst game I've ever played (not even the worst racing game). there ought to be something that sticks out, but there really isn't.
I don’t say many good things about Undercover, but if there’s one good thing about it that I can immediately point out is obviously the soundtrack, more specifically the garage music and atmosphere. UC might have been a train wreck, but I honestly believe that the game’s garage might actually be one of the greatest things spawned for NFS ever. There is simply no other NFS game let alone racing game that matches the sheer *vibes* this game’s garage gave. Although many people including me say this game is super-forgettable, one thing about this game that I could never get out of my head in a good way is the absolutely genius music curation and design of the garage. That one single gap in the garage that lets the light in is so simple, yet so effective in giving the garage this ethereal atmosphere that no other racing game let alone ANY video game in general has given me. You think I’m done? I haven’t even mentioned the best part. What do you get when you combine the ethereal atmosphere created by that ray of light with the unrivaled genius of the song selection? You get what I would dare call the greatest video game menu of all time. When I see a picture of this game’s garage I think of songs like “Scuba (Amon Tobin Remix)”, “To Heal”, “The Mark Has Been Made”, “Indigo Children (JLE Dub Mix)”, and “Shunt”. When I think of those songs, I think of UC’s garage. It’s this aspect of UC that sometimes makes me forget that this game absolutely blows. Safe to say that the sound team at Black Box were *cooking* when they were setting up the feel of the garage. Shame that they didn’t get the time they needed to make this game what it deserved to be; a masterpiece.
honestly, when I played the game back in 2010, i was utterly disappointed by the horrific graphics, broken simulation, delusional camera angles, etc. etc. etc. so much wrong here. Honestly, NFS undercover was a steaming pile of garbage. However, I still hold my regard that NFS Undercover could've been so damn good. It had utmost potential to become one of the best street racing games of all time but EA does what they do best. Fuck things up. Also, its so astonishing to realize that in the same year they released Burnout Paradise and lets be honest, thats one damn good looking game.
I remember playing this on the PS2 and it being an absolute dumpster fire. Your experience of not being able to beat something on many repeated attemps, only to come back to it a month later and easily beat it is nothing new to me. I didn't even make it to the end of the story because I lost so much interest in it. I dumped the game and went back to NFS Underground 2, Most Wanted, and Carbon for the arcadey racing.
👀👀 Come join the Discord discord.gg/dVXhFy6gxq Support the Patreon (why would you do this?): www.patreon.com/MitchellDiedrich My Livestream Channel! ua-cam.com/channels/NDTMuT58-hJQSgk7dJ62AQ.html Sometimes Twitch? www.twitch.tv/mitchelldiedrich I also Tweet twitter.com/mxtchxll Point of clarification: the checkpoint races are NOT as I've described in this video. The checkpoint races are extensions of the checkpoint/tollbooth races from the previous games. I over committed to the bit and gave myself tunnel vision. I'm really happy with how this one turned out. Obviously, I can always improve, and I'm always *extremely* interested in feedback on what I'm doing well and where I'm lacking, but I feel that this video suggests an upward trajectory. While I don't agree with the thesis, here is a very well made video (that I very much enjoyed) about the game. Show it some love. ua-cam.com/video/VFI4UuRue1g/v-deo.html
As much as I love long running jokes over the course of many videos but the "I'll refer to myself" joke just isn't landing here because your cutaway goes on too long as you explained the same racing event 4 times. It would land better if you said "I won't explain this event type in this video, I'll refer to my pro street video for it > You know what, I'll refer to my Carbon video... > Actually I'll just refer to my Most Wanted video". I get the set up was "I don't care about your time" but besides wasting time, it kills the overall flow and quality of the video. Other than that, it's a pretty solid video
I don’t think it was their intention to make the mechanic job out to be a lesser profession by revealing she’s gonna be a doctor. They probably just wanted to highlight the fact that she’s different from all the racers the player is fighting against all game by showing her pursuing a non criminal career. Other than that great video 👌🏻
@@mostafamagdy7117 Hollywood rose tinted rags to riches logic: Sweet girl from the hood, meant for more. She has a passion for tinkering with cars, can hustle and make ends meet from that until she studies, gets a real career and breaks out from the slums. Pretty unrealistic, but at least inspiriational. Granted still looks down on the mechanic profession, but not on Carmen. And this is my reading. It's not about mending the 'prize' as her not being good enough, but giving her agency showing she is striving for more. Fast and botched, but I can see a good message behind it.
@@gergoretvari6373 Ye, it was so bad. I've never seen p*lit1cs hamfisted in a video more jarringly. Everything he said made absolutely no sense whatsoever in any way.
The physics of Underground always reminded me of a mash-up of not the best, not the worst, but the most lukewarm physics choices from Most Wanted, Burnout, and ProStreet.
I mean i think they made her doctor at the end as a why for her to move away from being know as the mechanic that worked on stolen cars. That just my thought. Because let be real would you willingly leave your car with a mechanic you know worked with car robbers?
Seriously, when You showed footage from Underground 2, I was like "Man that looks so much better"... And it does. Not like "it almost looks better", it genuinely looks better, period.
It's wild cause it's not just the awful effects that cause the difference. When you look at the parts of the video where I turned off the effects, it's still much worse than NFSU2.
@@ventilo1825 Basically, take Hot Pursuit 2, upscale it, add disgusting piss filter, extensive motion blur, heavy bloom, turn your camera's exposition way up and You have Undercover basically. And I'm not even sure about it, since Hot Pursuit 2 have more detailed enviroment, than this shit.
The takedown missions I would turn into the set pieces, where you have to follow the enemy like a time trial, and if you manage not to lose them, you'll get some set piece of him crashing in actual cool way.
I personally enjoy playing Undercover. There is mods on pc that significantly improve the game's graphics and fix most of the annoying bugs. Also improve game mecanics such as customisation, career pink slips, police in races, and the handling of cars. The fact that the developers (Blackbox) didn't have the time they needed to express their talent and fully finish building the game caused it to be the way it is when it was release back in 2008. Thanks for the mess EA! 🤦 Undercover could've been the best nfs game. If EA didn't rush everything up.
bro literally yesterday I was thinking to myself "Have I not heard from him in a minute because he died or because I just haven't uploaded in forever?" lmao glad it was option 2
@@mitchelldiedrich I am alive! Most community tab stuff doesn't get pushed very well to home pages a lot of the time, but I try to stay on top of my sub box for content creators I like. Then commenting, liking, etc for algorithm. Really wish the fallout and other vids performed as well as the nfs stuff because I love the branched out content. Cheers man!
@@Zelosis_ yeah, I rewatched em, and I'm not surprised they flopped. I got a new mic after the Carbon video and I didn't know how to use it, so they audio was scuffed asf and the pacing was just too slow to hold attention. lessons learned!
to this day this is one of the nfs games i refuse to go back to and play, yet i find deep dive videos like this really interesting, great video man cant wait for the UG2 video
i liked playing it as a kid. as an adult it was kinda good but not perfect. my main complaints is no music in free roam, the physics are off, and they really needed to categorize the rims by manufacturers. the garage is the best part. what’s with the light behind the wall? the garage music is great as well. by the way, in some areas the sky will change color when you look back at the camera
Tbh the PS2 version looks more stable than the PC and PS3 ones. Idk why but I found the PS2 version is way better despite being an unfinished PS3 version. And one thing that I like. The lighting is better and not blinding my eyes
yes, as far as I am aware, the HD version is slightly more stable on the 360. On PC and PS3 it crashes a lot. The SD version (PS2 and Wii) works fine without game breaking glitches like PC and PS3 but it doesnt mean it is a good game either.
Unpopular opinion. I still like undercover, to me it was the last updated old style nfs game. Everything else after this hasn't felt like nfs since then imo
I play this game everyday, and it doesnt look like this, theres no blurring on the edges or any weird filters on it, it also runs better, the cars also play better (I play on an xbox360, idk if that makes a difference)
My biggest gripe with this game was the physics. I remember having a fully maxed out Bugatti and being able to take every turn effortlessly by letting off the gas. My second gripe was the vinyl editor was SO. DAMN. SLOW! It became a chore to make any type of design.
When I played this when it first came out, back when I was 12/13 (so 2008/2009), I used my Mom’s credit card to get the Bugatti Veyron as quick as possible. I got grounded for 6 months, which was reduced to 6 weeks for good behaviour, which worked, cus I didn’t do anything as stupid again. Anywho, when I got my xbox back, I played the game with the Veyron for all of 5 mins before I decided I didn’t like it and went back to Forza Motorsport and what was probably CoD WaW at the time, shortly before I switched to Battlefield.
I loved this game when it came out. But I was 13. Looking back and then replaying it I'm sitting here like "wow I had had shit taste." The music though is still good.
@@TheCapitalWanderer The first Most Wanted-game (2005?) had a bug where you'd sometimes get police-helicopters in roadblocks in the highway-tunnel beyond the golf club.
I'm sure you see how well these videos are doing relative to your others, awesome that you continue to provide the content we want! If you've played Underground 2, I'd love a video on it if you ever get around to it! Edit: I see that was already the plan. Keep up the good work!
As a person who didnt play any NFS before Undercover I absolutly loved it and year ago I made one playthrough again and it was still fun, I would better play it again then play a modern NFS with those stupid weird animations and music and visualy slower cars
Right? Modern NFS is just “what new filter can we put on our game now? How much slower can we make our cars? How many diversity hires can we stuff into the story and cinematics?
Even though I see its flaws I still love this game. Its the game that introduced me to NFS and it did do some things right: - the soundtrack is one of the best in the franchise - the busted scenes are badass and really fun to watch - the car selection is actually pretty good not too much and too little - the cutscenes are so dumb but that’s why I enjoy them to watch - highway battle is really awesome and I wished they brought it back to some of the newer nfs - customization is pretty good - I actually like the map and having everything being connected through highways is an actual good idea - the syndicate jobs are really cool and show off multiple cars that you could use later
The funny part about the income disparity thing is that obviously there are different types of doctors and vehicle techs but the technician field is quickly diminishing and the rapid rise in tech salaries are catching up to and even surpassing some doctor salaries.
make more videos like this where you are critical of video games and you'll get major views, especially for modern games, in which the state of modern games they are released in it's really easy to do.
as a kid I loved this game. My slavic little ass was playing it on old laptop and it still was cracked but had ton of fun with this one still hopping on from time to time to cruise around
For me, the worst part about this game is that it looks like you're wearing deep beige coloured aviators and there is a constant dust storm going on inside the game. Is this Miami? It looks more like a Middle East. Oh and the car physics are bad.
EA forced BlackBox to channel their efforts into 2008 NFS, leaving Pro Street an unfinished product. This unfinished product was one of the best NFS of my childhood and it's sad that Pro Street could've been even better.
played the PS2 version as a kid, didn’t know how different the gameplay was from other consoles 🤔 but it was always good stupid fun going 300 in a ccx sending cop cars flying 😂 good times
Yeah, i did also palyed the ps2 version so i thought it would be fun to play on pc, So i download undercover for pc later and i was suprised how different and bad the game is😢😂
The ps2 2008 version is way different then the 2011 ps3 version. I did the same thing. Had a ps2, upgraded to a ps3 got what I thought was the same game and it turned out to be the 2011 trash. I have very fond memories of the ps2 version it was amazing.
🇮🇳🙏a lot of memories from this game. I can see what kind of "Hollywood" look and aesthetic they were going for but honestly pro street looked way better visually and even gameplay wise was superior. To this day idk why the skybox in Undercover is so jacked. Edit: waiting for your next video on nfs shift.
"the police are comically large"
says the guy driving the smallest car in the game
Tru lol. Drive the Elise in MC3 versus SUVs and it looks comically small.
@@Halagini I mean, the Elise (and Lotuses, in general) are pretty small. Like, if you're above 5'7" - good luck getting in and out of one.
my wife says the Elise is average sized though and generally the size isnt important 😢
@@NaruSanavaii know of a guy who’s 6’2 and he fits in elise’s better than miata’s
This game suffered through development hell. This game was originally called nfs the chase and was planned around a month before most wanted shipped. The original plan was to make a sequel to most wanted and then make the chase, but their forced yearly schedule tied their hands and prostreet was the filler game in between so the main team could finish the chase. During that time, blackbox was also working on NBA Playgrounds and Skate, so they were crunched pretty hard. That's the main reason this game is the way it is. Also, the story was originally supposed to have branching choices and multiple endings, but since they had to rush the game out, they just used whatever material they finished and called it a day. This really could have been the greatest nfs game if they had more time to finish it.
didnt they also have to develop carbon and prostreet at the same time
god i hate ea
@@stereomato Yeah that's why Carbon is so damn slow and Prostreet is buggy as hell
@@mikblues_146 ProStreet is very buggy if you play the PS2 version. I played the other versions and they are nowhere near as problematic.
@@stereomato yeah at that time, EA was awful due to their old CEO. I feel like they've been better lately
@@hawken796 i wish carbon and undercover got remade, also nfs mw 2012
The game was fun but once you grow up it's like all the fun things are gone and the only thing left is suffering.
just remember that, if the game came out only a few years later, it is a 100% fact that Pitbull would have been all over the soundtrack. we narrowly avoided disaster
You've unintentionally just described living tbh
@@joeydiedrich so what you're saying is nfs undercover is life
@Poizonous God if life identifies as nfs, than yes.
@@SchizoidRambler Truly the game of life
Undercover has many flaws, but one thing it excelled at was the soundtrack, especially the garage music. To this day the garage music is peak NFS imo
I have to say that Black Box did it right about the Busted scenes. They we're brutal as hell. Especially when that one cop throws you a Dunkin' Donut.
As a Pendulum fan, I agree
Blackbox always chose the best music to fit their NFS games. Too bad Undercover wasn't that great itself.
@@pardolagames8994 I STILL FEEL LIKE HOME IS IN.......YOUR ARMSSSSS
@@nikobellic3526 JOIN THE CIRCUS OF PEOPLE
"If I didn't care about having fun I wouldn't play need for speed, I'd play Forza" killed me lmaooooooooooo
At least I can have SOME fun with Forza man…
Until you remember that Forza Horizon is basically a watered down, non-progressive Test Drive Unlimited lmao
I played Forza horizon...and it's broring if you don't have a steering wheel or play with friends.
@@AD720P-Lf Forza Horizon 3 is a hell of a lot more fun than NFS games LMAO Beautiful map, city, atmosphere.
buut i liek fortza 🥺
No matter how screwed up this game is, it was my Need For Speed while growing up and I will forever cherish it
Same! I traded my copy on 360 for Red dead redemption when i was a kid, still regret it
Same i played it on the ps3 and i remember having a great time. Today i found it after many years and am currently playing it it is good
@@JubejabbaNah, Rdr1 is fucking beautiful. Probably the best open world ever to be released aside from elderscroll games.
Same
@@Jubejabbacan't regret ever trading it for Red Dead Redemption, I won't even regret trading any NFS game for it
Undercover is actually an amazing example of how important the choice of game engine. Think about it, Undercover has the exact same mechanics and gameplay elements as the most successful NFS games. On paper its a copy paste success, but because of the ridiculous stiff handling it ends up being a mess
Wasn't the "handling model" called something like "Heroic" or something? It was printed on the box where they hyped it up. I remember feeling like, "hopefully it's not too arcade compared to ProStreet"... The hype text gave me a feeling that they wanted to steer clear from the ProStreet's more mellow and weighty feel.
No the handling on undercover is based on prostreet. Mw and carbon have totally different handling physics.
Its like a worsened version of prostreet with almost of all of assists turned on and buffed, pro street is the best on pc if you turn all the assists off
man this is game is still amazing
@@HulluJanne also prosteet unironically does have the best handling in series except shift 2 which is not even an NFS
Worst part is? It had potentially to be incredible. The idea of you being an undercover cop and hunting other races and blending in sounds incredible.
They literally could have copy pasted NFS Carbon and improved some aspects as well as whatever the fuck was going on in the story.
Totally agree with you. Awesome idea but an absolute bag fumble. I just don't understand why they felt the need to fuck with the handling model.
Thats the worst part for so many games from recent years. Sooo many games that had so much potential... just look at fh4/5. And i still dont understand why we havent gotten an nfs underground 3 yet thats literally what so many people want night time, open world, street races, tuning etc
I don't know, I feel like MW'05 is practically UC but executed better in almost every way. You not knowing that you helped an undercover cop even enhances the story a bit, and the story for the most part makes sense. UC is just "this happens _and then_ this happens" with no logic nor rhyme and there's no salvaging it.
@@shira_yone MW has a major hole in that literally EVERYBODY saw the twist with Mia coming if you saw the cutscenes
The only way that could have been interesting is if you the player were actually a reformed undercover cop. Now THAT would have been interesting.
@@andrewrogers3067 maybe it's just me but I don't really get what is so interesting about playing an undercover cop, especially as it pertains to gameplay. Rival/racer takedowns, transporter jobs, escort/tailing missions, etc, are some of my least favorite thing to do in a street racing game.
Btw if you want that _"working undercover to bust down some racers and organization"_ street racing game fix, I actually recommend The Crew 1. It's practically UC if done a bit more competently with 10 times the content + variety and map size.
i never get tired of the speedtrap bit lmfao it gets better with every upload
lmfao I got a serious kick out of acting like I was forced to do it this time. acting like "sorry, I wish I didn't have to, but my hands are tied."
@@mitchelldiedrich deadass
I love how the echo gets more intense each time
@@DripTitan6988 it's gonna be muddled garbage soon if I keep it up lol
Once you go undercover, running gag eats you.
4:57 It's because both Pro Street and Undercover were developed simultaneously, so Undercover was kinda a rushed game.
Them arrest scenes 🤣
the doughnut throw makes me laugh every single time.
😂😂😂😆
@@mitchelldiedrichhahaha I love how violent the police get but yes the doughnut scene finished me off!
@@mitchelldiedrich you missed the one where they kick the player in the head
those cops in the arrest scenes were clearly the stunt doubles that were tapped instead of the actual actors 🤣
"You'll eat whatever i make, and you won't leave the table until you do."
WATCH ME.
*closes tab and labels video "not interested"*
dude hates to race in a racing game, says it's the same thing as other nfs games! what do u expect?
If I'm not mistaking, prostreet was made by a small team and it was in the process of making at the same time as undercover, and undercover was made by a different big team. So it is even worse.
carmen is the singer of the kim possible theme song
holy shit.
Damn
it's a terrible game but man, the garage music is absolute gold
you forgot to mention one crazy thing about the handling and physics. If you use nitrous when turning into a corner, you can achieve insane levels of grip that your car will turn like some rollercoaster ride, and this applies for ALL cars in the game as long as they have nitrous. They messed up the handling big time, I'm guessing its because they used the NFS ProStreet car handling and tried to make it more arcade, when they could have just taken the handling model from NFS MW or Carbon.
Even if they didn't do that for the 7th gen consoles and PC, they could've done so for Wii and PS2.
Bro that happens in unbound
@@_Sylensdifferent, Burst Nitrous is it's own mechanic, this one isn't.
Also, letting off throttle while turning gives you insane amount of grip too..
@@clarkdsaflol so either let of the gas or hit the NOS to turn, makes sense lol😂
Even if it was terrible, the getting busted cutscenes are my favourite out of any games ever
So in a nutshell, this game has the same plot as the first Fast and Furious movie.
They could’ve been more focused on the criminal scene of the racing culture. Like maybe more deeper into the crime scenes. Also they could’ve used the busted cutscenes in which Q T E could be used to decide if you get busted by the cops or you steal a cop car and continue the police chase.
Like the run
Yep. One of the busted cutscenes even has you stealing a rhino unit.
I didn’t know much about game development, but even my 8 year old self knew at the time that something was seriously wrong with Undercover. Especially after playing it’s previous entries to completion
There is a mod called Project Reformed that actually changes the game, making the game very good.
"Comically large cop cars"
Is in the lotus, the smallest model car in the game lmao
Apparently BlackBox had to develop this in like 8 months time and with half of the team only. Yeah that was expected.
You should try project Reformed for UC, fixes all the Graphical/Performance/Physics issues. It amps the game from bad to decent or even good if you ignore the story
Even as a pre teen playing this game there were parts of this game that I remember being stuck on for weeks.
got it all completed in a single weekend. Didn't even play much, game was easy as hell.
I remember this game having a crazy unique vibe and atmosphere
All the budget of the game went into making the “busted” cutscenes😹
this game helped ME a lot personally, I was on vacation in the US and had no friends since I was only there for a month, and this game was really FUN, I loved the cheesy cut scenes and grinded the story to see every single one. I remember seeing the opening cutscene almost 50 times because the game kept crashing on my laptop haha. The game ran at I think 20-30 FPS max since I didn't know about graphic settings back then. and I got nearly every car! it was a fun game for kids haha. going back to it, it was WAY easier to see through the graphical problems since I mostly thought it was my laptop, but it was unfortunately overall a poorly optimized game .
in Undercover, he refers to ProStreet when in that video he refers to Carbon when also in that video he refers to Most Wanted
Sooooo... This was done in around 6 months of actual development, right? That's not pretty. It's even worse when you realize that rivals had a comparable dev time and, glitches aside (but even then they're greatly reduced on console), it's a rather polished and complete game in comparison
They were working on 3 games in that 6 months of time btw
@@halmget3198 yeah, true. The team was also divided into 2 to manage that iirc
rivals had around 16 months.
@@Manstam can I see where that's stated?
@@playbossthebest936 only if you tell me where it was said that it was developed in 6 months
3:09 was extremely trippy hahaha I was like "When did Razor have THIS much dialogue in that game??" and then I realized.. Hahah
goofy ahh part 💀
The game was actually Black Box's reattempt to make something like Most Wanted again (their previous rellease 'Pro Street' was a sales failure), but ended up failing this one aswell (the game felt rushed to be honest).
sucks that pro street was a failure because it was so good, its like the fallout new vegas of racing game
i actually enjoyed undercover back then and im probably like the only person who feels that way lol. also people hate on the color scheme and blur of the game but i actually find it kinda aesthetic and nostalgic. Everyone always wants better and more realistic graphics so much that they dont even appreciate more stylized graphics anymore. For some reason the undercover graphics are kinda like how life felt back then and how i saw things cause they kind of capture some nostalgic emotions.
You get more rep/skills if you dominate the event and driver skills somewhat alleviate some of the handling issues.
And the word you are looking for when you mentioned that the handling is weird, is that the handling model doesn't suit the city and the map.
In regards to the race with Rose, I think it is implied that Nickel cut the brake lines on the player car. He and Rose are seen together a lot when you are building your reputation with G-Mac and it does kind of seem like Rose starts taking a liking to the player, so Nickel attempts to derail the possibility of Rose falling for the player, he also is the most likely to do such an action given his criminal history.
As a kid, I played a weird pirated version of the game that had absolutely no cutscenes in it. It was honestly much better that way, trying to imagine my own plot connecting all those story missions together. I also remember being disappointed by all the cop cars being so plastic compared to MW and Carbon's more or less realistic damage. That said, it's still one of my favourite games because of it weaving story missions and racing together, probably why I enjoyed Payback as well.
Yeah I Too, No Cutscenes No Soundtracks ,One Engine Sound For All Cars, Sudden Game Crash On Mission TAKING ZACK MAIO.
pirated versions tends to cut back on the game sizes (oftentimes deleting cutscenes) so they can make more of them with CDs rather than having less with DVDs (which also consequentially means easier to download for countries that have bad internet connection) so there is that.
I do not remember Nfs undercover looking like this. I also actually enjoyed undercover, introduced me to Koenigsegg and Pagani
I'm glad I have yet to play this
on an unrelated note, I loved this as well as your other Need For Speed retrospectives; they got me into playing them
This game holds a very weird place in my head. I still own the CD and the box, yet I don't remember jack shit from it. It's so garbage my mind erased it from my memory.
it's weird asf how forgettable it is. obvs I harped on it pretty aggressively, but it wasn't the worst game I've ever played (not even the worst racing game). there ought to be something that sticks out, but there really isn't.
I don’t say many good things about Undercover, but if there’s one good thing about it that I can immediately point out is obviously the soundtrack, more specifically the garage music and atmosphere. UC might have been a train wreck, but I honestly believe that the game’s garage might actually be one of the greatest things spawned for NFS ever. There is simply no other NFS game let alone racing game that matches the sheer *vibes* this game’s garage gave. Although many people including me say this game is super-forgettable, one thing about this game that I could never get out of my head in a good way is the absolutely genius music curation and design of the garage. That one single gap in the garage that lets the light in is so simple, yet so effective in giving the garage this ethereal atmosphere that no other racing game let alone ANY video game in general has given me. You think I’m done? I haven’t even mentioned the best part. What do you get when you combine the ethereal atmosphere created by that ray of light with the unrivaled genius of the song selection? You get what I would dare call the greatest video game menu of all time. When I see a picture of this game’s garage I think of songs like “Scuba (Amon Tobin Remix)”, “To Heal”, “The Mark Has Been Made”, “Indigo Children (JLE Dub Mix)”, and “Shunt”. When I think of those songs, I think of UC’s garage. It’s this aspect of UC that sometimes makes me forget that this game absolutely blows. Safe to say that the sound team at Black Box were *cooking* when they were setting up the feel of the garage. Shame that they didn’t get the time they needed to make this game what it deserved to be; a masterpiece.
my time in this game only exists as a bad fever dream.
honestly, when I played the game back in 2010, i was utterly disappointed by the horrific graphics, broken simulation, delusional camera angles, etc. etc. etc. so much wrong here.
Honestly, NFS undercover was a steaming pile of garbage.
However, I still hold my regard that NFS Undercover could've been so damn good. It had utmost potential to become one of the best street racing games of all time but EA does what they do best. Fuck things up.
Also, its so astonishing to realize that in the same year they released Burnout Paradise and lets be honest, thats one damn good looking game.
Paradise is still looking good AF on my PC compared to the hd version I remember when I first played it on 360.
@@osopena3979 😅😅i also downloaded the original today as well.
Paradise wasn't built by the same team as nfs is being built with now. Criterion was still doing their own thing at that time
Undercover on the PS2 was the best version of Undercover.
babe wake up, Mitchell Diedrich just uploaded a new NFS review
yall are the fucking realest 💯
3:02 literal nightmare fuel
lol playing twisted metal without any weapon = Need for Speed: Undercover
I remember playing this on the PS2 and it being an absolute dumpster fire. Your experience of not being able to beat something on many repeated attemps, only to come back to it a month later and easily beat it is nothing new to me. I didn't even make it to the end of the story because I lost so much interest in it. I dumped the game and went back to NFS Underground 2, Most Wanted, and Carbon for the arcadey racing.
👀👀 Come join the Discord discord.gg/dVXhFy6gxq
Support the Patreon (why would you do this?): www.patreon.com/MitchellDiedrich
My Livestream Channel! ua-cam.com/channels/NDTMuT58-hJQSgk7dJ62AQ.html
Sometimes Twitch? www.twitch.tv/mitchelldiedrich
I also Tweet twitter.com/mxtchxll
Point of clarification: the checkpoint races are NOT as I've described in this video. The checkpoint races are extensions of the checkpoint/tollbooth races from the previous games. I over committed to the bit and gave myself tunnel vision.
I'm really happy with how this one turned out. Obviously, I can always improve, and I'm always *extremely* interested in feedback on what I'm doing well and where I'm lacking, but I feel that this video suggests an upward trajectory.
While I don't agree with the thesis, here is a very well made video (that I very much enjoyed) about the game. Show it some love. ua-cam.com/video/VFI4UuRue1g/v-deo.html
joined the server =)
As much as I love long running jokes over the course of many videos but the "I'll refer to myself" joke just isn't landing here because your cutaway goes on too long as you explained the same racing event 4 times. It would land better if you said "I won't explain this event type in this video, I'll refer to my pro street video for it > You know what, I'll refer to my Carbon video... > Actually I'll just refer to my Most Wanted video".
I get the set up was "I don't care about your time" but besides wasting time, it kills the overall flow and quality of the video.
Other than that, it's a pretty solid video
@@StudioCorpse this is G O O D feedback. might steal this if I don't give up on the bit entirely
I don’t think it was their intention to make the mechanic job out to be a lesser profession by revealing she’s gonna be a doctor.
They probably just wanted to highlight the fact that she’s different from all the racers the player is fighting against all game by showing her pursuing a non criminal career.
Other than that great video 👌🏻
The real question is how does a med student find time to be a mechanic
@@mostafamagdy7117
Hollywood rose tinted rags to riches logic:
Sweet girl from the hood, meant for more. She has a passion for tinkering with cars, can hustle and make ends meet from that until she studies, gets a real career and breaks out from the slums. Pretty unrealistic, but at least inspiriational.
Granted still looks down on the mechanic profession, but not on Carmen. And this is my reading. It's not about mending the 'prize' as her not being good enough, but giving her agency showing she is striving for more. Fast and botched, but I can see a good message behind it.
this dude complaining about that is insufferable
@@gergoretvari6373 Ye, it was so bad. I've never seen p*lit1cs hamfisted in a video more jarringly. Everything he said made absolutely no sense whatsoever in any way.
@@Halagini imagine if Mauler did a response video to him
I fucking love this game. Needs a remaster. Really showed me what games could be. And ended up being my gateway drug to games like GTA
Carmen is the reason why I lost the no nut November back in the day.
Christina Millian 🔥 Lil Wayne dated that
simp. plus no nut november wasn't a thing back then
this made my childhood on the wii, im hoping to play it on my wii again sometime to see if it checks out in 2024
The physics of Underground always reminded me of a mash-up of not the best, not the worst, but the most lukewarm physics choices from Most Wanted, Burnout, and ProStreet.
3:02 I LOST MY SH1T! HAHAAHAHHA. It was like RAZOR by BALENCIAGA.
I mean i think they made her doctor at the end as a why for her to move away from being know as the mechanic that worked on stolen cars. That just my thought.
Because let be real would you willingly leave your car with a mechanic you know worked with car robbers?
Seriously, when You showed footage from Underground 2, I was like "Man that looks so much better"... And it does. Not like "it almost looks better", it genuinely looks better, period.
It's wild cause it's not just the awful effects that cause the difference. When you look at the parts of the video where I turned off the effects, it's still much worse than NFSU2.
@@mitchelldiedrich Seriously, this thing LITERALLY looks like a very early PS2 game upscaled in emulator.
Even Hot Pursuit 2 looked better in 2002 lol
@@ventilo1825 Basically, take Hot Pursuit 2, upscale it, add disgusting piss filter, extensive motion blur, heavy bloom, turn your camera's exposition way up and You have Undercover basically. And I'm not even sure about it, since Hot Pursuit 2 have more detailed enviroment, than this shit.
The takedown missions I would turn into the set pieces, where you have to follow the enemy like a time trial, and if you manage not to lose them, you'll get some set piece of him crashing in actual cool way.
I personally enjoy playing Undercover. There is mods on pc that significantly improve the game's graphics and fix most of the annoying bugs. Also improve game mecanics such as customisation, career pink slips, police in races, and the handling of cars. The fact that the developers (Blackbox) didn't have the time they needed to express their talent and fully finish building the game caused it to be the way it is when it was release back in 2008. Thanks for the mess EA! 🤦 Undercover could've been the best nfs game. If EA didn't rush everything up.
Project Reformed is the only way to play Undercover on an acceptable form.
I just realized that the two thugs you take out after Hector and Zack are driving the Renault and Evo you stole for them
i will not tolerate the slander of undercover -.- l loved this game, including the soundtrack.
Love your uploads, your perfectly timed humor along with actual analysis is spot on. Keep the videos coming
You aren't wrong, I will in fact watch whatever you upload
bro literally yesterday I was thinking to myself "Have I not heard from him in a minute because he died or because I just haven't uploaded in forever?" lmao glad it was option 2
@@mitchelldiedrich I am alive! Most community tab stuff doesn't get pushed very well to home pages a lot of the time, but I try to stay on top of my sub box for content creators I like. Then commenting, liking, etc for algorithm. Really wish the fallout and other vids performed as well as the nfs stuff because I love the branched out content. Cheers man!
@@Zelosis_ yeah, I rewatched em, and I'm not surprised they flopped. I got a new mic after the Carbon video and I didn't know how to use it, so they audio was scuffed asf and the pacing was just too slow to hold attention. lessons learned!
to this day this is one of the nfs games i refuse to go back to and play, yet i find deep dive videos like this really interesting, great video man cant wait for the UG2 video
i liked playing it as a kid. as an adult it was kinda good but not perfect. my main complaints is no music in free roam, the physics are off, and they really needed to categorize the rims by manufacturers. the garage is the best part. what’s with the light behind the wall? the garage music is great as well.
by the way, in some areas the sky will change color when you look back at the camera
I still go back to play undercover till this day it’s a good game imo
I played a very different version, on the ps2. You start the game with a green lamborghini and the whole game is structured differently
Tbh the PS2 version looks more stable than the PC and PS3 ones. Idk why but I found the PS2 version is way better despite being an unfinished PS3 version. And one thing that I like. The lighting is better and not blinding my eyes
yes, as far as I am aware, the HD version is slightly more stable on the 360. On PC and PS3 it crashes a lot.
The SD version (PS2 and Wii) works fine without game breaking glitches like PC and PS3 but it doesnt mean it is a good game either.
Why is the need for speed undercover thumbnail is so good
Unpopular opinion. I still like undercover, to me it was the last updated old style nfs game. Everything else after this hasn't felt like nfs since then imo
I play this game everyday, and it doesnt look like this, theres no blurring on the edges or any weird filters on it, it also runs better, the cars also play better (I play on an xbox360, idk if that makes a difference)
My biggest gripe with this game was the physics. I remember having a fully maxed out Bugatti and being able to take every turn effortlessly by letting off the gas. My second gripe was the vinyl editor was SO. DAMN. SLOW! It became a chore to make any type of design.
When I played this when it first came out, back when I was 12/13 (so 2008/2009), I used my Mom’s credit card to get the Bugatti Veyron as quick as possible. I got grounded for 6 months, which was reduced to 6 weeks for good behaviour, which worked, cus I didn’t do anything as stupid again.
Anywho, when I got my xbox back, I played the game with the Veyron for all of 5 mins before I decided I didn’t like it and went back to Forza Motorsport and what was probably CoD WaW at the time, shortly before I switched to Battlefield.
I loved this game back in the 360 days, haven't played it in years, but I can't imagine it aged well. I do remember a few issues
3:03 - took me a minute to realize what's wrong with what I'm seeing xD
I kinda wish we got a 2007/8 Underground 3 that ties the stories of Underground 1 through Carbon together instead of Undercover.
11:57 Those busted cutscenes probably the best thing going about this game😂😂😂
I loved this game when it came out. But I was 13. Looking back and then replaying it I'm sitting here like "wow I had had shit taste." The music though is still good.
So...the out-from-sea helicopters in Undercover are odd, but the "Helictoper in a roadblock in a tunnel"-ones in Most Wanted are not?
when was that?
@@TheCapitalWanderer The first Most Wanted-game (2005?) had a bug where you'd sometimes get police-helicopters in roadblocks in the highway-tunnel beyond the golf club.
I'm sure you see how well these videos are doing relative to your others, awesome that you continue to provide the content we want! If you've played Underground 2, I'd love a video on it if you ever get around to it! Edit: I see that was already the plan. Keep up the good work!
As a person who didnt play any NFS before Undercover I absolutly loved it and year ago I made one playthrough again and it was still fun, I would better play it again then play a modern NFS with those stupid weird animations and music and visualy slower cars
Right? Modern NFS is just “what new filter can we put on our game now? How much slower can we make our cars? How many diversity hires can we stuff into the story and cinematics?
ironic since those games visually have better senses of speed than undercover
Even tho I hate this game, this video still seems biased as hell.
3:04 Brother, sweet use of AI to move the characters mouth. 👌 Caught me off guard.
Even though I see its flaws I still love this game. Its the game that introduced me to NFS and it did do some things right:
- the soundtrack is one of the best in the franchise
- the busted scenes are badass and really fun to watch
- the car selection is actually pretty good not too much and too little
- the cutscenes are so dumb but that’s why I enjoy them to watch
- highway battle is really awesome and I wished they brought it back to some of the newer nfs
- customization is pretty good
- I actually like the map and having everything being connected through highways is an actual good idea
- the syndicate jobs are really cool and show off multiple cars that you could use later
Yeah this guy is just crying over a game because he doesnt likes it XD
The funny part about the income disparity thing is that obviously there are different types of doctors and vehicle techs but the technician field is quickly diminishing and the rapid rise in tech salaries are catching up to and even surpassing some doctor salaries.
The worst part of the game for me is that instead of driving to the races/missions you go to the map and teleport there.
12:04 * 'The safeword is police brutality!' *
make more videos like this where you are critical of video games and you'll get major views, especially for modern games, in which the state of modern games they are released in it's really easy to do.
as a kid I loved this game. My slavic little ass was playing it on old laptop and it still was cracked but had ton of fun with this one still hopping on from time to time to cruise around
one thing i love about this game for Real are those goofy ass arresting cutscenes
For me, the worst part about this game is that it looks like you're wearing deep beige coloured aviators and there is a constant dust storm going on inside the game. Is this Miami? It looks more like a Middle East. Oh and the car physics are bad.
I absolutely enjoyed tf out of this game. Still do whenever I can play it. Needs a remaster.
EA forced BlackBox to channel their efforts into 2008 NFS, leaving Pro Street an unfinished product. This unfinished product was one of the best NFS of my childhood and it's sad that Pro Street could've been even better.
have your notis on and was excited seeing your vid pop up. keep on going brother
3:02 💀
I was stupid proud of that bit.
This guy is the type of guy who reminds the teacher about homework on a Friday 😢
played the PS2 version as a kid, didn’t know how different the gameplay was from other consoles 🤔
but it was always good stupid fun going 300 in a ccx sending cop cars flying 😂 good times
Yeah, i did also palyed the ps2 version so i thought it would be fun to play on pc,
So i download undercover for pc later and i was suprised how different and bad the game is😢😂
I played the PSP version as a kid, and I loved it. I had no idea the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions were so much worse.
I loved the PS2 version. But when I upgraded to the PS3 I hated it
The ps2 2008 version is way different then the 2011 ps3 version. I did the same thing. Had a ps2, upgraded to a ps3 got what I thought was the same game and it turned out to be the 2011 trash. I have very fond memories of the ps2 version it was amazing.
Actually ps2 version sucks.
The inception of your explanation was hilarious and I would love you to keep doing it.
No lie I actually loved this game, yea it’s glitchy & the graphics are kinda shitty & so is the story but i just absolutely love it
I think the car list was perfect and its just the last mw 05 and carbon style nfs which is why I like it.
I have the similar appeal to Driv3r.
I love this game, it is my childhood and ill keep playing it no matter how fucked up it is.
12:21 that donut in your face was personal
🇮🇳🙏a lot of memories from this game. I can see what kind of "Hollywood" look and aesthetic they were going for but honestly pro street looked way better visually and even gameplay wise was superior. To this day idk why the skybox in Undercover is so jacked.
Edit: waiting for your next video on nfs shift.
worst part is that not even disabling bloom can fix that ugly skybox
Im glad we agree that the live action cutscenes, at least in the early games, are excellent additions all around. :)