Need for Speed: Undercover Wiki

Need for Speed: Undercover is the twelfth installment of the popular racing video game series Need for Speed, developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. It is set for release on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Portable, iPod Touch, iPhone and mobile phone on 18 November 2008..

Gameplay

There will be the return of many ways of racing in Need for Speed Undercover. Sprint, Circuit, Highway Battles (a new mode involving racing on a highway with heavy civilian and police traffic),[citation needed] missions (where the player performs specific missions usually involving the Tri-City Police Department)[citation needed], the "Cops and Robbers" mode, and a new gameplay mode called "The Heist"[10]



Police

Little information has been released about Undercover's police system, but it has been confirmed by EA that the police vehicles will include helicopters. The police vehicles will be drivable by the player. EA also confirmed that "there are some modes which give you access to the range of police cars. They're a lot of fun to drive and they have sirens."[11]


One named police officer is Lt. Keller. [12]

Online

EA has confirmed that there will be an new online mode by the name "Cops and Robbers" where four players will have to deliver a package to a drop point. The other four players will be police trying to stop the transportation of the package. There will also be regular racing online modes from previous NFS games, along with the brand new Highway Battle mode.

Plot

The game's story mode sets the player in the story as a police officer going undercover into the criminal underground of Tri-City, a fictional city where the game is set. Players will take on dangerous jobs and compete in races in order to infiltrate and take down a ruthless international crime smuggling syndicate. The player's only contact to the police is federal handler Chase Linh, played by Maggie Q.

Recently EA revealed some new plot details of Undercover. A video shows the player evading capture from the Tri-City Police Department (TCPD). The player was aided by detective Chase Linh.[13] As well, six criminal characters named Carmen, played by Christina Milian, Chau Wu, "G-Mac" (a defector from the TCPD), Hector Maio, "Nickel", and Zack Maio have been introduced. There are three other characters to note: Jonathon Cross is listed as an acquaintance to "G-Mac", yet not much is known about him at this time; and Isabel "Izzy" Diaz, one of the "Blacklist" members in Most Wanted, and Caleb Reece, the main antagonist in Underground 2, are listed as acquaintances to Hector Maio.[14]

Development

The game will feature international movie star Maggie Q,[15] as detective Chase Linh, one of the lead characters of the game, and also singer and actress, Christina Milian, as Carmen. The live-action sequences from Carbon and Most Wanted will return in Undercover, but won't be in the traditional "CGI". Police chases from previous installments will also return, as well a new Highway Battle mode.
A Porsche 911 GT3 RS in Need for Speed Undercover.
A Porsche 911 GT3 RS in Need for Speed Undercover.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has stated that the previous release in the series, ProStreet, was "an okay game... It's not good".[7] and that Undercover will bring better innovations and gameplay. He has stated Undercover has a considerably longer development cycle than its predecessors since the Need for Speed development team is now split up into two teams, both of which will work on a 24 month development cycle with future titles, alternating releases between them. Riccitiello has stated he was "torturing" the development team with a tight development cycle in the past. When this change was implemented in mid-summer 2007, one team started working on Undercover (giving it only a 16.5 month development cycle), while the other team finished ProStreet and then started working on the next title. Riccitiello also stated Undercover is taking inspiration from action films such as The Transporter, with a large embedded narrative.[7][8]

Frank Gibeau (President of the EA Games label) has stated that due to the fact that the sales of ProStreet didn't live up to EA's hopes for the game, the Need for Speed franchise will go back to its roots. John Doyle (Developer at EA Black Box) has hinted Undercover will feature a brand new game mechanic and a "Most Wanted-ish" sandbox style of gameplay. It will have an all new damage system.[9] Andy Blackmore, (Senior Vehicle Concept Artist at EA) explained how the Porsche 997 GT2 character car was "conceptualized" in the game and then brought to life for the game from a brief description to being approved by Porsche.[16]