Need for Speed: Underground
Say hello to the new king of arcade racers.
Published: December 11, 2003
The Need for Speed series has always done a fantastic job of merging the controls of an arcade racer with some sim-type elements interspersed and officially licensed cars by the fistful, almost as if someone took the disparate parts of Gran Turismo and combined them with a heavy focus on the arcade elements.
Nowhere is this more appropriate than in Need for Speed: Underground. While the focus is most certainly on arcade racing, there's been a considerable effort poured into replicating the act of tricking out one of the 20 now-familiar street racing models. The fact that all these cars, while not damageable (you careen off walls in Gran Tursimo fashion with nary a scratch on you) are so open to customization says quite a bit about Black Box's ability to craft such a fantastic racer.
And NFSU is indeed fantastic. So much so that it's easily one of the best arcade racing experiences ever made, and certainly stands among the cream of the PS2 racing crop. From the control to the track designs to the don't-blink-or-your-dead sense of speed to the gorgeous graphics tying it all together, this is truly one of the best presented racers on any system.
While NFSU boasts the usual assortment of modes (quick race, head-to-head, and even a PS2-exclusive online mode), the bulk of any gamers' experience with the racer will come in the form of Underground MoDEe. Essentially a 112-race marathon that splits the action over four different modes ranging from a point to point sprint to a couple-lap circuit to knock out races, where every lap the car in last place is ditched until there's a winner to drag races to my favorite, the drift mode, Underground Mode is the way to unlock everything in the game for upgrades in other modes (including online). But perhaps I'm being a bit over generalized here.
At Underground's heart are two things: money and respect. Everything in this mode revolves around these two factors. Respect is earned simply by tricking out your car. As you race through the game, you'll unlock different car body upgrades; body parts like custom bumpers, side skirts, spoilers, and hoods, vinyl images, decals, paint, neon, window tints – literally everything you'd need to create a one-of-a-kind ride. Adding these parts slowly inches up your respect meter. Fill it completely and you'll add a multiplier that can multiply your usual end-of-race score up to five times. This in turn unlocks more upgrades and the whole thing repeats itself.
The cash system in the game doubles as an incredibly clever on-the-fly difficulty setting. Harder races pay out more, though the cash is never really a problem after your 10th or so race, so the actual money is almost moot. The fact that you can pick your difficulty level keeps NFSU from falling into the trap that turned Midnight Club II into a controller throwing mess of over-difficult races. This way, you can choose your frustration level later in the game, since the last few races are enough to have you pulling tufts of hair from your scalp even on easy.
What's interesting about NFSU is in most cases, if you lose a race, it's because you screwed up; kiss a wall full-on with your bumper on the later races and you can almost guarantee another race, but it is because you messed up, not because traffic was too dense or the other street racers played dirty all the time. There are a few instances where the opponents would slam me into a wall or give love taps just to keep things interesting, but it was never to the point where I'd call the AI cheap.
About the only real gripe I had with the AI was that it wasn't really racer-specific. In all but the drag and drift modes, the AI is determined by car ranking. Later in the game, the second place racer is all but perfect, usually matching you turn for turn the entire race and nipping at your heels. Where the AI breaks down a bit is if you manage to take out that second racer – or even better still second and third – as soon as that car goes down, the AI switches, turning the third – or in our best example, fourth – car into a lightning-quick flawlessly racing speed demon not unlike the old second place racer. If this car was this fast before, why wasn't it neck-and-neck with the previous second place racer? It deflates a bit of the AI and takes away from the idea that you're actually racing characters, which is too bad because Underground really tries to add personality to the 112 challenges.
It really must be said that the controls and the sense of speed that the game boasts are among the best ever seen on consoles. Thanks to a rather diverse lineup of cars ranging from the new 350Z and old street racing standby the Skyline from Nissan to classic base model racers like a Dodge Neon, Honda Civic, Acura Integra, Volkswagen Golf and more, each car feels quite different in handling, top speed and acceleration. In total, there are 20 cars to choose from, but plenty of custom versions of each are unlockable as you play through Underground mode. As you progress through Underground mode, more and more internal upgrades are made, adding turbo kits, nitrous, brakes and plenty more to ensure that your modest Miata's slow transformation into a pavement chewing street beast has as much going on under the hood as it does outside. The eventual sense of speed that you get from a fully loaded, kitted out car really is something that has to be experienced first-hand; it's one of the best cold sweat-inducing, bone white knuckle-turning, can't-blink-or-I'll-eat-it experiences on any console.
There's very little about NFSU that's not gorgeous. The aforementioned unrelenting sense of speed is helped more than a bit by a very, very clever motion blur effect on everything on screen but the cars. Forget the PlayStation-are motion blurs that distorted everything on screen, Underground's blur is a soft, wonderfully understated effect that very subtly blurs everything on screen just to the point where it seems like the cars are ready to tear their way out of the screen and through the nearest wall. The effect may have been achieved on the PS2 through software, though, because there are times when things look just a bit pixilated, such as on the bright lights all over they city that leave streamers as you go by. It's a minor hindrance to an otherwise flawless way of delivering an unmatched sense of speed and style.
Aside from the traffic that roams the city streets you'll slowly unlock piece by piece, everything in the game is wonderfully high-polygon and high-res. The entire city is doused in elaborate texture work and picture perfect lighting from neon lights and street lamps. While you'll start downtown, nestled among the neon-veiled skyscrapers overhead, things quickly move into areas like Chinatown, parks, the more industrial parts of the city and into a few construction zones. The presentation of a city that's slowly unlocked over the course of Underground Mode, while a bit repetitive, is pulled off quite well, and even manages to best Namco's efforts at providing a whole city to race through in R4 and Ridge Racer V.
NFSU is also one of the best sounding games from an effect standpoint in quite a while. The production values and attention to detail on everything about the cars from the revs of the engines to shifting gears to finally punching the nitrous is sublimely crisp and clear. While the music variety is limited (more on that in a second), the effects work was good enough that I eventually just turned off the music altogether just to hear my beast scream a little as it tore around the city.
It's obvious that EA tried to round up some nice music talent. The song featured during the opening video of the game, BT's "Kimosabe", was previously exclusive to Amplitude, and perfectly fits things here, though some of the other music didn't fare so well. It's all going to come down to personal taste, and luckily there's an option to turn on or off any of the 27 different songs, or relegate them to just race or menu music. With the exception of some nice songs (the aforementioned BT cut and Andy Hunter's "Wonders of You" are good examples), things to fall into two groups, musically: rap or angsty screaming heavy rock. If neither of these float your boat, it's up to the whine of the engine to keep you happy, which luckily does just fine.
There's no other way to say this, so I'll just say it: Need for Speed: Underground is one of the best arcade racers to come along in years. Developer EA Black Box did an incredible job simulating speed, adding a slew of upgrade options and provided a nice (if slightly minimal) assortment of race-worthy cars. While it's certainly a challenge and more than a little repetitive, the Underground Mode allows for plenty of extended play, and the inclusion of an online mode means you can finally show off that car you spent so many hours upgrading. Run, don't walk, to buy this game.
Nowhere is this more appropriate than in Need for Speed: Underground. While the focus is most certainly on arcade racing, there's been a considerable effort poured into replicating the act of tricking out one of the 20 now-familiar street racing models. The fact that all these cars, while not damageable (you careen off walls in Gran Tursimo fashion with nary a scratch on you) are so open to customization says quite a bit about Black Box's ability to craft such a fantastic racer.
And NFSU is indeed fantastic. So much so that it's easily one of the best arcade racing experiences ever made, and certainly stands among the cream of the PS2 racing crop. From the control to the track designs to the don't-blink-or-your-dead sense of speed to the gorgeous graphics tying it all together, this is truly one of the best presented racers on any system.
While NFSU boasts the usual assortment of modes (quick race, head-to-head, and even a PS2-exclusive online mode), the bulk of any gamers' experience with the racer will come in the form of Underground MoDEe. Essentially a 112-race marathon that splits the action over four different modes ranging from a point to point sprint to a couple-lap circuit to knock out races, where every lap the car in last place is ditched until there's a winner to drag races to my favorite, the drift mode, Underground Mode is the way to unlock everything in the game for upgrades in other modes (including online). But perhaps I'm being a bit over generalized here.
At Underground's heart are two things: money and respect. Everything in this mode revolves around these two factors. Respect is earned simply by tricking out your car. As you race through the game, you'll unlock different car body upgrades; body parts like custom bumpers, side skirts, spoilers, and hoods, vinyl images, decals, paint, neon, window tints – literally everything you'd need to create a one-of-a-kind ride. Adding these parts slowly inches up your respect meter. Fill it completely and you'll add a multiplier that can multiply your usual end-of-race score up to five times. This in turn unlocks more upgrades and the whole thing repeats itself.
The cash system in the game doubles as an incredibly clever on-the-fly difficulty setting. Harder races pay out more, though the cash is never really a problem after your 10th or so race, so the actual money is almost moot. The fact that you can pick your difficulty level keeps NFSU from falling into the trap that turned Midnight Club II into a controller throwing mess of over-difficult races. This way, you can choose your frustration level later in the game, since the last few races are enough to have you pulling tufts of hair from your scalp even on easy.
What's interesting about NFSU is in most cases, if you lose a race, it's because you screwed up; kiss a wall full-on with your bumper on the later races and you can almost guarantee another race, but it is because you messed up, not because traffic was too dense or the other street racers played dirty all the time. There are a few instances where the opponents would slam me into a wall or give love taps just to keep things interesting, but it was never to the point where I'd call the AI cheap.
About the only real gripe I had with the AI was that it wasn't really racer-specific. In all but the drag and drift modes, the AI is determined by car ranking. Later in the game, the second place racer is all but perfect, usually matching you turn for turn the entire race and nipping at your heels. Where the AI breaks down a bit is if you manage to take out that second racer – or even better still second and third – as soon as that car goes down, the AI switches, turning the third – or in our best example, fourth – car into a lightning-quick flawlessly racing speed demon not unlike the old second place racer. If this car was this fast before, why wasn't it neck-and-neck with the previous second place racer? It deflates a bit of the AI and takes away from the idea that you're actually racing characters, which is too bad because Underground really tries to add personality to the 112 challenges.
It really must be said that the controls and the sense of speed that the game boasts are among the best ever seen on consoles. Thanks to a rather diverse lineup of cars ranging from the new 350Z and old street racing standby the Skyline from Nissan to classic base model racers like a Dodge Neon, Honda Civic, Acura Integra, Volkswagen Golf and more, each car feels quite different in handling, top speed and acceleration. In total, there are 20 cars to choose from, but plenty of custom versions of each are unlockable as you play through Underground mode. As you progress through Underground mode, more and more internal upgrades are made, adding turbo kits, nitrous, brakes and plenty more to ensure that your modest Miata's slow transformation into a pavement chewing street beast has as much going on under the hood as it does outside. The eventual sense of speed that you get from a fully loaded, kitted out car really is something that has to be experienced first-hand; it's one of the best cold sweat-inducing, bone white knuckle-turning, can't-blink-or-I'll-eat-it experiences on any console.
There's very little about NFSU that's not gorgeous. The aforementioned unrelenting sense of speed is helped more than a bit by a very, very clever motion blur effect on everything on screen but the cars. Forget the PlayStation-are motion blurs that distorted everything on screen, Underground's blur is a soft, wonderfully understated effect that very subtly blurs everything on screen just to the point where it seems like the cars are ready to tear their way out of the screen and through the nearest wall. The effect may have been achieved on the PS2 through software, though, because there are times when things look just a bit pixilated, such as on the bright lights all over they city that leave streamers as you go by. It's a minor hindrance to an otherwise flawless way of delivering an unmatched sense of speed and style.
Aside from the traffic that roams the city streets you'll slowly unlock piece by piece, everything in the game is wonderfully high-polygon and high-res. The entire city is doused in elaborate texture work and picture perfect lighting from neon lights and street lamps. While you'll start downtown, nestled among the neon-veiled skyscrapers overhead, things quickly move into areas like Chinatown, parks, the more industrial parts of the city and into a few construction zones. The presentation of a city that's slowly unlocked over the course of Underground Mode, while a bit repetitive, is pulled off quite well, and even manages to best Namco's efforts at providing a whole city to race through in R4 and Ridge Racer V.
NFSU is also one of the best sounding games from an effect standpoint in quite a while. The production values and attention to detail on everything about the cars from the revs of the engines to shifting gears to finally punching the nitrous is sublimely crisp and clear. While the music variety is limited (more on that in a second), the effects work was good enough that I eventually just turned off the music altogether just to hear my beast scream a little as it tore around the city.
It's obvious that EA tried to round up some nice music talent. The song featured during the opening video of the game, BT's "Kimosabe", was previously exclusive to Amplitude, and perfectly fits things here, though some of the other music didn't fare so well. It's all going to come down to personal taste, and luckily there's an option to turn on or off any of the 27 different songs, or relegate them to just race or menu music. With the exception of some nice songs (the aforementioned BT cut and Andy Hunter's "Wonders of You" are good examples), things to fall into two groups, musically: rap or angsty screaming heavy rock. If neither of these float your boat, it's up to the whine of the engine to keep you happy, which luckily does just fine.
There's no other way to say this, so I'll just say it: Need for Speed: Underground is one of the best arcade racers to come along in years. Developer EA Black Box did an incredible job simulating speed, adding a slew of upgrade options and provided a nice (if slightly minimal) assortment of race-worthy cars. While it's certainly a challenge and more than a little repetitive, the Underground Mode allows for plenty of extended play, and the inclusion of an online mode means you can finally show off that car you spent so many hours upgrading. Run, don't walk, to buy this game.
