Lets settle this on the blacktop!
The makes of the cars are predominantly Japanese, as you have cars from the likes of Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Honda, to name a few. Gone are the Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Jaguars, etc. Although there are individual racing modes available from the start, they’re not much fun as the cars you have at your disposal are slow, plain looking cars. It’s the ‘Underground’ mode where all the fun begins.
In ‘Underground’ mode, you basically purchase a simple car, compete in illegal races, earn money and respect and in the process customize your car until it’s a speed demon on wheels! Although story based, the storyline in NFS: Underground isn’t very strong, and I doubt if it’s a story worth remembering. However, it’s the stuff that you can do or add to your ride that is the crux of the game, and the stuff that you can do or add is simply amazing!
You can tune the performance of your car, add bodykits, tint the windows, add neon lights under it (my favorite upgrade of all), add vinyls, rims, spoilers….the list goes on and on. You can even add nitrous to your car to give it short speed bursts in critical situations! It’s actually quite an amazing sight to watch the transition your car makes from granny car (with the money you start off with, you wish!) to hotshot racer is amazing. It’s almost unimaginable that the car you bought is the same car you’re driving! As you win races, you unlock magazine covers (with an image of you car on the front, together with a hot babe promoting it), race tracks, new cars and performance and visual upgrades.
In underground, you take part in 4 types of races. The first type is your standard circuit race, which has you racing against other cars in a circular, lapped race. The second type is the sprint type of racing, which has you racing a certain distance and sometimes within a specified time, i.e. no laps.
The third kind of race is known as a drag race, where you race on a straight road at insane speeds and trying hard to avoid being hit by traffic. The difference in this mode is if you crash, it’s over.
The final race type is known as ‘drift racing’, in that you drive your around a circuit as insanely as ever. Seriously, the object of this race is to get your car as much angle as possible when making a turn.
All the races take place in the night. The graphics are neat, but not as great as Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 though. The sound effects are great, showcasing the different engine sounds, tyre screeching noises and collision effects rather well. As for the music, there is a nice blend of rock and hi hop music that you can choose to either keep on or turn off or confine to either racing or the main menu, and brings out the mood of the game pretty well.
In conclusion, this is a real fun game. The cars look amazingly real, what with the upgrades and all. It’s really eye candy to see the transformation your car goes through, and the sense of speed that you acquire through the modifications that you make to your ride is sufficient to live up to the name Need For Speed: Underground!