One reason I always go back to NFS Carbon, is that I can play it vs. my friends offline. Nothing feels better than them designing the ultimate car, only to have it passed right before their eyes by me in a stock lambo. Tragically there is no split screen in Undercover so I cannot add this game to a beer fuelled night with the lads; which was one of the most disappointing removals from Carbon. Fortunately I can still enjoy beating children who have yet to grasp basic English across the internet! This is where I have another problem with the game, the cars don’t feel balanced. Previously the cars were separated into Exotic, Tuner, and Muscle, each group having its pros cons, and best car, providing the cars were from the same tier, you could choose at least 6 cars and you would have a decent chance of winning. This seems to have been lost as I find myself the sole Lamborghini in a race full of Bugatti Veyrons, and having to drive a lot harder to stand a chance of coming 3rd. When reducing to Tier 2 you see a shocking number of Lamborghini Gallardos and this trend of predicting the car everyone will pick removes part of the fun, fortunately at the bottom end there is some mystery in the cars, but the game is too slow to really enjoy.

There is a new multiplayer mode – Cops and Robbers, the principal is simple enough you each take it in turn to be the cops or robbers, the robbers have to retrieve a stash of money and drop it off without getting stopped by the cops, points awarded for each stop and each successful drop off, before switching. Providing you have a good team this can be a lot of fun as you perform a dummy u-turn into 360 and watch the police car slam into a wall when he mistakenly reads your moves!

The new “Heroic Driving Engine” makes moves like J-turns, 360s 180s a lot more accessible to the average player, whilst they are by no means easy to pull off, they work well and feel fluid and natural. Despite the lack of a specific event, drifting is recognised by the game (you receive zone points for them which I will explain later) It is rubbish; brief sideways moments are not what drifting was about and do not feel right, and no matter how hard you try and how you tune your car it is impossible to hold a drift for more than 2 seconds, this is because for some reason counter steering (a key element to maintaining direction whilst drifting) brings you out of the drift. Therefore drifting can only be achieved by using the hand brake, which I find very frustrating.

All moves enabled by the heroic driving engine, as well as taking out opposing racers, trading paint with them and drafting provide in the zone points. These are recorded in a meter to the right of your speedometer and provide “speedbreaker” and nitrous bonuses. Your zone points also increase through clean sections (avoiding hitting walls) and having close calls with traffic. It is also reduced when you hit walls, discouraging you from slamming off the walls as it affects your nitrous boost.

One of the best things about this game has to be the cinematic sequences which are worthy of the hype created around them, the acting (for a game) is top notch, whilst the action sequences are sharp and exciting. The music suits the sequences and the game well (however I still prefer the carbon music).

Overall when not comparing it to my all time favourite racing game, its pretty good, with a compelling story good game-play and fun multiplayer, (Unfortunatly the multiplayer feels slightly bugged and laggy, and you often see other racers lagging out, but hopefully this issue will be patched shortly.) but it lacks the replayability of previous games and I feel that with all the good ideas Carbon had it could have been better. On its own a good game, but compared to others it could have been better.