Electronic Arts made a few promises in regards to their latest instalment in the Need For Speed franchise – Undercover. After “torturing” developers in order to churn out a new instalment every year for the series, they've made some changes, and it shows. There are now two studios working on the series, with a new game to be released from each biannually, reducing the pressure that was on the developers.

Undercover offers a dramatic improvement over the previous instalment in the series, ProStreet. While it could be argued that it wouldn't have taken much to overcome the embarrassing state of affairs that was embodied within ProStreet, the latest game in the Need For Speed franchise shows some true promise, though it is not without ill.

Epic, immersive police chases in the style of Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit are back, along with some heavy influence from the more recent Most Wanted. A wafer-thin story line accompanied by live-action full motion video is also threaded into the mix, which makes for a mildly interesting gameplay experience. The FMV sequences being riddled poor writing, pacing and snail-like plot progression, they are punctuated with laughable camera-work and cinematography.

Nevertheless, it is an effort, and the game makes its intentions clear right from the start – you're going to infiltrate an organisation of street racers suspected of international smuggling. In order to gain their respect, you must get onto the streets and win races. The game then promptly dumps you into a Nissan 240SX, and you're all alone. Instantly the promise of an engaging story and logical plot disappear and you're left with an initially buggy-game experience.

The first race is amusing. The second race made my Xbox 360 console crash. I sighed, rebooted, and tried again. I got up to lap two the next time, and the console crashed again. The promise that had already been shattered by clumsy FMV and poor acting was, at this stage, less pleasurable than the prospect of having glass shards in my eyes. After restarting the game for a third time (once installing the game to the console's HDD), the game eventually stopped crashing.

My car, on the other hand was tossed around as if I was driving on the inside of a pinball machine and not the wide-open highways which dominate the circuits and other race modes in Undercover. It initially seemed that my car had gigantic magnets attached to all of its sides, which attracted any type of vehicle into my car, resulting in a singularity of confusion, frustration and disappointment.

Okay, I'm kidding, there aren't actually any magnets, but racer AI acts in an extremely aggressive manner at the beginning of the game – as if to test your patience or to see what you're made of in terms of racing ability. The game then slowly teetered off to “challenging, but not impossible”. This was until the frame-rate issues emerged. Undercover is quite possibly the most poorly optimised console title I've seen in recent times. The frame rate can drop to questionable levels in the middle of a race which leads to choppy controls, frustration, and poor impressions.

When the game does behave, and isn't riddled with bugs, or cheesy cut-scenes and a poor attempt to craft a plot, there is a lot of racing action to be had – which can be akin to MMO-style grinding. Single player consists of a sole goal – complete career mode. There is a lot of content in career mode, with just under two-hundred races to win or dominate (more on race domination later).

Race modes consist of the ubiquitous circuit, sprints, time trials and two new racing types – 'highway battle' and 'outrun'. The later both take part on the expansive highways and free-ways of the game, where you goal is to either remain in front of an opposition vehicle for a certain period of time, or to overtake and gain a lead of 300 metres. Both are somewhat reminiscent of Need For Speed: Carbon, and are somewhat challenging and enjoyable, much like most of the racing present in the game.

In a move that is sure to be applauded, exotic cars return in truly glorious fashion – with vehicles from Porsche, Aston Martin, Lamborghini Lotus, and even McLaren present in the garage of Undercover. Initially, you're only able to tear around in cheaper, low-performance cars, but as you progress through the career mode, you unlock increasingly powerful tiers of cars and upgrades. Sadly, this incentive could be quashed by those feeling some form of obesity in their wallets, as you're able to fast-track your way to glory if you so choose by using Microsoft Points to unlock or purchase high performance vehicles or upgrades.

Those who bemoaned the Underground era of the franchise for focusing on Japanese cars and outrageous body kits may be enticed back into the franchise with Undercover. Whilst a number of Japanese vehicles are present, and vehicle modification is out in full-force, neither are required in order to excel in the career mode, as any benefit they garner is merely cosmetic. A change of colour is always welcome however, and will serve to lower your wanted level should you find police chases too challenging or frustrating.

On the other hand, it can be amusing to listen to the Police chatter if you choose to (as I did) to paint your vehicle an unlikely colour such as purple - “Suspect is in a ... uh ... purple Pagani Zonda, I repeat, purple Pagani Zonda!”. Police chases are engaging, and can be broken by outrunning the police, destroying their cars, or, of course, getting arrested. They play a major part of the career portion of the game, with numerous sequences involving the delivery of stolen vehicles or undefined criminal paraphernalia across the city. If you are somewhat of a sadist, you can also attempt to evade after having your tyres popped by a spike strip – which results in amusing commentary on the police radio.

The police chases are the best part of the game, with the radio chatter perhaps more engaging than the writing for the plot of the game itself. I say this for two reasons. The first is that with police chases, you can carve out your own particular goals and simply race around with reckless abandon. The second is that the police chatter forms a narrative regarding your pursuit. If you have a history of evading the police with a particular vehicle, this will be mentioned, along with any specific infringements you've made. It is both fun and satisfying to lead the police on a state-wide pursuit in game and leads to much laughter when you hit a pursuit breaker, destroying multiple pursuing vehicles in the process.

A few new gameplay dynamics are introduced in Undercover, the first of these being the concept of a player's “Wheelman Level”, whereby you gain respect for racing stylishly. “Stylish” racing consists of things like narrowly missing civilian traffic, taking out other drivers, or running through sectors of a race without incident. Drafting and power slides are also an option in this respect.

As you progress through the career, your Wheelman level increases as you perform racing deeds and dominate circuits, which leads to a new races, jobs or events. You're also gifted with 'driving skills', which further enhance the performance of all your vehicles in a number of categories based on the skills you exhibit whilst racing.

Need For Speed: Undercover is a worthy instalment in the franchise, and is sure to sway long-term, hardcore fans of the series into giving it a little bit more respect as a no-holds bared mindless, arcade racer. While it is inconsistent at times in terms of frame-rate, AI, and has very similar tracks throughout, there is some fairly meaty content which will stretch out for up to 14 hours for career alone, along with some promising multiplayer.

On the multiplayer side, a new mode called Cops and Robbers is certain to offer even the most jaded fans of the series some enjoyment – with players divided into teams at random. The robbers must speed around the city collecting cash, and delivering it to safe houses, whilst the cops try to do everything in their power to stop them. It is a breath of fresh air for the series, but it does seem awfully cheap, as if it is trying to steal something from Grand Theft Auto 4. (In this regard, there is also a mission in the game called 'Grand Theft 5-0', which can be seen as a homage to a heavy weight in the gaming industry. )

Overall, Need For Speed: Undercover is a somewhat engaging title, if you can ignore what would otherwise be a fatal accident in comparison to the early titles in the series, the game saves itself marginally with some sweet potential for traffic infringements and speeding tickets. There is a significant amount of mindless racing action with outrageous physics, police chases, a shallow, linear story-line, and some promising multiplayer content. While it is riddled with bugs and plagued by frame rate issues in parts, beneath its flawed surface is a racing title that has much potential to be fun if you love the series.