Classic Games Emulated: NFS Underground 1

Fast And The Furious did for racing/car movies what Saturday Night fever did for disco; it brought a largely underground movement to the forefront. While the JDM/import scene was a thing before the movie, it's exposure would propel that scene to the mainstream. Car/racing movies were never the same again. The popularity of Fast And The Furious would redefine pop media, video games included.

Since Hot Pursuit 2 was still in production when Fast and The Furious was released, that movie's impact on the game was minimal. However, a year later, Underground was released. This game was molded in the scene propelled by that movie. Underground rebooted the franchise as it was a massive departure from the established NFS format from before.

Underground was developed by Black Box Studio, located in Burnaby, British Columbia; just outside of Vancouver. Black Box had previously worked on NFS Hot Pursuit 2 on behalf of EA before the studio was acquired by them. The studio was renamed to EA Black Box shortly after the acquisition.

On one hand, it might be easy to criticize Black Box Studios for following popular trends. However, one has to remember that Underground was actually something of a risk as the NFS franchise had never deviated from their established format up til this point. The NFS games have followed the same racing format that had been in place since its inception: racing either expensive European sports cars or powerful American muscle cars in exotic locations around the world. However, as much as I like this format, by the early 2000's, (and especially after the release of Fast and the Furious) this trope had become a drawn-out and exhausted cliché in racing games. Anyone who played the Test Drive games of the late 90's could attest to this as well.

At that time, doing a game based around this idea was the racing equivalent of doing a Zombie FPS nowadays: it's something that those with no original ideas embrace. "Whoopi Do! I get to race around in the Lotus or Camaro for the millionth time. How original (sarcasm meter going through the roof)!? The arrival of the SX40, Skylines, and Civics were a breath of fresh air for those tired of that same repetitive formula.

Gamers were craving for something different. Despite following popular trends, Underground was a very original title for the series. Underground would take it's drivers to a city full of both life and grit as one engages in illegal races to build up that street cred.

However, the rise of the JDM scene in video games wasn't totally unexpected either. Games like Gran Turismo would foreshadow this rise. One could customize various aspects of their Nissans or Honda Civics in these games. Engines could be customized along with suspension, weight, and other aspects of the car. However, with this scene, it wasn't just about performance, but appearance as well.

Underground provided many vinyl options that one could customize their car with. Various mods were released with many unique vinyl jobs that could give the car that unique appearance. One levels up as they add new upgrades to their cars while unlocking other cars and tracks as they progress. Credit is earned from winning races. The amount won depends on the difficultly that one starts the race with.

However, modders in general would experience disappointment in that they couldn't replace the in-game cars with something else of their choosing. Modding was and still is a very important aspect of these games. As such, such disappoint is justified, especially given that the game engine in Underground is greatly enhanced compared to its predecessors. Mods are a great strength in High Stakes and HP2 as they extend those games longevity by years. Restricting modding to vinyls-only is a flaw, not a feature. Not only that, the camera angle's provided aren't the best either. Their is a action camera that is activated once the car is doing a wild stunt for flying thru the air. However, such actions are far and few. Also, their is still no replay. Why is their no replay of the race? Watching the races would provide for a cinematic experience. The Underground games were heavily influenced by the JDM scene as depicted in movies like Fast and the Furious. It would seem odd that the feature that would be an excuse to provide for that cinematic feel is missing. Despite that, the game would still excel in racing, which Underground does very well.

The gameplay is very solid and quite enjoyable. The racing is still the main attraction, and that is what this game does very well. Underground incorporates drifting for the first time. Often very frustrating, but also very exciting at times. Drag racing is very captivating at times. Underground can be very frustrating at times, but in a good way. Sprint races always keep you on the edge. The tracks are very detailed and eye-catching. One would not be disappointed with this game. Despite it not being a modders dream compared to High Stakes, this game upholds the NFS title that gamers expect. 

Underground was the first game to feature a story. While the previous NFS games have a career mode, their was no storyline. Just jump in the game and start racing.  However, the story in Underground is  simply a cookie-cutter construct to guide the player thru the game. With certain video game genres, like RPG's, the story is essential to the success or failure of that game. In racing games, the storyline has usually treated as simply a background element to keep the player racing for hours on-end. It's really such a shame as their has been a golden opportunity for a rich story. Open-world driving games like Driver and GTA III demonstrated that such games could have rich stories that enhance the game. At the same time, I can also assume that most gamers who gravitated towards this series didn't come for a story, but to simply race. I'm one of them too. No one was expecting a captivating saga like in GTA III or Half-Life 2. Just come in and race. Get thru the filler so you can hit the track sooner. The basic outline of a story was simply their to tie the racing together, no more and no less, and Underground realized that. Thus, the basic construct of a story still doesn't get in the way or serve as a distraction like in later games in the series. I do like the magazine covers though!

One thing of interest, but would serve as a very massive distraction in later games; is the incorporation of product placement in NFS for the first time. Product advertisements in racing games was a relatively new concept, so it was interesting to see ads for real companies in Underground. However, EA would become very obnoxious and go way overboard with product placement in later games in the series.  

While HP2 confirmed to DirectX 8 specifications, Underground would confirm to the then new DirectX 9 API provided by Microsoft for Windows. Thus the game would take advantage of the latest graphics enhancements provided by the newest 3D accelerators. One thing to note is that this is NOT a open-world driving game. The tracks are still closed and linear like the previous NFS titles.

Like Hot Pursuit 2, Underground featured a lot of Gangsta Rap along with Neu-Metal and EDM, which was popular at the time. The music can be turned off though. Like in Hot Pursuit 2 previously and later games that would follow, the option to turn off music would be a huge blessing for those looking to avoid the YouTube copyright trolls.

Underground ran very well on my rig within VMware Player. I tested it with VMware Player 16 on Windows 10. The guest hardware was running Windows 7 32-bit with 2GB's of RAM allocated along with access to 3D acceleration. While 2GB's of RAM seems paltry by modern standards (which it is), this was a 2002 release. Most computers of that time typically had 256-512MB's of RAM. Underground should run very well with 2GB's. Also, Windows 7 32-bit runs well with 2GB's when aimed for older titles. Underground quite enjoyable and solid departure from the previous games.

The Underground series of games would lead the NFS franchise on a new path. One would see the NFS series reach new heights. At the same time, the series would start to show its age as new gaming trends would affect while and NFS would soon become a slave to popular trends which would affect the following games in a very negative way. However, that is down the road. It's time to see what amazing things that the Underground series can do.

Need For Speed : Underground (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_for_Speed:_Underground

Import Scene (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Import_scene