Gameplay NFS UnderCover

Undercover features a new open world map^[13] consisting of 100 miles (160 km) of road^[14] and a large highway system, making it the largest Need for Speed "world" EA has created so far.^[14] The game's environment consists of four boroughs: Palm Harbor, Port Crescent, Gold Coast Mountains, and Sunset Hills.^[15] These four boroughs make up the city, Tri-City.^[16] The road system includes four water crossings, going clockwise: the Main Guy Causeway (Ocean Expressway connecting Sunset Hills to Port Crescent via man-made island), the Vale Causeway (Sunset Hills to Palm Harbor), the North T Causeway (Man-made island to Palm Harbor), and the Memorial Tunnel (Port Crescent to Palm Harbor).^[15] Undercover also features a new contiguous highway system.^[7] In previous installments, highways were relatively small circuits concentrated within separate boroughs.^[17] In Undercover, the main highway circles Tri-City, with each of the four boroughs sharing a piece of the larger circuit.^[15] The longer highway length gives a more realistic shape, with long straight areas, gentle curves, rest areas and large interchanges.^[15] Lastly, the entire map is open from the start of the game, unlike previous installments where boroughs had to be unlocked.^[15]

The police system is similar to Most Wanted and Carbon. It uses a similar bar graph at the bottom of the screen that moves between the blue "Evade" (shown as green on PS2 and Wii), on the right side, and the red "Busted", on the left side, depending on the player's speed and proximity to police.^[15] The "Cooldown" period after evading pursuing police units returns as well, along with heat levels, speedbreaker and pursuit breakers. Also similar to Most Wanted and Carbon, police vehicles range from generic city patrol cars to federal pursuit cars accompanied by police heavy SUVs and helicopters.^[15] Unlike previous games, the type of police that appear is not entirely dependent on heat levels (i.e. high level police can appear at low heat levels and vice versa) but more on the player's wheelman level (i.e. progress through the game). At a high wheelman level, federal police will immediately join the pursuit, even if the player was at a low heat level.^[15][18] Common police tactics such as road blocks, rolling road blocks, spike strips, and PIT maneuvers are all featured, although some are only used by federal police. In addition, the player gets to drive a police vehicle in a mission in career mode, which consists of stealing a state police car.^[15]

The damage system returns to Undercover and is similar to Need for Speed: ProStreet. It differs from ProStreet in that the damage is only cosmetic and does not adversely affect performance.^[15] However, a car can still be "Totaled" in the new "Highway Battle" mode and in some missions in career mode.^[15] During these missions a car damage bar is displayed, which indicates the amount of damage done to the player's vehicle.^[15] The primary goal of these missions is to deliver certain cars without totaling them.^[15] In general, damage is automatically repaired after every career race or police pursuit,^[15] unlike in ProStreet where it had to be repaired by the player at a cost (either money or a "repair marker").^[19]

The customization of cars is similar to Need for Speed: ProStreet but has been enhanced on the level of graphics and detail.^[20][21] The new color palette and the "matte" paint were improved.^[21] The game also features aftermarket parts like Carbon did.^[22] As a bonus, EA added a vinyl similar to the vinyl of the BMW M3 GTR in Need For Speed: Most Wanted.^[23]

The player can gain reputation points as they progress through the game's story by participating in side missions or performing flashy maneuvers in a police chase.^[15] In turn, this grants the player access to bonus missions, adding a small RPG-like element to gameplay.^[15]