Undercover features a new open world map (like the Midnight Club series) consisting of 109 miles (175 km) of road and a large highway system, making it the largest Need for Speed "world" EA has created so far. The game's environment consists of four boroughs: Palm Harbor, Port Crescent, Gold Coast Mountains, and Sunset Hills (in the DS version the boroughs are Metropolis, North Port Crescent, South Port Crescent and Riverton). In the Wii and PS2 versions two boroughs are copied off Need for Speed Most Wanted and put into different positions. These four boroughs make up the city, Tri-City, presumably a city located on the Gulf Coast or on the California Coast although the city itself heavily resembles Los Angeles. 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). Undercover also features a new continuous highway system. In previous installments, highways were relatively small circuits concentrated within separate boroughs. In Undercover, the main highway circles Tri-City, with each of the four boroughs sharing a piece of the larger circuit. The longer highway length gives a more realistic shape, with long straight areas, gentle curves, rest areas and large interchanges. Lastly, the entire map is open from the start of the game, unlike previous installments where boroughs had to be unlocked.
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. The "Cooldown" period after evading pursuing police units returns as well (shown in light blue), 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 rhinos (SUVs) and helicopters. 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. 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 Nissan GTR state police car. The other police cars cannot be driven except in a multiplayer game called Cops and Robbers. In the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions, however, other than in the mentioned mission (in these versions the cop car is a Lamborghini Gallardo - there's no GTR in them), the player earns from Chase Linh three police cars in career mode (Mustang GT, Lamborghini Gallardo and Porsche 911 GT2) after reaching certain parts of the game, which can be driven in a "chasedown mode", where the player has to arrest a certain number of racers, earning money as a reward.
A damage system returns to Undercover, but differs from the prior title ProStreet in that the damage is only cosmetic and does not adversely affect performance. However, a car can still be "Totaled" in the new "Highway Battle" mode (except PlayStation 2 and Wii) and in some missions in career mode. During these missions a car damage bar is displayed, which indicates the amount of damage done to the player's vehicle. The primary goal of these missions is to deliver certain cars without totaling them. In general, damage is automatically repaired after every career race or police pursuit, unlike in ProStreet where it had to be repaired by the player at a cost (either money or a "repair marker"). The damage system has been updated, which is more detailed given that scratches and dents could now be seen on the player's car (which represent minor damage), or heavy damage such as entire sections of the car ripped off (like bumpers, hoods etc.) or large deformations or dents. Police vehicles can sustain damage but in a different way than they did in Most Wanted and Carbon. Instead of the damage being made up of static models (although doors, trunk doors, hoods, bumpers and sirens could be broken off), the damage models are now flexible, and each area of the car can suffer from none, light, medium, or major damage (unlike Most Wanted or Carbon where each area can be in only two states of damage, undamaged or damaged). Many minor hits to different areas will gradually make the sustained damage more and more severe.
The customization of cars is similar to Need for Speed: ProStreet but has been enhanced on the level of graphics and detail. The new color palette and the "matte" paint were improved. The game also features aftermarket parts like Carbon did. As a bonus, EA added a vinyl similar to the vinyl of the BMW M3 GTR in Need for Speed: Most Wanted that was continued as a bonus car in "Carbon".
The player can gain wheelman (i.e. reputation) points as they progress through the game's story by participating in missions, winning races or performing flashy maneuvers in a police chase. In turn, this grants the player access to bonus missions, adding a small RPG-like element to game play.
The game also uses in-game advertising, featuring the T-Mobile Sidekick.
Developer(s): Black Box
Publisher(s): Electronic Arts
Series: Need for Speed
Genre(s): Racing
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