Need for Speed is a series of racing games published by Electronic Arts and currently developed by Criterion Games. Discord: https://discord.gg/NeedForSpeed
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First of all,if you think underground player and most wanted player is same NO they aren't,even Adrian Vershinin who is the scenario writer of most wanted confirmed they are different persons.watch the video "most wanted 2005 (reunion)" from 1:29:17 to 1:30:00 to see the proof
when Rog says "well look what the underground dragged in" is Just a reference to players behind the screen who played underground games before playing most wanted
Underground player was a rookie in beginning and he started his carrer after he saw a dream
While most wanted/carbon player was already a pro of street racing,plus no one knows his life before the race he did with Darius supra
So I guess you now understand underground and most wanted characters are different persons back to the original question:are Ryan Cooper the same person with one of them?
Answer is NO,Cooper only appeared in pro street
The underground player and most wanted/carbon player is unnamed,never speaks and their full face is never shown so they are the player behind the screen
Hope you understand.
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Q&A
I cringe whenever someone says Ryan Cooper is protagonist of undercover or the old man (Jack M. Keller) who works with Chase Linh - is the protagonist in Undercover (looking at you, Blackpanthaa)
Same,some People even say it's the protagonist of most wanted/carbon like bruh how can a street racer become a cop?!
It's not unheard of for criminals with a lot of expertise in their "field" to assist law enforcement with consulting, techniques, or even working for them in a more formal capacity.
That said, the "theory" that the cop from Undercover is actually the protagonist stems from an embarrassingly basic misunderstanding of the cutscenes and dialog.
every time theo reacts to the nfs undercover cutscenes he keeps saying "the old man is who we play as" or some bs
"Catch me if you Can" shows this really well, where the convicted ex-scammer started to help the FBI to catch other criminals.
If the cops need a street racer to help them, in exchange for anything they could want, they will use them.
Now, I find the theory of Jack Keller being the protagonist of any game somewhat ridiculous
Makes no sense because that character literally talks to you person to person and argues with Chase who is the player's handler. The he sends you on the mission to hunt down Chase when it is revealed that she is the bad guy. In some cutscenes they talk to the camera (the player) while both Chase and Jack are present.
I mean, no one can forbid you from creating your own headcanon that every game is somehow connected to each other. Its just that its not official and contradicts many facts
I forgot to type if you notice in prologue race of carbon Wolf drives a aston martin which existed in 2004 while underground takes place in 2003
tbh thats more a dev oversight than anything
TIL people put this much thought into NFS timelines lol
well yea if you grew up playing Underground and Most Wanted, then you would understand
This is peak comedy
Lol,the guy doesn't know anything about both english and nfs games
I don't take it seriously. At least it is funny
I know it's not cannon but making a cool protagonist for the nfs series would have been great but EA and their games. I wanna speak no more.
would be cool, like how Vert Wheeler represents Hot Wheels
and we could play as this one character in multiple games, so multiple arcs
Thank you. This really grinds my gears when people think Ryan was the UG/MW/Carbon protagonist.
Also Ryan appears in Undercover, but only in a cop chatter easter egg where they mention they arrested him and that he refuses to take off his helmet.
This was in Payback
Nope, Undercover. Be idle in freeroam and if you're lucky, you may hear a cop chatter going off.
"He's not talking, and uh, refuses to take off his racing helmet. Uh, got his ID here. Surname Cooper, first name Ryan."
In Payback, Mac mentions him to Aki Kimura after one Noise Bomb drift event.
Then i mixed this up
Yup, you did, haha
But couldn't the protagonist have gone to Palmont between the events of NFSU2 and Most Wanted?
Nope. It would be a monumental mistake.
If the MW/Carbon protagonist had to comeback after fleeing the street race in the NFS Carbon Prologue and before going into Rockport, it would be scapegoated and accused to be the stealer of the red bag full of money while he wasn't the main culprit given he had a fake bag himself and he wasn't aware of the sabotage.
Plus. Angie, Kenji and Wolf would be even more angrier at him since they were arrested temporarily by Palmont City cops when the race was interrupted by the cops with EMP guns.
Even the 3 bosses weren't aware about what happened.
Only the protag wasn't affected by the EMP guns and a cop in a white Chrysler 300C let him flee the scene while the 3 others were busted.
If you encounter the 3 bosses of NFS Carbon during their cutscenes, you'll understand why he didn't came back quickly.
That explains why he only cameback after quitting Rockport in order to unfold the truth of what happened the night he flees Palmont City.
Also, his whereabouts between the moment he flees Palmont City with Darius's Toyota Supra MK4 and when he goes to Rockport with his BMW M3 E46 GTR are still unknown.
Keep in mind there's a 5 years of interval between the NFS Carbon Prologue and when he comes back again to Palmont City.
Do note the events of NFS Underground 2 aren't took into account since the Undeground duology is a separate continuity.
There's about a 5 year gap between the prologue and the current day events in Carbon. Assuming that the games take place in their release year, the answer would be no.
...and yes I know the cars don't match the timeline, I doubt the devs were thinking that far ahead.
Well said.
I explained it many times But some peoples still don't understand.
Also I forgot to type "in the prologue race of carbon Wolf drives a aston martin which existed in 2004 while underground takes place in 2003"
About the NFS Carbon Prologue, it actually happens in 2001.
In the page 27 of the Official Prima Guide, Nikki was 19 years old during the Prologue where the MW/Carbon flees Palmont City.
When the MW/Carbon hero comes back to Palmont City, Nikki is 24 years old meaning there's 5 years of interval between the moment he flees Palmont City with Darius's Toyota Supra MK4 and when he comes back with his BMW M3 E46 GTR.
In the case of Wolf's Aston Martin DB9, there's 2 possibilities.
Either Black Box didn't had enough development time to find a fitting car for Wolf which was released before 2001.
OR Aston Martin from the NFS Universe released the DB9 3 years earlier than the real life counterpart.
And that's exact. The UG duology starts in 2003 and ends in 2004.
Another explanation of why the UG and the MW/Carbon hero are 2 separate persons is the fact that there's no cops in the 2 Underground games since they're organized races with sponsors.
Meanwhile in Rockport and Palmont City, the street races aren't sponsorized since they're illegal given cops appear during races.
I thought only Underground Racing League that has sponsors. Then again, if I remember correctly, there are sponsor races that takes place at the street, so I guess that makes sense.
Yeah.
Also speaking of cops,why didn't EA continue to make high ranking cops appear in high heat level pursuits? Just like how Cross appears in heat 5 chases of most wanted and carbon,Mercer should have also appear in heat pursuits too but EA missed the chance
To be honest, It's likely due to a lack of dev time hence why NFS Heat was unfinished and full of cut contents.
And Yeah. Ghost Games missed an opportunity to include Mercer and Shaw as police units in High Heat Level chase.
Me with theory that Player of MW/Carbon is actually Brian O Conner:
Fun fact:the actor that portrays him in live action cutscenes is named Paul Walker but it's not the Paul Walker from fast and furious
Simpler times, eh.
When Rog says "well look what the underground dragged in", that could also be a reference to the player being a street racer in Palmont's racing scene before that (canonically he was in Palmont before Rockport and then returned)
it's also a possiblity,but we're sure it's not about the player of underground games
Colin >>>
While I don’t support the theory, this is kind of a flimsy argument:
because like, yeah, after the events of both Undergrounds the same rookie would be a pro at street racing. No one knowing what they did would also still make sense if it was the same person
Evidently the people who downvoted you have reading comprehension issues... because you're entirely correct. That argument makes no sense. That doesn't mean we disagree with the overall conclusion of the post.
Well here's proofs Even the scenario writer Adrian Vershinin confirmed they are different persons And also if you notice in prologue race where the most wanted/carbon player uses supra,Wolf drives a aston martin db9 which existed in 2004 while underground 1 takes place in 2003
Like I said i’m not into the theory. There fact that it got word of god against it is honestly enough, I’m saying the other pieces don’t add anything useful
Which means that u don't want to believe certain things not because they are not true.
...huh? I have, repeatedly, said that I don't believe that they're the same person. That has been confirmed by the devs. Do you actually read the comments you respond to or just make it up as you go along?
Thank U!!! I still don't know why believe that they are the same person.
I don't really see the issue. Its just a fun theory for those who want to try and connect these games together since the stories don't connect to each other(Besides Undergound 1-2 and MW to Carbon). One of the announcers in Prostreet also makes a remark about the Supra the player drove in NFS Carbon as an easter egg. Its just a fun community theory and your post is treating it as a fact.
But is ryan cooper from prostreet the protagonist of undercover or nah?
Nope. Ryan Cooper is Only the protagonist of NFS Pro Street.
In NFS Undercover, the main Protagonist is an unnamed undercover cop with no face and voice which is also Yourself at the same time.
When Ryan Cooper appears in NFS Undercover, the cop chatter is primarly a reference to the past added intentionally by Black Box as a joke because Ryan Cooper never remove his helmet.
Except Ryan Cooper and Jack Rourke, all the other protagonists of the Black Box era are separate peoples as well as being Yourself.
No,the undercover protagonist is also yourself behind the screen but have no connections to any other protagonists
Everyone knows the protagonist in nfsmw and carbon is razor’s little brother, rozar.