"Don't ask if you wanna race against me, rather ask yourself if you're going to Win against me."

Game(9/10)
By far, and comparing with the previous Need For Speed titles, Need For Speed: Most Wanted finally satisfies the craving for racing action. I'm kind of new here and I'm from the Philippines so please bear with me for a few grammatical errors I might commit during this review. I'm also a car fanatic so whatever's inside and outside matters most.

But enough of that. I had second thoughts of buying this game before when it came out. I was thinking if I buy this, will it be worth the money I'm going to spend? Guess I was proved right by that statement because Most Wanted solely replaces everything I've been playing on Gran Turismo and the other titles that preceeded it. The features were quite new to me so it took time for me to grasp the whole idea on which is which.

Story(7/10)

So here's how everything goes...

You go on a mano-y-mano sprint with your rival, Razor, unaware of the engine malfunction and unmindful of the traffic and the cops in your currently stylish BMW(I'm not very aware of the car mods so my apologies, guys). Everything goes well during the run until you find out that there's a huge oil spill under the bonnet of your ride. Although it sounded more like the fan belt flying off and hitting the radiator, you still lose the ride to Razor and he uses it to gain ground, thus earning the number one spot on the Blacklist. This is where you come in...and apparently, you've saved enough money to buy yourself a ride you can jack up and use against unsuspecting racers.

The story seems to be one of those "Take-everything-back-that's-yours-and-get-revenge" type of theme but it still somehow pleases me nonetheless.

Gameplay(9/10)

The gameplay ain't that bad although the cops were portrayed down the bone, which makes it annoying but exciting to play again and again. The races ARE NOT mediocre...they seem like they are but once you get yourself lost in unknown terrain, it's hard to come back home, especially when you're on Heat Level 5. The races are, for some part, redundant and cliched. The routes vary but the world you're in stays the same. Pursuit breakers are also fun since I got a kick laughing at them cops who wouldn't lay off. The racers, I thought, were intimidating and kind of scary but once I pummeled them to the asphalt one by one...I felt a surge of electricity running through my fingers, telling me that the Chevrolet Cobalt SS(my car) and I have successfully merged as one body. In other words, they're all trash along with the Blacklist Racers, from Sonny to Kaze to Razor himself. The secret here is to tune your car, including the ones you pinkslipped(is there a term?) to the Ultimate level. Apparently, the ones I pinkslipped had their full configuration already so the settings was the only thing I had to arrange. If you did the tuning right, you have nowhere to go but up and stick the damn tire rods up Razor's ass. This game does not suck! If I was a doctor, I'd recommend this to drive-hungry patients.

Controls(9/10)

It's expected in a driving game. The settings are based on your liking. The analog button is your steering wheel, X is the accelerator, square's the brakes, O is the Speedbreaker, allowing you to go slo-mo and evade cops big time and lastly, the triangle lets you look at the rear(my, ain't that obvious?)

Overall(10/10)

Although it's the automobile version of the Karate Kid, Need For Speed: Most Wanted will satisfy would-be drivers, street racers, car fanatics(like me) and mostly...chauffeurs who want to pour out their stress from work.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/07

Game Release: Need for Speed Most Wanted (US, 11/15/05)