Need for Speed Most Wanted

"The most wanted racing game? Maybe..."

EA has done a great job with their recent NFS games, and we can all agree that each game gets better and better with every new release, and this is no exception: Now there are police pursuits, has a somewhat entertaining storyline which gives the game a purpose to attempt to be the number one racer in town AND you can drive and customize some really neat rides (There's a 500+ HP Ford GT if anyone's interested :3)

But putting the hype aside, let's analyze five different aspects of this game.

NOTE: Scores go from 1 up to 10 and they are interpreted as: (1) being non-impressive, (3) Average, (5) Neat, (8) Impressive, (10) OMG BEST EVAH D:, if you can understand this you'll have a better understanding of this review (A (5) doesn't mean a bad grade for example)

Graphics [6]
The cars are well detailed, and if you decide to be creative and spent that hard earned cash in visual upgrades, you won't be disappointed, it's all eye-candy to see a totally modified car, although, this only focus on the racing cars and the police cars, all traffic vehicles are not as flashy AT ALL, there are times when you'll think they're some piles of painted boxes cruising around. Environments are neat looking, and the backgrounds give you that feeling that the city you're driving in is huge (As it should be), weather effects are present, but not very realistic, you can be in the middle of a race, and it would get cloudy and rain, but the rain will only last a few minutes. Details such as speed lines, tail lights blurring when you use a nitrous burst, blinding light when you come out of a tunnel, sparks flying off as you crash, oh, and that camera focus on a police patrol who just spotted you and commences the pursuit, just to name a few, the cut scenes are good, and the characters in career mode are played by real actors instead of CG ones, one thing though: Don't expect any Oscar winning performances! Well, all these elements altogether deliver a solid graphic experience. I wish I could give it an 8, unfortunately, the game froze up three times in just a week I've been playing it, and it has a bunch of glitches that are somewhat annoying...

Sound [8]
Rubber burnin', engine roaring, police radio chatter, the sound of metal twisting as you ram into another car, it's all here. As one would expect from the NFS franchise, the game sounds are almost flawless, and for the joy or disappointment of some players, the hip-hop genre is gone from the game soundtrack, many players have complained about the bad soundtrack in this game, in my humble opinion, some songs do comply with the feeling of 'lawbreaking maniac on the wheel' while some others just don't feel quite right, although, I bet everyone thinks that the song when you are in pursuit fits just right (It's kind of that tune they play on World's Scariest Police Videos). Not much to say about the sound effects, they are top-notch and will take your ears right into the action with a decent sound system.

Gameplay [8]
The arcade feeling of this game is fantastic, and you can pull some really awesome maneuvers with ease. The learning curve is relatively low and you'll be racing like nobody's business in less than an hour. When you use Nitrous for a burst of speed, it will 'refill' after driving fast for a while, which is perfect and improved from NFSU. The -speedbreaker- is a new addition to the gameplay, I personally use it only to do a quick 180 turn, many players say that you can use it to do some precise-dodging, or take tight turns, but I find it easier to just slow down a bit in those situations, not very useful, hopefully they will improve this in the next NFS release. You can unlock and buy a total of 32 cars which range from the popular Mitsubishi Eclipse to the all-mighty Porsche Carrera GT, and you can tune up and customize all of them. Car tuning is easy and fun, Performance tuning is simple, if you have the money you upgrade certain aspects of your car such as engine, transmission, install a nitrous oxide system and so on, each of these can be upgraded up to 3 to 4 stages, most upgrades are locked and you unlock them as you progress further in the game, visual upgrades now have a practical use, they can help you lower the 'heat' on your car by changing it's appearance. Think of heat like wanted stars in GTA, heat builds up when you're involved in a pursuit, and it can fill up to five levels, the higher the level of heat, the more aggressive the cops will be, faster and bigger police cars will join the pursuit, road blocks and spike bands will be deployed and a police chopper may join into the fun, thus, having more chance of preventing you from getting away, stop you and arrest you. If the police manage to arrest you, you will have to pay a fine, depending on how much mayhem you caused, if you are arrested a couple of times more, they will impound your car and you will lose it forever. Sad but true, but don't worry, if you don't enjoy a challenge, you'll find the police A.I. to be lacking most of the times, and you'll have a hard time increasing your bounty amount and accomplishing the milestone challenges in the beginning.

Game Flow [8]
Game modes are the ones you're most likely to find in any racing game. Career mode being the main game mode, it features a somewhat entertaining storyline, where you start with a common car and you have to face the 15 most wanted by the police street racers and win your way up to the number one and beat him, sounds much easier said than done, it will take you about 30 hours to complete this task, you'll get a bunch of rides on the way and you can and must customize them all to make them faster and be at par with the competition. You may choose to be on 'Free Roam' and drive around the streets looking for shops, car lots and races, if you don't like driving around looking for action, you can always jump straight into the action via a menu.

Final Words:
This is a solid game with good features any racing fan should own. While it may not be a driving simulator such as the masterpiece Gran Turismo 4 and such, it is a good arcade driving game, even for the casual gamer, and should entertain you for a good while.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/02/06