Need for Speed Carbon

"Realism, not so much, but pretty and fairly approachable"

I have to admit to being biased; I loved the original Need for Speed. I mean, back on the 3DO. NFS: Carbon is not like that game very much; in particular, it has a much more arcade-like feel, and cars can do a lot more that's just not plausible.

On the other hand, it's a pretty fun racing game.

Graphics: Quite nice. I'm assured that the 360 and PS3 versions are better, but from the perspective of someone whose component cable is still on order, I just don't care. Can you see what's happening? Yes, and excellently so. Is it pretty to look at? Generally, yes. The car damage modeling is pretty decent; at one point, I was surrounded by very badly beaten-up police cars, and the damage modeling is pretty good.

One definite weakness, IMHO, is the apparent lack of daytime driving. Everything is at night. Now, I'm not saying the lighting effects aren't beautiful; they are. I just think it might be nice to drive around some under more normal circumstances.

Physics: Fun, but I'm not sure how realistic it is that the first starting car I used could reliably tip over other cars. Hitting walls at 80 MPH ought to do more than buzz the controller a bit. On the other hand, the handling isn't bad, the way it has been in some games. I think playability won out over realism here. The crash handling seems to be very forgiving, but otherwise good.

Story/world: If you have ever in your life realized that a magician did not have supernatural powers, you will not be convinced for a minute. In a recent game, I got lost heading back to the "safe house" and ended up in a 17-minute car chase, at the end of which I was being harassed by an unreasonably large number of police cars. I totalled at least three or four of them, one by the expedient of knocking it into an oncoming semi. I had to pay $1,700 in fines, and that was it; I still have a car and a license. WTF. As an additional nuisance, so far as I can tell, even if I'm driving legally and calmly, the cops automatically act as though I'm breaking tons of traffic laws. A good guess, as it turns out, but it shattered what little fragile suspension of disbelief I had left; maybe I need to upgrade to the street package suspension of disbelief.

I'm not far enough in to comment in real detail on the customization options, or the overall challenge of the races. I have a very hard time with most race games, as I have never been much good at steering. The Wii controls give a variety of options, and I have never found a racing game easier to steer in. I particularly like the control option which uses the Wiimote as both accelerator and brake, because it allows for options in between "maximum acceleration" and "no acceleration"; that is a feature which helps immensely with trying not to skid out of control on corners.

Documentation: Pretty bad. The documentation's description of the control scheme seems to contradict all five of the in-game options I can find; it feels like they were tweaking the game at the last minute. The box claims it's a two-player game, but I haven't spotted anything yet. The documentation shows a Wiimote held in the same position used by GT Pro -- B button facing the screen, A button facing the player. The in-game documentation, and game play, default to the remote held with A button up and B button down.

Overall... It's a pretty fun game. The graphics remind me in some ways of some of the more neon-heavy levels of F-Zero GX, only with substantially better handling. The graphics are smooth and pretty, and the controls are responsive and seem to offer a fair bit of configuration. The in-game options show the controls correctly, and the documentation seems superfluous anyway. Good enough!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/23/06