Need for Speed Most Wanted

"NWalterstorf: Need for Speed: Most Wanted"

Que the latest edition of the Need for Speed series for the next-gen game system. Wow. Talk about nostalgia; I've been with this series since it was a wee lad! Of course, times have changed, and the game has grown up nicely.

First off, the graphics are excellent. The graphics on the 360 far defeat the graphics on any of the "current-gen" systems (or "last-gen", PS2, XBOX). I haven't seen graphics of varying vehicles and cities look this good for ages. And the cutscenes with the actors are excellent; no, those aren't CG actors, it's real actors but with a 360 graphics mask. Still, it looks good, doesn't it?

Secondly, the sound effects are great. It's made a drastic improvement over the series previous game's sounds. Who doesn't appreciate the roaring sound of a Mustang's engine? The cars all sound authentic. Of course, the only down side to the "sound" department would be the "music". This is one of the worst tracks EA has delivered. Most of them are Hip Hop and Rap. But that's not the bad part; they aren't very good Hip Hop and Rap selections. There's a little rock thrown in, but none of the sound is very great. My recommendation: get a CD player and listen to your favorite CD while racing through this game.

The handling is okay; it borders on "simulation" and "arcade", but doesn't quite strike a great balance on either one. I had trouble trying to keep my car on the road during certain high-speed races, and on other occasions, even the performance tuning the game allows you to utilize can't even help; you'll find yourself under-shooting turns in this game. A lot. Luckily, if you hit the Square button, you can slow-down time, and manage to perform unique maneuvers which you couldn't pull off otherwise.

The story is all right. There is a story here, but the story relies on the clutch of "beat the blacklist racers to continue the story"; there's no great story telling here, and by the time you get to the end of the game, and I won't ruin that for you, the reward doesn't seem as satisfactory as you'd wish. While you get a very nice car as a reward, you'll feel happier with your own customized car.

Now I should review the customization system. It's pretty good, but not great. I enjoyed the performance tuning; you can take a low-level car (like the Cobalt), and by the end of the game enough performance upgrades will be unlocked to allow that early-game car to be as good as a soupped-up end-game car. Luckily, the performance tuning in this game is balance; if you like a certain car, you don't have to ditch it later into the game; you can keep the same car you've had since the beginning, as it will be as power as the end-game performance upgrades. With that said, though, the end game cars leave a lot to be desired performance wise. The flip side to the coin of performance customization would be the fact that the cars at the end of the game don't feel much better soupped-up than when you first get them (referring to the end-game cars). There's a bar set on how high you can power up your car, and the cars you receive near the end of the game don't have far to go to reach that bar.

The visual customization is okay. It's not as in-depth as, say, Midnight Club 3, but it gets the job done. You can choose from numerous body kits, then hoods, spoilers and scoops, as well as paints, paint-customization, and vinyls. It's pretty good, but you can't fine-tune your car's tail-lights and bumpers separately; you have to use an overall package.

In the end, it's a pretty good game. I got it, and I enjoy it. Of course, it's not the best racing game. It is really really good, though, and the opening movie scene is excellent (actually, I should say "opening movie segment"). Would I recommend this as a buy? Sure, considering there's not a ton of 360 games out there to choose from. It was my first 360 game purchase, and I'm happy with it. If you like racing games, then you'll like it as well.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/06