Need for Speed Most Wanted

The underground racing scene really exploded a few years ago and it has really changed the face of racing games. Everywhere you look you will see traces of this racing trend and in many areas it has really been a good thing for gamers. For the past two years now EA has released their popular Need for Speed racing series and it had a very “underground” theme to it. This year EA has combined elements from the Underground and Hot Pursuit series and the fruit of their efforts goes by the name Need for Speed Most Wanted. Read on to find out why you should purchase this game.

There are a couple of game modes that will keep players busy in Need for Speed Most Wanted for quite a long time. First there is the Quick Race Mode, which allows players to either do a quick play game that allows them to get right in on the action or custom race where you get to pick everything in the race before you actually start racing. Next is the Challenge Series which is designed to test out your driving and pursuit evasion skills. You can view this mode as a slight tutorial as they get to know how to really get good in the game.

The real meat of this game is the Career mode which will keep players coming back until they beat it. What happens in this mode is that you become a nameless driver who is trying to make it big. You race this one guy who sets you up and takes your car, and with that car he becomes No.1 on the Blacklist 15. You want revenge on him and the only way to do this is to get more cars and work you way up until you can face him again. Are you up to this challenge?

In this mode you can just free ride the street and race around, getting the feel for the city and the roads for when you might be racing on them later on in the game. Players will want to get accounts to the Blacklist 15, which are the top 15 most wanted racers by the police. You will want to beat them in order for your name to get on that list and become the most wanted yourself. In order to get the chance to race against them you will have to compete in various races yourself and win, complete pursuit milestones, and successfully evade the cops. Once you have done this you will get your chance to take on these racers.

One thing that players will have to realize in this game is that cops are everywhere and just want to put an end to your racing career. When you are in a race or getting pursued by cops, you will have to remember to keep a clear and composed head if you want to lose them. If you do stupid things your heat meter will rise up (think of it like in Grand Theft Auto), the higher it is the more brutal the cops will become. If you get it high enough you will have many cop cars chasing you, FBI units, and even Helicopters in the air. To make matters worse they will set up road blocks, spikes that blow up tires, and various other things. The trick is that if you are able to evade them your bounty will go up as well as your reputation for being on their Blacklist. When you just can’t outrun the cops the best thing to do is find a hiding place or even change into another car until the heat dies down. This really puts a nice element in the game, and makes it feel that much more fun, realistic, and even strategic.

Just like in the Underground series, customization in this game is really where you will be spending your cold hard cash. If you want to win races later on in the game you will want to upgrade your car to be bold and feared on the streets. There are various upgrades that can be done to all of the cars in the game that will either improve the engine and performance or you can make visual enhancements to the cars as well. This really gets addicting as you will always want your ride to be the best in town.

One thing that is really annoying about this game is the difficulty of the computer AI. In the beginning of the game the races are a piece of cake, which is pretty much normal for a game of this type. I mean the game is so easy that you can completely crash out in the beginning of the race and still come back and win. Then seemingly, out of nowhere, the flip is switched from “easy” to “insanely difficult” at this point the drivers all drive like pros, hardly making any mistakes, taking all of the short cuts, and many more things. If you wipe out early on in the race there is a very slim chance that you will be able to comeback and win the race. While this level of difficulty is not bad, per se, what is bad is that the game did not ramp players up to this. It was literally like a flip of a switch for the computer AI to become racing gods.

This game looks really good. The large city environment that you will be driving around in the entire game has a really nice look and feel to it. The best part about this is that you will see a nice variety of the levels depending on what part of town that you are actually in. One good thing about this game is the variety of the cars, and each of the cars has different modifications that can be done to them to make them further stand out. Each car also looks just like their real-life counterparts, which makes this even better. The different weather effects that this game has really makes the game feel more realistic, especially when you are racing in the rain.

For the past few games EA has had a great musical selection for the Need for Speed series and in this game the trend continues. The music consists of a mix between rock and rap music, which really fit the entire theme of this game. The sound effects are also really good in this game. The different engines have their own unique sound and this is exploited even further as you put on various new parts and modifications to make the engines sound even more different. To go along with that the other various sound effects such as tires squealing, car crashes, and other sound that you will normally hear in a game like this are done really well. The voice acting in this game is also really nicely done, especially the banter from the cops.

Need For Speed Most Wanted is rated Teen for Mild Violence. It will take up to 128KB on your memory card for game saves.

Gameplay: 8.5
Need for Speed Most Wanted is really fun to play. Driving the cars is really nice and each car feels different and conveys a different sense of speed. I really liked the level designs that are in this game as well as having to evade the cops while trying to win each race.

Graphics: 9.3
The graphics for Need for Speed Most wanted are really good. The lighting effects, level design, and car modeling are top notch.

Sound: 8.9
The sound for this game is really good. Everything from the various engine sounds, which change from various upgrades you make to the car and other sound effects in this game really sound lifelike. Another good point to this game is the music which complements the theme of this game.

Difficulty: Hard
This game starts off so easy it is ridiculous, then all of the sudden the game switches from easy to “throw controller out the window” hard. This could have been better if there was a gradual ramp up to the game getting harder but this was almost instantaneous.

Concept: 8.6
I really liked how the game reintroduced cops back in and how much they really affect the racing and how much fun it is to run away from them and still win the races.

Multiplayer: 7.5
What!? There is no online gameplay with this game? I mean racing online was one of the best things about the Underground series. Playing split screen with a friend is nice and fun and all, but online where you have the entire screen to yourself is where it is at. Sadly PlayStation 2 owners do not get to enjoy this.

Overall: 8.4
Need for Speed Most Wanted is a great racing game that you should want to purchase. The story mode has really nice hooks in it that will keep players wanting to keep playing until they know what happens in the end. Even though this game has a few shortcomings, if you love this series or racing games in general then you will want to have this gem in your collection.