Need for Speed: Most Wanted - Review
Added November 29th, 2005 by Colin
Introduction:
The Need for Speed franchise is one of the most popular around. Striking a balance somewhere between the action gameplay of Burnout and the more realistic racers such as Project Gotham, Need for Speed provides gamers with a good mix of arcade and simulation gameplay. Last generation, the Need for Speed franchise was primarily focused on the world of turners and underground street racing through Need for Speed Underground 1 and 2. Each game provided players with ample customizability options and enabled players to drive about an open world to get from race to race. It was a great concept, but for such a big world it felt empty. There wasn't much of any kind of traffic, and there were no cops, regardless of how many cars you crashed into. The game was fun, but there were some issues that needed ironing out.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted represents a change in direction for the venerable franchise. By combining the open world and customization of Most Wanted and the edge of your seat cop chases of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted attempts to bring the old and the new together in a wondrous orgy of pure racing joy. Does it succeed? Read on.
Gameplay:
Most Wanted's career mode is probably where you'll be spending most of your time, so let's begin there. Upon entering the career mode you are treated to a gorgeous in-game cinematic that sets the stage for the race you are about to embark on in the beautiful city of Rockport. Once the cinematic is finished, you set about racing against the local tough-guy racer in a pink slip race. In other words, the winner gets the other guy's car. The gameplay immediately differentiates itself from Project Gotham Racing 3 and all other racing games on the market. Cars all handle well and you won't have any trouble taking a corner at 180 mph. You also have nitro at your fingertips, just hit B and you will get a burst of speed. You can only use nitro for so long before you run out, wait a bit and it will regenerate. One of the more interesting gameplay mechanics is the speedbreaker ability. Hit X and you will go into slow motion. While in speedbreaker you will have easier control of your car, as the mass is increased to allow you to make it through turns and maneuver your car more effectively. It works great, and you'll find yourself using it for everything from weaving through traffic to sliding under a logging truck to lose somebody on your tail. It's a lot of fun, and the game is better for it.
The Need for Speed franchise is one of the most popular around. Striking a balance somewhere between the action gameplay of Burnout and the more realistic racers such as Project Gotham, Need for Speed provides gamers with a good mix of arcade and simulation gameplay. Last generation, the Need for Speed franchise was primarily focused on the world of turners and underground street racing through Need for Speed Underground 1 and 2. Each game provided players with ample customizability options and enabled players to drive about an open world to get from race to race. It was a great concept, but for such a big world it felt empty. There wasn't much of any kind of traffic, and there were no cops, regardless of how many cars you crashed into. The game was fun, but there were some issues that needed ironing out.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted represents a change in direction for the venerable franchise. By combining the open world and customization of Most Wanted and the edge of your seat cop chases of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted attempts to bring the old and the new together in a wondrous orgy of pure racing joy. Does it succeed? Read on.
Gameplay:
Most Wanted's career mode is probably where you'll be spending most of your time, so let's begin there. Upon entering the career mode you are treated to a gorgeous in-game cinematic that sets the stage for the race you are about to embark on in the beautiful city of Rockport. Once the cinematic is finished, you set about racing against the local tough-guy racer in a pink slip race. In other words, the winner gets the other guy's car. The gameplay immediately differentiates itself from Project Gotham Racing 3 and all other racing games on the market. Cars all handle well and you won't have any trouble taking a corner at 180 mph. You also have nitro at your fingertips, just hit B and you will get a burst of speed. You can only use nitro for so long before you run out, wait a bit and it will regenerate. One of the more interesting gameplay mechanics is the speedbreaker ability. Hit X and you will go into slow motion. While in speedbreaker you will have easier control of your car, as the mass is increased to allow you to make it through turns and maneuver your car more effectively. It works great, and you'll find yourself using it for everything from weaving through traffic to sliding under a logging truck to lose somebody on your tail. It's a lot of fun, and the game is better for it.
Anyways, back to the career mode. About midway through the race you experience a set of flashbacks that form a retrospective of the last couple of weeks, from your arrival in the city of Rockport to your first couple of races. The races are all playable, and it helps fill in the background of the game. Once the retrospective finishes, you are back to the race, where a series of events leads to you losing everything you have. The person you were racing won the race by sabotaging your ride, and to get it back you're going to have to climb the blacklist to challenge him again. The blacklist is a list of the top fifteen racers in the city. In order to reach the top, you'll have to beat each one sequentially. Each blacklist driver has a set of requirements you must meet before racing them. First, you must win a few races. Their race types range from the usual lap racing found in every racing game ever to lap elimination (after each lap the person in fourth place is eliminated to sprint, where you must get from point A to point B before the other guys). Most Wanted also features Tollbooth Sprint, where you race through a set of checkpoints. You only have so much time to get to the next checkpoint, and each time you reach a checkpoint you gain some extra time.
It all seems quite straight forward, if it weren't for one addition. Namely, cops. Yes, the most requested feature from the Underground series has been put into Most Wanted, and implemented beautifully if I do say so myself. As you race about there are cops patrolling the various streets of the city. If you are nearing one, your radar detector will start pulsing. If you slow down, nothing will happen. But, if you don't slow down and keep barreling ahead, the cop will begin pursuit.
While in pursuit you gain bounty points. Your bounty points rise with every pursuit action you complete, from ramming a police car (ramming an officer), to driving off road, to hitting random vehicles in traffic. As you continue to elude the cops, they will eventually call for backup. When they call for backup a new wave of caps will emerge from the wood work, and you will also have to elude them. To end a chase you must escape your pursuers and get of their line of sight. There are a couple ways of doing this. The most effective and destructive of which are the pursuit breaker spots scattered about the game world. These pursuit breakers range from donut shops you can break the supports to, causing the roof to collapse on anyone behind you, to gas stations, where you can run over the pumps causing an impressively destructive explosion. There is a good chance these actions will take out any cops following close behind, but if they don't they usually will stop to help out those in the affected area.
Aside from the races, the other requirement for challenging a blacklist racer is completing a set of bounty challenges. These range from eluding the police for a certain amount of time to committing so many infractions (hit and run, assaulting a police officer, etc). As you play the game, your heat level will increase. Each individual car you own has a heat level. By giving them a new paint job, you will reduce the heat level. As your heat level increases, so will the difficulty of the cops called in to deal with you. When you begin the game the cops will be regular run of the mill cop cars. When your heat level goes up, there will be undercover cops. Soon, there will be tuner cops with high-powered racing cars. Then comes the helicopters, which will track your progress and keep you in their line of sight. To lose helicopters you'll usually have to do a 180 in a tunnel or else you won't be able to escape from the waves of backup vehicles. The cop AI is very, very well done. They will try to box you in and will generally just be too damn smart for your own good. Oftentimes you won't even realize they are boxing you in until it is too late. The cops never feel unfair, they just encourage you to play better and up your skill. The police chases often go on for quite some time, with dozens of cop cars and helicopters chasing you through the streets of downtown Rockport to the highways of the city, weaving in and out of traffic and crashing through public property in the process. Believe me, you'll have one hell of a time with the chases, they're just a blast to play.
After losing your vehicle you begin with a very basic car, such as a Lexus or a Chevy. It's a far cry from the high-end BMW you were racing just moments ago, and it lacks nitro. But hey, it's a start. From then on out you must complete challenges and races, build your rep, climb the blacklist, and acquire cash to upgrade your vehicle and purchase new cars. There are a great many ways to customize your vehicle, from body kits to performance increases that make your car run faster or better (such as adding nitro or upgrading the engine), to applying vinyls and customizing the paint job. You can also customize the spoilers, rims, and most anything else you can think of. One thing that is different here is that instead of customizing specific body parts, like in the Underground series, here you just install the aforementioned body kit. Each body kit alters the look of the car, and is professionally designed as to make your car look the best. There are about five or so kits for each car. However, with all of these possible upgrades, only a few are available in each category when you begin the game. To unlock more, beat blacklist drivers. It's all well implemented, and significantly increases the replay value because of the amount of options you have at your fingertips.
So you've got your blacklist, you've got your races, you've got your cop chases, you've got your shops for buying parts. But what ties it all together? A gloriously detailed open game world. When you get out into the meat of the career mode for the first time, after losing your car, you start in the safe house. The safe house is Grand Central Station for all your street racing needs. Here you can save, view your vehicles, check your rap sheet of infractions you have in the police database, and see the Blacklist 15. From the Blacklist 15 selection you can see the list of Blacklist drivers and see what you need to accomplish prior to competing against the next driver on your list. Here you will see the amount of races you are required to finish and exactly which things you need to do in the cop chases. From here, you can teleport directly into races, forgoing the open world, or just find out where exactly the race is. You can also see areas that there will be cops hanging about to begin a pursuit, such as the local donut shop, the police station itself, and the local country club. There's nothing like leading a high speed chase through a golf course to wake you up in the morning.
The other option from the Safehouse is to go back into Free Roam mode. While in free roam you can cruise about the city, driving to races and shops, or starting pursuit chases with impetus. While in free roam mode you have a GPS you can easily access from the d-pad. Using the GPS you can locate nearby races, look for escape routes to get away from cops, set a destination. When you set a destination a helpful arrow will appear at the top of your screen to guide you to the selected spot. At the beginning of the game only the suburb of Rosewood is available to you to drive through; however, as you progress through the game more and more areas of the game world will be available to you. The world of Rockport is utterly huge, ranging from the bustling downtown area to the docks to everything in-between.
Single player in Most Wanted isn't just career mode either. There's also challenge mode and Quick Play. In challenge mode you get to complete a set of challenges, all of which are great fun. These range from staying away from the cops for a certain amount of time to eluding a huge pursuit with a variety of cop types and helicopters. The challenge modes all allow you to hop right into fun scenarios, and are perfect if you have a few minutes to spare but want to play some Most Wanted. Most Wanted also includes a Quick Play where you can jump right into a race. There is a whole lotta game here, and you won't be disappointed if you are looking for a great single player experience. I'd go so far as to say that the single player in Most Wanted is better, by leaps and bounds, than the much lauded Project Gotham Racing 3.
However, multiplayer doesn't fare quite so well. It's interesting enough that it'll keep your attention for a bit, but it just doesn't have anything that sets it apart. It has the usual game modes such as Circuit, Sprint, and Drag Race, but just doesn't do anything special. I'd love to see a group free roam mode or the ability to play through pursuits in co-op. Maybe even a VIP mode where one player drives a weak limo being chased by cops and the other players have to keep the cops at bay by crashing into their sides and ramming them into the railings. Most Wanted has a great core gameplay, but it just isn't well implemented in the multiplayer. Hopefully in Most Wanted 2 there will be some more creativity put into the game modes, as there are a ton of things they could do with the Live play.
Graphics:
Port though it may be, Most Wanted looks fantastic. It has a very specific look to it, which is accomplished through the use of a complicated set of filters that give the game a unique dirty, grungy look. The fictitious city of Rockport represents a Rust Belt city on the east coast of the United States, and it certainly looks the part. Cars are all unbelievably well detailed, as are the environments. When you stop suddenly in the road, leaves fly up. When it rains, the entire road becomes reflective and drops of water seem to drip down your screen. The art direction here is simply brilliant, and if you are looking for some great graphics to show off your 360, you could certainly do worse than Most Wanted.
It all seems quite straight forward, if it weren't for one addition. Namely, cops. Yes, the most requested feature from the Underground series has been put into Most Wanted, and implemented beautifully if I do say so myself. As you race about there are cops patrolling the various streets of the city. If you are nearing one, your radar detector will start pulsing. If you slow down, nothing will happen. But, if you don't slow down and keep barreling ahead, the cop will begin pursuit.
While in pursuit you gain bounty points. Your bounty points rise with every pursuit action you complete, from ramming a police car (ramming an officer), to driving off road, to hitting random vehicles in traffic. As you continue to elude the cops, they will eventually call for backup. When they call for backup a new wave of caps will emerge from the wood work, and you will also have to elude them. To end a chase you must escape your pursuers and get of their line of sight. There are a couple ways of doing this. The most effective and destructive of which are the pursuit breaker spots scattered about the game world. These pursuit breakers range from donut shops you can break the supports to, causing the roof to collapse on anyone behind you, to gas stations, where you can run over the pumps causing an impressively destructive explosion. There is a good chance these actions will take out any cops following close behind, but if they don't they usually will stop to help out those in the affected area.
Aside from the races, the other requirement for challenging a blacklist racer is completing a set of bounty challenges. These range from eluding the police for a certain amount of time to committing so many infractions (hit and run, assaulting a police officer, etc). As you play the game, your heat level will increase. Each individual car you own has a heat level. By giving them a new paint job, you will reduce the heat level. As your heat level increases, so will the difficulty of the cops called in to deal with you. When you begin the game the cops will be regular run of the mill cop cars. When your heat level goes up, there will be undercover cops. Soon, there will be tuner cops with high-powered racing cars. Then comes the helicopters, which will track your progress and keep you in their line of sight. To lose helicopters you'll usually have to do a 180 in a tunnel or else you won't be able to escape from the waves of backup vehicles. The cop AI is very, very well done. They will try to box you in and will generally just be too damn smart for your own good. Oftentimes you won't even realize they are boxing you in until it is too late. The cops never feel unfair, they just encourage you to play better and up your skill. The police chases often go on for quite some time, with dozens of cop cars and helicopters chasing you through the streets of downtown Rockport to the highways of the city, weaving in and out of traffic and crashing through public property in the process. Believe me, you'll have one hell of a time with the chases, they're just a blast to play.
After losing your vehicle you begin with a very basic car, such as a Lexus or a Chevy. It's a far cry from the high-end BMW you were racing just moments ago, and it lacks nitro. But hey, it's a start. From then on out you must complete challenges and races, build your rep, climb the blacklist, and acquire cash to upgrade your vehicle and purchase new cars. There are a great many ways to customize your vehicle, from body kits to performance increases that make your car run faster or better (such as adding nitro or upgrading the engine), to applying vinyls and customizing the paint job. You can also customize the spoilers, rims, and most anything else you can think of. One thing that is different here is that instead of customizing specific body parts, like in the Underground series, here you just install the aforementioned body kit. Each body kit alters the look of the car, and is professionally designed as to make your car look the best. There are about five or so kits for each car. However, with all of these possible upgrades, only a few are available in each category when you begin the game. To unlock more, beat blacklist drivers. It's all well implemented, and significantly increases the replay value because of the amount of options you have at your fingertips.
So you've got your blacklist, you've got your races, you've got your cop chases, you've got your shops for buying parts. But what ties it all together? A gloriously detailed open game world. When you get out into the meat of the career mode for the first time, after losing your car, you start in the safe house. The safe house is Grand Central Station for all your street racing needs. Here you can save, view your vehicles, check your rap sheet of infractions you have in the police database, and see the Blacklist 15. From the Blacklist 15 selection you can see the list of Blacklist drivers and see what you need to accomplish prior to competing against the next driver on your list. Here you will see the amount of races you are required to finish and exactly which things you need to do in the cop chases. From here, you can teleport directly into races, forgoing the open world, or just find out where exactly the race is. You can also see areas that there will be cops hanging about to begin a pursuit, such as the local donut shop, the police station itself, and the local country club. There's nothing like leading a high speed chase through a golf course to wake you up in the morning.
The other option from the Safehouse is to go back into Free Roam mode. While in free roam you can cruise about the city, driving to races and shops, or starting pursuit chases with impetus. While in free roam mode you have a GPS you can easily access from the d-pad. Using the GPS you can locate nearby races, look for escape routes to get away from cops, set a destination. When you set a destination a helpful arrow will appear at the top of your screen to guide you to the selected spot. At the beginning of the game only the suburb of Rosewood is available to you to drive through; however, as you progress through the game more and more areas of the game world will be available to you. The world of Rockport is utterly huge, ranging from the bustling downtown area to the docks to everything in-between.
Single player in Most Wanted isn't just career mode either. There's also challenge mode and Quick Play. In challenge mode you get to complete a set of challenges, all of which are great fun. These range from staying away from the cops for a certain amount of time to eluding a huge pursuit with a variety of cop types and helicopters. The challenge modes all allow you to hop right into fun scenarios, and are perfect if you have a few minutes to spare but want to play some Most Wanted. Most Wanted also includes a Quick Play where you can jump right into a race. There is a whole lotta game here, and you won't be disappointed if you are looking for a great single player experience. I'd go so far as to say that the single player in Most Wanted is better, by leaps and bounds, than the much lauded Project Gotham Racing 3.
However, multiplayer doesn't fare quite so well. It's interesting enough that it'll keep your attention for a bit, but it just doesn't have anything that sets it apart. It has the usual game modes such as Circuit, Sprint, and Drag Race, but just doesn't do anything special. I'd love to see a group free roam mode or the ability to play through pursuits in co-op. Maybe even a VIP mode where one player drives a weak limo being chased by cops and the other players have to keep the cops at bay by crashing into their sides and ramming them into the railings. Most Wanted has a great core gameplay, but it just isn't well implemented in the multiplayer. Hopefully in Most Wanted 2 there will be some more creativity put into the game modes, as there are a ton of things they could do with the Live play.
Graphics:
Port though it may be, Most Wanted looks fantastic. It has a very specific look to it, which is accomplished through the use of a complicated set of filters that give the game a unique dirty, grungy look. The fictitious city of Rockport represents a Rust Belt city on the east coast of the United States, and it certainly looks the part. Cars are all unbelievably well detailed, as are the environments. When you stop suddenly in the road, leaves fly up. When it rains, the entire road becomes reflective and drops of water seem to drip down your screen. The art direction here is simply brilliant, and if you are looking for some great graphics to show off your 360, you could certainly do worse than Most Wanted.
One thing that deserves particular attention here are the live action cut-scenes. While the story is a bit hokey, the cut-scenes look brilliant. Live action videos in video games have historically been cheesy as hell because of the difference in graphical quality from the cut scenes and the gameplay. It's jarring to say the least. Well, not so in Most Wanted. All of actors were filmed against a green screen, and then put into the game world. Again, in most games this would awfully jarring. Thankfully, the developers up at EA Black Box in Vancouver apply a filter to the actors that makes them look like they are in-game. It smoothes out their skin, blends the colors, and generally just makes them fit in with the game's background perfectly. Plus, they have Josie Maran playing one of the main characters, Mia. You simply can't go wrong with a girl that hot having this much screen time. Overall, the graphics of Most Wanted simply astound.
Audio:
All the sound effects in Need for Speed: Most Wanted sound dead-on. The developers actually recorded the real engine noises, so the sound effects will bring you as close to driving a high-end BMW as you are going to get without plopping down a couple hundred thousand bucks. The soundtrack doesn't fare quite as well, as the game uses the much-maligned EA Trax system for its music. The game uses a mix of rap and hard rock from the Trax library, which, while fitting to the mood of the game, doesn't leave much for those of us who aren't big fans of rap or the EA Trax type of hard rock. A selection at the beginning of the game for your musical preference, Rap, Hard Rock, or alternative rock would do wonders for appealing to a larger audience. As is, the soundtrack is appropriate, but has too narrow of an appeal. Luckily, the EA Trax soundtrack is only part of the music. While cruising about Rockpart and fiddling with the menus, the EA Trax songs play. However, when a cop chase begins, the dynamic soundtrack begins.
The dynamic soundtrack is remniscent of something out of The Rock or The Bourne Identity. As the cops near, the tempo of the music speeds up. As you get closer to evading them, the tempo slows down. It’s always in the background, you don’t usually even notice, but it subtly draws you into the game. It’s one of those little touches that improves the game immensely, yet most people never even notice. Despite the suitable, yet less than awe inspiring, EA Trax soundtrack, the dynamic soundtrack really makes for an incredible audio experience. Couple that with some great engine sounds and you have yourself a winner.
Controls:
Most Wanted controls exceptionally well, as the creative license the developers have taken with physics have allowed them to create a physics model that is purely based around having a good time. Different cars control differently, but you always feel like you have control of the car, which is a good thing when you're attempting to outrun twelve cops and three helicopters. The addition of speedbreaker works flawlessly, and boost is always useful for those times where you need some speed, and fast. There really just aren't any issues here, everything controls great.
Replay:
The single player has quite a bit of replay value, thanks to the amount of customization in cars and the sheer amount of fun you'll have with the pursuits. The career is definitely worth going through twice. It's the kind of game you can see yourself putting back in the console a couple years down the road because it's just that much fun. Challenge mode is good for some quick play, and most all of the scenarios are worth a second play through. Multiplayer is fun, but just doesn't stack up to some of the other Live games on the market, specifically Project Gotham Racing 3. If you're in the market for a great multiplayer game, keep on walking. If you’re wanting a great single player game, you'll find it here.
Audio:
All the sound effects in Need for Speed: Most Wanted sound dead-on. The developers actually recorded the real engine noises, so the sound effects will bring you as close to driving a high-end BMW as you are going to get without plopping down a couple hundred thousand bucks. The soundtrack doesn't fare quite as well, as the game uses the much-maligned EA Trax system for its music. The game uses a mix of rap and hard rock from the Trax library, which, while fitting to the mood of the game, doesn't leave much for those of us who aren't big fans of rap or the EA Trax type of hard rock. A selection at the beginning of the game for your musical preference, Rap, Hard Rock, or alternative rock would do wonders for appealing to a larger audience. As is, the soundtrack is appropriate, but has too narrow of an appeal. Luckily, the EA Trax soundtrack is only part of the music. While cruising about Rockpart and fiddling with the menus, the EA Trax songs play. However, when a cop chase begins, the dynamic soundtrack begins.
The dynamic soundtrack is remniscent of something out of The Rock or The Bourne Identity. As the cops near, the tempo of the music speeds up. As you get closer to evading them, the tempo slows down. It’s always in the background, you don’t usually even notice, but it subtly draws you into the game. It’s one of those little touches that improves the game immensely, yet most people never even notice. Despite the suitable, yet less than awe inspiring, EA Trax soundtrack, the dynamic soundtrack really makes for an incredible audio experience. Couple that with some great engine sounds and you have yourself a winner.
Controls:
Most Wanted controls exceptionally well, as the creative license the developers have taken with physics have allowed them to create a physics model that is purely based around having a good time. Different cars control differently, but you always feel like you have control of the car, which is a good thing when you're attempting to outrun twelve cops and three helicopters. The addition of speedbreaker works flawlessly, and boost is always useful for those times where you need some speed, and fast. There really just aren't any issues here, everything controls great.
Replay:
The single player has quite a bit of replay value, thanks to the amount of customization in cars and the sheer amount of fun you'll have with the pursuits. The career is definitely worth going through twice. It's the kind of game you can see yourself putting back in the console a couple years down the road because it's just that much fun. Challenge mode is good for some quick play, and most all of the scenarios are worth a second play through. Multiplayer is fun, but just doesn't stack up to some of the other Live games on the market, specifically Project Gotham Racing 3. If you're in the market for a great multiplayer game, keep on walking. If you’re wanting a great single player game, you'll find it here.
Summary:
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a great game. The single player provides an incredibly well-detailed open world environment to race in, and there are a variety of different race types. Cop pursuits help set this title apart, and they just never get old. The cop AI is ingenious and will regularly outwit you without making you feel as if they are unfair. The graphics and overall art direction of this title are gorgeous, and the filters applied in-game and in the cut-scenes all give the game a unique flair, and help prevent the cut-scenes from looking too disparate from the in-game graphics. Multiplayer is really the only problem here, as it just doesn't do anything interesting that would set it apart from Project Gotham Racing 3. There are a great many things they could have done to utilize the cop pursuit gameplay in multiplayer, but they just didn’t. Well, I suppose that at least leaves room for a sequel. However, the fact remains that the single player of this title is utterly brilliant: if you want the best single player racing game in recent memory, get this game.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a great game. The single player provides an incredibly well-detailed open world environment to race in, and there are a variety of different race types. Cop pursuits help set this title apart, and they just never get old. The cop AI is ingenious and will regularly outwit you without making you feel as if they are unfair. The graphics and overall art direction of this title are gorgeous, and the filters applied in-game and in the cut-scenes all give the game a unique flair, and help prevent the cut-scenes from looking too disparate from the in-game graphics. Multiplayer is really the only problem here, as it just doesn't do anything interesting that would set it apart from Project Gotham Racing 3. There are a great many things they could have done to utilize the cop pursuit gameplay in multiplayer, but they just didn’t. Well, I suppose that at least leaves room for a sequel. However, the fact remains that the single player of this title is utterly brilliant: if you want the best single player racing game in recent memory, get this game.
