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EA Canada takes the franchise out of the underground. Though the last two games in the Need for Speed series were wildly commercially successful, they disappointed some fans of the earlier Need for Speed games. They wondered why it was always dark and the tuning scene was so forced onto the game. Fans of the older games and the Underground games will rejoice with Most Wanted since it combines both formulas quite successfully.
Need for Speed Most Wanted features a rather fleshed out story mode. You play as a new racer attempting to make a name for himself in the racing scene. You’re doing alright until someone named Razor interrupts, causing you to lose your car to him. You’re then thrown in jail where you’ll meet Mia, who tasks you with getting back into the racing scene and overcoming Razor. He now leads the Blacklist, the ranking of all of the racers. The story makes sense and progresses in a logical fashion.
The main mode in Most Wanted is the career mode. You’ll want to move up the Blacklist. Before you can challenge a ranked racer, though, you’ll have to complete some races to get his attention. You’ll encounter a number of different race types including drag racing, circuit races, sprint races, checkpoint races, and speed trap, where you’ll have to accumulate the most speed by passing through radar cameras sprinkled throughout the track. In addition to the career mode, the game has pursuit challenges that have specific tasks like accumulating a certain amount of property damage or getting through x number of roadblocks. You’ll also find quick races and the pursuit mode, where you can easily enter a pursuit.
Most Wanted includes over 30 licensed cars. You’ll start with a lame Chevy Cobalt before moving on to cars from BMW, Corvette, Lamborghini, Lotus, Mitsubishi, Porsche, and Ford (including fan favorites Ford GT and Ford Mustang GT). You can buy these cars or get them by winning them from other racers. Additionally, you can upgrade cars to make them quicker, handle better, etc. There are also visuals upgrades like spoilers, body kits, vinyls and such.
The gameplay in the game is solid. The actual racing in the game is solid and basically unaltered from the Underground games. The new thing in Most Wanted is the inclusion of cops. Outrunning the cops is crazy fun, probably the most fun you’ll have with the game. As you go through the tracks speeding and crashing into people, you’ll gain the attention of cops causing your heat level to increase. At first, you’ll only attract regular cops but you’ll eventually earn the attention of the feds who will do anything to stop you. You can outrun the cops, a process made easier by the inclusion of a meter on the screen letting you know how far you are from them. The AI could be a bit more believable since it moves from being brain-dead to being super geniuses who seldom make mistakes and know every shortcut.
The Xbox version of Need for Speed Most Wanted also includes an online mode. You’ll find circuit, sprint (point a-to-point b) races, and drag races for up to four players. The game simulates the Blacklist system with a clever ranking tool. We experienced pretty smooth gameplay when playing online, though it is disappointing that the police-oriented modes found offline are ignored online. The game also supports offline multiplayer.
The game’s visuals are impressive. The game pushes the large city out very well with varied locales to race in. There are a number of visual effects in the game that look great like the rain effect and the motion blur, which really provides a grand sense of speed. The car models are superb even when you deck them out with crazy “visual upgrades.” Unfortunately, the cars don’t take real damage. The Xbox manages to keep up with the action although the framerate does drop here and there.
The background music is once again provided by EA Trax including a good mix of rock and hip-hop with names like The Roots, Juvenile, Hush and Disturbed. The sound effects are top-notch, particularly the dynamic engine noises that change for each car and further change depending on the upgrades you have installed. The voice acting in the game is solid, though the police steal the show with their constant communication and police codes that foreshadow roadblocks, spike strips, and so forth if you listen carefully.
Need for Speed Most Wanted successfully brings the Need for Speed series back to daylight. The addition of the cops returns the series to its roots, while keeping the gameplay mechanics and large city of the Underground games will make it accessible to fans of those games. Unless you’re awaiting an Xbox 360, this version is definitely recommended. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Nov 27, 2005
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