There have been a lot of changes to Most Wanted from the last time we saw a Need for Speed title. The Xbox 360 version doesn't feature many upgrades in comparison to the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions, and is basically a port. EA have put a larger emphasis on the storyline in Most Wanted. In the main mode of the game, the career mode, the player assumes the role of a guy out for revenge against the top ranked racer in the world of illegal street racing. The top ranked racer is Razor, who sabotaged your ride during a race and then used it to get to the top of the blacklist - a list of the fifteen top racers. To challenge him you need to work your way to the top of the blacklist. The career mode has brilliant presentation and the story is relatively compelling. The story line starts basic but actually becomes quite interesting as you progress, with even a few plot twists to uncover.
Maybe you will own the car?
Before you can challenge the blacklist rivals you need to fulfil certain challenges, including gaining a certain level of notierity, winning races and engaging in police pursuits. The challenges are varied but they do become repetitive once you get your way up the top of the blacklist because you've had to race so many times. When you defeat a blacklist racer your move your way up the list and it's possible to then choose from two rewards which include performance upgrades, visual upgrades and other bonuses. The best bonus by far is the pink slip to your opponent's car, but you won't always get the car. Players also recieve money for defeating the blacklist racers which can then be used to purchase extra vehicles. Initially it may seem like the career mode is different to anything we saw in Underground, but it's quite similar.
There are other thirty licensed vehicles in the game. The highlights include the Supra and the Corvette, but there are some useless vehicles that you won't spend much time with, such as the VW Golf. Whilst thirty vehicles is sufficient, it would have been good if there were a little more because there isn't a lot of variety in the vehicles.
Aside from the career mode, there is also a challenge mode which assigns you a vehicle and a goal. The goals are basic and include race goals or pursuit goals such as outrunning the police. As well as this there is also a quick race option as well as full Xbox Live support. Surprisingly the online mode doesn't put as much of an emphasis on pursuit which may disappoint a few people but there are still plenty of racing options. The online options include spring, circuit and drag races so there is enough to keep you entertained. An online version of the blacklist is also available so you can prove your notieirity online.
Or this one...
Gameplay wise the game plays very similarly to Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. EA have added speedbreakers to the equation, which are activated by pressing a button. It will slow time down during the middle of the race which allows you to navigate around corners will a little more precision. The speedbreakers are handy but they aren't utilised that much, and by the time you remember the option is there it's likely you've already crashed into a wall.
Bringing the police back to the Need for Speed series was a good move. The game feels a lot more exciting with the police and even if you're thirty seconds ahead the game can still be interesting with the police chasing after you. Pursuit breakers are located through the game as well. If you smash into a pursuit breaker then this will trigger an action (such as dropping a wood roof on a police car) so you can try to out run the police.
The game also includes car damage but it isn't very detailed, being very similar to the damage found in Project Gotham Racing 3. Windscreens will crack but that is about it. We would love for the series to put a little more emphasis on damage, even if it just remains visual. The real disappointment of the game comes with the AI, which still isn't that smart. The game features rubberband AI and the police often don't make realistic decisions. In the heat of the pursuit you're unlikely to realise these issues, but in the race modes (which aren't as enthralling) you will curse the screen when you're on your third perfect lap and you clip something near the end of the race and end up coming last. We also encountered a minor bug that we didn't have when we played through the Xbox version - half of the cut-scene cut off during one of the FMV's, but this only happened once.
Maybe you will own the car?
Graphically the game isn't a big upgrade from it's Xbox counterpart. The best upgrade comes in the lighting which looks remarkably realistic now. However, the Xbox version looked incredible and the large city environment and highly detailed FMV is very impressive. The large city streams off the disk so there is barely any loading either, which is a great technical achievement. The frame-rate runs at 30 fames per-second which is okay, but it would have been better if it was 60FPS and given the extra power of the X360, we're not sure why this wasn't possible.
The sound in the game is actually surprisingly realistic. The voice actors appear to actually be interested in the game which definitely helps. All of the engine noises are different and rather realistic. The sountrack takes a bit of a backseat though and mainly consists of rock. The most impressive part of the sound is that during the game the police will use radio codes to communicate with each other - if you play long enough you will actually become scarily able to identify what each radio code means, which is a good warning for what is about to come.
The career mode is incredibly lengthy and will last about fifteen hours, although there is no real reason to return to it after this. The multiplayer can become incredibly addictive and there were still a lot of people online trying to improve their blacklist rank. EA seem to have really taken the quick route out with the achievements. Every time you defeat a blacklist rival you unlock an achievement - it would have been good if it wasn't so easy to unlock all of the achievements.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is an incredibly addictive game and a step in the right direction for the franchise. However, since the game first appeared on the original Xbox and PlayStation 2 six months ago there have been a lot of new racers released. If you enjoyed Need for Speed: Most Wanted on the original Xbox then you will enjoy it again, it just hasn't changed that much since six months ago.
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