Need for Speed: Most Wanted is the first game in the series to feature an open world environment. You’ll find yourself racing and chasing a whole host of challenges throughout the city of Fairhaven.
It also features cop chases that are as entertaining as they are frustrating. This might be a turn off for some players who are looking for a more traditional Need for Speed experience.
It’s a good game
Need for Speed Most Wanted is the second title by developer Criterion, the former creators of the popular Burnout series. It combines illicit street racing and tuner customization with the intensity of strategic cop pursuits in an open-world environment.
Most Wanted takes place in Fairhaven, a city of diverse districts ranging from grimy industrial complexes to mountainous and wooded surroundings. It features a mix of road networks from coastal roads to highways and even tunnels.
The game is quite good and provides a number of interesting race types as well as an open world with multiple locations to visit. It has plenty of vehicles to choose from and the vehicle customization system is a great addition.
What really sells Most Wanted is its police pursuits which are a blast to watch and get into. However, they are also frustratingly difficult to break away from and once you have been busted a few times it can get pretty wearisome.
It’s a great game
Need for Speed Most Wanted delivers the best arcade-style racing in years, and Criterion have set an unrivalled standard that’ll likely not be surpassed until the next generation of consoles is released.
Most Wanted sets out to be a racer that’s as much about exploring the city of Fairhaven as it is racing cars. It has an addictive sense of speed that can keep you glued to the screen for hours, and there’s a level of fun in the game that simply cannot be matched.
There are plenty of races to play in Most Wanted, and they all look great. There’s a level of realism in the way the cars react to the roads, and the crashes are spectacularly crash-y.
Most Wanted also has a really novel mechanic for acquiring new vehicles, in that you can find certain parked cars in Jack Spots around town, and add them to your EasyDrive menu. This means that you can quickly access them from your car and drive them whenever you feel like it.
It’s a bad game
Criterion’s second entry in the Need for Speed series reintroduces police pursuits, while retaining the open world and vehicle customisation gameplay of its predecessors. It was released for PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and mobile phones.
Most Wanted takes place in the fictional city of Rockport, a metropolis with a built-up industrial core and stretches of muddy rural roads dotted throughout. It consists of three major districts: Rosewood, Camden Beach and Downtown Rockport, each with its own mix of road networks.
Need for Speed Most Wanted’s open world is more diverse than Burnout Paradise, with a range of different urban settings. From affluent suburban areas to grimy industrial complexes, the city is full of places for players to tame their vehicles and hone their skills.
However, police pursuits are the main draw in Need for Speed Most Wanted, with their sheer variety and intensity making them one of the most memorable elements of the game. They’re also the most rewarding, and there’s a lot to keep your face glued to the screen.
It’s a mixed bag
Need for Speed Most Wanted is a big, crazy crash-y open world racing game from Criterion. It has a number of cool and nifty things going for it, not the least of which is the game’s dazzlingly designed and realised city-state of Fairhaven, a complex construction of weaves and webs.
Need for Speed Most Wanted also has a plethora of high-end cars vying for your attention, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Its biggest draw is the ability to upgrade your car with a nifty performance parts system that’s more than just an upgrade kit. It also has an impressively designed and implemented online multiplayer mode that’s well worth the price of admission in its own right, if not for the game itself.
It’s a very good video game, but it isn’t the greatest video game ever made. Its most glaring weakness is its shaky handling of a large scale multiplayer game, but that will be the topic of another review in a few days time.