Need For Speed Most Wanted Preview

I have been a regular follower of the Need For Speed series. Each series came out with something new, either stunningly new graphics or new cars or new game modes. Of late the Need For Speed series have all been about customizing the cars and racing them in different types of races like drag and drift races other than the circuit races which was the standard type, and sprint races which was made popular by NFS: Porsche.

Another thing that has been the selling point of the new games are freestyle driving across the city and picking up races in any order you may like and also racing with other competitors any time you like. But in all this racing there was an important element that was missing. This was what differentiated NFS: Hot Pursuit and NFS: High Stakes. Though NFS: High Stakes was more advanced in terms of graphics, it did not bring the excitement of breaking rules and being chased by cops. Although it did have the pursuit option in-game it was just another game mode and I was one among those who didn’t fancy High Stakes as much as Hot Pursuit.

Start your Engines:

EA now gives you Need For Speed: Most Wanted. This edition of NFS combines the pulse pounding action of cops on your tails as well as the option of customizing your cars and jazzing them up with new paint jobs which continues from the highly popular Underground series. So naturally when the demo was released the first thing that I did was to pause all other activities and play the latest version of this great game. Has EA pulled yet another rabbit out of its hat?

Game Modes:

Need For Speed Most Wanted has 3 modes of play: the career mode, the challenge mode and the quick race mode.

The career mode is again story based. Here the story is that as usual you are on a mission challenging other racers and trying to get brownie points when you are tricked during a race the opponent gets away with your spruced-up car. You are now left with a worn-out car that may collapse anytime. This makes you really mad and you are all set to get revenge. You work your way through races and finally are ready to challenge the guy who tricked you who is now reigning at the top spot. You work your way as usual through the city of Rocksport with all its hidden nooks and crannies.

The challenge mode is where you have 68 challenges with assortments of races and events and you have to clear each one of them. As you go higher up the ladder then races become more and more tough and you have to build up your skill set and confidence to take them.

In the quick race mode, you can choose a single race or a randomly selected race. This helps you get used to the tracks and later use them in the career mode or the challenge mode.

Polizi:

The cop chases are not just about a mad get away from police chasing you. There are ways in which this affects you. You have a rep level and a heat rating. The higher your heat rating, the tougher it gets to complete levels and play races since there are always cops on your tail and their come out with heavy artillery when it gets really hot. On the other hand you can gain rep points when you get away from the police scot-free. You need to gain rep points if you want to grow in the underground and gain respect. To bring down your heat level you can have a collection of cars in your garage and use a different car that the police have not yet tagged. If you don’t have any cars that are not hot then you can wait a while to let things cool off.

The game also adds a new feature which is similar to bullet-time pioneered by other games and is called Speed-breaker. This slows down the pace of the race for a few moments and enables you to take quick and sharp turns to get away from the police or to grab on to shortcuts and deceive your opponents.

Graphics and Music:

The graphics are spectacular. Though there was no need of too much improvement over the previous edition, more special effects have been added and even the texture has been improved.

Music scores have been provided by Jamiroquai, Paul Linford, Chris Vrenna, The Roots, and BT

Need For Speed Most Wanted is a must play for all driving sim lovers and the speedbreaker is a first in driving sims and is worth checking out!

Prashanth ‘Hercules’ KS