came out at a time when simulation racers were unheard of. Developers put
their stock in high-speed action, resulting in an exciting and often
unrealistic driving experience. Just look at the racing games that launched
with the PSone: Wipeout and Ridge Racer. Both were wonderful, memorable games.
But there wasn’t anything realistic about either of them.
Over the past couple of
years the Need For Speed series has had to decide whether or not it wanted to
be a simulator or an arcade game. There were a few ups and downs between the
first Underground and the series’ evolution into Most Wanted. Need For Speed
Carbon, an offshoot of those titles, takes the series in yet another
direction. Like the others, Carbon is not free of mistakes. But its simple,
high-octane thrills ensure the game will be spinning in Xbox 360s well past
Christmas.
Command and Conquer
By now you’ve probably
heard the concept a million times: enter competitions, win first place, and
take control of the city. That’s the gist of Carbon.
A more detailed
examination reveals exactly what that entails. The game follows the current
trend of implementing one enormous and continuous world over several smaller
locations. You can drive anywhere you want at any time. (There is a
restriction on car dealers, but I’ve yet to figure out why.) Since the world
is very large and could take several minutes to fully explore, the game has a
simple 2D map that lets you jump to hotspots with the press of a button. You
can go from one competition to the next without having to actually do any
normal driving. Unless…
Donut Chasers
…The cops become aware
of your actions. A police officer could appear at any time. When there is one,
there will soon be many. You’ll know you’re when you’re going to be chased –
the game performs a cinematic zoom whenever a cop enters the fray. Play is
stopped temporarily, and a red overlay is applied to the screen to build
suspense.
Cops will harass all
speeders, possibly causing you to lose. That didn’t happen during my career,
but it is possible. During one chase I got in a serious pile-up shortly before
the finish line. I managed to break away and regain the top spot, but that was
just my skills – or plain luck – at work.
Win or lose, the cops
shift into gear as soon as the race is completed. All races end with you
cruising the streets of that location. It’s a near-seamless transition that
keeps the world and your competitions connected at all times.
The chase begins with
three or four cops. Giving in would be stupid, but if you fight and win, more
could take their place. Beating a cop car – that is, ramming into one until
it’s totaled – is not the way to win this war. You’ll rack up points for doing
so, but also increase the amount of cash you owe to the city. Two or three
cops will take the place of every police unit you’ve destroyed.
After a minute or two of
dodging the bullet, the more cops clock will start counting down. If
you escape now, you’re home free. But if you are unable to do so by the time
the clock runs out, many more police will be on your tail. They’re easy to
dodge in small numbers. Their barricades aren’t very impressive either, until
they start using spikes. Hit a spike and it’s over — your car will be too
slow to get away.
In large numbers, it
doesn’t matter what kind of a barricade they’re using — they will catch you.
Escaping six cars, from all sides, is one of the biggest challenges you’ll
face.
Most of the time you
won’t have this issue. Most races are free of police. You’ll have numerous
escape opportunities to avoid getting arrested, including safe havens that are
invisible to the police. Safe havens become available after you’ve gotten a
few hundred feet away from the nearest cop. They appear on the map as a
lightly flashing circle. Drive there, park, and wait for the evade meter to
fill. After that you’re home free.
Should you get caught,
the police will force you to pay a large fee to get out of jail. Unless
you have a Get Out of Jail Free card, which you’ll have the opportunity to win
after every boss battle.
Speedtrap
Speedtrap is one of the
competition types featured in Carbon. Roughly one-half dozen markers are
placed on the map. Each marker judges how fast you were going as you approach.
The fastest driver at the time of the approach is the one who wins. In other
words, I could reach 100mph on every marker, while all my opponents average
90mph at each marker.
Then at the end one of my
opponents speeds in front and crosses the finish line first. As impressive as
that may seem, it doesn’t really matter. I still win because I gained more
speed at the designated points. A speed penalty is given to anyone who takes
too long to cross the finish line, but this was never a problem for me. Once
you install the nitrous boosts, it shouldn’t be a problem for you either.
Checkpoint (another form
of time attack), circuit, and other standard race types are included. Drift is
the most interesting, taking on two forms: single and duel. Single drift races
are point-based. The controls are switched to a looser, turn-heavy style that
might seem a little weird at first. To win, score the most points. It’s easier
said than done, but the game controls make it near-easy to master. Get used to
depressing the right trigger only half-way, which will allow you to gain
enough speed to drift successfully without going too fast.
The other form, duel,
reverts to the basic game controls. First your opponent – a gang leader that
doesn’t want to lose his or her turf — is the one in front. You race behind,
trying to stay as close to the vehicle as possible. If you manage to overtake
your opponent and stay in the lead for 10 straight seconds, the race is
automatically over. You will have won. If not, you’ll have to race again, this
time with the player in front. In which case the goal will be to get as far
away from your opponent as possible.
At the end, the person
who has stayed closest to the driver in front will be crowned the winner.
After winning, one of the your enemy’s former teammates will offer his or her
services to the player.
Auto Wins
Carbon is the first Need
For Speed to introduce the aspect of team-based racing. The game doesn’t go
into it too deeply, sticking with just you and one AI teammate. Teammates can
be blockers, drafters, or scouts. Drafters will drive in front, enabling you
to follow in their path to gain an extra boost of speed. Blockers hang behind
to hold back annoying opponents. Scouts drive ahead to look for new shortcuts.
He’ll point ’em out to you upon finding one, and usually take the shortcut
himself.
Strangely, if one of your
blockers, drafters, or scouts happens to win the race, then you win the race.
In Carbon, getting second place is never good enough. Circuit races typically
have a tier with gold, silver, and bronze cups to earn. You don’t have that
luxury here. I suppose EA looked at the teammates as an opportunity to give
the player something back for having to win first place. This way you don’t
really have to win – but if you don’t, the other guy does.
As much as I liked this
feature, it did make the game a bit too easy. I preferred to cross the finish
line myself, even when I knew my comrade was so far ahead of the pack that he
could just win the race for me. As every gamer knows, it’s more satisfying to
do everything yourself.
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Gameplay: 8.4
Every car handles
differently, every course is linked together in one massive world, and the
controls will take you back to the days of arcade racers like Daytona USA.
(Actual arcade racers – the ones with $5,000 cabinets all arcade owners
dreaded purchasing.) The customization features are a little shallow, and the
game is a little easy. Okay, a lot easy. But you’ll love the ride while
it lasts, and you’re going to want to play through this racer more than once.
Graphics: 8
The cars look
amazing. Every part of them is packed with realistic detail. Even the
interiors are noticeably accurate. The cars reflect the city lights quite
beautifully, and will do so differently depending on the type of finish that’s
been applied (chrome, matte, etc.).
Carbon’s environments
aren’t nearly as memorable. The backgrounds aren’t that far beyond what was
possible with the old Xbox. Also, the cars, as gorgeous as they are, cannot be
damaged. They can crash repeatedly, and abolish generic police vehicles. But
your vehicles – which are from licensed manufacturers – are as
protected as those in Gran Turismo, save for a few scratches every now and
then (that magically disappear after every race).
I know that this is what
most, not all, automakers want. But if some manufacturers are on board
and others are not, maybe it’s the supportive companies you should be focusing
on – to give the gamer the most intense experience possible.
Sound: 7.9
Hurray for the
return of full-motion video! First you get to see the actors, who look toward
the camera when talking to the player’s character as if you were actually in
the story. The actors also appear in polygon form, with extreme realism to
boot. Their polygon expressions are a little better than their real
expressions, mainly due to the real actors’ lack of believability.
The voices – they’re
better than most, but have a hint of “video game syndrome.” It looks like a
bunch of actors were hired to be in a video game. It doesn’t look or sound
like they were hired to be in a professionally written story. Which isn’t too
surprising. Carbon’s characters only have one theme: “take my city and I’ll
hate you forever” (an exaggerated but truthful interpretation).
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Most Career mode
races can be won on the first try. The external challenge mode provides
additional races to conquer, but they’re not enough to boost this game’s
difficulty.
Concept: 7.5
It’s Need For
Speed all over again. I’m not about to be one of those crazy people who say
the series needs an overhaul to be great again. It doesn’t. I love the
direction the developers have taken. That said, it’s not an original
direction, just one of polish. But this series is meant to be a certain way.
To make it original again would likely eliminate all the things we love.
Multiplayer: 8
Four for co-op;
eight for multiplayer via Xbox Live. Some of the Career mode races are
playable online as well for added challenges.
Overall: 8.2
A throwback to
the good old, worry-free days of arcade racing. This is the kind of game
you’ll play after seeing The Fast and the Furious (or any other street racing
flick). You might hate that series – you might think the third Furious is the
worst movie ever made. But mark my words, if you’re flipping through and it’s
on TV, you will drop the remote, grab your 360 controller, and play this game.
