Electronic Arts
decided that they needed to change up the equation a little and they attempted
that with Need for Speed Carbon. Whether or not the change is the
correct one is a different subject. There are many street racers out on the
market nowadays that dilute the genre and make everything feel subnormal. EA is
hoping that they can push their way through the crowd and become king of the
racers once again. Sadly, Need for Speed: Carbon isn’t the answer to all their
prayers.
The most desired
mode of play that was missing from Need for Speed: Most Wanted happened
to be the drifting mode. After taking a year off and tinkering with the
mechanics, EA is ready to reintroduce the mode to the masses. Unfortunately the
addition comes with a subtraction; EA has taken the police chases down a notch
and decided to focus on team-based racing.
The story picks
up right after Most Wanted left off. If you haven’t played Most Wanted, the
protagonist leaves Rockport after recovering his coveted car that was stolen by
Razor, the rival that put a fork in all the protagonist’s plans. Now as you
enter your old stomping pad, Palmont City, Sgt. Cross from Most Wanted returns
as a bounty hunter. Arriving back in Palmont City, you’ll meet up with old pals
to reminisce with and, of course, a new rival to make things interesting.
Returning from
Most Wanted are the FMV sequences with live actors. This is a love/hate
decision since it was split right down the middle in terms of how people reacted
to the FMV scenes. For me personally, I hate the decision. The FMV scenes are
tacky and cheesy – it reminds me of Zelda on the Philips CD-I. With
little to be said, they are back and I’m not digging it since it’s an
unattractive method of replacing CGI. The actors try too hard and the actresses
seem like porcelain dolls. When I quizzed the lead producer about Carbon’s FMV
sequences, he stated that he wanted them to be a little cheesy. If that was the
original plan, then it’s a job well done on EA’s part.
The idea of
Carbon isn’t about escaping the police and raising your status on their black
list; it’s now about battling rival gangs. The purpose of battling these ragtag
groups of hoodlums is to gain control of their territory and expand your own. When you do gain control, you’ll be able to buy new parts for your cars and
access to new racing events. There are four major territories that will be up
for contention and within those territories are individual zones you’ll be
competing in races to build up your control. The nice thing about battling for
land is that the rival gangs will continuously try to win their zones back.
To help you gain
control of these zones are wingmen. These wingmen come in the form of Blockers,
Drafters, and Scouts. These wingmen all have unique assisting capabilities that
will aide you to victory in the races. Blockers will ‘attack’ your opponents by
trying to bump them off the road or spin them out of the control. Drafters will
fly ahead and give you a slipstream to gain speed. Scouts will speed ahead to
find shortcuts and different routes that you can take. These wingmen are
useful, but if you are a hardcore Need for Speed fan, you won’t ever need these
wingmen. Starting the game off, I happened to use wingmen in almost every race;
later on though, I didn’t use them as often since they did get in the way a few
times for me to complete a race.
For the most
part, EA implemented the basic game modes that are found in every other street
racing game. You’ll find circuit races, sprints, checkpoint races, and
point-to-point races – all the normal fluff that you should come to expect with
racing titles. EA did bring back drifting and there are speed-trap races, but
for the most part, EA didn’t do anything special with their game modes. The
goal of drifting is to rack up points by either going to the extremes on a
canyon road or on a closed race course with not much danger at all. Drifting
doesn’t handle like the normal gameplay, it’s looser and the cars will lose
control much easier. If you have played Ridge Racer 6, you’ll see a few
similarities.
Being able to
jump to your safe-house by the menu is still a nice addition. I find it tedious
to drive the distance of the map to head back to my garage. You are also able
to jump to the car dealers, new events and races, and several different
locations at the touch of the button. If you like to drive and waste hours of
just free roaming, you are still able to do that. Free roaming will elevate the
game from about 10 hours of replay to about 12-13 which isn’t a bad thing. To
unlock everything, it will take a little over 22 hours to do so.
Besides the career mode, EA has thrown in a challenge series where you compete
in difficult races they have set up with requirements you have to meet. The
online component is nowhere to be found on the Xbox version which is very
ill-fated due to that the Xbox 360 version does have Xbox Live multiplayer. With
the omission of multiplayer online, EA has only incorporated split-screen
multiplayer for those who wish to duel with their friends.
Need for Speed:
Carbon isn’t the improvement in the series I was hoping for. Drifting is fun at
times, the career is entertaining, and the game modes are basically all there,
though EA took the heart and soul of the multiplayer out of Need for Speed.
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Gameplay: 7.5
Racing crew
bosses are enjoyable since they take place in the canyons which is what I
thought Carbon was going to be all about. For the most part, the setting takes
place in urban environments and the canyon races are not what they were hyped up
to be. The duels in the canyon are the best part of Carbon, but you’ll see
little of them in the career outside of the boss battles. The police encounters
are disappointing since you’ll be only seeing them a few times throughout the
story, which is awkward since Most Wanted made them a heavily favored trait of
the NFS series.
Graphics: 8.0
The AutoSculpt system in Carbon is a brand new feature
where you can fully customize your cars to your own liking. Creating the
impossible hasn’t been easier, but making the impossible look good is tough. The environments are varied with much of the level design borrowing locales of
Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. The vehicles aren’t a huge leap over
in graphics compared to what Most Wanted featured.
Sound: 7.5
The soundtrack is all licensed rock and hip-hop music
you probably have heard before. There is, of course, police chatter to try and
make the world seem alive in Palmont City. I suggest just using your own music
from your Xbox to create a more exciting session of playing Carbon.
Difficulty:
Easy/Medium
Veterans of Need for Speed will find themselves right
at home with Carbon. The drifting is difficult to jump right into since it’s a
change of scenery from all other portions of the game.
Concept: 7.5
They tried to shake up the mechanics a little, but
didn’t risk too much in terms of innovation. This is a run-of-the-mill street
racer that felt little bare bones in my mind. It could have been for the fact
that they took the multiplayer right out of the game basically. They did beef
up the customization options which will open up many eyes of those who didn’t
like the limited options in Most Wanted.
Multiplayer:
4.5
No Xbox Live? Who made that decision?
Overall: 7.2
If you want to play the real Need for Speed Carbon,
pick up the Xbox 360 version. I suggest skipping the Xbox and PS2 iterations of
the title and head straight to the Xbox 360 version since
the Xbox 360 is the only console right now with online capabilities. With more
than 30 licensed cars, car enthusiasts will still find a reason to pick up
Carbon one way or another though.
