Need for Speed Most Wanted – 360 – Review

Out of the 18 Xbox 360 launch titles
that hit store shelves November 22nd, 11 games are sports titles and 3 games of
the racing genre. This speaks loudly to Microsoft’s new marketing plan to making
gaming mainstream and breaking away from the "nerds-only" stereotype video games
they have been known for. I feel the need to release 3 racing games during a
console launch to be a little much. But I digress, as Need For Speed: Most
Wanted has been overheating in my console from the many hours of play time I
have spent with the game. It is safe to say that though many Xbox 360 owners
will immediately buy the long-awaited Project Gotham Racing 3 to serve their
racing hunger, Most Wanted deserves its place in any car fan’s collection.

There are three parts of the game: career mode, quick race, challenge series,
and online multiplayer. The bulk of the gameplay is in the career mode, which
mixes realistically fast-paced races with an over-the-top storyline. You are a
new racer with very little "street cred." You make up for it by owning a BMW M3,
what is considered in-game to be the fastest car in production (what a great
guerilla marketing-scheme BMW has cooked up to promote its car). Wanting to
prove yourself to the illegal street racers and add your name to the Blacklist,
a list of the top 15 racers in the city of Rockport, you try to take on Razor
Callahan, a cocky S.O.B. who messes with your ride causing you to lose the race.
More importantly, you lose your car and end up in jail when caught by the
police. Now, with the help of a new friend, Mia, you must work your way up the
food-chain of the racing scene, buying faster cars to win races, and eventually
take on Razor again to reclaim your M3. This storyline is faintly reminiscent of
the first couple scenes from The Fast and the Furious, but we’ll move on.

You don’t just get to start back in
the game competing against the Blacklisters without some victories in lesser
known races. The game offers a variety of racing types including circuit races
and sprints, knockout races (the last player at the end of the lap is
eliminated), drag races (dodging through traffic), and speed trap (which depend
on an accumulation of points during specific stretches of the race to add to
your total score). Everything you would expect out of a racing game’s AI is in
here, whether you like it or not. If you fall behind in the race, your opponents
will unrealistically slow down for you to catch up and you can bet that when you
are ever in the lead, your opponent is always one step behind you. I can
understand the reasoning behind this AI system as it makes up for sudden events
like accidentally crashing into a wall, but I just feel it can be executed
better for added realism. The game features an impressive array of licensed cars
from Chevrolet to Lamborghini. Obtaining pink slips from rival racers (or buying
them legitimately for top dollar) is the only way to progress through Most
Wanted.

One of the best parts of NFS: MW, which unfortunately isn’t present in the game
enough, are the cop chases that lead you through the same tracks of the race
with only one goal in mind, RUN! Suppose, for example, you are enjoying a small
lead ahead of the other racers in a circuit race and corner a right turn going
90 miles per hour. Any cop that spots you while enjoying their morning donut
will put it aside to bust you. The game switches from a simple race to an
all-out road battle with the P.D. You have a "heat" bar that is similar to the
star system in Grand Theft Auto that determines what level of trouble you’ve
gotten yourself into. Losing them gets a lot harder when fleeing a dozen "red ‘n
blues," road hazards like spike stripes, and helicopters flying overhead. It’s
important to not allow yourself to get in a sticky situation like entering a
dead end. One false move and the squad cars will be on you..

Quick races are self-explanatory and
take little time getting into. I did notice the lack of a "cop mode" that would
allow you to race against police like Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit which is
extremely disappointing. With challenge series, you are given a car and a task
to complete so as to progress to the next car and task. It’s a little boring and
adds nothing to the game’s replay value. Online mode is just like quick race
with four Xbox Live users and offers a ranking system to measure your race
performance for the online Blacklist. Compared to Burnout Revenge, easily my
favorite racing game this year, Most Wanted is simpler to get a game going but
lacks in gameplay modes like playing against other gamers as cops.

The name of the game is Need For Speed: Most Wanted, which is befitting of a
racing title such as this with so much emphasis put on police chases. Although I
expected a chase mode outside of the main game which didn’t exist, Most Wanted
proves once again why the Need For Speed franchise is still as solid as ever and
is definitely worth checking out.

Gameplay: 8.5
I expected more out of this game than it delivered, like police chases in quick
races and online, but the Most Wanted is still very fun in career mode and
features a nice assortment of vehicles.

Overall: 8.5
Based on what I have seen, Most Wanted is easily the most fun racing game
currently available on Xbox 360.