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Need for Speed Most Wanted Review

Some questionable design choices and performance issues might take this Need for Speed entry off your Most Wanted list

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The single player in Most Wanted sees you driving around the city and completing events to earn 'most wanted' points. Once you earn enough points you are able to challenge one of the 'Most Wanted' drivers in a one-on-one showdown that you must win to unlock the car of that driver. The weird thing about Most Wanted is that all of the cars, apart from the ten most-wanted ones, are available right from the get go. Some of these cars are very good, far better than the first series of most wanted cars. Once you find a Lamborghini or Maserati, the incentive to go back to one of the game's slower cars is negligible. This bizarre system negates the sense of progression and accomplishment you normally get from working your way up to the best cars instead of having them available right away.

Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012
Most Wanted races start with opponent's cars being introduced in strange ways

The cars in Most Wanted are all based on real ones, with the majority of famous super car companies making appearances with the conspicuous exception of Ferrari. Once you find a car lying around, you must complete events in order to unlock upgrades for it. Different races unlock different upgrades, although you must place first or second in an event to obtain them. This system also has its problems, since you are forced to complete specific events, some of which can be rather frustrating, if you want a specific upgrade. Also, each car only has five or six races available for it, so if you find a favourite car you won't be able to use it for very long unless you enjoy repeating the same races over and over. Once you find and drive some of the faster cars, having to go back to the slower ones just to get points later in the game feels anti-climactic. Fortunately the races against the Most Wanted drivers are a lot of fun, usually involving lengthy and complicated routes and prolonged police chases.

The innovative Autolog feature first introduced in Hot Pursuit has returned, making for some friendly competition assuming you actually have some friends playing the game. Whenever you finish a race, your time is ranked against your friends. There are also traffic cams that record how fast you are going when moving past a certain point, which once again is compared against your friends. One of its more interesting uses involves billboards; if you smash one of the many billboards lying around the city, if any of your friends jumped further when going through it their avatar is displayed on the billboard. So if a friend went further than you did, you get to smash their avatar in an attempt to beat their record. Autolog makes cruising around the city and messing around with jumps and billboards a fairly enjoyable endeavor.

Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012
The insurance companies of Fairview went out of business years ago

Handling in Most Wanted is fairly similar to Criterion's previous games; you don't need to worry much about racing lines or proper cornering, just drift around the corners and blast down the straights, hitting jumps and avoiding traffic. If you were hoping to play Most Wanted with a keyboard you are probably in for some frustration as even a single tap of the button assigned to left or right will result in the car swerving dramatically from one side to the other. The default control layout is also bizarre and unintuitive, especially when dealing with the in-game menu that lets you swap upgrades and select events on the fly. If you have a controller of any description that works with your PC, the in-game menu works great and the handling is good, especially once you upgrade your car with track tires and an aero-dynamic body that increases player control. Once you get used to the fast and loose handling, driving in Most Wanted feels good and gives a great sense of speed.

While the singleplayer's wacky sense of progression by itself seems illogical, when you pair it with the game's multiplayer things start making more sense. No matter what mode you play, you gain online levels, which are associated with what cars are made available to you when playing online. The multiplayer in Most Wanted is basically an evolution of challenge mode in Burnout Paradise; a crazed blend of co-operative and competitive races that all revolve around a free-roaming structure. You are dumped into a server with up to 11 other players and told to meet up somewhere. The game then generates a speedlist - a series of events that range anywhere from random challenges such as collectively jumping 4km on a specific jump, to conventional races, to team races. The randomness of the challenges makes for some entertaining gameplay that can also be rather addicting.

Comments
NFS Most Wanted
NFS Most Wanted box art Platform:
PC
Our Review of NFS Most Wanted
70%
Good
The Verdict:
Game Ranking
NFS Most Wanted is ranked #1172 out of 1957 total reviewed games. It is ranked #99 out of 145 games reviewed in 2012.
1171. Simpsons Arcade Game
PlayStation 3
1172. NFS Most Wanted
1173. Brave
Xbox 360
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Screenshots

NFS Most Wanted
12 images added Jun 9, 2012 01:09
Videos
NFS Most Wanted - Announcement Trailer
Posted: Jun 9, 2012 17:17
NFS Most Wanted - E3 Gameplay Footage
Posted: Jun 19, 2012 00:14
NFS Most Wanted - Single Player Gameplay
Posted: Aug 3, 2012 22:31
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