Need for Speed Most Wanted Review

While public multiplayer matches can be fun, the game always gives you points for 'taking down' other players, i.e. crashing into them so that the crash-cam described earlier initiates. This usually means that a few players on every server ignore the objectives and simply try and crash into you as frequently as possible. Since things like car customization and changes can only be done once in a multiplayer game, and any menus you are in will be interrupted by the crash-cam, sitting still to customize or change your ride can be excruciatingly frustrating as other players repeatedly crash into you. If players are too slow getting to the meet-up zone, the game will inform you that it will teleport everyone there, but sometimes this breaks and the next event never progresses. The game also has your microphone on by default and lacks a push-to-talk option, forcing you instead to mute players individually while in game. Living on the West Coast of Canada, the game's matchmaking also placed me with European players on an alarmingly regular basis, implying the matchmaking service has limited regard for your whereabouts. Other players' cars will often warp around unpredictably as a result. If you manage to get a game together with some friends however, the anarchic multiplayer is great fun and rather addictive.

Multiplayer games often descend into total chaos while waiting for events to start

The open city of Most Wanted is a great looking place, with excellent lighting, detailed car models and quality textures. Cars take damage when you crash them, but it is only superficial apart from tires getting popped from spikes strips. Sadly Most Wanted also suffers from some serious performance issues on the PC. While the frame rate is usually solid enough, whenever it dips below sixty, abrupt stuttering and chugging ensues. I experienced this issue on a powerful PC (specs at the end of the review in the performance section), and while turning some settings down reduced the frequency of the issue, I was unable to eliminate it all together, with indoor areas or city centers causing the biggest frame rate drops. Alternatively the frame rate can be locked at 30 via an .ini tweak, but this is less than ideal and causes minor input lag. Until the PC version of Most Wanted is patched to fix this issue, it should be avoided even by those with meaty PC's.

The sound design in Most Wanted is one of its strongest points, with different cars sounding unique and appropriately powerful. Shooting through a tunnel will cause the sound of your engine to echo in a glorious manner, and crashes are accompanied with suitable screeching and crunching. Sadly the same praise cannot be lavished on the licensed sound track, which consists of an unpleasant mish-mash of mostly low quality pop and rock that will have you hammering the 'skip track' button and inevitably turning the music off all together. The option to place your own music in one of the game files to replace the default sound track would be a welcome one. The radio chatter from the police is well done and informative, although it does eventually grow repetitive.

Cars in Most Wanted will take a beating but perform as good as new regardless

While Most Wanted does provide some of the crazy fast and action packed racing that Criterion is known for, it doesn't live up to the standard set by their last two games. Progressing through the singleplayer feels unsatisfying as you hop from car to car, with no sense that the vehicles you are driving get better as you go along. Rubber banding cops and AI opponents add to the problems of solo play, and a frustratingly lengthy crash-cam will prove much more prevalent and inconsistent in its initiation than it should be. While there is fun to be had playing Most Wanted with friends online, it is a difficult game to recommend at this point, at least until it has seen a patch or two to fix the performance and iron out some issues with online play.