This is absolutely essential for a game of this type: Criterion’s desire for thrilling freedom would be nothing if its host was a bore. More than just a network of roads for you to plaster with burning hot rubber, Fairhaven holds Most Wanted together with a tight embrace. Even better, it doesn’t require you to give a toss about Top Gear in order to love it.įairhaven, the diverse metropolis that acts as your racing playground, is a construction of weaves and webs starting from its bustling industrial core and spiralling outwards into wide-open mountain tunnels and stretches of highway. The result is one of the smartest, most enjoyable racing games of 2012 – one that slams emphasis directly on the race itself. In fact, despite the class that Most Wanted’s stunning garage exudes, Criterion has made a clear distinction between the materialistic superfluousness of games like Forza Motorsport, where the focus is very much on your love for cars and the desire to curate a digital garage, and the thrill of the race itself. There’s none of that “turning car lovers into gamers” stuff here. It may have a drive-anything, go-anywhere ethos, but there's a game here, a ladder to climb and a reputation to build, through cutthroat driving and bumper-crumpling bravado.Like the cold metal girders and sun-glinted glass panels that make up Fairhaven’s skyscrapers, Need for Speed: Most Wanted is as mercilessly rock solid as it is stylish. Speed Points are Most Wanted's equivalent of XP: your means to rank up your profile and earn a shot at one of the game's 'most wanted' slots, which are occupied either by your friends or predetermined AI rivals. There are no EMPs to use or tyre-spikes to throw down – no weapons at all, in fact – but you can upgrade your ride with everything from nitrous shots to re-inflatable tyres by mastering the car-specific events dotted all over the vast, varied map.Ĭhases rise in tension and aggression until you either resort to a change of identity (by breezing through any street-side garage for an instant lick of new paint) or you find yourself surrounded and eventually busted by the police (a regular problem when they roll out the big, bad SWAT-style units), costing you your hard-earned Speed Points. Chases can break out at any time as you go about your dangerous driving, and you're rewarded with points for the lengthiest and deadliest of your escape runs. This is a game that harks directly back to the series' roots (and the 1998 game of the same name) where it's all about looking good as you escape and frustrate the fuzz. Sadly, one of Hot Pursuit's strengths and core attractions, the option to play as the law and dispense justice fashionably in a blue and white Gallardo, has been scrapped for Most Wanted.
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December 2022
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