Need for Speed most wanted follows on the series in a similar vein to it’s most recent predecessor Need for Speed Underground 2 by offering players a similar style and ability to free roam a virtual city called Rockport. EA have also decided to spice up the underground street racer scene a little over its underground predecessors by adding back in to the mix a little of the franchise’s Hot Pursuit routes. This time the law are back and in full force to bring down and stop the illegal street racers that are plaguing Rockport and your goal is simple, become Rockport’s number one street racer!

Gameplay

The substance of Need for Speed Underground lies in the career mode whereby when initially rolling in to Rockport city in your maxed out BMW M3 you are introduced to Razor who currently resides at the top of the city’s blacklist as the number 1 street racer, immediately taking to the street you take up position on the start line where the prize could not be greater as you are racing for pink slips (car ownership). Razor seems a little overly confident and justifiably so as he and his crew have tampered with your car, meaning you are racing a race you simply cannot win!

You are taken back some 6 days prior to present day where you are welcomed by the cops who check out your car for street legality. After examining your motor, they are convinced she is not street legal and want to take your car. Fortunately the cops are called away to another street race and leave you with a warning. Not a good start to your visit!

Two days later you meet your new found friends Ronnie and Mia, who will help you through your racing career, just prior to starting your next race which you of course you need to win. After the race you are then introduced to the other characters who will feature throughout your career and you are offered the opportunity to take on the no. 15 ranked racer on the blacklist. You are at this point advised that you will need to earn street credibility and respect in order to make your way up the ranks.

There is another race to be won before you are bought back into the present day where you again find yourself at the start line of the race with Razor you now know you simply can not win. Once your car dies Razor and his crew tow away your car which he is now the proud owner of and you are picked up by the cops for illegal street racing although this proves fruitless as they have little or no evidence as you no longer own a car and therefore you are soon released.

Your character is picked up by Mia who is played by model and actress Josie Maran and recreated using live Hi-Definition footage and then converted using a new process which converts actual video footage in to stunning synthetic footage. Now it’s time to buy a new ride and commence with your career in illegal street racing with your challenge to win back your car and establish yourself at the top of the city’s Blacklist by trouncing each of the other 15 street racers. Each of these racers have there own racing criteria and your challenge will only be accepted if you have accumulated enough wins and your reputation is up to their standards.

Whilst building your name and bad ass reputation on the streets and hopefully rising up the cities blacklist, you will have to complete in a series of race events and milestone challenges. Race events include circuit which as the name implies is a standard race against 3 other competitors around circuit for a number of laps, sprint which is again a standard race against 3 other racers but instead of competing on a circuit the race is from one location to another (A to B). Toll Booth where you will need to again race from A to B but will need to pass through a number of toll booths in a specific time in order to earn bonus time which will hopefully will allow you to reach your objective. Speed Camera where you will need to race 3 other racers in a sprint race (A to B) but will need to achieve the highest accumulated speed through a number of speed traps. Lap Knockout events where you again compete against 3 other racers in a circuit event but each lap the racer in last is eliminated. Finally Drag Events which are simply short A to B drag races although the difference here is you must use a manual geared car and time your gear changes to perfection in order to win.

You will also need to compete in a range of milestone events which range from and include events such as Cost to State where simply you need to evade the police after you have cost the state a specific amount of bucks. Pursuit Time Challenge where you will need to achieve a specific bounty before evading the ensuing police. Road-block Challenge where you will need to dodge a specific amount of police roadblocks before evading the pursuing police. Spike Strip Challenge where you must avoid a specific amount of police spike strips before evading the police. Photo Ticket is where you must pass by a single speed camera at or above a specific speed and lastly Bounty Challenges where you will need to achieve a specific bounty before evading the police.

Throughout each of these events you will also build up your total bounty, each of the city’s blacklist racers will require that your bounty is at a specific level or higher, should you not achieve the required level of bounty you are able to compete in a variety of bounty events which simply drop you in to a range of police patrolled areas in order for you to create a little havoc and raise your bounty to the required level.

The game play as you rise up the blacklist becomes a little repetitive in the sense that it’s much of the same but against harder opponents and more determined police and believe me they do they become harder and more determined. A few extra variations for both the race and milestone events would not have been an unwelcome addition and would have added a greater variation on the theme yet even after saying that I still find myself continually trying to win the next race event or complete the next milestone challenge which is never a bad sign of an enjoyable and addictive game.

Graphics

Graphically NFSMW is very impressive, the entire city of Rockport & the surrounding landscapes are simply quite amazing and are on par with titles such as PGR 3, one thing especially of note are the sun flares when you come from, for example within a tunnel, they are simply stunning and you almost find yourself squinting your eyes accordingly. Other weather effects such as the rain or even the overcastting of the sky as the clouds roll in and dull the environment are equally impressive. At times I did feel that the game had the look and feel of another EA franchise Burnout with a few effects such as the blurring when you hit the nitro or sparks when you scrape a wall or barrier etc appearing to have been borrowed but I guess if the effects are good enough which they are in this case why not?

Each of the 30+ available cars are highly detailed and visually very impressive although when again compared to other 360 titles such as Project Gotham they do fall a little short in terms of overall quality yet this should never detract from the fact the cars are still very impressive.

A few frame rate issues were noted especially when not played on an HDTV although these issues are very few and far between and don’t really detract from the overall visual quality of NFSMW and those fortunate enough to be HDTV enabled will surely be equally impressed with the overall high graphical qualities presented from within NFSMW.

Sound

Sound is an ever more important in today’s games and NFSMW has handled this department equally as impressively with the inclusion of in game Dolby Digital, naturally this can only be fully appreciated if you have the required surround sound equipment.

Longevity

There are several ways a player can attack NFSMW, simply pick up and play race a bit here and there or take on the challenge of the career mode. Those who opt to take on the career mode will find literally hours and hours of gaming action to be had. The game does become a little repetitive at times in the sense that with every new black list rival the challenge is pretty much the same thing which is either the various types of races or milestone challenges but slightly harder yet I never found that the game became boring and always find myself coming back to face just one or two more challenges.

With the more than welcome addition of Xbox LIVE online which unfortunately does only allow up to 4 players to compete in any given race or custom event and the addition of the Xbox LIVE blacklist leader boards where LIVE enabled players can pursue the ultimate accolade of becoming #1 blacklist racer in the world and you’ll be sure to find plenty of high end adrenalin fuelled fun, action and entertainment under the NFSMW bonnet.

Overall

Overall surprisingly as I have not been a great fan of the series I have found NFSMW to be great fun and also a great challenge. At times, there are moments of sheer frustration for example when a pursuit has lasted in excess of 10, 15, 20 or even 30 minutes only to get busted by the cops after achieving the objectives other than evading the pursuing police.

Although I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of the NFS series I have found that NFSMW is highly addictive and the return to the roots of the series with the pursuit mode is a more than a welcome inclusion over the recent underground titles. Overall the game is a welcome addition to the Xbox 360 line up and a worthy title for both fans of the NFS series and non fans Xbox 360 games collections.