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» August 3, 2006
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
What this review should actually be titled is “Need for Speed: Most Wanted, And Why It Sucks So Bad.” Until this game arrived, I’ve fallen in love with every NFS title that has come my way, even the original (which hasn’t aged too well.) NFS makes a very strong point in its games: Realism doesn’t have to be boring. Gran Turismo strives so hard for realism and ends up being what it is: a simulator. Personally, I find the game more stale than three-month-old donuts, so I stay away from it.
NFS has always delivered the best courses, cars, and soundtracks of any racing game I’ve played, and I was delighted when the series turned from exotics and foreign locales to the so-called “tuner” genre under the lights of the city. The first two entries in the Need for Speed: Underground series were very customization-heavy; they demanded that the player slap every sticker, body kit, and euro tail light they could find on their rides, whether they wanted to or not. The two games relied on a “show and go” career in which your car had to meet ratings on a customization scale, as well as finish first in every race.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted, however, changed a lot of that. The setting turned from nighttime racing to broad daylight, and the customization aspect, while still present, was turned down drastically. In NFS: MW, the player is given the option to customize their car, mostly as a deterrent to the police, which leads me to the other big change. Not since Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 has the series dealt with police chases. In those games, police simply messed with you while you did your laps, and if you won, then you were done. If you stopped or wrecked, you were “busted” and you were done.
In Most Wanted, you deal with police all day long, whether it’s in the heat of a race or while you’re just trying to get to a body shop across town. And it is this very aspect that has totally ruined this game for me over, and over…and over. Basically in this game, you race against fifteen “Blacklist” racers who make up the “who’s who” of illegal racing in your little cityscape. You have to accomplish a set amount of races, as well as rack up “bounty” and complete challenges to piss the police off to race each Blacklist racer. Then, you race them and hopefully win their car.
The cars in the game are actually very similar to the previous Underground titles, despite the introduction of exotics like the Lamborghini Gallardo and the Mercedes-Benz McClaren. You still have a couple cars nobody’s ever heard of (Fiat Punto? Get out) and cars that were tossed in due to a major restyling (2006 Eclipse, I’m glaring in your direction. Come on. You drop the AWD Turbo second-gen and go to a FWD N/A thirty-five-hundred pound bucket of rocks on wheels? What the fuck.)
Really, the racing of the game is where it shines brightest. The races leading up to each Blacklist member become increasingly difficult as you go on, but deliver a thrill that not many competing driving games can offer. With each set amount of races, you have the choice to race courses where the police are more likely to show up, or races where you’re guaranteed not to see the fuzz. Thankfully, you can go through the game without racing ANY races involving police, which is just awesome.
And then there’s the “police challenges”, better known as “milestones.” In these, you have to accomplish random idiotic goals, like bumping into a set amount of police cars during a chase or dodging a set amount of roadblocks or spike strips, and then evading the pursuit. However, as the police chase you more and more, they start using better cars. They start with shitty Caprice-esque cruisers and then move on to 2006 GTOs, and finally to 2006 Corvette C6’s, which are totally, completely, and one hundred fucking percent impossible to lose. When you get to this point, you might as well start lubing up, because you’re about to get boned. Even better, you can’t quit the game or save during a police chase (you have to actually reset your system to avoid the impound fee), and kids, these chases can go on and on. I’ve had many that went over twenty, even thirty minutes. One simple mistake will end it, and let me tell you, losing after you’ve been playing for a half hour does not bode well for one’s anger management. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve contemplated throwing my fucking XBOX into the street and then giving it an “American History X” curbing. Yes, I’m aware the box is black. Doesn’t matter what color it is, this game sucks. The police chases are so frustrating and drawn-out that many times I beg, out loud, for the game to just fucking be over.
If for some reason you’re in the market for a tuner racer, I would absolutely recommend Need For Speed: Underground 2 over this fucking game any day. Sure, you might cringe at the bizarre body kits and unnecessary spinners, hydraulics and neon, but overall the game is a billion times better. Plus, it has the second generation Eclipse, which is one of the best-looking cars ever made. You know. Cause I own one.
And you don’t.
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