 Would Paradise, by any other name, be just as sweet? Few games can take the competitiveness of online gameplay and merge it with the freedom of offline worlds. Need for Speed: Most Wanted finally attempts to go where few have gone before. And it reaches new, glorious heights.
1. Gameplay
The Need for Speed series remains one of the most popular racing series ever created. Now Need for Speed has merged its style with another popular racing game, Burnout: Paradise, to create something that many gamers have been asking for; a unrealistic arcade game where racers take each other down and friends can compete against each other online and offline. Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a perfect marriage of the online and offline worlds. 
It's a match made in heaven.
I’m not one for multiplayer. Organizing a group of racers, making sure they’re all of equal skill, and making sure that one of them doesn’t ruin the fun by cheating or being a bully is extremely difficult to do. Fortunately, Most Wanted doesn’t require you to be online in order to compete with friends. As you complete races, make jumps, or hit a milestone, the game records your data and shares it with your friends. As your friends race, their times will be recorded and will show up in your game. 
I'm number one!
This leads to a system where the game encourages you, almost to the point of annoyance, to beat your friends. For those who don’t have many active friends, this will result in the occasional notification to beat a particular race. For those who have seriously active friends, it can result in a huge list of races to beat. The cycle really only ends when one friend gives up and stops trying to beat times. 
My friends gave up.
This game is a lot of fun as long as your friends stay competitive. I found that once my friends stopped competing, the fun factor dropped significantly. I occasionally look back to see if my friends have posted any new times, but there isn’t much reason for me to keep racing.
I played this game for a good 12 hours before I got bored. The length of this game will depend entirely on whether or not the player has friends who play the game and post their times. It’s very easy to beat the 10 “most wanted” racers, and once that’s done there’s basically nothing to do in the game except beat friends’ times. Fortunately, I had one friend who would post times somewhat regularly, so I had numerous opportunities to post better times. Without this, however, the length of the gameplay would be significantly shorter.
There were only a few small elements that I could consider to be frustrating. First, the game is designed so that the player can access almost every car from the very beginning. This is great in theory, but it can be very confusing. For example, why would I drive in a Porsche Panamara when I can drive around in a Ford GT or a Chevrolet Corvette Z06? The game does encourage using different cars by forcing only certain cars to be able to compete in some events. If you have friends, you’ll end up using a good number of the cars. But after you find a car that works and start upgrading it, there’s little reason to go for variety. 
I guess I found the best.
This is further hampered by the fact that it’s really difficult to figure out which car is best from the beginning. Really, which is better, the Lamborghini Gallardo or the Aston Martin DB9? I have no idea either, and just looking at the basic stats isn’t going to help much. In the end, I had to treat most cars as exactly the same until I upgraded them. An upgraded car is almost always better than any other stock car. The only major complaint I had about multiplayer was the fact that, once the server started filling up, the server leaderboard ended up taking up an absurd amount of my screen. Really, it was nearly impossible to race when half of my screen was unusable. And the thing never went away! Honestly, do I need to know who is in 7th place during the middle of a race? No. I need to know how far I am from the next closest racers (both above and below), and that’s about it. Maybe I could see the value in knowing how far I am from 1st place, but that’s it. I don’t need to see the times of all 12 racers. 2. Parental Notices
Violence is a slight factor in this game, but its presence is not graphic by any means. The player will be able to damage the vehicles of opponents by ramming them, usually causing them to careen out of control into walls, traffic, or other objects. This results in a “takedown” and gives the player a full bar of nitrous. It is therefore a useful tactic to take down racers as a player progresses up through a race in order to maintain maximum speed. 
T-Bone takedown.
The player can also take down cops, although this is significantly more difficult. In turn, the player can also be taken down by cops and other racers. These are the only ways in which violence is a factor, though.
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
Substances are not a factor in this game.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
There are police officers that will drive around the city and frequently chase the player for driving at excessive speeds or hitting traffic. Once a pursuit is engaged, the player has about 30 seconds to escape before things get difficult. The law enforcement in this game is extremely smart and extremely persistent. This doesn’t really encourage law-abiding behavior as much as it encourages avoiding law enforcement. 
A Crown Victoria vs. a Bugatti Veyron. I think I already know the outcome.
Cops aren’t just present in the free roam worldspace either. Frequently players will get chased by cops during races, which can make things a bit complicated. It’s difficult enough trying to dodge traffic and other racers, but cops just add an extra element of surprise and, usually, unpredictability. Some of the events are of the “ambush” variety. The player is chased by cops and must escape the pursuit within a set period of time. These are by far the most difficult races to complete. After a lot of practice, I managed to complete one in 42 seconds (which ought to be a world record), but this was after around three dozen attempts. The tenacity of the police officers and their near psychic intelligence makes it very difficult to actually get away.
The online community was completely civil when I played. Aside from the almost constant crashing into each other, it was actually a pretty pleasant experience. Microphones are sometimes used but it’s fairly rare, so overall it’s just a bunch of gamers all competing in a relatively chaotic series of events. Winning is the primary objective, but losing isn’t a huge deal. The fun is in the event. This is especially true if you’re playing with friends. 
You can't win every race.
As this is a racing game, extreme sports is going to be a constant factor. Players will drive at absurdly high speeds on city streets with constant traffic. Players are rewarded with nitrous for near misses, drifting, and driving in the oncoming lane. In order for a player to place competitive times in races, players will have to perform these highly dangerous stunts constantly. As a result, players will frequently crash. If a player is not in a race, crashing isn’t seen as a huge deal. The car will show damage, but as long as all four wheels are on the ground, the player will regain control and just roll the car away without any reduction in performance. The only thing that is even somewhat safety-related is the fact that the player is wearing a racing helmet and a seatbelt. Still, this would not explain how he manages to survive some of the horrific high-speed wrecks that the player will get into. 
Fortunately, I'm insured.
There are billboard placed throughout the city that the player can smash through. The billboards are used to calculate the player’s jump distance. When the player breaks through a billboard, it records the player’s jump. It’s completely unrealistic, but so is much of this game. 
I would not advise doing this in real life.
Magic is not a factor in this game.
There are no other factors in this game.
1 Comment
6/2/2013 09:41:04 pm
I believe I’ll become a frequent visitor to your site! I enjoy your in depth posts about this subject and I enjoy the fact you are so knowledgeable about this subject. Leave a Reply. |
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