The Need for Speed franchise over the past few years has seen many iterations and many new ways to play. However, those new titles, while well received by critics, were underwhelming for fans of the series. Criterion Games has listened to the fans and brought back Hot Pursuit, the highly successful Need for Speed games of the 90’s and early 00’s. Does the new Hot Pursuit title successfully fulfill the nostalgia factor we all have, or is it just simply another game in the Need for Speed franchise?
Hot Pursuit starts out by explaining everything you’ll do throughout the course of your play time. This tutorial is something that is very much appreciated, especially for players new to the franchise. Upon listening to the tutorial you’re thrown into the career mode of Hot Pursuit, where you will play as both the cops and racers. Although it does state career mode, it’s essentially you completing races or wrecking racers as cops. It’s far from a career mode, as there is little to no storyline to think of. Seacrest County, the not so real city, is where you’ll spend you entire time in the Career. With it’s breathtaking and stunning environments, you’ll wish the county was in fact a real county you could visit on a vacation. Career mode consists of three game modes, Hot Pursuit, Interceptor, and Race, with a “preview” run, essentially a time trial mode, being available for each new section you unlock. You’ll be able to do the preview runs for both racers and cops. Hot Pursuit is a mode for cops, which has you trying to stop any racers on the road in under a certain amount of time. Interceptor is another mode for cops that has you trying to wreck one racer in order to arrest them. You’ll also need to do this under a par time. Race is simply for the racers, which at the beginning of the career will have you just trying to beat your opponents to the finish, but after your wanted level begins to rise cops will begin to try and stop your off-roading shenanigans. This is the toughest of the modes simply due to the fact you have to not only try and finish in first place, but you will also need to outsmart, out drive, and out maneuver the cops in order to succeed.
Driver details gives you the ability to see how far you are in the career mode, as well as letting you see what milestones you’ve completed. Milestones are challenges that you get after doing certain tasks, such as crashing 20 times, or drive 50 miles while drifting. Online multiplayer has it’s own milestones, but they’re just simply for you to complete events online. It does a good job at accurately showing your stats in both single player and multiplayer. Your rap sheet in drive details shows you how you fair in the single player as a racer and let’s you see how many races you have gold medals in and what level each weapon is. Both cops and racers have 20 ranks to go through and unlock, in each unlock tier you will unlock different cars for both the cops and racers. For the racers, the higher you’re level, the more wanted you are. Cops will get promoted and unlock faster, more robust cars, along with different weapons. After completing each race you’ll receive one of three medals, either gold, silver, or bronze, most of the time by completing a certain race under a specific time, or by simply coming in first place. Nothing new there, but it does make you want to go all out and get that gold medal. When doing the time trials, most of them are trial and error. When you do one with the cops you get penalized 2 seconds for hitting a wall and 3 seconds for hitting traffic. Of course cops are meant to play fair, and not cause any damage to the city, but it makes it a tad bit difficult when you’re going from chasing down a racer, to all of sudden getting penalized for barely scraping a wall. Racers on the other hand don’t have that problem, they will not get penalized in the time trials, so drive as erratic as you want with them.
Fans of Need for Speed: Shift, thinking they know how the gameplay works will have to think again. Gameplay is vastly different from Shift, which is no surprise. People who previously played the Hot Pursuit games on the PS1, PS2, or the Original Xbox will be reminded with the gameplay. For anybody who has prior gaming experience can pick up the controller and enjoy Hot Pursuit. The controls, for the most part, consist of gas, brake, nitro, and the d-pad is where your weapons will be once you unlock them. Drift is not mentioned because all you have to do is hit the brake trigger to active drift. Both the cops and racers get their own equipment, or weapons, and they both get 4 to be exact, and they will somewhat change the gameplay, but not drastically. The cops have spike strips, EMP, helicopter support, and the ability to deploy a roadblock. All work well, but the spike strips are a little useless for the cops. Most of the racers you’ll wreck as cops will be you taking them down from the side or the back. Therefore most people won’t use the spike strips that often. Racers also get the spike strips, which is way more effective for the racers seeing as how the cops will almost always be behind you. Racers all have a jam, which temporarily slows down a cop car. They also receive a turbo, which can help them get out of sticky situations and blow by the cops. The last weapon they get is the EMP, just like for the cops you have the ability to EMP blast a vulnerable cop. With the inclusion of weapons, it does add a new dynamic to the mix, but most of the time if you’re a racer you’ll just be trying to finish in first. The equipment in the game is better off being with the cops, but you have to give racers some as well to help balance it out.
There are two gameplay flaws, they aren’t major, but they do attribute to how you finish certain races. The A.I. do not take shortcuts, at all, so you’ll be wise to do so. They also seem to be somewhat rubber banded. Sometimes you’ll be 4 seconds ahead and then all of sudden they’re right behind you. Other times you’ll be up 3 seconds and they won’t catch up for the rest of the race. It seems as if they have a limit as to when they can catch back up. It’s not a huge problem, but for the casual racer it sure could turn into one. Shortcuts do play a factor in how you finish each race, however, they seem to suit the cop chases more than races. In some situations taking shortcuts actually hurts you instead of helping, so be careful as to which shortcut you pick, as it may not be a shortcut after all.
Autolog is your main menu and the new to play the Need for Speed series and racers in general. The new way to play, implemented for the first time in Hot Pursuit is essentially a hub to let you know what your friends are doing in the game, along with giving you the ability to do some friendly banter in the process. From the Autolog you’ll be able to jump in and out of both the career mode and the online functionality. You’ll also be able to catch up on the latest NFS news, straight from the developer Criterion Games. The NFS store is available as well, which surely indicates DLC later down the road. Throughout the course of the career, you will see an Autolog ticker at the bottom of the career map. This is yet another thing to keep your eye on to make sure you’re still first on the one track you like.
The main aspect of the Autolog is “Autolog Recommends”. This will be where you can see friend recommendations based on how you play the game, and what races your friends beat you at. From there you can challenge your friends times and try to beat them, or cry in shame and give up, it’s up to you. The ability to be interactive with friends without actually talking to them or racing with them is great, especially if you only have a couple of minutes and you want to try and beat your friend’s time. In races and while selecting cars you can snap photos to share with the world. After the race is over you can jump into Autolog, upload the photo’s and showcase them to the globe, for everybody to see. Something that’s not really needed, but it adds a bit of bragging to the mix, which is what Autolog is mostly about, bragging about your best times, photos, and finishes to your friends and the world. Even if you’re in career mode, the Autolog will bring up a “Breaking News” tab to let you know when a friend has challenged and beaten your time. Also, if you’re at work or can’t get on your console you can still check your Autolog via the Need for Speed official website. We’ve seen this before from EA, mainly from their sport games Madden and NCAA. It’s nice to see them spread the way you interact with the game, even if you’re not on your console.
Officially licensed cars are a must now a days for racing games, and in Hot Pursuit you have car manufacturers such as BMW, Nissan, Ford, Audi, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Aston Martin, and plenty more. The only major car company missing is Ferrari, which is somewhat of a letdown, but the amount of cars and manufacturers in the game, you’ll hardly notice Ferrari is absent. There are, in total, over 65 cars in the game, with some being available for both cops and racers. Every car is also available to play in multiplayer. Cars do handle like you think they would. The Chevrolet Camaro is tough and is hard to drift. The Aston Martin or Lamborghini cars are smooth and they all drift like a dream. In an arcade racer, it’s nice to see the cars actually handle like their real-life counterpart. The downside to the cars is the inability to tailor them to your liking. You can’t tweak the tires, or change your Your wall is where you’ll see friends pictures and updates on what they’re doing in game. You can also leave comments on friend’s walls and posts. You can even make a new post, whether that be to challenge someone or just to say hi to the community.
One of the main early complaints from racers and other reviewers is the lack of the cockpit view in the game, something that was highly praised in Need for Speed: Shift. Although it was great in Shift it doesn’t need to be in Hot Pursuit. For the majority of the game you’re going over 180 MPH, the cockpit view would not be a good camera angle to use if you’re going that fast. Yes, it was great in Shift, but in Hot Pursuit it’s not really needed. Racer freedrive lets you casually cruise around Seacrest County as either a racer or cop in any of the 5 car classes Sports, Performance, Super, Exotic, and Hyper. This gives you the ability to explore the map without worrying about the cops chasing you down, or other racers bumping you into walls. It would’ve been great to see the ability to trigger a cop chase in freedrive, but alas you can’t. You have the ability to change your profile picture as well via settings. Unfortunately you’ll need an Xbox Live Vision Camera or the PlayStation Eye to do so. Kinect did not work when trying to take a profile picture, which is disappointing.
Visually Hot Pursuit is absolutely stunning, both the overall presentation and the beautiful scenic routes. From the woodland backdrop, to the sandy beaches of Seacrest County, just about everything graphical is beautiful. Like most racing games the traffic is nothing to write home about, which is the reason why we said just about everything. Although this time they are licensed cars, the traffic that you speed by look like boxes with paint on them, which in turn makes them one of the few unpleasant things to look at in the game. Also, gone are cut scenes. Since there is no story to speak of they’re not needed. All you see are in-game cinematics before each event, which you can skip. With the bad live-action cut scenes that were in Need for Speed: Undercover, it’s great not to have them return in Hot Pursuit. Going into free ride showcases the visuals, complete with stunning sunsets, flags waving in the air, to the windmills spinning. Crashes and wrecks are very reminiscent to Criterion’s other racing series Burnout. They’re very crisp, detailed, and shattering with glass going everywhere. When in a race though the damage done to your car is purely cosmetic and it will not slow your vehicle down at all. The overall effort Criterion put into the graphics engine, and you can easily see the effort, is very much appreciated, and shows that racers can look both beautiful and the gameplay can be great as well. You don’t have to sacrifice one for the other.
The soundtrack for Hot Pursuit consists mostly of Rock songs with a few pop and hip-hop songs thrown in. With artists such as 30 Seconds to Mars, Lupe Fiasco, Pendulum, and more. Although most of the artists most people have never heard of, it’s nice to see EA and Criterion put in lesser known bands in the game. The main gripe with the soundtrack is the fact there aren’t too many songs, and most of them will repeat more than others, ie the Lupe Fiasco song. The audio on the track has you listening to a song on the soundtrack while hearing your cars engine rev. If you’re playing as a cop you’ll obviously hear the police siren, but you’ll also hear the occasional conversation between cops, mainly saying “spike strips deployed”, or “EMP on line”, little lines like that. Crashes on the other hand do sound great, which is good seeing as how they look fantastic. Your guide throughout the game does get a bit annoying at times, and with the inability to skip most of her talking segments, it makes you want to know where the mute button is. The audio in the game does sound decent at times, with each cars engine sounding different, and tires squeaking as you’re drifting in a corner, but there is really no need to listen to it, simply plug in your favorite MP3 player and listen to your own music.
Online multiplayer is a little on the mundane side at times, but yet insanely fun at others. There are only 3 game modes to speak of, all of which you will play throughout the career mode and is a little underwhelming. The Hot Pursuit game mode has 4 racers trying to come in first with a group of 4 cops on their tail trying to stop them. Once you crash enough times you’re wrecked and you’re out of the race, which then has the game put you in spectator mode. Interceptor is just one racer vs. one cop in a head to head pursuit, seeing who can outlast. Race is simply you and 7 other drivers racing it out to see who can finish in first. Upon first glance the multiplayer does seem pretty cut and dry, but after a few races in the Hot Pursuit or Interceptor game modes, you won’t want to put the controller down. The Race game mode is fun for a little while, but the team meat of the multiplayer is you trying to avoid both cops and the other racers while trying to battle it out for that podium finish. Interceptor races are pure adrenaline rushes, unfortunately most of them don’t last too long. It would have been nice to see a 3-crash rule for this game mode. This would make it last a bit longer, but still would include the same fun adrenaline rush. Compared to most racing games there are few too little modes in Hot Pursuit, however, the fun factor evens that out. Although it’s not rewriting the book on online multiplayer racers, what Hot Pursuit does is great and a breath of fresh air from the usual simulation racers we’re all used too.
Before starting an event online you can select which tier of cars you want to drive. Sport cars is the first tier, these are some of the cars you would see on the street at any given time, Dodge Charger, Lancer Evolution, etc. The performance tier have a mixture of everyday cars and rare ones, including the Maserati Gran Cabrio. Super cars are the ones that can get you over 200 MPH, including the Lamborghini Gallardo. The Exotic cars are the ones you’ll hardly ever see on the road, and some of the best handling cars in the game, bar none. Hyper cars are the absolute top cars in the game, they’re also the most rarest and most exclusive cars you’ll find in the game. Just like in single-player in the Hot Pursuit game mode both cops and racers get four weapons. They both get spike strips and EMP, but cops get helicopter support and a road block. Racers get a Jammer and Turbo instead of the helicopter and road block. Each team gets 1 one of each equipment type, with the exception of EMP, where the cops get two. This adds a thinking to the game as you have to use them wisely.
Where EA is taking the series we still don’t know as Shift 2 is scheduled for a “Spring 2011” release. Why they would take the franchise back to it’s roots, and then immediately go back to a simulation racer is a little surprising and makes little to no sense. Supposedly the Need for Speed series is going to have two games released a year, one a simulation racer and one an arcade racer. Racing games have been in decline the last few years, so this decision might not be a good thing for EA. Hot Pursuit is due for success, and with it’s stellar gameplay, highly addictive multiplayer, and stunning graphics, it deserves it. The two flaws with the game is the way the career mode turns into a chore and it does get to be a tad repetitive. Fortunately the multiplayer is so good, you’ll forget the game even had a career mode. The other flaw is the fact the A.I., at times seems to catch up rather quickly in certain races. The rest of the problems with the game is us just nitpicking, the same songs seem to play all the time, damage is purely cosmetic, etc. With the way EA is taking the NFS franchise, gamers better enjoy it while they can. If you’re a fan of racers, and the old-style NFS games, you’ll very much enjoy this one, with you spending hours upon hours in the multiplayer alone. Criterion Games, once again, makes an astounding racing game that even non-fans of the genre will enjoy.
If you’re in the need, the need for speed, (bad pun there), this is the game to pick up. It returns the Need for Speed franchise to it’s roots, where fans have wanted it to go for years. With over 65 cars to use in both Career mode and multiplayer, and the beautiful scenic drive you can take through Seacrest County, there is little to get in your way of exploring. It’s a stunning game visually, and a elaborate game online, with you probably spending hours upon hours on it. It’s a great racer, in times where racing games are in a severe decline. Hot Pursuit does indeed revive the franchise. After so many years of disappointing games in the franchise, Need for Speed returns to it's roots, it's just a shame it won't stay there for long. However, when it comes down to it, this is a must buy for just about any gamer out there.
