The good
If you’ve a played Burnout Paradise before, then you’ll know what to expect from Need For Speed: Most Wanted. You’ve given the freedom of an entire city, dropping in and out of racing events at will. You can jack a wide variety of (licenced) cars and then race them in unique events which take place on the twisting streets of the cityscape – there are no defined tracks or circuits here.
You’ll also have to contend with other road users, trackside environmental hazards and – as the title suggests – the police, who will chase you down and pull off some seriously aggressive moves to make sure your reign of transport terror comes to an abrupt end.
This arrangement gives Need For Speed: Most Wanted a gloriously chaotic feel; from the snaking nature of the roads to the constantly shifting objectives, there’s always something happening in the game world, and always something to keep you busy. You can spend time locating all of the cars in the game, upgrading their specs by winning races or simply driving around finding security gates to smash through, billboards to destroy and speed cameras to trigger.
What really opens up Need For Speed: Most Wanted is the social element. If you have friends who are also playing the game
, you can challenge their best lap times and earn more rewards – even when they’re not online. Because the game constantly keeps tabs on what other players are doing, the temptation to indulge in good-natured rivalry is never far away; using the in-game HUD, you can jump directly to a challenge race to ensure that the next time your friend switches on his console and boots up the game, he sees your beaming face and is confronted with the crushing news that you’ve smashed his best lap time to smithereens. Bliss.
, you can challenge their best lap times and earn more rewards – even when they’re not online. Because the game constantly keeps tabs on what other players are doing, the temptation to indulge in good-natured rivalry is never far away; using the in-game HUD, you can jump directly to a challenge race to ensure that the next time your friend switches on his console and boots up the game, he sees your beaming face and is confronted with the crushing news that you’ve smashed his best lap time to smithereens. Bliss.
And then there’s the hyperactive online multiplayer mode, which is as close to organised chaos as you’re ever likely to get in an open-world racer. Grouping together with a bunch of friends to tear the city to pieces is so much fun that it very nearly borders on the illegal, and the capacity for tight contests ensures that it will draw you back time and time again, irrespective of whether or not you’ve finished the single-player campaign.
The bad
Need For Speed: Most Wanted’s gleeful disregard for structured courses turns out to be as weakness as well as a strength. It’s often far too easy to accidentally take the wrong road and destroy all chances of winning the race. Another annoyance is the proclivity of civilian traffic to put itself in your path on blind corners, where you have absolutely no chance of avoiding a collision. These moments of carnage give the game an frantic edge, but when they happen many times in succession, that quickly turns to frustration.
We’re also a bit dismayed to discover that Burnout’s love of gratuitous crashes has been lessened. The camera no longer lingers on the aftermath of your rival’s accident, but merely flashes up a message informing you that you’ve just taken someone down. While we can understand that the crash replays slow down the game, their shameless nature gave Burnout a kick that other titles missed. Consequently, the smashes in Need For Speed: Most Wanted feel emasculated as a result – so much so that you’ll find yourself avoiding them or forgetting they’re there, instead focusing on keeping a clean racing line and a spotless, scratch-free vehicle.
However, Need For Speed: Most Wanted’s biggest failing isn’t really its fault – it’s the fact that it has been released so soon after the exemplary Forza Horizon, a title which has redefined the open-world genre as we know it. Compared to Microsoft’s title, Criterion’s work seems a little muted, and feels more like a rehash of Burnout Paradise than ever.
The bottom line
Criterion’s second bite at the Need For Speed apple is an accomplished and technically stunning crash-fest which has more licenced cars than you can shake a gear stick at. It has an instantly gratifying sense of carnage and offers a dazzling amount of content for dedicated players – the ability to compete with friends even when they’re offline is fantastic, and really opens the game up in terms of replayability.
However, it’s not Criterion’s best open-world game – we still think Burnout Paradise takes some beating, and NFS: Hot Pursuit’s clever mixture of cops and robbers really made it feel unique and innovative. That same “new car” freshness is absent here, but Most Wanted is still a million times better than practically any entry in the series prior to Criterion taking over – and that counts for something.
