Need For Speed: Most Wanted Reviewed By Stephen Pastic

Rating: 85% (Ratings Key/Explanation)

According to the title screen, the full title for this release is "Need For Speed Most Wanted - a Criterion game".  This little addendum proved to be somewhat unnecessary, as within five minutes of play I found myself realising the numerous similarities between this game and another of Criterion's more popular titles, Burnout Paradise.  

As someone who hasn't really followed much of the Need For Speed franchise (now on its nineteenth installment), I am unsure as to whether fans of the series will be pleased with my comparison - however, as far as comparisons go for arcadey open world racers, one could do a hell of a lot worse.  

The basic thrust of NFS:MW is to build up 'SP' to enable players to progressively take on the ten most wanted cars in the city and become king of the pile, so to speak.  Players can earn SP in a myriad of ways - from winning races, to evading police pursuits, speeding past cameras as well as the Burnout staples of smashing billboards and running through security gates. 

Often, races such as this require certain conditions to be met before progressively unlocking better, faster cars - NFS:MW does away with this notion, and every car in the game is available from the get go, provided you can find them.  Scattered across the game world are many different makes and models just sitting there waiting for you to drive up close enough to the 'jack spot', where a simple button press allows the player to switch vehicles.  

After initially finding a particular car, players can simply select it from a menu at any time of their choosing (albeit, they will be moved to the car's initial location in doing so).  Another menu item is the Autolog, which keeps track of various records between friends online and allows players to continually try to one-up each other while also gaining some additional SP.

NFS:MW will also have players frequently trying to evade the police (even in the middle of race events), in a system that is awfully reminiscent of titles such as Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row.  As players attract more and more unwanted attention, the police will step up their efforts and begin to utilise backup, roadblocks and even stuff laid out to pop your tyres (a killer in the middle of a race). 

Evading the cops triggers a temporary cooldown mode, as your notoriety slowly decreases while you remain out of sight.  Stay out of trouble long enough, and you get an SP bonus for the evasion - get seen, and they are all over you again.

Overall, the presentation of this title is impressive - with no real issues on the audio/visual front, and a streamlined menu system (which is accessible at any time via a D-pad press) makes for easy and efficient race selection or customisation options for your chosen vehicle.  Controls are pretty simple, with the shoulder buttons devoted to acceleration and brakes, and if youre feeling particularly sassy, players can attempt some shenanigans with the handbrake via the square button.  Everything pretty much works as it should, and there is little to speak of in terms of any major issues with the controller.  

NFS:MW is one of those games that gets its hooks into the player quite quickly.  Within an hour or two, I already found myself consistently saying "just one more race...oh wait, there's a new car over there.....i'll just do this thing first" whenever I intended to get off the couch.

However, there are some things which do feel as though they could have been better, most notably navigation.  Whilst the in game minimap is completely functional, it does seem as though you are given a few milliseconds notice for some turns...an obvious problem when travelling at high speeds.  Furthermore, it is unfortunate that NFS:MW doesn't have any kind of navigation assistance on the main portion of the screen for certain waypoints.  Unlike say, Sleeping Dogs - which would have unobtrusive directional arrows guide you elegantly toward your marker, NFS:MW pretty much requires you to look off to the map whilst in motion every so often, frequently resulting in a crash.

All in all, NFS:MW is something of a pleasant surprise.  I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but I certainly was not expecting something so reminiscent of one of my favourite games in this genre.  If you are someone who played and enjoyed Burnout Paradise, NFS:MW is an easy recommendation.  For everyone else, if you want a racing game and are happy to trade off some realism for flashiness and fun, this is definitely one of the titles you should be looking at.