EA’s second reboot of the year, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is one of the best driving games of the year so far. Developed this time around by Criterion Games, the latest NFS title gets the jolt that the franchise needed so badly. With a string of mediocre releases such as Carbon, ProStreet, Undercover and the supremely overrated (by some) Shift, Need For Speed was a franchise that was slowly fading into oblivion thanks in no small part to the liquidation of EA Black Box, longtime developers of the series. Not since Most Wanted was there an NFS game worth playing... until now, of course.
Unimpressed by gameplay videos I had seen earlier, I honestly didn’t expect Hot Pursuit to blow me away. What I had seen of the game looked like Burnout with cops, which was not surprising considering Criterion had only been developing Burnout games and had a pretty specific view of a racing game should look and play like, and I did get a lot of Burnout vibes when I fired up the game. And now, after several hours playing as both racer and cop (both offline and online), I’m happy to report that Hot Pursuit is unique, and while there’s a lot of inspiration drawn from the Burnout series as well as NFS games of old, it very much feels like an original game, but not entirely alien to fans of the series. Anyone who has played Need For Speed classics such as the original Hot Pursuit, The Need For Speed or Most Wanted will feel right at home in Criterion’s latest. Somehow I wanted to see if it had any borrowed elements from the first ever Need For Speed games, but there’s nothing there — on the face of things at least.
The game sports two distinct career paths when played solo, one as a racer and the other as a cop. Set in fictional Seacrest County, a haven for illegal racing where cops drive expensive cars, Hot Pursuit’s setting is very apt — seaside roads, mountainous courses, highways, cramped town roadways function as improvised race tracks. And it’s not always no-nonsense racing, the game featuring a variety of race types including time trials, hot pursuit, regular races and a combination of two. When playing as a cop, these game modes remain fundamentally the same, but your role is reversed. Career progression depends on the amount of ‘bounty’ you earn from each event — you earn bounty by taking opponents down, completing time trials within the time limits, winning race events and effectively using each of the in-game weapons. Yes, weapons. Hot Pursuit has four ‘weapons’, which are actually abilities that can be called on. Two of these abilities (spike strip and EMP) are common to both cops and racers, plus class-specific abilities such as ‘turbo’, ‘jammer’ (racer abilities), ‘road block’ and helicopter (cop abilities). Since each vehicle can sustain only a limited amount of damage, the abilities shuffle things up quite a bit with the player having to rely on both ramming his opponents or pursuers as well as using abilities such EMPs and spike strips. As events are completed and bounty earned, more events, cars and abilities are unlocked (each of the abilities can be upgraded further).
There isn’t a story to speak of, so you’re pretty much gaining notoriety for no particular reason other than newer rides, events and said notoriety itself.
The game is also pretty unforgiving in the sense that there’s no game progression unless you finish first in each event, finish second for instance, and you will unlock stuff and earn bounty, but no new events will get unlocked. So expect to replay several events just to get that gold medal. Playing as a cop is no different, and again, you’ll have to either apprehend all racers or totally own that time trial event (damaging your car en route will incur a time penalty).
Like the single-player, multiplayer is hugely addictive as well. While the modes themselves are distinct, EA’s “Autolog” feature brings them together. It’s kind of like a social networking feature for Hot Pursuit owners where players can post records and achievements on the autolog ‘feed’ that people on their friends list can see. If your friend beats a record set by you, you’ll get an instant notification. Autolog also features Facebook-like features such as writing on someone’s wall, but it’s the single-player/multiplayer integration that really stands out. Playing Hot Pursuit online is a seamless experience with the game sporting great matchmaking and balancing features, but it’s the game’s performance that’s the real star here. The only thing more amazing than the 60fps frame rate is the graphics engine, which makes the game a visual feast. Sound is typically EA: authentic and supremely produced. I didn’t like the music all that much, but that’s probably just a matter of personal taste. Besides, the game lets you create your own custom soundtrack featuring songs from your music library.
Verdict: 8.5/10
The best racing game of the year so far features a great collection of vehicles, powerful graphics engine whose visual quality is surpassed by its performance and a supremely addictive gameplay experience.
— videep@gmail.com