This is by far my favorate Need for Speed game yet. I loved the others, but I was always wishing for EA to try to put together some of the great aspects of their games. Whenever I was playing Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2, I wanted to be able to customize my cars. When I was playing Underground, I wanted to have the police chase me around town. In Need for Speed Most Wanted, you get both of them along with fairly good graphics, an excellent sense of speed, and a giant, wide open city to explore. The story is ok, and overall there is actually more of one than in NFS Underground. You are playing as an anonymous street racer who lost his car to his rival in a race. Throughout the game, you have to build up a new ride and beat other top street racers in order to get to the top of the most wanted list. The wide open city is very detailed and VERY large. It's much better than EA's first attempt at making a free roaming city in the not-so-great Need for Speed Underground 2. The only real gripe that I have about Most Wanted is the customization options, which aren't nearly as detaled as the first Underground game. In the original, you could pick out your front bumper, rear bumper, side skirts, head lights and tail lights separately. In Most Wanted, you have to get a body kit, which is basicly just all of these things pre selected for you. While the kits are still well done, you can no longer mix things up to your liking. However, you can still choose spoilers, rims, hoods, ect. The new edition to the Undergroung series (the police) are also a great part of the game. I find the police chases so much fun that I spend more time just driving around the city causing trouble, trying to start a police chase than I actually race. The police are the best I have seen in a game. Other games that have police chases usually just have them bumping you every few seconds. The police in Most wanted do all sorts of things such as setting up road blocks, spike strips, special souped up units, and of course, helicoptors. This may all sound very familiar to fans of the NFS Hot Pursuit games, but they use these tactics with much more intelligence. The police units also use a very effective tactic in which one police car will get in front of you, one will get behind you, and one will get on your left and right side. Once your completly boxed in, the car in front of you will slam on the brakes and trap you. When you get arrested, you can either use a get out of jail pass that you earn in races or you can pay the fine. If you don't have a pass or enough money, your car will be empounded. If you get in a big police chase, head for one of the red triangles on your map. They indicate objects that can be knocked over and used to get the police off your tail. For example: One of these objects is a water tower. If you rip through the support beams, the tower will collapse, cutting off or trapping your pursuers. The graphics aren't the best, but the cutscenes are excellent, and Need for Speed is still king when it comes to delivering a great sense of speed. This is a great racing game with cool cars and crazy police chases, but if you are looking for a game with great customization options, I recommend Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, which has the best customization out there, along with free roaming cities to play in.
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Need for Speed Most Wanted B0009350C6
Electronic Arts
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Video Games
NFS Underground Meets NFS Hot Pursuit
This is by far my favorate Need for Speed game yet. I loved the others, but I was always wishing for EA to try to put together some of the great aspects of their games. Whenever I was playing Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2, I wanted to be able to customize my cars. When I was playing Underground, I wanted to have the police chase me around town. In Need for Speed Most Wanted, you get both of them along with fairly good graphics, an excellent sense of speed, and a giant, wide open city to explore. The story is ok, and overall there is actually more of one than in NFS Underground. You are playing as an anonymous street racer who lost his car to his rival in a race. Throughout the game, you have to build up a new ride and beat other top street racers in order to get to the top of the most wanted list. The wide open city is very detailed and VERY large. It's much better than EA's first attempt at making a free roaming city in the not-so-great Need for Speed Underground 2. The only real gripe that I have about Most Wanted is the customization options, which aren't nearly as detaled as the first Underground game. In the original, you could pick out your front bumper, rear bumper, side skirts, head lights and tail lights separately. In Most Wanted, you have to get a body kit, which is basicly just all of these things pre selected for you. While the kits are still well done, you can no longer mix things up to your liking. However, you can still choose spoilers, rims, hoods, ect. The new edition to the Undergroung series (the police) are also a great part of the game. I find the police chases so much fun that I spend more time just driving around the city causing trouble, trying to start a police chase than I actually race. The police are the best I have seen in a game. Other games that have police chases usually just have them bumping you every few seconds. The police in Most wanted do all sorts of things such as setting up road blocks, spike strips, special souped up units, and of course, helicoptors. This may all sound very familiar to fans of the NFS Hot Pursuit games, but they use these tactics with much more intelligence. The police units also use a very effective tactic in which one police car will get in front of you, one will get behind you, and one will get on your left and right side. Once your completly boxed in, the car in front of you will slam on the brakes and trap you. When you get arrested, you can either use a get out of jail pass that you earn in races or you can pay the fine. If you don't have a pass or enough money, your car will be empounded. If you get in a big police chase, head for one of the red triangles on your map. They indicate objects that can be knocked over and used to get the police off your tail. For example: One of these objects is a water tower. If you rip through the support beams, the tower will collapse, cutting off or trapping your pursuers. The graphics aren't the best, but the cutscenes are excellent, and Need for Speed is still king when it comes to delivering a great sense of speed. This is a great racing game with cool cars and crazy police chases, but if you are looking for a game with great customization options, I recommend Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, which has the best customization out there, along with free roaming cities to play in.
Aaron Alexander
December 2, 2005
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