Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Producer: Electronic Arts
Release Date: November 16, 2010
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, Microsoft Windows, Wii, iOS
Rating: E10+
Genre: Racing
Pedal to the Metal
Written by Mike Lowther
I’ve always considered the Need For Speed series a staple in today’s video game world. It’s a series that constantly pushes out titles in an attempt to change the spectrum of the genre. Most recent, SHIFT was a take on professional racing simulation. I had mixed feelings about it, and usually adopt those feelings when games switch up their style. Especially when huge conglomerate companies attempt to do something way out of their niche. I mean, if you’re going to do simulation, please incorporate the bells and whistles without leaving me hanging. But when I heard Need For Speed was reverting back to the old days, the days when they had peaked the most, I had no choice but to check it out.
Of all the titles in the series, I most fancied Most Wanted. Evading the police, setting up disaster zones to create your escape, and the subpar acting of every cut scene truly felt as if I had been trapped inside every Fast and the Furious movie. Options like driving through pillars to have a gas station collapse on a police interceptor really set the bar for other games like Burnout: Paradise and Blur. These are the games that create milestones – and I’m glad this one’s back.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit lets you choose from an array of fancy sports cars that are popular in today’s street world to race in circuits and evade police. In Career mode, your goals are pushed as either Racer or Cop strategies. You can either be a street racer and evade the cops, or have role of an officer and take down the speeders. The concept has expanded, letting the player run duels and previews that show off new cars. Most races are one-on-one or just simply time trials, whereas few are of hot pursuits. For a remake, I don’t humbly enjoy the balance of physics here. Not only does the car feel like it’s always wobbling, it’s extremely difficult to hit the shortcut passages without nailing a steel median totally destroying your car and throwing you in last place. Though it’s very possible to make a hefty comeback, it’s most vital to think ahead as much as possible to make that happen.
On some races, your car is fitted with special weapons. You have the ability to drop a spike strip to render opponents’ vehicles useless for a bit. Shoot an EMP to temporarily immobilize a car in front of you to make a powerful pass. There’s a limit of how many of each you can carry, as well as a time limit in between attacks. There’s also a jammer that can detect where roadblocks are, and momentarily freeze their attacks. Remembering to turn on your headlights when the sun goes down is something of a little trinket when playing. Graphics are pretty, there’s nothing incredible to brag about but nothing at all to degrade. Visuals are up to par with today’s games, which is nothing I wouldn’t expect from the latest game in a hugely funded franchise, hence the absurd amount of product placement and heavy marketing of the vehicles in this game.
As much fun as this new addition to the series can be, it would have been nice to see some other added features in the gameplay department. Maybe something like a “flashback” effect that Grid and Dirt 2 have, which lets you rewind time and enable the ability to avoid the recently impacted car or median. Also, the game doesn’t feature the ability to switch between automatic and manual transmission for the hardcore racers out there. I understand the game mechanisms may have impact on this, but it would have been nice to see. Overall, it’s a great step in bringing back the classic Need For Speed style, but it could have used a bit more spunk.