Review: Need For Speed : Hot Pursuit (2010)

Video Review:

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EA has gone back to its roots and has re-vamped the Hot Pursuit franchise. This time though, EA left all the excitement at this year’s E3 where they announced one of its main selling points – that it was going to have the first-time involvement of Criterion Games, the studio best known for developing the Burnout series. Many racing fans will know that Criterion have made a good job of Burnout Paradise, and now they’ve done the same with Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Hot Pursuit goes back to its original ground of hitting high speed chases, law enforcement on your tail and beautiful landscapes. The game play differs depending on what mode you choose to play; you can head off to the career and progress through being a speeder or a cop. Of course, there is no specific storyline, the game just embraces you into out of control exhilarating speed chases/ races. That’s all you need in a Need For Speed title. One fun way to experience the single player mode that I would recommend is to alternate between cop and racer missions. Of course as you progress though the missions, you unlock subsequent missions. Unlocking more missions can open a gateway to new missions and new areas to partake in them. Free-Roam has returned from previous NFS titles. I don’t usually jump into the Free Roam mode. But because of how beautiful the game is, I naturally had to jump in and cruise around. With each new mission comes a new area of the map to explore. The free roaming mode feels somewhat pointless as there is nothing specific going on inside the free-roam world. Yet if you don’t mind about the lack of stuff going down in the free-roam world, you can just free-roam and enjoy the scenery. Seacrest County beautiful place to race and there are many locations in the game that I just love, it’s so hard to choose a favourite out of all the different locations available.

Of course the game is a racing game, and what does a racing game need? Cars. And lots of nice expensive cars. Expect to head of in a car worth thousands of dollars including Lamborghinis, Mercedes, Bentleys, Porches. Even though there is not that many cars in the game it self, the quality of the cars make up for that not forgetting they look amazing and the detail and sound complete. One of the highlights with the car system is that when racing as the cops online or offline, you can drive at ridiculously high speeds and arrest some illegal racers! And smash the hell out of your car.

Now as I have babbled on about how great the landscapes and cars look, I want to mention how amazing Criterion have done to pull off the driving controls. The cars handle with a more realistic level of weight compared to Paradise, whether you’re performing subtle weaves or making sharp turns. It is recognisable that Criterion really focused on the sensation of driving at high speeds in illegal races whilst being chased by the fuzz. The very entertaining crash mechanic from Burnout appears in Hot Pursuit. Awesome? Hell yes. The carnage actually looks amazing, but at the same time restrains from what Burnout had to offer and sometimes look over the top. Also don’t expect any interaction with the cars when the crash, sadly no wheels or any other car parts end up flying off anywhere. Talking about car parts, there is 0% customization involved with the cars in the game. This isn’t such a bad thing but at the same time, for those who enjoyed customising their cars from previous NFS titles, may feel a bit distant. This said, you will be pretty occupied ranking up and unlocking much more superior cars to tear up the roads with. There’s also none of the collectibles or side objectives that made Burnout Paradise a time consumer, but a good one in fact. I know I keep referring to Burnout and of course this isn’t a Burnout game, but it doesn’t feel entirely like Need for Speed either. Its pretty 50/50 taking the majority of the best parts of both series and turning them into a tasty sandwich… Or game, probably game since it is a game.

The new Autolog feature is a brilliant feature, Autolog provides online users the ability to connect more with their fellow players/enemies if you consider your XBL Friends as enemies. With the Autolog feature, you can upload screenshots, compete against your friends times/scores, comment on your friends pictures and walls and find recommended friends thanks to the NFS recommended friend system.

Nitro returns in Hot Pursuit. Nitro is also another feature that will be recognizable from both Criterion and NFS fans. There isn’t the opportunity to constantly boost though. You only have a limited amount to use at a time and it takes several seconds for it to fully regenerate, depending on whether you’ve used some or all of the nitro. Similar to Burnout, performing risky moves like near misses and driving into oncoming traffic fills up your boost meter quicker. Hot Pursuit also has a few weapons up its sleeve. Both the cops and the racer can use weapons in races. Don’t worry these no green shells or bananas during the races, instead we are given EMP’s, Spike strips, Helicopters, Jammers, Road Blocks and Turbo. The coppers have the opportunity to use Road blocks and Helicopters along with EMP’s and Spike strips. The racers are given Turbo, Jammers, EMP’s and Spike strips. The most noticeable career focused feature is that the AI is very well balanced considering the rubber-banding. The challenge is there and is not easy, which actually isn’t bad and it makes the races more of a great experience.

Playing as a cop online involves strategy; you can either work with random people online or invite 4 of your friends to team up with. Working as a team online is what Hot Pursuit focuses on in the Pursuit mode. It’s not a necessity to work in a team how ever but it will make the chase finisher must easier and quicker. The same goes for the racers as you can even take out the opposition to come in first place, or work together to take down the cops. The whole weapon system is brilliant really well balanced. The more you play and progress the career and online you unlock the ability to unlock upgrades on, e.g. Road Blocks. Setting down a Road Block is always enjoyable, especially when the rival car hits into them – though I guess that could go for any of the weapons! During races you will aim to finding short-cuts to cut in front of an another racer or to get rid of a police car that is on your tail.

The online multi-player differs from the career of course as the players have a mind of their own. The difficulty mainly differs due to ranking as the higher ranks will have more faster cars and weapon upgrades. Hot Pursuit’s online performance has had no issues on my front and lag is barley noticeable. You can head online against 7 other players taking the chaos to the online roads. You can have as many as 4 cops against 4 racers or keep it simple with a 1-on-1 chase. There is also a cop-free mode where you simply race against 7 others. You can also partake in standard races which is pretty self explanatory.

Overall

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is hands down the best NFS title since Most Wanted. Criterion clearly know their racing titles as they have brought a bit of Burnout to a loved Hot Pursuit series to bring it back from the grave. The single player mode is equally as appealing as the multiplayer, both being enjoyable in their own ways. The game is very balanced and features a lot of beautiful landscapes and cars. The customization isn’t there, however, so fans of the previous titles may miss that feature.

The Good?

• Brilliant Career Mode
• The design for the cars and scenery is beautiful
• Racing as the Police couldn’t be more fun
• The online has a great ranking system

The Bad

• Lack of customisation

Developer: Criterion Games

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows (Also available for Wii and iPhone although this review does not reflect the performance of those versions.)

Released: November 16, 2010