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 Need
for Speed: Hot Pursuit (Playstation 3)
When EA announced that Criterion, the developers behind Burnout were
taking the wheel for the next Need for Speed title, gamers were genuinely
excited. Melding these two winning franchises together, with the
high-octane and occasionally violent Burnout aesthetic meeting the classic
cops 'n robbers formula, along with super-powered high end vehicles seems
irresistible. The implementation is superb with brilliant visuals, and
incredible sense of speed and large, open-ended courses. Add an excellent
new online mode called Autolog that mixes social networking with
competitive racing and its easy to see why Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
lives up to the high expectations.
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Over the past few years, Criterion's Burnout series blazed a unique trail
in racing games with a frenetic mixture of high-octane speed, epic crashes
and brilliantly realized visuals. On the other hand, EA's Need for Speed
series seems to have veered wildly in different directions with good
installments following disappointing editions in seemingly endless yearly
upgrades, with little direction inherent in the series. Giving Criterion
the controls for this year's installment has finally produced an excellent
racing experience that lives up to the reputation built by earlier games
while adding new innovations. Hot Pursuit takes the best of the series'
cops n' robbers titles and brings a new sense of urgency to its gameplay
with high-octane crash animations, intense racing action and a plethora of
unlockable content to unlock. Set in the fictitious Seacrest County, Hot
Pursuit lets you choose to play either as outlaw underground racers or the
cops who are looking to shut them down. The game's events are split evenly
between good and bad guys and you can jump back and forth between them as
you wish. However, you only earn bounty points for the path you choose and
you can transfer these points from one to the other. You begin with a few
events on each side with a decent sized garage of vehicles to choose from.
As in Need For Speed tradition, there's an array of super-powered sports
cars at your disposal including rides from Porsche, Aston Martin, Ford and
more. The models sport realistic body work and most can be customized by
color as well. The game's main draw comes in the races themselves which
include a good variety of events. These include point-to-point races,
which are straightforward enough, one-on-one events, time trial modes and
more of the usual types.
What makes the gameplay so exciting
isn't the game modes, but what happens on the road. In Hot Pursuit, much
like Burnout, one of the key elements is Nitrous. This gives your vehicle
a quick speed burst and allows you to zoom past competitors. In order to
earn more of this miracle liquid, you have to drive dangerously, such as
on the wrong side of the road, or by following an opponent's slipstream.
Avoiding crashes and barreling through police barricades is another key
element in the game. Its much harder than it sounds because the oncoming
vehicles scream at you and quick reflexes are needed to get out of their
way. One of the best parts about the game are its controls, which are
smooth, responsive and quite effective. Turning is easily accomplished by
learning ahead of time where the turns are and anticipating when you need
to use the brakes. Using the radar helps a little bit and its easy to
understand and gives you notice as to whether the next turn is easy or
sharp. Learning how to drift and timing your acceleration is another
tricky task but something most players should be able to get the hang of.
The game's multiple viewpoints are effective and allow you a good point of
view no matter if you prefer a first-person perspective or want to see the
car traversing Hot Pursuit's roads. It's only major flaw comes in the
shortcuts which are somewhat hard to use and occasionally trick players
into taking a slower route. Of course, many of these are off-road
sections, so they also reduce your speed. Knowing whether or not to use
one of them requires some trial and error, but you should be able to get
the hang of them after a few practice runs.
Your opponents are quite aggressive in
each race, and they'll bump and scratch your car and event try and knock
you off the road in order to finish. Learning the layout of each course
requires you to make split-second decisions and while the standard route
usually works best, each race also has a number of short-cuts, which you
can take if you want to go a little faster. You can also use these if you
want to evade police cars and through them off your trail. Playing through
the various modes takes quite a bit of time and shows that there's plenty
of variety to be had in Hot Pursuit. In addition to standard races, there
are also single vehicle modes where you have to race a specific vehicle
through a challenging course to beat the best time, or make it through a
hot pursuit without having your car destroyed. When playing as an
underground racer, you have other special abilities besides nitrous. These
include radar jamming EMT devices that can put nearby cops out of
commission for a short time, spike strips which can slow down your
opponents and damage them. Later on, players can also unlock the ability
to use other weapons and a special turbo boost to help them speed through
the course. However, these are limited use items and should be implemented
only when you're sure they'll be effective. Playing as the cops offers a
similar set of mission types, but there are some subtle differences that
make these missions challenging. For example, in time trial modes, you're
penalized for crashing into walls and for collisions with civilian
vehicles, which makes them a lot harder. Basic ramming techniques are
effective at stopping the racers when you're a cop, but you can also use
some of the same high-tech devices such as radar jammers to end their
races. You can also call in reinforcements to erect police barricades and
even call in helicopters at some stages. This makes the pursuit missions
some of the most exciting and intense in the game, and give NFS Hot
Pursuit an energy and drama that most other racing titles lack.
 The
single player modes are brilliantly executed, but the most innovative
feature of NFS: Hot Pursuits comes in the implementation of its online
mode, called Autolog. While Criterion and EA could have been content
offering a basic set of features, they've gone several steps into the
social network realm with the new Autolog feature. Logging in allows
players to compete in a number of different events. Keeping track of
friends and is easy and status updates automatically in the interface,
which also allows you to stay informed of new downloads and other NFS
news. You need some friends to compete with and these can be found quickly
be competing in automatic events. These include the standard race types
you'll find in career mode though some events, such as Hot Pursuit have
you competing as a team. The objective in these events is to either cross
the finish line before the cops stop you or stop the racers from ending
their race without crashing. The unpredictability of these races maks them
even more exciting than their offline counterparts, and ratchets up the
intensity of NFS races. In addition, you can post messages on your wall
between races and take photos and post them on your own page as well,
which gives the game a true sense of community. While it might seem like a
tremendously difficult task, you should have no trouble filling your
friends roster quickly as you play. After you have a small group of
friends that you can use to compete against and try and place highest on
the speed-wall. Successfully doing so allows you to earn even more extra
bounty points that you can apply to career mode. This is an interesting
tactic to keep players motivated online, allowing you to unlock additional
items much faster. You can also change your settings in number of ways to
create customize events, invite only specific players and other additional
options. One of the best features of Autolog is its ability to recommend
races to you, which means you can jump right on the track and compete
against friends without having to navigate endless menus and lists. This
makes for an even more sophisticated online experience and gives the game
a true sense of community. NFS: Hot Pursuit's Autolog feature is seamless
integrated into the main game and its functionality and ties to the main
solo game make it an essential part of the gameplay experience. It's
definitely one of the more innovative features and approaches to the
racing genre we've seen in recent years.
Despite their differences, both online
and solo modes of the game have a lot in common. As you'd expect from
Criterion, the graphics engine is superb. Hot Pursuit's richly detailed
environments range from mountains covered in snow to deserts. Players will
also encounter dry and wet surfaces and have to contend with day and night
driving. Light sourcing is superb and the level of detail on all the
vehicles is excellent as well. The level of polish that has gone into the
game is superb - everything from the lightning in the distance to the
flashing police sirens looks authentic and realistic while the sense of
speed and massively over-the-top crash animations give NFS: Hot Pursuit
and fantastic feeling of hyper-reality that makes the game an arcade-style
romp that's a joy to play. It's open-ended courses deliver plenty of
variety in terms of layout as well, with long straights and tight corners
that should keep players challenged for quite some time. Unlike many other
racers, Hot Pursuit's open-ended structure makes it easy to play for quick
bursts or extended periods and the high-frequency of unlockables keeps you
motivated to keep playing for extended periods. Keeping with the NFS
tradition, the collection of high-powered vehicles you can acquire and
drive is quite impressive and since both sides have access to these
super-cars, it's just as much fun to play on the law-enforcement side as
it is to become a street racer. There's definitely been a lot of
anticipation surrounding Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and its good to
report the advance notice surrounding the game has been entirely
justified. This is probably the best in the Need for Speed series since
Most Wanted came out five years ago, and its leaps ahead of recent NFS
disappointments like ProStreet and Underground. It's one of the sleekest
and most enjoyable racers we've played this year and definitely ranks as
one of the season's must-buy titles.
- Michael Palisano
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