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Need for Speed Most Wanted Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Need for Speed Most Wanted Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

The Fast Lane

Open world street racing is certainly nothing new in the world of video games, and Need for Speed has long been one the genre’s most beloved franchises. With Need for Speed Most Wanted (not to be confused with the game of the same title that came out back in 2005), the series continues to tweak the formula ever so slightly in an attempt to deliver that perfect street racing flavor.

This time, Criterion Games was clear that they wanted this to be an experience players will have almost complete control over, rather than one that will guide players through a predetermined series of objectives. There is a barely-there story that will attempt to motivate you to collect the ten Most Wanted vehicles scattered across the beautiful Fairhaven City, and you could argue that this is the central focus of the game. You’ll earn a set amount of Speed Points, which allows you to race against a Most Wanted car. If you manage to beat that car in a race, you’ll have to take it down by ramming it off the road, and then you’ll be granted access to it any time you wish to drive it. Rinse, repeat, until all ten Most Wanted cars are yours.

Needless to say, if you spend all your time focusing only on this particular aspect of the game, you’re in for a repetitive experience.

Need for Speed Most Wanted Screenshot

But here’s the thing: There’s so much other stuff to do that to play the game in such a way would be selling it short. You see, there are challenges scattered across the world that you can take on at your leisure. For example, there are speed cameras set up all around town, and passing by one will record whatever speed you were moving at when you passed it. This posts to a leaderboard so all your friends can see who among you is the fastest little rapscallion on the road.

All of this happens through the game’s Autolog feature. Pretty much everything you do in the game world—whether it’s placing in a race, “jacking” a new car, passing a speed camera, smashing through security fences, or destroying a billboard—is tracked via Autolog, and you’ll be given a list of randomly selected objectives based around what your friends are doing. This adds a competitive element that paints itself over pretty much every aspect of the game. You’ll be constantly reminded that your friends are better than you, and if you value your self esteem at all, you’ll find the motivation you need to embarrass them in turn by knocking them down a peg on Autolog’s leaderboards.

Of course, Autolog isn’t the only way you can interact with your friends. There’s also full-on multiplayer, which allows you to invite your friends to hang out with you on the streets of Fairhaven City. You have the option to start a Speedlist, which is essentially a list of races and challenges you’ll be competing in with whoever else is in your game with you. There are standard race types here, yes, but there are some other challenges that are pretty bizarre. For example, one challenge I took part in had my opponent and me doing jumps over a stretch of highway. Whoever managed to jump the greatest collective distance by the end of the round was declared the winner.

Need for Speed Most Wanted Screenshot

Oh, and there’s also a game type that allows you to wreck each other’s cars in a demolition derby of sorts. Ever want to humiliate your friends while destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of automobile? Go for it.

Of course, if you just want to drive around and explore on your own, you can do that too. The multiplayer world comes with its own set of challenges, and the cars you earn in single-player won’t carry over. However, any Speed Points you earn in multiplayer will carry over to single-player and vice versa. You’ll need to earn 1,000,000 Speed Points to take on the final Most Wanted car, so it’s awesome that Criterion gave us the option to score those points in whichever manner we prefer.

And that’s really Most Wanted’s greatest strength: It allows you to play the game however you want to. While in multiplayer, I talked to another player who decided to skip the Most Wanted races for the most part in favor of building his repertoire of cars, exploring the world to find speed cameras and billboards, and wiping the smirks off his friends’ faces by toppling their records on the leaderboards. I took the opposite approach and tried to collect the Most Wanted cars as fast as possible. While both playstyles are incredibly different, the game is set up in a way that encourages both of them equally.

Need for Speed Most Wanted Screenshot

Of course, as the Most Wanted subtitle suggests, there is also a focus on illegal activities. While this isn’t Grand Theft Auto, you will be stealing cars and racing them at insane speeds down city streets. Prepare to be chased by the cops. A lot.

The world in which you’ll be doing all this is gorgeous. From the reflections in the puddles on the pavement to the smudges that show up on your car when you scrape the edge of an embankment, this game looks insanely good. Yes, Criterion has crafted a world with so much detail that it simply feels like a real place. But that doesn’t mean it’s without a sense of style. The checkpoint system is especially neat, with gigantic white text that hovers in the air to let you know where you’re going during any race. Also, before each race you’ll be treated to a CG cutscene of sorts (more of a stylish intro than anything with any real story element), and the Most Wanted intros in particular have some absolutely stunning visuals.

And it sounds pretty great as well. Each engine rumbles with its own signature sound, and the soundtrack features a wide array of energetic hit songs. My one complaint about the audio is that, in a game that includes so much police activity, it would have been nice to hear more variety in the police scanner chatter. During even short chases, you’ll hear a lot of the same dialogue repeated over and over.

As long as I’m on the topic of complaints, there was one particularly nasty glitch that made my game freeze for a couple seconds every time I neared a particular guard rail. This would have been a bit more forgivable if this didn’t happen during a Most Wanted race. Let me tell you, there are few things more annoying than ramming into a guard rail at 120 MPH because your game froze up in the middle of a drift.

Need for Speed Most Wanted Screenshot

I did find a couple other minor bugs as well. For example, I found a missing texture in an out-of-the-way corner of the map, though it’s quite possible most players won’t ever know it’s there. More noticeable, though, were some places where the checkpoints didn’t stretch all the way across a wide section of road, so I could miss a checkpoint even when my car was fully on the road.

All in all, though, these nitpicks are fairly minor, especially considering just how massive this game world is. You basically have free reign over an entire city.

Need for Speed Most Wanted is a highly refined open world street racing experience that offers a little bit for everyone. Collectors will have fun trying to steal every car in the game, while more explorative types will enjoy scouting the lesser-travelled areas to find speed cameras and smashable billboards. Those with a penchant for law-breaking will be tearing past cops at sick speeds, and those who prefer strictly objective-based gameplay will obsess over the Most Wanted races. And competitive types will adore proving themselves superior to their friends while doing all of the above. I think it’s safe to say that no matter which type of gamer you are, you’ll find at least some aspect of Need for Speed Most Wanted to completely lose yourself in.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.8 Graphics
Fairhaven City looks fantastic, as do the cars you’ll explore it in. 4.5 Control
Tight and responsive, though every car handles differently enough to have a unique personality. 4.2 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Nice engine sounds and a well-rounded soundtrack, though the police scanner audio will get repetitive. 4.8 Play Value
Fairhaven City comes stuffed to the gills with things to do, and with Autolog, all of those things become competitions between you and your friends. 4.7 Overall Rating – Must Buy
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Connected Open World – Blaze a high score trail through the city for your friends. The next generation of Autolog displays your record speeds, times, pursuits and jump distances throughout Fairhaven City. Cruise past any speed camera, road junction, Jack Spot, or jump to view its unique leaderboard, and then take a run up, hit the gas and see if you can top it. Hit the biggest air off any billboard jump, and we’ll even display your face on the billboard in their game! – a constant reminder to your friends that you are Most Wanted.
  • Find it Drive it – Pick a Car. Make it Your Own. Earn the right to be Most Wanted. For too long you’ve had to wait to drive the cars you love. Not anymore. In Most Wanted, “Open” means more than just open world. Practically every car’s available from the start. Explore the world. If you can find it, you can drive it. Each car has a series of events, designed to showcase its unique qualities. Master each car in your own time, in any order to earn Speed Points and rank up. Score enough and you’ll earn the right to take on 10 of the hottest cars in the game – the Most Wanted Racers. Beat them all one-on-one to become Fairhaven’s Most Wanted. Swing the odds in your favor by modifying your car with such pursuit-busting delights as: Reinforced Chassis, Reinflating Tires, Impact Protection, Powershot Nitrous, or Track Tires. Customization in Most Wanted is about gameplay. Every mod changes what you can do with the car. Get the drop on your friends, your rivals, and The Law by experimenting with different cars and combinations.
  • Make Trouble – For the cops. For your friends. For fun. Buckle up, hit the gas and hold on tight; you’re in for the ride of your life. In Most Wanted, you’ll experience dream cars, the way you always wanted them. No tracks, no circuits, and no simulation. It’s about taking your ride to the limit and beyond, nailing perfect 200 mile-an-hour drifts, slamming your friends off the road, outsmarting the cops, and getting away with it in style.
  • Non-Stop Multiplayer —No menus. No lobbies. Just competition. Our online play is about intense competition, rank and vehicle modification. We’re into team games, variety, persistent scoring, and endless rewards. Pick a car, meet up with your friends, and enjoy a nonstop Playlist of competitive events. Fight for position on the start line or turn around to take out oncoming rivals at the finish. It’s online driving, as you’ve never seen it.

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