GameXplain reviews single player and multiplayer separately

A focused and supremely fun return to the series' roots.

There are typically two camps when it comes to racing games. There are the realistic racers where everything about the car has to be adjusted and practiced in order to achieve that perfect line and win the race. Then there are the arcade racers where it's all about the sense of speed and letting players act out their wildest driving fantasies. Of the two, I most definitely fall into the latter category. I can see the enjoyment of the former, but I lack the patience and precision necessary to get the most out of those games. I'd much rather jump into a car and go balls to the wall, sliding past traffic and boosting to incredible speeds. In this way, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is the ultimate arcade racing experience for me. Developed by the incredible team at Criterion, Hot Pursuit offers one of the most focused and fun arcade racers I've played in a long time.

Hot Pursuit takes the series back to its roots and puts the spotlight on what really matters for the series; namely the cars, the races, and the sense of fun. The Career mode is where players will spend most of their time and can choose either the role of Racer or Cop. The roles are distinct yet there are overlaps in how their careers work. Racer events include the typical Race and Time Trial as well as Previews (Time Trials with special cars), Gauntlet (Time Trial with Cops in pursuit), Duel (a one on one race), and the titular Hot Pursuit which has cops after racers as they speed toward the finish line. Cops have less variety but a unique take on each event. Rapid Response is like Time Trial except that time is added for every car or wall hit making the event more about precision. Preview works the same way and Interceptor tasks you with taking down a single wily racer that can go anywhere on the map rather than be confined to a course. Finally, Hot Pursuit tasks cops with taking down all racers before they reach the finish line.

Each of the races earns the player Bounty that increases their reputation as well as unlocks new cars in one of five classes. The system is great in how it constantly rewards the player. Even if you have a string of bad luck and can't beat a race, you still earn a bit of Bounty toward your ultimate goal. Eventually, you can unlock a new car and that might make all the difference in beating that race. The final element is the tool system that Hot Pursuit employs. Both the Cops and Racers get four different tools with limited uses in order to either aide or evade capture. Each side gets spike strips and EMP pulses but the Racers also get a jammer and a turbo boost while the Cops get road blocks and a helicopter that will fly ahead of the pack and drop spike strips. Each tool can be upgraded and made more deadly with use.

Both sides can explore the massive real estate of Seacrest County at their leisure but unlike Burnout Paradise the actual races can be chosen from an overworld map. The races are also more structured than the ones found in Burnout. Guidelines point you to the end of the race rather than being able to take any route you choose though there are still plenty of opportunities for shortcuts. Personally, I love this change as it gives a sense of focus. In Burnout Paradise I constantly had to plot my course and check the map for the best route while Hot Pursuit allows me to concentrate on battling the other racers and performing perfect drifts. The progression of the game is also near perfect with a gradual increase in difficulty in both the AI and track design. The AI can be vicious, but it actually taught me some tricks to use in later races that ended up helping greatly. It rarely comes to the point of being frustrating and instead offers some of the most pulse-pounding races I've ever been in, especially in Hot Pursuit events. These races are made even more intense by lengthening the courses and even combining two different ones into one super course. The game never stops trying to one-up itself and for that the player is given plenty of excitement on the track.

Thankfully the graphics are able to fully keep up with all the action onscreen. Cars are well designed and always carry a sense of awe once a new one is revealed. I'm not much of a car guy but when some of these things look like stealth fighters on wheels, I can't help but be impressed. Unlike Burnout, all of the cars are licensed which helps give a greater sense of ownership once a new one is in your garage. Amazingly they're all fully destructible as well which plays right into Criterion's strength. They never achieve the same level of destruction as some of their past games, but it's understandable and still a joy to watch the wreckage. The game is also impressively detailed with each area of Seacrest County feeling distinct. Deserts, coastlines, forests, and snow-capped mountains are spread across the county though there's very little in the way of urban areas. But with all the racing and speeding in the area, who would want to live there? Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the graphics are the weather and time of day cycles. Certain races will have you start at the break of dawn or toward the end of the afternoon and by the race's end it will have changed to full daylight or darkness. The same happens with the different weather that plays a part in the condition of the track. What makes it so amazing is the subtlety that goes into it. I never realized that it was happening until it was already done. It all comes together to make one of the best looking racers on consoles.

The audio package is just as good, especially if you have a sound system to really show it off. Everything from the screeching of tires to the roar of the engines puts you in the moment. Sometimes the constant police sirens can be a little much, but it's not that big of a deal. I can easily ignore something like that especially when there's little touches that give the world life such as helicopters and planes flying overhead. This being Criterion, the sounds of the crashes are also pitch perfect with glass breaking and metal crunching filling the speakers. The actual soundtrack is varied with a little something for everyone ranging from rock to hip hop to pop. Unfortunately, there's no option to upload your own soundtrack, but I suspect that's because certain race types actually use an orchestral score that is meant to play up the thrill of the chase. Overall, the sound design is just as good as the rest of the game.

When I first heard that Criterion was making Hot Pursuit, I hoped that it would take the best elements of Burnout and mesh them together with what makes Need For Speed great. That's exactly what I got. The races are fun, fast, intense, and challenging. I'll be playing this game long after I'm done with this review. The highest compliment I can give is that this is the best arcade racer I've played since Burnout 3: Takedown.  If you consider yourself even a modest racing fan, be sure to check it out.

An average experience heightened by the revolutionary Autolog.

Of course after saying all that I left out one of the most unique features of Hot Pursuit, the Autolog. I debated whether to include this in the multiplayer or single player portion of the review but in the end, I decided it would only affect those with an internet connection. The Autolog is the game's version of a social network. Players can take pictures, send friends messages, and even find new friends through the system, but the best feature is by far is the racing wall. Every time you complete a race in the Career, your time will be uploaded to the server. If you beat a friend, you can post a message to the wall bragging about your new time. That said it also keeps track of how many attempts went into achieving that score so your friend has something to throw back at you if it took a particularly long time. Though you never interact directly with your friends through Autolog, it's the most addictive aspect of the game. Every time you log on, you're immediately greeted with news that your times have been beaten. The competitive spirit immediately kicks in and you've got to get back on top. Even players who usually aren't that competitive will feel this need. Long after everyone has unlocked everything in Hot Pursuit, the Autolog will be what keeps them coming back as it is very similar to keeping the high score in the days of the arcade.

But the Autolog isn't the only multiplayer component of Need For Speed. There a few online modes for players compete in. The first of which is Hot Pursuit which randomly places four players as racers and four players as cops. What makes this mode so much fun is that there is a competitive spirit between the people on your team as well as the opposing team. Racers all want to work together to survive the assault of the cops but each wants to come in first place. Similarly, the cops need to work together to take out the racers but want the bonuses that come with achieving the most takedowns. The mode is pure chaotic fun and probably the most balanced of the three available. What makes the system work is that Bounty is earned for doing well and will help unlock new cars. It's entirely possible to only play online and unlock every car in the game.

The second mode is Interceptor which is a one on one between a cop and a racer with all of Seacrest County at their disposal. The racer needs to escape the cop either by getting far enough away or permanently disabling him. The cop just needs to shut the racer down. Interceptor is fun as long as the two players are evenly matched. Often it will end too quickly or go on forever with nothing happening and can become downright boring. It's my least favorite of the available modes, but that doesn't mean it's devoid of fun. The final mode is simply Race which pits eight racers against one another in a fight to the finish. There are no tools available so it's all about who's got the best skills and the fastest car. The nature of the races leads to some extremely tight battling amongst the group, making it a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the winner is all too often decided by who has unlocked the fastest car. It makes sense, but it becomes less fun when it is all too apparent that you can't win.

The online race modes are fun distractions, but they never hooked me like the career races. The real star of the multiplayer is the Autolog. It's what will keep players coming back to the game as long as they have friends that are constantly challenging them to do better. And as long as I have friends that are challenging me, I'm going to have a tough time quitting this game. Something that I'm sure a lot of players are experiencing already.

Note: This game was reviewed on Playstation 3