Need for Speed: Most Wanted Review (PS3)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is an open-world arcade racer, with such a wide range of experiences packed in, it's hard to know where to start. From races, pursuits, speed runs, competing with your mates' times on autolog and just exploring the world to find new cars and billboards, there's plenty to do here. Yes, it is possible to beat the ten 'most wanted' racers (the closest thing the game has to a structure) in under 10 hours, but that'd be like speed-running Skyrim's main quest in 20 hours and thinking that was all there is to do in the game.

The core driving is rock-solid, and is an excellent balance between that in Burnout Paradise and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. While the differences between many of the cars aren't huge (this is an arcade, not a sim racer, after all), you will notice a clear difference between the classes of cars on offer (including, Race, Exotic, Muscle, Everyday and SUVs), as well as some difference between cars within each class. There is a limited set of upgrades (two each for tyres, transmission, body, chassis and boost) which are unlocked by completing a set of five races for each car (with 41 different cars to drive in the game, and 10 Most Wanted cars to race, that's over 200 races!), and they're worth unlocking, but it's all pretty basic. Visual customisation is limited to the color of the car, which changes every time you drive through a servo (the one-stop boost refill, damage repair and paint station) in single-player.

The racing (it is an arcade racer, after all) is a traditional arcade affair, with just the right amount of rubber banding - not so much so that you'll often find yourself suddenly and improbably overtaken just before the finish line, but enough so that if you crash out half-way through the race there's still generally a chance of winning if you're good enough.

And while the single-player gameplay is all played solo versus the AI, you'll also be playing against everyone on your friends list at the same time through the extremely well-implemented Autolog. This displays your friends' best times for each and every challenge you can do in the game (from the times for each race, to the longest jump through each of the over 100 billboards, to the fastest time through each of the 66 speed cameras, to how many jack spots have been uncovered and more) and spurs you on to improve your position against your friends.

There are some rough edges to the gameplay that are worth noting. The difficulty curve is very uneven, and while each of a car's five 'unlock' races is labelled with 'easy', 'medium' and 'difficult', these are broadly indicative at best. For example, for the Ford Focus, getting a win on the 'medium' race was far harder than for either of the two 'difficult' options, something that my speedwall suggested was experienced by the others on my friends list. There is also no option to change the difficulty setting, so you can't adjust the difficulty of the game to suit your skills or experience. For an interface and game that was so well designed in most other respects, not including difficulty settings is an odd decision, even if it is in keeping with their approach to Burnout Paradise.

The other issue that popped up a few times was that the cops in the game are a mixed bag, and both myself and most of my friends playing it found them a bit of a chore. The 'Racer' campaign in Criterion's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit were my favourite parts, but for me, running away from the law in Most Wanted was more tedious than exciting. Fortunately, it's possible to avoid getting into prolonged chases most of the time, and if you do, there's pretty much no penalty for pulling over and being busted. It's not a dealbreaker but more of a missed opportunity.

There's a lot to like about the visuals in the game, from the detailed car models (not GT5-detailed, but still very impressive and you never get as close to them as you do in GT5) to the detailed world and the sometimes spectacular lighting. Textures are crisp, the framerate is consistently fast, the world is geometrically complex, and the visual design is appealing. The difference in visuals between (the far from ugly) Burnout Paradise and Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a great example of how developers can wring better visuals out of hardware as the they learn both the quirks of the PS3, and how to better optimise their code.

From throaty engine noises to ambient sounds in the background, the aural landscape in Need for Speed: Most Wanted matches the game's high standards in other areas. A much-welcome feature is the built-in support of custom soundtracks (you can select any playlists on your PS3 as the soundtrack for the game within the game's options menu), although the default soundtrack is no slouch either, with plenty of quality licensed music. Online, voice communication is clear and generally lag free.

The easy-to-use Easydrive menu is so flexible that if you have the presence of mind and manual dexterity, you can literally change the mods on your car mid-race. Jumping online, changing cars, starting races and replaying the last event is all as easy as a couple of presses on the d-pad, all without stopping the game. It's an elegant and extremely usable menu system that builds on that found in Burnout Paradise. Loading times, other than the initial load-up from the XMB (which does take a while), are all very reasonable, particularly for an open-world game.

The main black mark here is that the game does have a few glitches and bugs. Nothing game-breaking, and they don't happen often, but you may find instances of falling through the bottom of the world, the HUD disappearing, being respawned after crashes in strange locations and the like. Given the core gameplay happens in races that generally don't go for longer than 10 minutes, and often not longer than 5, being occasionally forced to restart an event when these happen isn't as frustrating as in most games. While it's also not a biggy (the game is better suited to playing with a controller), as far as I can tell, there isn't support for racing wheels.

The 'story' to NFW:MW is that you're building up to racing against, beating and then taking the rides of the 10 'Most Wanted' racers in Fairhaven. That's pretty much it, and while you get a nice cinematic once you've done this, both Criterion and you know that the game is more about the open-world, and Autolog competition with friends, than a linear path through a story or event tree. To this end, the game's presentation is exceptional - everything works together really well such that you've always got something to do, or can find it quickly and easily, and you're rarely waiting around, or doing 'busywork' in between.

Multiplayer in NFS:MW, like Burnout Paradise before it, is online-only, and managed using 'speedlists', selections of five events that are played through sequentially, with scores accumulating as you go. Hosts can choose to either set up their own speedlists (which can be done offline, pre-game), or let the game pick one of the many 'Criterion Speedlists', a mix of events put together by the devs. All of these can be restricted to a particular vehicle class.

The events include races, speed tests (competitions to get the highest speed at a particular point, or to jump the longest distance), challenges (a huge range of team events, such as everyone reaching a certain point in the game like jumping onto the top of a building, or getting a set number of takedowns in a particular area) and team races. Speed points (the games universal currency) are awarded not just for the set event objectives, but for things like being first to the meet-up point for the event, or for each takedown. While it can lead to some lobbies being a bit 'takedown happy', it also keeps the scoring fluid and gives everyone a bit of flexibility in how they want to focus their gaming.

Your available cars online is determined by your overall 'speed level', and not by what you've unlocked in single-player. Further, mods for these cars are unlocked by using them for certain things online (getting air, just driving, takedowns, etc;), but to keep the playing-field level, there are modded-up versions of cars available for people that haven't had time to unlock things.

All in all, the MP is a lot of fun, has plenty of material (there's a good range of races, challenges and speed tests), and partying up is quick and easy. It's possible to set rooms to invite-only as well, which means it's well set-up to support competitive play.

With a huge amount of quality content for both single player and multiplayer, Need for Speed: Most Wanted is an excellent package. There are rough edges, and many will find the cops a tad overzealous, but the good in the package far outweighs the bad. Need for Speed: Most Wanted is up there with the best arcade racers yet produced, and if that's your type of game, you should deffo give it a look. With the demo out on the PSN tomorrow, there's no excuse not to.