Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Review – Like Lamb(o)s To The Slaughter

Put the cars, landscape and extra visual features together and then add a healthy dose of fantastic looking damage effects on the cars, lighting from headlights, cop cars and helicopters as well as a punchy soundtrack and sound design that would make a Michael Bay movie blush… and you have yourself one hell of a driving experience.

To make it all even more interesting, Criterion included what they like to think will be a new form of social connectivity in gaming – and they called it the Autolog. The Autolog system is fully integrated into the game, and joins players together in new ways that actually manage to add extra value and interest to elements that area already there. If anything, think of Autolog as a highly advanced leaderboard system crossed over with social networking.

Whenever you race, you can see what the next fastest friends time is that you need to beat. Beat them and you can share it with everyone on the Autolog wall. If someone beats you, you will receive notifications in your career – and where the leaderboard addictions begin is that from the notification, you can jump straight back into that race in question to take back the lead with the simple press of a single button.

When I first heard about the Autolog, I thought it was going to just be a silly attempt at jumping on the social networking bandwagon, but now that I have seen the concept in action, my mind has been changed. Its a clever system that adds value to the game while simultaneously connecting you to your friends and their activities and will even recommend friends from other peoples friends list if you like.

So while that covers the career mode and Autolog, there is only one thing left to discuss… the multiplayer.

With a game like Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, its almost difficult to think of ways for a multiplayer component to not work perfectly. You can create session to play with anyone or your friends and due to the nature of the game, you get to pretty much carry on as usual,except with real people.

Hot Pursuit multiplayer sessions with 4 cops and 4 racers are nothing short of spectacular, while 2 people can even get away with playing a mode where one racer needs to escape one police vehicle. While we did have a few issues with voices cutting out during the first few days, the multiplayer behaved most of the time and proved to be an incredibly smooth and easy experience. Even when playing with 4 local players and 4 other players from around the world, there was no noticeable lag for 90% of the time.

One of the nicest extra features to the multiplayer, is that you can still level up and unlock vehicles or upgrades from your career when playing online. So if you are rampaging along in single player or hammering it down with some buddies in multiplayer, you are still gaining levels and making progress.

Conclusion:

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is quite possibly the most fun I have had playing a game all year and everything that I have been begging for ever since Most Wanted had come and gone. The races are exhilarating, the gameplay is a load of fun, the visuals are gorgeous and the multiplayer lets you do it with all your friends.

This is truly a game that anyone can pick up and love, from hardcore petrol-heads all the way to those who thought they didn’t like racing games at all. For real old-school Need for Speed fans such as myself, I have only one thing to say to the team at Criterion Games:

Thank you.

---

Gameplay: 9.0/10

Realism has been kicked out of the door to make space for extra shipments of awesome-sauce. Fun, exhilarating and even easy to pick up.

Presentation: 9.5/10

Everything in NFS: HP is slick, from the great graphics, good looking cars and game world to the intuitive menus and ever-so-sick race intros. A lot of effort went into making this game a visual treat as a whole.

Sound: 9/10

Roaring engines, helicopters flying overhead, nitros burning and a great as well as varied soundtrack to wrap it all up.

Value: 8.5/10

The career will keep you busy for some time, especially if you are tempted by the Autolog’s challenges to go back and beat your friends times. As much fun as the multiplayer is, I don’t see it lasting as long as say, your favorite online first-person shooter.

---

Overall: 9.2/10 [not an average]

I almost dare you to find someone who won’t enjoy Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – it’s fun, frantic and one of the best driving games to grace this generation of gaming.

[Reviewed on Xbox 360]

Last Updated: November 26, 2010