Hot Pursuit lives up to the hype and delivers a game that will change the Need for Speed franchise for years to come.

User Rating: 9.5 | Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit X360
By SkyrinGans | Review Date:
When I think of Need for Speed, I think of Most Wanted, my favorite racing game of all time. It blew me away with its chases, races, story, speed, and offered me years worth of fun, interactive gameplay. I still love it to this day. Once Carbon was announced, I was shown the incredible vinyl design of the game and was once again blown away. Then I beat the game two days later. It wasn't a bad game. It just needed a lot of improvement. Once I played Prostreet, I was dissapointed. It was boring and lame. I always said "Leave the sims to Forza. Keep bringing the action" and I still think that to this day. Then I heard about Undercover, hoping there would be hope. So I played it and I was considerably happy. I think they tried too hard to make it realistic. There will a lot of technical issues and realism issues that were never fixed. Then came the big three. NFS World, NFS Shift, and NFS Nitro. When I heard about all these games, I thought "Wow this is taking it up a noch". I thought Shift would be awful because it was another sim. Nitro looked like a real NFS game, while World looked like every racers dream. All three street racing worlds coming together. Once EA put Shift trailers on the XBL marketplace, I watched a few of them and was captivated. I knew it had to be mine. Once I got it for Christmas, I had the time of my life and I still love it to this day. I also was able to play World and I wasn't too fond. I guess it wasn't my thing. I still never got to play Nitro. Once I heard Criterion Games, the creators of the Burnout series and my favorite developer, wasn't putting any more content into Paradise when they promised they would, I got angry. It was then told that they were working on a secret NFS project. I'm still a little mad at them, but then my friend told me that they were making a remake to the hit NFS series, Hot Pursuit. I really didn't know what to say, but once I saw the trailer, I was speechless. The second I saw it, I told my mom we needed to preorder it. We did and after two weeks of playing, I finally have my thoughts.

Hot Pursuit is a step in the right direction for Need for Speed. Criterion Games did a great job demonstrating that Need for Speed is all about having, well a need for speed. It's all about fast, exotic cars and beating your opponent by a mile. Hot Pursuit has changed my mind of the franchise. The premise is simple. You have two careers, the racers and the cops. The point of the racers is to be the "Most Wanted", while the cop is to be the "Ultimate Enforcer". It's a simple goal but hard to become. It takes a lot of skill to get to level 10 alone. You need to be cunning and tricky as a cop while being smooth and sharp as a racer.

Gameplay is inspired by Hot Pursuit 2 and Need for Speed for the 3DO. It has Burnout-like driving but with a more realistic sense to keep the action going. You can sense the speed in the game and you can feel the pressure it puts on your car. The AI is cheap at times, but they are because online opponents can be like that too. The game is trying to teach you to be one step ahead of your opponent. I also like the beginning intros to each event. It gets you revved up. The car selection is off the charts awesome. They have beautiful, creative, and wicked cool cars that everybody will have trouble figuring out which is their favorite. There is so much variety. The events are split up with each career. For racers, there is Race, Duel, Time Trial, Gauntlet (time trial with cops), Hot Pursuit (race with cops) and Preview (time trial with new vehicle you don't have). For cops, there is Rapid Response (time trial with penalties everytime you hit a wall or car), Hot Pursuit (take out all racers), Interceptor (take out racer with no boundaries), and Preview. I've talked with many people, them saying that the online multiplayer stinks because there is no online free roam. There is free roam, but it's offline only. You have a choice to enter it but nothing changes while in it. It's just to drive around enjoying the scenery and the road. Many say it's boring and useless. I say it's fine and fun. Also, there is a glitch that can get you to free roam online with friends. All I will say is that the race is Razor's Edge. You have to find out the rest.

The graphics are really really good. They are defined and perfected for quality driving.

The soundtrack could be better, but there are a lot of good songs if you take the time to listen.

Hot Pursuit is a step in the right direction. It is fun, exciting, incredible, and is the greatest Need for Speed game since Most Wanted. It isn't a step in the right direction. It's a leap. All fans of racing must check this game out. It's worth every penny.

Pros: Great car selection, Clean graphics, Intense speed, Tons of action, Autolog is cool and insightful, Soundtrack has good songs, Never gets boring until you beat every single thing

Cons: Could have better soundtrack, Online free roam would have been great, Events can be cheap at times, Rapid Response could use some work

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