Awesome at first, but then I felt let down and sometimes frustrated. It made me wish I was playing Hot Pursuit 2.
I really wanted to LOVE this game with it being made by Criterion Games and going back to the classic Need for Speed style. Sadly, I can only like it. I'm not going to waste too much of your time so I'm going to knock some of the basics out of the way:
Graphics: Gorgeous
Controls: Sharp
Story: What story? You can make up your own story, I guess.
Now I got that out of the way let's get to the meat of the review, the gameplay. Outside the pursuit equipment, it's pretty straight forward. As a racer you'll try to make it to the finish in the top three while avoiding cops, traffic, and whatever else is in the way. With the game's sense of speed, you'll definitely be more focused on the cops and traffic than the other racers. However you can do away with the cops…by horribly killing them in a Burnout-esque crash. As a cop you'll try to stop the racers as fast as possible…by horribly killing them in a Burnout-esque crash. Yeah I know it's a video game, and I know it's an arcade racer, but when I'm playing in a supposedly realistic world and I see a cop ram a racer off a cliff and then say that the racer is getting off with a "warning", it gets hard to suspense my disbelief. This is nothing against the game obviously. Killing your opposition horribly and doing other things like drifting, passing other racers, and missing traffic for example gives you nitrous which WILL be very helpful. The AI drivers are very good, too good in fact. It is very rare that they make a mistake without you forcing them into one. This isn't helped with the dreaded Rubberband AI popping its ugly head. The traffic AI…is dumb as ever, which you probably should expect. Also, some of the shortcuts are more trouble than their worth and sometimes leave you worse off.
I mentioned something called pursuit equipment earlier. Pursuit equipment is used to help you fight off cops and other racers or to help you bust racers. Here's the rundown:
Jammer: Used to disable the cops' pursuit equipment and map temporarily. Useful but not much of a hindrance. Used by racers only.
Spike Strip: Drops a spike strip from the back of the car, please self-explanatory. I HATE these things. At first I thought they were awesome, until I realized that they can slide into my path and sometimes cover the entire road making them nearly impossible if not just impossible to avoid. Not to mention they can be very devastating if you hit one at the wrong place. To sum it up, THEY'RE BLOODY CHEAP! Used by racers and cops.
EMP: Fires an electric charge at a targeted car slowing it down and causing some damage. If you use it right it can be very useful, and it's not too devastating. Used by racers and cops.
Turbo: Self-explanatory. It's a more powerful version of the nitrous. Very useful in a straight. Used by racers only.
Road Bock: Self-explanatory. Very useful to round up far away racers, and though they can mess up your race pretty bad if you hit one they are pretty easy to avoid. Used by cops only.
Helicopter: Deploys a helicopter to give you air support and drops a spike strip. Though it's very useful for air support, the copter is so-so when it comes to actually slowing down the racers. Also since the spike strips from the helicopter don't slide all over the place, they very easy to avoid. Used by cops only.
Lastly, where's Quick Race mode, and offline multiplayer? Couldn't fit that in with the Autolog?
Now I know I've been pretty critical of this game, but it really is good game. However it isn't as good as it could have been, and it isn't nearly as good as Hot Pursuit 2.
I recommend borrowing the game from a friend or renting the game before buying it.