Should be at the top of your most wanted list...
1. A bit of light, because driving around in the dark all the time made you feel like a vampire,
2. And a few cops to keep things fresh, as Bayview seemed to be empty of law enforcement. Really, does the police department permit illegal street racing?
In Need for Speed Most Wanted, EA takes them two elements, the overall engine of NFSU2, and splices them together in what may well be the finest tuner racing game to date.
The Need for Speed series has had its ups [Underground] and downs [Porsche Challenge, Hot Pursuit 2] but it's never been this good. Most Wanted is a snarling, dubbed-out beast of a game, with fleets of police vehicles and even choppers, enough bling to overload your eyes, and Josie Maran, whose placement in this game is obvious.
Most Wanted starts off with a bang, with you losing your BMW M3 [I think] to some guy who reckons he's the rage in this town. Well, if you're any good at this series already, when you race the cocky little twit [his name is Razor] you should be miles ahead of him when your girlfriend [Josie Maran, thankfully] phones you up and says there's something wrong with your ride. She is so right, as seconds later your engine blows up and you fall to a standstill. Oh crap.
And the business with Street Racing in this game, is when you challenge one of the Blacklist racers [more on that in a minute] and lose, they nab your pink slips, and thus your car, which is very very mean of them. This doesn't happen when you actually start playing the game proper, but at the beginning Razor steals your tricked-out blue-silver M3 and doesn't even say thank you. And then, unfortunately, a copper named Sergeant Cross, who you are already in hot water with, arrests you.
The Blacklist, then, is a list of the 15 most notorious racers in the city... one where that guy who nicks your M3, Razor, is right at the very high-respected number one spot. Your job is to get a new ride, get out of jail, and trample every last one of the Blacklist, demolish Razor's fanbase and take the coveted number one spot. And get your M3 back.
But who's gonna get you out of jail? Josie Maran, of course. She seems to like dressing for the occasion, usually in a miniskirt, which doesn't bother me whatsoever. And even better, you see a bit more of her than you did Rachel in NFSU2. There are actually cut-scenes in this game as well, which are real video blended with CGI. It's an awesome look, and knocks down the ropey comic book used to tell the overly freeform tale of NFSU2.
And after choosing a low-end ride from a meagre selection including the Golf GTI, the Chevy Cobalt, the Fiat Punto, and the Lexus IS300, it's back onto the street to kick some serious Blacklist ass.
The city in Most Wanted is an edgy urban sprawl, filled with modded cars, cops, some more modded cars, donut shops, a few safe houses, and some more modded cars. The slightly less bling look really does the job well, and is a far cry from the neon-drenched permanently-nocturnal look of Need for Speed Underground 2 and that frustration festival Midnight Club 3. Driving around it and causing havoc on four wheels is one of the most enjoyable vehicular experiences on the Xbox, but of course it's not as crazy as Criterion's masterpiece Burnout Revenge.
The visuals are very well done, and very... erm... orange. The streets seem to be permanently tinted with some sort of orange colour. Where did that inspiration come from? They are an improvement over NFSU2's, and the style of this game is excellent. It's got graffiti all over it, and has a very artistic look to it. It's a fantastic landscape, and justifies my score for graphics of 9.
Then there's the audio, given an 8. It's brilliant, apart from EA's crappy taste in music. The car engines are recycled from NFSU2, I thought, and so are a lot of the sound effects. Voice overs are great in the cutscenes, even if you're too busy staring at Maran to notice. And the cops... oh hell. They communicate with each other and tell each other to use tactical formations while they're chasing you, it's really trying to give you the feeling that they are on to you and you are going down, boy. They work as a team like there is no tomorrow, and some of my cop chases went on until tomorrow.
The career in this game is obviously the high point, as it is with most tuner racing games these days. One thing that bewildered me, is that the shop doesn't seem to stock as much variety as Underground 2... sure, there's a load of vinyls and rims and spoilers, but there's only five or six body kits... anyway when you pull out of the shop the cops more than make up for it, giving the series a new lease of life that nobody expected. To go right up the Blacklist takes considerable time, and it will eat your social life while you're doing it.
Most Wanted is a highly addictive nitrous fest that is dominating my days at the moment. It's probably the best example of a tuner racer on the Xbox, and it kicks the crap out of Midnight Club 3 and both Undergrounds. And as for Juiced... pffttt. Succumb to the Most Wanted, baby, become the most notorious. And stare at Josie Maran while you're doing it... what more could you want? A cutscene rewinder, perhaps...