Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is an outstanding racer that captures the feel and intensity of street racing like no other
+ Beautiful environments and splendidly detailed vehicles
+ Playing as both a racer and cop is exciting and satisfying
+ Thrilling sense of speed and suspense, matched by equally accurate controls
+ Constantly unlocking new vehicles is extremely rewarding
Negative
- No split screen multiplayer
EA's Need for Speed and Criterion Games' Burnout were different racing games, but Criterion Games has mashed Need for Speed with some of its own Burnout's elements and the result is an extremely fast racer that impresses on all levels. This exhilarating racer allows you to play on both sides of the law behind the wheels of super powerful vehicles aching to be unleashed on the open road. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is the reboot the Need for Speed franchise finally needed, and even though Hot Pursuit can occasionally feel more Burnout than Need for Speed, this may be inarguably the best Need for Speed in years.
There is no story to be found in Hot Pursuit, which is typical from Burnout games. Instead you get a career split between countless and diverse challenges to take as a cop or a racer. With each, there is a variety of different types of races. For a racer, you take part in races against the mighty and challenging AI, Hot Pursuit in an attempt to win a race without being wrecked and subsequently busted, Time Trials – race against the clock, and Preview events where you use a preselected car in a time trial-like event. The racer side of Hot Pursuit is dramatic and challenging, and outrunning, or rather fighting the cops is heart pumping. It is a very rare occasion that you would actually outrun the fierce cop AI as they use multiple equipment to keep track and halt your progress.
As a police officer, your main objective is busting the outlaw drivers. Even in this side of the law, there is a variety of different events to participate in. The main ones are the Hot Pursuit events where you hunt down multiple drivers before they reach the finish line. Interceptor is a similar event but you only face one driver that takes a lot of damage to bust. Then, there are Preview and Rapid Response events that are similar to Time Trials but Rapid Response challenge you to take the least damage possible. This event contradicts the dangerous and high-risk driving of the game's law, but these events are fast, tense and challenging. When in a Hot Pursuit, it is only your vehicle that is chasing multiple vehicles so you will not have other units to assist you on the road but help is given in other matters that will be explained later on in this review.
Racing in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is fast and furious. While the aggressive gameplay, spectacular damage and sharp camera cuts are a legion in Burnout, it still feels like a Need for Speed gameplay when looking at the fantastic police chases and wide variety of car manufactures. The actual racing is incredibly fun and the sense of speed and suspense are thrilling. Whether you are playing as a racer or cop, you will unlock an ample variety of cars that will have car fanatic drool all over it. Manufacturers like Porsche, Lamborghini, and McLaren have a huge selection of vehicles spread through five different series. There are still no Ferraris. Participating in events and winning medals earns you bounty. With this bounty earned, you will constantly unlock new vehicles to use, including unlocking new series of even faster vehicles as you progress, and leveling upgrades your rank as well. Earning bounty does not come solely from winning medals, but that is the main source. Using ongoing lanes, slipstreaming, drifting and takedowns earn you in-race bounties that are added to your earned bounty.
The new Hot Pursuit also utilizes special equipment for both sides that can be used to trample each other. Street Racers have access to Turbo, EMP, Jammers and Spike Strips while the Police have the support of Helicopters, able to call Road Blocks, use Spike Strips and EMPs. This high technology equipment adds a never seen layer of depth and strategy in a race or pursuit, since they are preselected and different in each race. Thanks to the strong AI, cops will do whatever it takes to bust the racer. Police call for road blocks, go in front of you and launch spike strips from their vehicles, use EMP (short for Electromagnetic Pulse) to send electric shock and damage your vehicle and call for helicopters. But the street racers have equally reliable equipment to counterattack. Racers can interrupt EMPs and police communication using the Jammer, and gain a powerful boast with the dynamic Turbo system. There is a limit to how much damage a super car can sustain and that will result the end of the race, both as a racer and cop. Although after a single crash, you can resume the race. The red meter on the side of the speedometer displays the amount of damage the vehicle has sustained.
Crashes are spectacular and realistic. With each violent impact against a wall or against an innocent passerby, or a direct smash against the robust roadblocks, the game uses camera cuts to display them, along with other occasions like rare racer takedowns and the ever frequent racer bust when you drive as a cop. The crashes are more realistic than that of Burnout, even though some crashes tend to be over-the-top. It is a shame to see a million dollar exotic car wrecked to pieces, but that is the fun of the game I guess. These camera cuts look truly great and spot-on, but most of the time they mess with your driving. It is difficult to control your vehicle when the camera cuts leave you at the edge of a tight turn or smash directly in a roadblock. There was the same problem in Need for Speed: Most Wanted but it is less troublesome this time around and none of this is game breaking.
The game awards you for dangerous driving so you must drive dangerously, otherwise there would be no point to the game's drifting. Hot Pursuit's accessible controls use the R2 button to accelerate and X for nitrous, which is quite an innovation because I cannot remember a single racer on Sony's consoles that did not drive with the X button. Anyhow, taking tight turns at full speed with a successful drift is how you keep head to head with the challenging but sometimes extreme AI. In later events, opponents use high speed vehicles, and even though you counter by using similar high speed vehicles, the competition is tough. The artificial intelligence is brilliant, rarely allowing you the chance to slip on ahead unattended. Till the end of the race, you will fight for the lead and lose it to the slightest mishap in the form of crash or bad drifting. There is no room for breaking and take a clean turn. You must be aggressive and ferocious. The level of difficulty is completely fair, but there are some occasional issues we have seen before. The first is that the AI catches up extremely easily and not easily surpassed. Another problem is when chasing the racers as a cop. When the racer crashes in the roadblock and you are behind, the racer disappears and resumes racing. This will definitely mess your pace. Again, it is not game breaking but it can be quite irritating, especially in the Interceptor events.
The single-player experience takes over 15 hours to complete, including both cop and racer. But once you finish all races, the single-player experience is as good as over. The multiplayer portion of is tracked through the Autolog system, a convenient system that tracks your friends' progress as well as best time in a race to always keep you ahead of your competition. Other than that, you can easily jump into races or chases against random strangers, which still earn you bounty. Unfortunately the biggest letdown is that there is no split-screen multiplayer which has always been present in Need for Speed games but rather not so engaging as Hot Seat in Burnout. So Criterion has decided to take the multiplayer to the next level online rather than sticking into a fight against someone in the same room. A trivial thing: all traffic car models (except vans and trucks) are recognizable car models, most of which are found in previous Need for Speed installment.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a breathtaking sight. This is my first PS3 game and I am impressed by the visual quality of the game. Track repetition is minimal and the varied landscapes, from the canyon to the forest and the icy region look terrific. More impressive are the instantly recognizable car models. Each car model, in each series is beautifully designed to perfection and handle fantastically. With each car, there is a brief interesting description of its history as you choose your vehicle's color, which most come with great looking lights. Cop vehicles cannot have any other color other than the default and there are no other kinds of customizations like body kits or spoilers. The soundtrack is divided between your typical racing game soundtrack and the action-packed soundtrack in police chases. There is no need to say that the music for police chases are perfectly fitting, but the soundtrack for Need for Speed have not fitted so well from the 2005's installment. Sound effects, crashes, siren wailing sound brilliant. A presentation issue is the repetition of certain camera cuts. The short cutscene after busting the last racer to when you finish an Interceptor event are always the same, without exception. Another problem is the long loadings. It is easy to mess up in a race that will eventually cost you a medal, and restarting looks like the only option. But it takes more than a few seconds to start the race fresh, due to a lengthy time loading the event again and the pre-event cutscenes.
Usual Need for Speed developer Black Box seemed to have lost the feel of fast-paced and dynamic racing with its latest installment. But Criterion has brought the finest Need for Speed in years, offering wild police chases and intensive racing. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a terrific reboot of a seemingly aging series and it has everything you could wish for in a racing game. Aside from the brilliant and exciting racing, a stellar presentation helps give life to the game's world and environment, making it a shining example of how street racing must be.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graphics = 9.0
Stunning environments and perfectly detailed car models. Impressive crashes, even if some may seem exaggerated. Racing games rarely receive such varied and detailed backgrounds.
Sound = 8.3
Soundtrack hasn't been this good in years, and it is even better in police chases. Engine noise, siren wailing, police orders and crashes sound just about right.
Presentation = 8.4
Some long loadings interrupt a bit. Camera cuts show spectacular crashes but the same may feel overused. They also occasional mess with your driving.
Gameplay = 9.2
The racing is simply fantastic, the cop chases are furious, drifting is a joy, and there are loads of different car manufacturer to suit everyone's taste. Extremely rewarding, almost unlocking a new vehicle when obtaining a medal in an event. The addition of special equipment does not make either side too powerful.
Modes = 8.7
A good variety of different events for either side. There are a good 15 hours of single-player but the experience dies after that, since there is nothing to keep you offline. No split-screen is a serious letdown. Online play however, whether using the Autolog or just aimlessly picking races against anonymous strangers, it is all great.
Fun = 9.0
Despite some frustrations (mostly Rapid Response), this was an extremely well balanced and fulfilling racer that I have found my love for racing games. It has been too long since I played such a complete racing experience. As my first PS3 game, I did a superb choice in choosing Hot Pursuit.
Recommendation Level = Very High
Unless you hate racing games in general, or just against illegal street racing, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit should have a place in your collection.
OVERALL SCORE = 87 / 100
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is an outstanding racer that captures the feel and intensity of street racing like no other