Solid racing action, epic police chases and superb detailed graphics make this game a "must buy."
Your goal of the game, without getting into too much detail, is to become the #1 blacklist racer. You start out unranked. To take on each blacklister, you have to win a certain amount of races, complete pursuit milestones, and rack up some bounty on yourself. Each time you beat a blacklister, new parts and cars will be available, and sometimes you will unlock new areas.
At the beginning, some of the races are won fairly easy, but they definatley get tougher as you progress. You can jump right to races in this game, unlike NFSU 2 where you had to drive to everything. This game introduces new races, like Speedtrap and Tollbooth. In Speedtrap, your speed is recorded at certain checkpoints, and whoever has the highest speed total wins. In Tollbooth, its basically a time trial. But you have to reach each tollbooth in a certain amount of time or the trial is over.
The pursuits in this game are awesome. You can have a handful of cops after you, or maybe 20 or more once you get a lot of heat on your car. Your car gains 'heat' when you cause trouble during chases, and it stays with you. If you dont use that car for awhie, or do something to alter its appearance, its heat level lowers.
If you get far enough away from the cops, you enter Cooldown mode. During this time, you have to find a place to lay low until the Cooldown bar hits 100% which will end the pursuit sucessfully. Certain hiding spots on the map (like car wash bays, etc), will speed up your Cooldown by a lot. As your heat gets greater, the chases get harder. Rhino SUV units are called in, which have no problem hitting you head on and stopping you in your tracks. Spike strips and helicopters are called in as well. You better have a good lawyer if you get caught.
I dont have many complaints about this game. I had a problem racing in some areas because there was so much shadow. I tried adjusting the "Time of day" bar which makes the sun set higher or something, and it reduced the shadows so I could actually see the track. There isnt a whole lot of customization here. Instead of just buying a bumper, you have to buy the whole body kit. The endless customization of NFSU 2 was about the only thing I liked about that game. Too bad NFS MW doesnt have it. At least in this version they dont give you a visual rating. So you dont have to worry about affixing those damn park bench shaped aircraft wings on your trunk just to get a high rating.
Another thing that bothers me isnt about the game so much, but more with EA's marketing. Why did they release a regular version of this game, and a "Black Edition"? From what I hear the only difference is more cars and tracks. Since they were released basically at the same time....couldnt they have made ONE game with ALL of the cars and tracks? Shame on EA for this marketing scheme.
Any fan of Need for Speed will enjoy this game. This is my favorite game on the 360 so far, and I cant stop playing it.
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