Adrenaline and frustration.
The good:
* The world: A lot of different courses and variable racing through a world that is big enough.
* Graphics: for a speedy car game this graphic is still high standard five years after the release.
* Police pause: A cool effect when the police catches up to you, the screen turns blue and pauses the race for a moment.
* Difficulty progression: The game gets more and more interesting, being way to easy in the beginning but then escalates into a more challenging game around the 50 % mark of the career. Some races at the end are really challenging.
* Blend of races: There are not just one or two different types of races. I think the blend of races is suitable.
* Intense adrenaline kicks when waiting for "cooldown" after a long pursuit. (Cooldown being the time it takes for the police to drop the pursuit when now knowing where you are).
* Police: A new feature from the prerunner that makes this game so much more interesting.
* Good voice acting: Most of the voices sound sincerely in-character, exception is Mias voice messages.
* Parts on the road: Not like the features in "Dirt", but still, when crashing some parts may fly away or just be in your way.
* Good feel for speed, which is essential.
* Lamborghini x 2: try them
* Airbrushed movies: Even if they are few, I like the artistic feel of airbrushed movies.
* Pink slip feature: To be able to get the car that you are racing against is great, this makes me wanna continue play.
* Speed cameras: I like the cameras because it doesn't take much time to succeed, not all races must be long ones.
* Lots of choices to evade: The police can lose your tracks in more ways than one.
* Ok story for a car game, most people can understand directly how the whole story is going to develop, but anyway.
* Different feel for different cars.
* Toolboth: Another new race style that drew me into this game.
* Nice intros to some of the later blacklist challenges.
The Bad:
* Civilian cars: They have too much impact in the game, in the end of races it's all about luck if a civilian car blocks either you or your opponent. In police chases they work a bit better but can still give you the most problems you are going to get in the game.
* Drag races: Adding a new level to the problem with civilian cars. This type of race doesn't really work in this game – it was better in the prerunner. The race turns into a puzzle game where you plan your route based on where the civilian cars last stood in your way. Be ready for a lot of retries.
* Way to easy, especially in the beginning.
* Auto zoom in showcase: When you are changing the exterior of your ride there will be a default zoom every time you choose a new part or vinyl.
* Reflection on hood and roof makes it impossible to se how the vinyls look before buying them.
* Opponents in races always gains on you in corners and you will always gain on them in strait ways – which means that you'll win the more strait races even more easily. This seems to be the biggest problems with all EA racers.
* I miss the drift races from Underground 2.
* I also miss the feature where you would try to get a flashy car that would get on the cover of motor magazines.
* Bug in two races when running for # 2 on the blacklist.
* Busted directly when replacing the car when lying on the hood a long way from the police.
* Based on a big portion of luck in the end where the spikes could lie around the corner before I get the block up on my minimap.
* Police speed (and opposition in races) based on my car.
* Too few movies, way too few to keep up a flowing story feeling.
* Inpound markers goes away after a while, this makes the game way to easy. Would they stay with the car for the whole game it would be another story!
* EA trax changing tune and are in the way while I'm racing.
* Not much fuzz from the big bad cop Cross after the intro.
* Can't change vehicles between blacklist rival races.
* End is a bit disappointing.
* When using traps on the road you cannot choose the way the car is going to take while the game shows the crash from the trap.
* Cannot get to map in police pursuit, stops me from planning ahead.
* Braking is pointless, better just to ram sides of other cars – it will make you lose less speed.
More bad then good in this review, but the good part is still stronger so you should still try this game!!