Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

Rating: E10+

Score: 10/10

Need For Speed has been through a lot lately, hasn't it? From trying a dip into cop chases again to ignoring street racing and going full pro-racing, it's tried a bit of everything. Finally, it's now trying to regain solid ground by sticking to basics. This game is more basic than Need For Speed: Most Wanted which I used as my universal example of Need For Speed's peak of perfection. Even before the release of Most Wanted, there was the more linear-oriented Hot Pursuit series. Its concept, being both racers and police, offered a lot over its predecessors. Until this Hot Pursuit, the police chases had been banished from the series. Thankfully, the series is back again with Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (that is, this game, not the 1998 version of similar titling). I say thankfully because, along with Most Wanted, the older Hot Pursuit ranks as one of the greatest racing games of all time. This game is available for the PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360.

The story is simple: as a racer, you're racing to collect bounty within the racing community of Seacrest County. As a cop, you're fighting to keep the racers from breaking the law, by any means necessary. There's no real story otherwise. Missions offer a small introduction to "racers spotted speeding on route #" and the free road to get there. It's not a big deal to have no story since the Need For Speed series was always best with minimal story.

As a racer, you will drive some of the fastest, sleekest cars and accomplish one of three things. You race, you avoid cops, and you set time records. These are set as missions objectives throughout the city and, since Seacrest is a HUGE city with "over 100 miles of open road", you'll likely not be bored with the scenery. Each square inch is in beautiful HD, with many shortcuts and side-roads leading to adventure (not every side-road is a shortcut, so knowing your terrain is helpful).

As the police, you will drive the same variety of fast and sleek cars in cop car form, and you must do one of three things. You intercept single speeding racers, you interrupt races, and you do what is the equivalent of time records (getting from your location to an emergency call as fast as possible). When I write "fastest and sleekest cars", I'm not kidding. Lamborghini cop cars, Corvette Z06’s, and even Ford GT cop cars are patrolling the streets of Seacrest.

With so much competition at hand, the racers have four items available to use against cops. Jammers to stop equipment, Turbo to blast your car away from a tight situation, Spike Strips to slow/stop pursuers from following, and EMP (electro-magnetic pulse burst) to cause long range damage. The police, to fight back, have Spike Strips of their own, Road Blocks that can be set up at any time, Helicopters to lay spike strips and follow faster racers while you catch up, and EMP bursts. Each item requires time to recharge and has a limited number of uses (some races/pursuits set every item as zero usage at the start, leaving you with only wit and courage).

Criterion Games, the developers, are known for their work in the Burnout series. For those unfamiliar, the Burnout series is reknowned for its eye-peeling fast racing and ridiculous crashes. Need For Speed retains the latter, while slowing down the former. The gameplay is still very fast, but slow enough that turning isn't the equivalent of your car bouncing off the side barriers. In fact, the steering controls are the best yet in a video game, being very tight and yet unique depending on the car (as to be expected).

The biggest addition is a new online-oriented feature called "The Autolog". The autolog connects all your friends into one Need For Speed cloud that tracks times on tracks, missions, chosen cars, and offers a major tilt on competitive play. When you see "FriendX has beat your time on Muscle Reflex by 39 seconds!", It's very hard not to counter-challenge and beat that friend's time. If competition is not your thing, it's a bit weird you'd choose to play a racing game. Having the times to compare is still really cool. If direct competition is your thing, you can also race (or fight, cop-to-racer) in the online modes. Basically, Need For Speed has it all.

Custom soundtracks are not only included, but almost encouraged by how easy they are to set up even if the normal soundtrack in the game is great. Pendulum, Ben Benassi, Bad Religion, and multiple others all offer fast and upbeat tunes for the racer-the cops have the generic, Need For Speed cop chase music).

I wondered for a bit about Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit's odd title. Why was this game called Hot Pursuit and not Hot Pursuit 3? I'd say it's because this game encompasses everything the Hot Pursuit series has and adds an explorable open world along with a lengthy list of other things. This change revives the series in a world with much higher expectations. From its very lengthy career mode and very intriguing Autolog to the basis of its polished gameplay and graphics, it does more than pass expectation. It redefines the previously-shaky series to its amazing and popular roots, and raises the bar for every racing game to come.