For EA, the Need For Speed franchise has been a big selling point. What started with an amazing array of exotic vehicles racing around all kinds of roads changed into a tuners heaven with the release of Need For Speed Underground. Need For Speed Mot Wanted is different, it takes the customisation aspects from Underground and also adds the pursuits which we saw in Hot Pursuit.
When you first begin career mode it becomes clear that the developers have put thought into how the game will pan out. The story starts out showing you (Player) sitting in your BMW M3. It then continues to show how you lose your car and are sent back to stock cars. The story may not have much depth but its very well thought out and a welcome addition to the NFS series.
The first thing noticable about the game is how amazing the game looks. The FMV footage is very realistic, character models are good and the detial is good. Once you get into the racing side of things you will notice the game is alot clearer and has more detail than Underground 2. Car modelling is very good, the detial is there and your car does show up alot better and clearer than traffic vehicles. Background detail is also noticably better than previous versions.
In terms of gameplay, Need for Speed Most Wanted at first is very fun. The reason is because of the new pursuits you may get involved with in a race. Despite of the additions i found that the game quickly becomes repeditive and dull. In the beginning you race on short tracks and don't need to do many laps. As the game progresses the races become longer and more annoying with police seemingly only wanting to target you although three other vehicles travel closely around you. If you don't mind long races you might enjoy this more but for me loosing a long race can result in frustration and dissappointment, especially if its caused by a cop suddenly catching up to you and spinning you out. This aside, pursuits can be very enjoyable. Slamming into a police road block at 200MP/H and taking out a cop car can be very enjoyable. A thing that really sets these cop chases apart is the various environmental structures which can be used to block and take out cop cars in pursuit of you.
The cars in the game sound the same as those of the Underground series although more have been added to suit the more powerful cars like the Lamborghini Murcielago, BMW M3, etc. Police sirens are as annoying as ever but the police radio is decent although it becomes very repeditive quickly.
Overall the game isnt that bad. It looks very nice and sounds great but the repeditiveness and the feeling of 'Already been done' is there. Its better than all the Underground series and by far the best NFS on Xbox.
