Carbon did not come close to Most Wanted
Carbon looks good visually. It was obvious to point out that a new engine of image had been used to produce this game. While I appreciate Carbon's graphics quality, I don't admit that it overwhelms Most Wanted. Cars look shinier and more reflective than in Most Wanted but seem a little but fake to me. Allow me to say they look more like rubber toy cars in Carbon. Carbon was set in night so the visuals of dusk time were nowhere to be found in it.
The sound is quite well done. I have nothing more to say about it.
The crew concept is innovative and I strongly recommend it in later NFS games. They change the typical formula of games in which you fight your way all by yourself throughout the whole game. To a certain extent, the crew can be like co-op gaming and make the game less boring, especially when we are talking about replay value. Sure the crew can block your way but these setbacks are outweighed by its benefits.Drifters and blockers are very crucial to increase your lead in various types of games. Scouts are less useful because your ride is to fast to steer into the track where the shortcuts they find are. However, scouts are quick and they can sometimes win a sprint race for you.
The canyon duels are hard! I love to challenge myself. Yet I would like to add that some duels can be too annoying like the one against Darius in Career Mode. Thankfully a surpass opponent mechanism was included, which let you win the whole canyon race at once when you outpace the enemy for 10 seconds. Without it, some duels can hardly be achieved.
Police pursuits are my favourite. Those who don't know please download Most Wanted's demo from Gamespot. The pursuits are identical except the graphics differences. It happens to me the higher order police (Lv. 4 and 5)in Carbon has superior AI than in Most Wanted. They busted me a few times driving me crazy.
With the height we gained from Most Wanted's story, we are officially no. 1 on the blacklist in Rockport City. This identity cannot be separated from our rocket-fast race car, BMW M3 GTR. Just that one, no others. it is a pity we are now forced to say farewell to it, not even allowed to join its funeral. Yup, Carbon tells us, our BMW M3 GTR was totaled beyond repairs during the introductory pursuit with Cross. I am such person who not only jumps into the action, but also cares about the story. The retirement of BMW M3 GTR is a shame before Cross never to be removed and also destroys the symbol of our gorgeous days in Rockport, making us feel like a weakling starting from ground zero once again. That does not feel good. Besides, we will no longer see the BMW M3 GTR again in Career mode. Fans like me are really upset about this. As a gamer site stated, we are getting too used to the formula where we start off with a crap car. Undeniably, some of us do not want to put any attention in upgrading and hope to race in a rocket from start to finish.
In fact, i have some ideas how to keep the BMW M3 GTR from retirement without affect the 'crap car formula'. We all know that the crew has different skills other than their roles. A blocker can be a fixer himself. Let us say, the BMW M3 GTR had been damaged too heavily and cannot be revived until you come across the point when you can deploy the crew to fix it. Or, Darius had kept your car in secret, claiming it was destroyed. After he turned out to be evil, Nikki rebelled against him and bring it back. These plots can keep your BMW in Career but sadly they did not appear in Carbon's developers' mind.
Reading posts on the forum, I noticed that a gamer suggested that we should take on Darius in our BMW M3 GTR. I think so.
How could the developers be so idiotic? One more thing to mention, we can in no way believe that our BMW M3 GTR was destroyed because it crashed into a pursuit breaker. We crashed into them hundreds of times! The story script is totally inconsistent to the game itself.
The inconsistence continues. You defeated Darius eventually but you cannot use his car in Career Mode even though he said 'the keys are in the car' in front of ya? That was beyond logic!
One further issue I must complain about is that you only win $500 second time winning a race, despite how hard it can be when an enemy crew attacked. This reduces incentive for re-races to make cash and leads to a lack of cash. Unlike in Most Wanted, you have a diminishing source of income so you cannot buy more and more new rides.
Carbon is a worthwhile game but it is not great. I am happy with Gamespot's official review and how they scored it. This game cannot win against Most Wanted.