Need for Speed Most Wanted is a mix of a classic franchise with a really fun cop mechanic, and new updates.
(This review has some of the story plots that happen in the game)
Need for Speed Most Wanted is one of those games that you will want to step into and not get out of for a few weeks, it's just a really fun racer. The main objective in the game is to climb this list called the blacklist, which is sort of a list of the most notorious racers, which includes the most destructive, and also dangerous ones.
So you basically wind up in the city of Rockwall, and you meet up with this racer-girl called Mia, and her along with a few other buds you meet up with in the game all try to help you to climb the blacklist and eventually get to the #15 spot which belongs to this really rough racer called...Razor. Your car is stolen, so you have to start out with a really stock one, and start upgrading it, and getting new cars and the like. The customization options are pretty varied, and there's definately a good amount in there so you can create your dream car.
There are a number of paint options and decals, window tints, spoilers, rims, and a lot more. There are literally thousands of combinations, and you should'nt see a car that is too similar to yours while playing against buddies at home, or online. Surprisingly, there are no neons or hydraulics, which is a bit of a downside, and it seems pretty standard for games with cars involved with them to include these attatchments to your cars.
In the more "mechanical" sense, there are many car parts to choose from including engines, transmission, suspension, nitrous, and much more. Once you start to beat more and more of the blacklist members, you will be able to unlock more and more of both the visual and the parts of the car. Once you want to purchase another car, you simply drive to the car dealers' and...buy. There is a bit of variety too choose from, ranging from Pontiac's to Ford models, and a bunch of other cars from different regions of the globe. One thing that you may almost immediately notice about Need For Speed Most Wanted is the new cop mechanic that has been implemented into the game, and it is really fun and seperates the game from being a boring game to being a very exciting driving game. Because honestly, without this major part of the game, there would be no good in it...well there would be good in the game, but certainly no fun to it.
So basically, whenever the cops start noticing that you are driving in ways that are against the law, a little "flame meter" starts to fill at the left side of the screen. When you're being chased and knocking out other cars, crushing roadsigns, and just about anything in your path, the flame meter grows and grows, and this little meter basically shows how much felony you've accumulated, and just how badly the cops want to turn you in. Once that bar fills, it will restart, and it will give you a little indication that you've "upgraded" your felony. For example, if the bar shows that you have filled your bar and that there is a little number that says (1x,2x,3x,4x, etc.) you will have even more heat that when you bar was starting to fill last time. When the cops are really starting to get annoyed and really are trying their hardest to get you off the streets and behind bars, things start to get ugly. Eventually, when your reach felony ratings of around 5x, police choppers will be dispatched, and even more difficult and bigger police sqadrons will be sent after you. The police AI is easy at first in the earlier levels of felony, but as you start to get the cops to hate you more, it will get very hard, and it may even become a rarity if you manage to escape at the 4-6x felony ratings.
Luckily, there is hope. If you change the look of your car, you can turn your heat down, so the cops won't recognize you as well on the streets. Thank goodness that the developer decided to put this in, or else the game would be near-impossible to complete.
When you take a good look at the game, it doesn't really stand out graphically from any other racer out there on the original Xbox, but it definately looks the best out of the PS2 and NGC versions. While the Xbox version does have the best look out of the three, it still looks pretty pixelated, even though the cinematics and cool little in-game cutscenes look just brilliant.
You may hear something you like in this game in terms of music, but there's not too much variety outside of the heavier sort of rock and a bit of rap as well. Although, it does fit in with the game quite well. The in game sound effects are great and really do provide a sense of involvement in the game as you will be able to hear radio chatter from the police contacting each other about finding you, and it overall just sounds great.
Need For speed Most Wanted is a game that you'll probably want to play for quite a while, just because of how fun it is to escape from the cops and climb the blacklist. This definately is a game that you should be playing to get those aging hours of the now-forgotten Microsoft Xbox. Thanks for reading.