Open ended driving in Rockport.
In Need For Speed Most Wanted you play as a nameless new guy in Rockport. You want to take part in illegal street racing and take it against Razor Callahan: #15 guy on the Blacklist. Unfortunately Razor cheats and you lose both the race and your car. On top of all that police catches you and you go to jail.
After your release you find out that Razor is now #1 on the Blacklist and he got there by using your car. Now it’s up to you to climb all the way from bottom to the top of the Blacklist in order to take it against Razor and get your vehicle back. In the process you’ll also become the best street racer in Rockport.
Graphics are what you would expect, but because of the open ended nature of the game the environments and car models are not as detailed as they are in Burnout Revenge for example. Sound effects are not so great, but the extensive voice acting during the game is very interesting and you really want to hear what these characters have to say. There are some cutscenes added and they are completely hilarious: it’s nearly impossible not to laugh out loud when your watching them. Only problem is that there really isn’t enough of these cutscenes.
Structure of the game is a lot like in Grand Theft Auto in terms of that Rockport is open ended after you progress far enough to drive all around the city. On the way to the top you need to take different kinds of side missions and they are all fun and functional. City itself is pretty big offering many different places of interest including car shops to buy more vehicles and garages to pimp your cars to a better shape.
The police is also present and you have to earn yourself enough bounty to get to the next level, but in order to do that you also need to get away from the cops. This is where the game gets a little tricky: first you need to lose the cops on your trail and then you need to stay out of sight to make those hard earned points to count. The higher your chase level rises, the harder it is to get away and in the end it’s a real riot with dozens of cop cars, spike strips, roadblocks and helicopters on your tail.
In the end Need For Speed Most Wanted is worth playing especially if you enjoy driving games and/or Grand Theft Auto.