After last year’s middling Need for Speed: The Run, we worried that the series’ flagship arcade side was destined to become one of our least desired racers. But thanks to the genre virtuosos at Criterion Games, Most Wanted confidently reverses that trend. This riotous open-road racer serves as a spiritual successor to the team’s own Burnout Paradise, albeit filtered through the familiar concept of one of Need for Speed’s absolute best entries.
Named after EA Black Box’s 2005 launch title, the new Most Wanted again pits you as an upand- coming street racer intent on making your mark in the city by dueling the 10 top drivers. Criterion’s version tackles the topic without the original game’s so-bad-they’re-good live-action sequences; instead, you’ll build your way through the rankings by tallying speed points for completing events, evading police chases, and completing milestones tied to certain vehicles or collectibles around the city. Hit the next points tier, and another wanted-list race becomes available.
You’ll earn speed points via takedowns, smashing through roadblocks, and more.Though it carries the Need for Speed name and recalls a past favorite, Most Wanted is really most akin to Burnout Paradise, whose open-world setup blended traditional races and other events with exploration and exciting multiplayer. As in that racer, a virtual city is your playground: you can hop into events as you wish, swap cars in a heartbeat, and try to smash through every billboard and metal fence around. You can take it all in at your own pace, too — well, assuming a police cruiser isn’t hot on your tail.
As evidenced by its many past endeavors, Criterion knows how to build one heck of a highspeed racer, and Most Wanted is no exception. The 41 licensed roadsters (including an Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Lamborghini Countach, and Porsche 911 Carrera S) all handle beautifully, both weaving through tight traffic and whipping around wide turns. And every aspect of the experience is finely tuned to amp up the intensity, whether you’re chasing a rival in a one-on-one showdown across the urban grid or bashing through police roadblocks in a good old-fashioned highway chase.
Fairhaven City is a large, diverse setting with a day-night cycle.The game’s incredibly accessible, too, with all cars available from the outset — just find them around the world and hop in — and races and vehicle customization are handled from the D-pad as you cruise, via the EasyDrive overlay. Most Wanted looks as good as it plays, too, between its large, well-manicured environment and the sleek cars that inhabit it. Only occasional split-second hitches and framerate dips stifle the action.
Criterion boastfully claims that it “doesn’t make sequels to other people’s games,” butconsidering this game’s origins, it does beg comparison to past Need for Speeds. We understand shedding the silly FMV story clips from the original game, but this remake’s wanted-list approach tends to feel like an afterthought, despite being central to the campaign progression. Aside from some slick abstract-art introductions of opponents’ vehicles, there’s no narrative hook or prominent push to keep you engaged — beyond the rousing races themselves, of course.
Police pursuits inevitably generate a whole bunch of glass shards.Plus, the police chases lack the sheer fervor and intensity of those in the earlier Most Wanted. They may last a while, but these pursuits ultimately aren’t very hard to evade (you won’t be chased by any police choppers, for example), and that’s a definite drag. With seemingly fewer distinct races and activities than Burnout Paradise offered, offline-focused players may not feel a lot of motivation to rev up once they’ve topped the wanted list.
The online modes are another story entirely. Most Wanted turns the vast open city into a playground of multiplayer thrills, letting you link up in groups of eight to experience nonstop playlists split between races, speed-trap tests, long-jump contests, and other oddball trials (like keeping numerous cars atop concrete arches). Even getting to the meet-up point in the city turns into an impromptu race, with speed points awarded to the first to arrive.
Controlled by the D-pad, the EasyDrive menu offers access to cars, upgrades, and races.Deftly generating unique solo, team, and coop challenges on the fly, Most Wanted’s online system keeps the racing lively and interesting. And much as they share the same terrain and speed-point pool, the online mode’s randomized tests offer potentially endless enjoyment, helping supplant what feels like a less robust array of single-player events. The return of Autolog (which originated in Criterion’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit) also means every passed speed gun, destructible billboard, or found vehicle depicts where you rank among friends, while the grand tally of speed points offers wider incentive to keep playing to keep your perch atop the leaderboard.
Most Wanted delivers raucous entertainment in spades, whether you’re battling Fairhaven City’s finest in the campaign or dueling network competition in serious races and silly trick competitions. After years of revisiting Burnout Paradise’s recurring playground, we finally have a fresh racing addiction to keep us hooked until Criterion’s next seemingly inevitable open-road opus.
PUBLISHER: Electronic Arts • DEVELOPER: Criterion Games • ESRB: Everyone 10+ • MULTIPLAYER: 8 on Xbox Live • ACHIEVEMENTS: Painless • COST: $60 • RELEASE DATE: October 30, 2012
+ Online playlists are a blast, offering a large array of events.
+ Huge city with tense races and chases; great handling.
- Campaign mode feels a bit light on hooks and narrative; pursuits are too easy.
? With Criterion in charge, what’s next for Need for Speed?
