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Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Review
We paid Criterion Games a visit in Guildford UK and played the latest NFS game: Need for Speed Hot Pursuit!
With Hot Pursuit Criterion Games got the chance to create their own interpretation of Need for Speed and the result is quite impressive! Expensive exotic cars, fast races and thrilling pursuits are shaping the game. After a long time you can even sit behind the wheel of a police car and hunt down racers - NFS Hot Pursuit combines both sides of the law in this title.
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Career
The career in Hot Pursuit is quite simple and is dividet in two paths: Racer and Police.
Right when you start the game, you have only two events to choose from: one is a race on the track from the demo called "Roadster’s Reborn" and the second one is a cop-event. When you finish one of these events, you unlock new tracks. Of course, depending on your decision to go as cop or racer, only further cop- or racer-events become unlocked. These are being presented with different symbols on the map. Once you unlocked a event, you can freely choose, which one you want to race. There is no limitation or story to you have follow.
Although you have to choose between racer and cop, you don't have to stick to your inital career choice. You can switch between the events as much as you like and be once a cop once a racer. As a racer you have to climb up the "Wanted List", starting from #20. As a cop you try to increase your rank, from 1 to 20. (Cadett, Officer, etc.)
You can unlock more cars an weapons (we talk about that later) by winning the race events. You can't buy new assets, as there is no money or similar in the game. Unlocking new cars is solely possible by racing through the events.
There is no open world in the game, but you can jump to „Free Roam“ and drive through the beautiful landscapes of Seacrest County without limitations. You can choose between a regular car, or if you want to cruise around as a cop. The Free Roam mode doesn't have any influence on your career, it's just for relacing, cruising around, exploring and enjoying the world.
Environment / Graphics
The world in Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is called Seacrest County and offers a huge street map with very different scenarios. From beatiful coastal roads, over long desert highways or forest roads, to serpentines in the snowy mountains...you can find almost everything there. Only thing is, you won't find a city, but this isn't that much of a disappointment, as the exotic cars look much better on long highways in amazing landscapes - just like in car advertisements.
The streets are very generous and wide and offer best conditions for races with over 250 kph. On almost every track you can find several offroad-shortcuts, but be careful, because not every tempting dirt road is a shortcut. This can cost you a lot of time, when you don't know the tracks.
With the environment Criterion got support from the swedish development studio DICE, which is also known for the Battlefield-series and Mirror's Edge. So far they did a great job. The world offers a beautiful environment and a large variety of landscapes.
Different weather effects and night driving bring variation in the racer's everyday life. The effects look quite realistic, when a thunder-storm comes up, it starts to flash and rumble, creating a dark atmosphere. Night driving gives especially hot pursuits a unique touch, when you see the lights reflecting on the streets and tunnel walls.
The cars itself offer a high detail and even the damage model is well worth seeing. Especially the crash-animations (you may know from Burnout) and the photomode highlight the graphics of the game.
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- Shocker, Junkie
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Further Material:
- Screenshots
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