Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - An Exhilirating Experience

Criterion, the British game developers who’ve made a name for themselves with the Burnout games have been tasked with resurrecting the Need for Speed series after a spate of rather terrible titles. They’ve gone ahead and injected the series with a sense of speed and intensity, synonymous with Burnout and in doing so have managed to put the "Speed" back in Need for Speed.

Hot pursuit

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (HP) moves out of the urban confines of various fictional cities allowing players to drive some of the fastest cars in the world at near mach speeds. It’s clear the emphasis is purely on racing so the game cuts right to the chase never really bothering with a story. As soon as the game loads, you’ll be taken to the World Map from where you can choose to play as Cop or Racer. Both sides are armed with some of the most powerful cars in the world and as you play through the available races you’ll only unlock better. Both sides are also equipped with four weapons or power ups of sorts that add a strategic element to this game. Cops are equipped with upgrades like an EMP blast or the ability to call in Road Blocks while racers can counter their attacks with Jammers and an insane amount of turbo boost. The more racers/cops you take out with these power ups, the more they get upgraded making them even deadlier in the process.

Bring it

While the sense of speed in Hot Pursuit is positively exhilarating, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of variety in this game.  For the racers you’ll have your standard ‘Point A to Point B’ races and Time Trials. Once in a while you’ll go head to head against a single opponent but those boss fights of sorts are few and far apart. Even the races where you’re being chased as a cop lack the spark of Most Wanted where players could avoid road blocks in slow mo or destroy certain environmental hazards taking out cops in the process. But since this is a Criterion game, you can thankfully take your opponents out in the form of glorious slow motion crashes. Be warned though; this is not Burnout so concentrating on just taking out your opponents is pretty useless.

For me playing as a cop was the highlight of the game as taking down speeding racers was just plain mental. Even though you have four weapons to choose from, their usage is limited which makes chases all the more intense. Do you take a racer down with a spike strip or a road block? Or do you call in a chopper? Or do you shoot him with an EMP blast, slow him down and then ram him off the road. It’s these kind of choices that make playing as the Cops an utter blast. Sadly the lack of variety raises its head once again and besides Hot Pursuit events, all you have are Time Trials. Now I never really had a problem with the Time Trials as a Racer but as a Cop they’re an utter b*tch. Graze your car and you’ll shave off two seconds from your time making you feel like a bull in a china shop. I get that I was being punished for being rash but I thought the whole point of this game was to drive with reckless abandon.