When veteran gamers hear the phrase "Hot Pursuit" they think back to a time when the Need for Speed series was at is pinnacle. Gone were the poorly written soap-opera style storylines, the epic amounts of bugs that could be found in incarnations such as Undercover, and gone were the MMO failures. Criterion have done an absolute bang up job in returning to this golden age of racers by creating what can only be titled as a goliath amongst racers.
I admit I've always been a sucker for the Need For Speed titles, but in all fairness I have been disappointed with previous attempts, especially the ones created by the recently at times sub-standard studio known as EA Black Box. However, this one tops them all and even tops my favourite Most Wanted. The reason: it is one of the most brilliantly built, addicting and fun to play racing games that I have ever encountered.
Firstly let me talk about Seacrest County, pretty much a wet dream for all petrol heads where everyone, including the coppers, drive around at over 200MPH in style. The world itself, is so beautifully rendered, with a substantial amount of traffic and tactically placed shortcuts to keep things competitive. Paradise City was a nice place to drive around and crash your car, but it is nothing to Seacrest County. Sadly however, you may not see all of this, as even though the option for freeroam is available, you will find yourself often using the streamlined menu system over generic exploration and taking beauty shots to send to your friends.
Gameplay wise, Hot Pursuit is on a pedestal. Although the handling for the more seasoned GT and Forza enthusiasts can take some getting used to, overall Hot Pursuit is a solid racer. The game is no sim, and all the mechanics are arcade at their heart, but this is no bad thing. In both offline and online events the adrenaline will be flowing. Offline, you have a number of events to choose from, some specific to each team. On the racer side, you will be partaking in events such as Race, Hot Pursuit, Time Trial, Duel, Gauntlet and Preview, where as the cops have Hot Pursuit, Interceptor and Rapid Response. Overall these events are good, the only real annoying one being Rapid Response, which is essentially just drive to a location as quickly as possible without crashing or face a time penalty for just touching a fence. Online includes Hot Pursuit, Interceptor and Race which all work out pretty well. Having a couple of matches with fellow G-P member Strite in Interceptor mode, we found this to be one of the better modes to play with your friends, as it is directly competitive and brings back the fun I used to have when I played Most Wanted. Interceptor mode is a 1 on 1 cop vs racer mode involving either the cop taking the racer down, the racer taking the cop down, or escaping from the cop. Interceptor is simply a brilliant mode.
We then come onto the Hot Pursuit mode, which is basically a team of racers trying to win a race whilst a team of coppers try to take them down. However, unless you have your own team of friends, it is literally every man for himself. Coppers will take down other coppers just so they can get the bust whilst racers will take down other racers if it means them coming in first, and I haven't even got started on the weapons used in the Hot Pursuit Mode yet. Both racers and cops get weapons, the Racers a Jammer, a Spike Strip, an EMP and a Turbo, the Police a Roadblock , a Spike Strip, an EMP and a Helicopter. All are pretty self explanatory with the Jammer blocking coppers weapons, a Helicopter being a heli with the sole intention to screw up a racer's day and an emp being a concentrated electro-magnetic missile like device that both damages and slows down the opponent. Overall, all seem well balanced, but again online it seems to be every man for himself at the moment so don't be surprised if you see a fellow officer placing a spike strip just ahead if it means taking down a racer as well.
We then move onto the ranking system. Need for Speed has on overall of 40 ranks for you to work up through, 20 as a racer and 20 as a cop. Both are easily accessible, with the player not been tied down to stay as a racer or a cop throughout the whole game. The ranking system allows you to mainly unlock new cars, events and series. Unlike previous Need For Speed games, there is no real car collection and no real garage system so you don't have to earn lots and lots of cash before you can go purchase the stunning looking Zonda. Also, the ranking system isn't just an offline thing, by winning races online you will also get points to help towards your overall rank. Weapons upgrade too, however these go through use rather than ranking.
Finally I move onto what is possibly the most ingenious system to ever grace the racing game genre. This system is only known as the Autolog. Think of Facebook... now think of Need For Speed's version of Facebook that shows when and where someone has beaten one of your times and can link you directly to the event instantaneously. On top of that you get a wall to post photos, and witty comments when you have beaten one of your friends. The system is addictive with Strite and I working tirelessly to destroy each others times only to find 1 event later that the other had smashed it with a near impossible time to beat. Hours upon hours can be spent just on the autolog system alone competing with your friends and thinking of witty racer or cop comments to write after you have finally beaten your elusive rival in that challenging event that you had beenattempting all evening.
Overall, there are very few things I can say that are wrong with Hot Pursuit. Alright so take away Autolog, and the online competitive side is not as fun, there is a lack of car customisation, and the inclusion of weapons will have other critics comparing it to games such as Blur. However Autolog is included, the lack of car customisation is outweighed by much more interesting features and Blur could not even lick the boots of Hot Pursuit. Criterion have done an absolutely amazing job of putting the Need For Speed series back on top of the racing game pile.
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Gets An Official Game-Pad: 9.5/10