Reviews// Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

As you progress to level 20, you will gain access to the kind of hyper-exotica that the drivers of the aforementioned super-exotica can only dream about; cars that even the richest 'oilygarchs' cannot get access to: special editions, concepts and super limiteds that you have to be invited to own.

Each set of cars is faster than the last, and has noticeably differing handling characteristics. The handling is generally good, and cars can be thrown into manageable drift by a number of techniques which closely mimic those used by real life Touge racers. Handling also varies with the weather - late night races in the rain are especially exciting.

Race Relations
Each race start location has several different race types, these fall loosely into:

Time Trials: you against the clock, make a certain time for gold, silver or bronze.

Races: you against several other computer-controlled cars.

Previews: you in a specific recently unlocked car.

Hot Pursuits: you and several other computer-controlled racers against several computer controlled cop cars.

The higher you place in races the higher bounty you earn, but while you are on the learning curve, winning is not always an option. You do, however, earn bounty for any podium finish. You can also progress by merely taking part, because there is bounty for Driving Skills and placing top on the Speed Wall - you'll always be top of the speed wall on your first time on each race, and every time you break your course record.

Ireland's Deficit
If racing the dark side is not your thing, you can play on the side of law and order. Fortunately, if we go with the Seacrest County = California analogy, then you have the resources of the world's seventh largest economy behind you. So, ignoring an economic deficit the size of Ireland's, the SCPD have some pretty nice hardware at their disposal.

Basically, any hardtop the racers can play with the cops can respond with, and respond they do, hard! They hunt racers down and perform straightforward ramming manoeuvres, they drop spike strips from their cars and from helicopters hovering above the track, and they EMP racers' cars with the kind of devices seen in the third Fast and Furious movie. Racers aren't entirely powerless to resist, of course. The black market supplies them with essentially the same tech as the cops, minus the choppers of course.

You can play your career as a racer or a cop, and clearly, every player wanting to get maximum enjoyment ad value will take both routes through the game. The thing is you can do one and then the other, or flip between tracks at any time. You may find that one type of game suits your style more than the other, I'm a decent racer, while TimSPOnG rules our office at Hot Pursuit.

While there is clearly much for the racing game fan to enjoy in the single player campaign, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit's ace up its sleeve in terms of re-playability lies with its on-line aspects. There is the usual on-line real time racing that we'd all expect, but Criterion has also integrated some Facebook-style features. These include walls and friend networks. These features enable you to play competitively against your friends, without you having to be online at the same time. They also keep you supplied with challenges, and in my experience that keeps you coming back for more.

Conclusion

Criterion may not have topped Burnout Paradise, but they've created the greatest Need for Speed game ever, and one of the best racing games I've ever played. The game itself has bags of playability, but innovative online features add bags more, and are bound to be widely emulated.

SPOnG Score: 91%