Need For Speed. Three words that are enough to remind players of speed, fun and the forbidden. Since its creation 17 years ago (!), the Electronic Arts saga has first experienced highs (several versions on PSone and PS2 were really great), then lows with the disappointing performances that were Undercover, ProStreet and Shift. Outclassed by licenses such as Split/Second or Blur, EA's franchise had to raise the bar to win back the hearts of the public. That's why this year, the publisher wanted to give its franchise a nitro boost by bringing in the little guys from Criterion Games, who have been trying their hand for a few years on the Burnout saga, which no longer has anything to do with it. prove in quality. The idea for Electronic Arts was therefore to bring together in Hot Pursuit the strong concept of the saga, the exclusive licenses present since its beginnings (the famous manufacturers' brands) and the know-how of a studio seasoned in racing games on consoles. HD. And as much to say that the result is largely up to our expectations!
Burn out, burn in !
The last two episodes of Need For Speed (Undercover et Shift), although different, suffered more or less from the same ailments. An uneven realization, a wobbly gameplay, a limited interest and above all a total denial of the fundamentals of the saga, sacrificed in recent years on the altar of competition. Indeed, it seemed obvious that Electronic Arts was using its saga to counter Midnight Club and Colin McRae: DiRT on new grounds, without thinking that this could go against the NFS spirit which had seduced not a lot of people a few years ago. Thus, we will not find here a soft scenario like in NFS: Undercover, nor an attempt to make a racing simulation like in Need For Speed: Shift. Back to basics requires, we are here in front of an old school NFS in which the player can choose to play as a driver or a cop. The goal of the game couldn't be simpler: win as many races as possible to earn points and unlock new races. The principle may be elementary, but it has been proven. Nevertheless, it appeared to us that the "police" part was much less fun than the rogue side. Question of taste surely since from our point of view, it is much nicer to humiliate the condés rather than to play the killjoys by stopping poor buggers who had only the misfortune to drive at 250 km / h against the direction on a national. Anyway, on one side or the other, you will be able to compete in various kinds of events, including the "Head-to-head", the "Time trial", the " speed race" and of course, the queen event: the "hellish pursuit", in which you will face competitors, the police and traffic that you can hit head-on. If all of these events are rather coherent and rich in thrills, we still want to give a special mention to the pursuits, which will often have left us swimming!
Back to basics requires, we are here in front of an old school NFS in which the player can choose to play as a driver or a cop. The goal of the game couldn't be simpler: win as many races as possible to earn points and unlock new races."
It is therefore difficult not to be charmed by this Need For Speed 2010 version. It seems that the developers at Criterion Games have endeavored to correct, one by one, all the faults that spoiled our pleasure in the two previous opuses. Side graphics and realization first, NFS: Hot Pursuit has absolutely nothing to envy to the competition. We will particularly appreciate the rich and varied scenery of the title (we go from a trip along the beach, to the mountain and its hairpin bends, passing through the desert and its long straight lines) and of course, the racy cars (the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera) drawn from 23 prestigious teams, magnified by shimmering light effects and careful ray-tracing. The sensations of speed are omnipresent, supported by successful visual effects that make the power of these wheel-mounted war machines explode for all to see. Otherwise, the parties are perfectly staged, punctuated here and there by a few dynamic cutscenes revealing to us from new angles the various "racing facts" that are accidents. Too bad, however, that the excellent "cockpit" view of NFS: Shift has not been retained in this Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, it could have brought a little more significant for lovers of thrills.
"It's still hot!"
But the greatest happiness will of course be to sow (or destroy) an adversary (cop or thug) after having fought bumper against bumper for ten kilometers. Tough and fast, enemies will sometimes give you a hard time. In this sense, we feel that the developers also wanted to correct the faults of IA which sometimes made the latest NFS irritating. Here, if the first races can end while driving with one hand, the affair thickens very quickly after the two or three hours of play. As soon as you compete in the heavy categories, your opponents will show themselves more and more clever and therefore reluctant to let you pocket the victory without losing your feathers. To defeat them, you will be helped by some very useful gadgets, such as the harrows which puncture the tires, the Electro Magnetic Pulses (EMP) which destroy the engines at a distance or the jammer, which protects you from enemy attacks. And in addition to that, you will have access at times to a Turbo which will perfectly complement the eternal Nitro gauge, by offering you to hit a sick acceleration for a few seconds. And as much to tell you that once this boost is activated, it is better to have a clear road in front of you! The transition is therefore all found to tell you about maneuverability, which often makes the difference with the player in this kind of title. Where the previous NFS had the lower body between two chairs, not too arcade, but not really simulation, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit finds its place by offering perfectly mastered arcade gameplay. On the one hand, your cars will be able to hit accelerations of up to 280 km/h in ten seconds without exploding a cylinder head gasket; on the other, they will be subject to a very realistic inertia when it comes to apprehending a bend. Here again, we feel the influence of the creators of the Burnout series, who did not hesitate to purely and simply remove the Tuning mode from the title, which nevertheless made the heyday of the saga. But then what will push the player to do and redo races then, if it is not the lure of profit allowing the customization of his favorite gear? The answer is of course on the side of Autolog, the online mode of the game.
Fun, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is undeniably in single player mode. But it is even more so when we look at the Autolog, sold no more and no less as the "Facebook of Need For Speed".
Fun, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is undeniably in single player mode. But it is even more so when we look at the Autolog, sold no more and no less as the "Facebook of Need For Speed". In the absence of a local multiplayer mode, and this is very regrettable, Autolog will be the only way to deal with anything other than the CPU. And here again, Electronic Arts has done things well by drawing inspiration from Blur's online mode, which is both complete and community-based and which is likely to be all the rage. In addition to online races that can be organized between friends and which can have up to eight participants, the Autolog offers you to collect all the information from your games and share it with other players, via the Speedwall, a kind of NFS Twitter. Concretely, as soon as you finish a race, your score is displayed on a page that all your friends can see, who may then want to challenge you. Similarly, if a friend beats one of your records, the Speedwall will offer to beat them in return. The result is a good-natured emulation that will inevitably push the gamer to multiply the games to try to be the best. Also a little extra: during the race, you can, by pressing R3, take snapshots of your road exploits which can be shared on the Speedwall. In short, Electronic Arts offers an original way to perpetuate the Hot Pursuit experience. The title then gains an almost infinite lifespan, since you can play it again and again until the roads of Seacrest County no longer have any secrets for you.
