Reviewed: December 8, 2005
Reviewed by: Ken Hutchinson

Publisher
Electronic Arts

Developer
EA Canada

Released: November 15, 2005
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Teen

9
9
8
10
9.2

Supported Features:

The tradition of illegal street racing and tuner customization is carried on in Most Wanted. But this time, you have more to worry about than just rival racers. The Blacklist is out, and the police have a bounty on your car. Avoid getting busted while taking on some of the fastest rides around. Become the most wanted.

The beauty of this game is Josie Maran, a young model/actress known for her work with magazines such as Glamour and roles in movies as Van Helsing and Little Black Book. Maran plays the role of Mia Townsend, a gorgeous woman that befriends you after you come to Rockport. She’ll be the one to help you establish yourself as the most wanted racer.

You look for races around the city of Rockport using the world map, which is very similar to the one used in Underground 2. This map is more user-friendly, though, allowing you to freely move the cursor around the map. To prove yourself worthy of racing a racer on the Blacklist, you have to win a certain amount of races and establish a certain bounty. You increase your bounty by engaging in police pursuits and evading capture. As the game progresses, police cars will become faster, changing from Crown Vics to faster cars like the Corvette C6.

The races you participate in are fairly similar to the Underground series. EA decided to scrap the drift and street x modes, which makes sense seeing as how this really isn’t a tuner game, but more of a street racer. The circuit, sprint, and drag styles returned to keep the street racing alive.

A new aspect of Most Wanted includes the speedbreaker. It makes the environment around you come to near standstill. It makes it easier to control around tight turns, under trucks, or through tight squeezes. It can be useful when avoiding a barrage of squad cars approaching you head on.

The addition of police pursuits and exotics is a very nice touch to this game. Some of the exotics include: Mercedes SL500 and SLR McLaren, Lotus Elise, Aston Marton DB9, Porsche 911 Carrera S and Carrera GT, Dodge Viper SRT 10, Ford GT, and Lamborghini Gallardo and Murcielago. Other new additions include the new 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Chevy Cobalt SS and Corvette C6, and Pontiac GTO.

However, it seems as though some companies decided to stay off of the scene this time. Possibly not wanting to promote evading law enforcement, Honda and Nissan both opted to refrain from having their cars in Most Wanted. This means no more 350Z, Skyline, G35, Civic, or RSX. These aren’t the only vehicles missing. SUV’s have also been removed, thankfully. I really never saw their place in Underground 2. I know SUV’s get decked out and such, but not for racing. It’s more for show than anything.

Tuner capabilities are still present, though to a lesser degree. You can still change your paint, rims, body kit, and hoods, but you can no longer customize your side mirrors, headlights, taillights, or exhaust tips. Also, performance changes only come in packages, eliminating the option of installing individual parts. Previewing the changes to your car is better than the previous Underground. You can zoom in and rotate the camera at better angles than formerly possible. Body kits are also now tailored for the specific car, as opposed to separate front, rear, and side pieces.

You have a wide assortment of cars that can be visually tweaked to please your own eye. There are some new ways to visually enhance your car compared to Need for Speed Underground 2, but I still that Underground has the upper hand on visual customizations. Even without the former array of cosmetics for your car, your car is rendered beautifully with the options you do have. Like Underground 2, Most Wanted gives a ton of detail to each car. From the minor decals to the intricate body contours, you could easily look up a car online and see how the ones in the game are nearly identical.

The HUD has a really simple layout. It is also customizable for those of you that don’t care about what’s in your rearview mirror or what lap you’re on. The views you can use include a close-up, bumper, hood, and far view. The only issue with the view is that you can’t change it on the fly. You have to pause and go into the options menu to change the camera’s view. EA also brought us a new visual effect. The speedbreaker mode gives you this neat effect of everything around you being in slow motion.

At really intense parts of the game, you can sometimes notice the frame rate bog down slightly, or little graphical glitches. But other than those parts, the game runs smoothly. You’ll also notice an option called car damage. I think it’s a misnomer, though. They should have just called it windshield damage, because that’s basically what you notice as being damaged. I purposely ran my car into a wall at 150 and came up with a battered windshield but no body damage.

The biggest problem I have with EA’s choice of songs is the tempo. For all of their street racing titles, they’ve used mostly medium-tempo songs. Now, I like the alternative, heavy metal, grunge, and so forth genres, but a lot of these songs are not upbeat. When I’m driving at high speeds, I don’t want a mellow beat to be playing in the background. I want to have something high-tempo playing. Their choice of music seems to be more fitting for the free roam mode instead of the actual racing.

The sound effects are very good. You can feel the resonating pitch of the exhaust, as it rumbles with the throttle. The nitrous gives a nice hissing sound. The tuner sound missing: the blow-off valve sound associated with turbochargers, since this game utilized superchargers instead. Utilizing a surround sound system can make you feel like you’re there. The sounds that are in the game do a great job of mimicking the products from the real world.

The one effect that can be entertaining at times is the radio chatter. When you’re in a police pursuit, you’ll hear the police over your radio. At times, it can be amusing listening to their frustration.

I could spend hours merely building up various cars for my garage. Once you complete the career mode, you’ll probably want to continue to build up other cars. The multiplayer also throws in the action for heads-up races. The only thing this could have had is an online ability. It would be nice to be able to wager money or even pink slips or your car. But, like many other games, it is exposed to Nintendo’s lack of generous online gaming.

The price tag sits at $49.99. The price tag should sit at $49.99. It is a fun racing game that offers hours and hours of gameplay and replay.