Need for Speed: Most Wanted Limited Edition Review

Need for Speed: Most Wanted Limited Edition

Publisher: EA Developer: Criterion Platform: Xbox 360 Players: 1-MMO Release: 2012 Genre: Racing / Sandbox Rating: 8.4 \ 10.0: Great

Above is a scene of a street race

This great game is a remake of 2005's Need for Speed: Most Wanted. As in the other games in the long-running Need for Speed series, you play as a rebellious driver and explore a massive world, competing in street races and hijacking cars. Many of the cars are of the some of the most luxurious sports-car brands around, including Lamborghini and Bugatti.  The plot has you assume the roll of a nameless driver who aims to beat the top 10 most wanted cars in town and claim the title for themself. It's up to you to beat every one of them in a race and become the most wanted. To become worthy to compete in a race with the Most Wanted, you must obtain Speed Points (SP). Speed Points are earned by dispatching police units, smashing through the billboards and restricted area gates scattered throughout the land. I always get into police pursuits. To do so, you simply need to crash into a cop-- you have to hit them because they're ridiculously ignorant of pile-ups, knocked-over objects, and any other traces of reckless driving. The more damage you do to police cars, the more wanted you become. The maximum wanted level is six. By tapping the right bumper on the controller, you can browse through a massive selection of music from a wide array of artists, most of which perfectly fit the game. Additionally, the visuals are shockingly realistic and are easily some of the seventh console generation. Everything from the reflective metal to the sunsets look fantastic. But the one of the game's few flaws comes in during pursuits. The police AI can be laughably dumb, although that makes me, well, laugh. They don't bother to hit the brakes at the edge of a cliff, and they make fatal jumps constantly. But it may be deliberate, as you receive SP when a cop slams into a car-- traffic poses a larger threat than the police, and it leads to cheap crashes galore. Even so, pursuits prove fun. Another small complaint is that the environments can feel lifeless at times, due to the fact that there are no civilians-- only cars. I get that you're not supposed to be able to harm civilians, but why not have them jump out of the way of vehicles like in Midnight Club: Los Angeles? And finally, even when travelling slowly, it's easy to lightly bump into a wall-- and crash. Despite these flaws, Need for Speed: Most Wanted Limited Edition is a fantastic game full of high-speed thrills, and no racing game aficionado should miss out on it.

Ups
Solid racing action
Wide variety of music
Hilarious dumb police AI
Incredible visuals

Downs
Hilariously dumb police AI (it's a con from a technical standpoint)

Overly dangerous environment

ESRB: E 10+ Content: Alcohol Reference, Comic Mischief, and Violence Price: $39.99 (Retail / Download)