You're bombing down a motorway when a lane-divider comes up fas - crash. The game instantly restarts in the position you ended up, and after slowly reversing back onto the road you see a pair of headlights quickly appro - crash. Later you drift into an underpass and nick the bridge suppor - crash. This is a typical session with Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Criterion's open-world racer that does everything in its power to stop you racing.
After 2010's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit perfected car-based cops and robbers, the Burnout Paradise creators take their formula to the built-up hub of Fairhaven. It's a gorgeous urban area styled after an east coast American city: steel and glass, smoggy industrial zones, billboards to smash, speed cameras to blaze past, even modern art installations to ramp off. Yet, all this, despite its scale and beauty, is to Most Wanted's detriment.
The aim is simple: compete in sprints, time trials and circuit races, unlocking car parts and one-on-one's against exotic vehicles like the Koenigsegg Agera R and Hummer H1 Alpha. Wins notch you up a notoriety scale, edging you towards the ultimate goal: Most Wanted.
Easier said than done - and not because of rubber-banding safety measures preventing players getting too far ahead (or behind), positively rendering effort futile until the final mile. No, it's more to do with congested roads that crisscross and, in the end, confuse.
WORLD WITHOUT END
This issue is a fundamental design flaw inherent to open world racing, a hangover from Burnout Paradise and, sadly, completely without remedy. Right up front, familiar woes rear their head even before you get going. Rather than selecting events from a menu, you'll journey multiple miles finding them. En route you might get pursued by cops for speeding, unable to begin until you either shake them or get arrested, and you'll almost certainly crash several times over.
Problems permeate races themselves too. One had us lapping a makeshift course that cut along the shore and veered onto a junction. Speeding into sunshine blocked the road with blinding glare while sand spat up tall plumes of thick cloud - beautiful but hardly helpful. Neon flare from a full boost meter and violent camera-shake while you empty it, didn't help either.
But there's something more damaging than effects. Due to a lack of dedicated tracks - instead fashioning impromptu lines from an open-world layout - it'll take several attempts before you remember not to take the shortcut that inexplicably leads you out of the race.
A green trail on the map shows where to go but having to constantly reference it were problems definitely not shared by Hot Pursuit, with its long sightlines and wide open roads. The D-pad at least helps, dropping down an 'Easy Drive' menu so you can swap cars, customise on the fly with nitrous, reinflate tyres - and thankfully, warp to events already discovered.
It feels dangerously exhilirating at times, the sight of flipping cars never failing to entertain...
Nevertheless, despite races with confusing routes and the tedious time it takes to find them, Most Wanted is still fun when you're in the driver's seat.
Cars handle weightily, with a tap of the brake instigating a sort of meta-handling mode allowing the fine-tuning of drifts with the analogue stick. Shoulder-barging competitors down dense city streets feels dangerously exhilarating, and though takedown highlights are strangely absent from all crashes except your own (probably a concession towards consistent pace, but a waste of a good physics system), the sights of flipping cars and ejected windshields never fail to entertain should you be lucky enough to catch them.
Cops ironically lessen damage limitation. They'll sometimes pile-in mid-race to pop tyres with spike strips or block routes with barricades, and special events see you evading them for a set amount of time. It feels strangely one-sided given you lack a similar bank of weapons, but nicely chaotic all the same.
All problems levelled at Most Wanted can be traced back to its setting. Physically navigating towards an event rather than warping to it from a menu? Criterion want to show it off. Crashing lots? That's what happens when you smash the speed limit in a city centre. Getting lost mid-route? A side effect of having multiple routes. The trouble is, in the end, it stops Most Wanted from being what it almost is: a gripping, visceral racer.
Comments
19 comments so far...
budge on 30 Oct '12 said:
This is going to be a bargain bin purchase for me in a few months.
lotus-excel on 30 Oct '12 said:
Lack of Crash Camera?
Interesting, especially since the E3 video showed the crash camera
ensabahnur on 30 Oct '12 said:
Rubber banding, why oh why do we still see this in racers? It ruins every single game its in, instead of relying on racing skill your just relying on luck that you'll still be out in front by the time you cross the line or that you don't clip something on the home stretch.
toaplan on 30 Oct '12 said:
None of criticisms in this review sounded game-breaking, so looks like I'll be getting the game, especially as other reviews have been more enthusiastic. Burnout Paradise was confusing initially as well, but got much better with time. I just need to see some PC gameplay footage on high settings to seal the deal.
EvilWaterman on 30 Oct '12 said:
You're obviously not a very good driver!
Mobius01 on 30 Oct '12 said:
Hold off for a bit, it's not a very good port. The framerate suffers terrible dips even on 680sli rigs. There's a thread on neoGAF about it.
illage2 on 30 Oct '12 said:
EA where the f**k is Road Rash?
Sangor on 30 Oct '12 said:
I have no idea why developers still use things like rubber banding/catch-up. What's the point in having the skill to smoke the AI, if you just get punished for it by a p**s poor game mechanic.
ensabahnur on 30 Oct '12 said:
Exactly, i want my driving skill to decide the outcome of the game not the fact that i have to make sure i'm in first going into the last stretch and don't f- it up. If i want AI drivers that keep up with me then that's what difficulty settings are for.
mrlister on 30 Oct '12 said:
Criticisms seem to be more about the open-world racer genre itself rather than the game? Did the reviewer enjoy Burnout Paradise, or is he coming from a more Need For Speed direction? Seeing as Criterion have been very open about this being a successor to Paradise, I'd really like to know how it compares to that, rather than Hot Pursuit, which I really didn't care for.
One of the attractions of open-world racing is exploring and learning the city and routes. If you don't enjoy that, then why would you want to play it anyway? Why would you need a review? Is the game a 7.5 despite that, or because of it?
That said, one of the reasons I hated Hot Pursuit was the rubber-banding. If Paradise had it, I never noticed.
theideal on 30 Oct '12 said:
Any Vita review forthcoming?
KK-Headcharge78 on 30 Oct '12 said:
This x100000000000. All these non-sim racers offer so little originality it hurts, the NFSs, the Burnouts and Ridge Racers (excluding the great PGR and Grid games) and now the awful Forza Horizon all blur into one big fat unrealistic, yo dude look at them rims, collect points for near misses, bright neon borefest.
My opinion of course but an open world Road Rash with a good story would please me much (or a good Mad Max-esque racer
)
TheLastDodo on 30 Oct '12 said:
Is that KK "innovation is overrated" Headcharge complaining about a lack of originality?
SavageEvil on 30 Oct '12 said:
Hold on this game gets a 7.5 but Forza Horizon gets a 9? What the flying ...? Since when open world racing is supposed to be easy to navigate on your first few attempts? This reviewer counts this as a con, so exactly what was he expecting the game to do like Forza Horizon and blatantly point out the route for you by cordoning off places you aren't supposed to go? Reviewer needs to be kept away from games like this, he complains about not being able to warp to events, but you can't do that in FH either, only after you found that damn event can you do so this game has the same set up. Complains about getting lost mid race, what are you retarded I'm pretty sure that you have map markers letting you know the general way, you can take shortcuts at your own risk but that is the fun about open world racers figuring things out. It's good that the crash cam was added, then this would feel too much like Burnout which this is not(real cars don't smash up enough like they do in Burnout). Ok this buy played too much Hot Pursuit, why on earth would you need weapons to take out the police in Most Wanted? The original Most Wanted had no weapons either and it was the best NFS ever(excluding Porsche Unleashed), that game put you on edge because spike strips usually meant high chance of you getting busted. Dedicated tracks?!? What the hell are you talking about guy? It's an open world game it's not supposed to have dedicated tracks, stop comparing this to Hot Pursuit which is a different type of NFS game i.e. not open world. I was thoroughly not impressed with Hot Pursuit at all, nice visuals but weaponry was a bit much, became spy hunter with real cars.
I get from the review, an open world game that doesn't hold your hand every step of the way. Wide city with lots of routes in which to drive around so it doesn't get too boring seeing the same empty scenery for the 10th time. Arcadey handling with weighty feel to give cars that meaty handling but not sim in anyway, well detailed car models and loud and throaty engine notes. City that keeps the eyes busy with movement and never gets dull, rain and day to night shifts help keep things lively. Haven't played the game but I got all this from watching a video of the game in action, it looks like it should be a good romp Criterion style and less NFS.
delmariachi on 30 Oct '12 said:
This is in danger of becoming similar to the WRC 3 review on OXM in which the reviewer basically killed it because it wasn't Forza Horizon.
l1nc on 30 Oct '12 said:
This review seems a little harsh in fact Ben seems to be quite harsh in all of his reviews but I like the fact he's not afraid to score games honestly. I have already bought this game and have infact bought all of criterions previous work on day one. I actually hated paradise when I first bought it but once I got used to it, the game became my favourite racing game ever.
Tepescovir on 31 Oct '12 said:
Here's hoping they dont mess it up as bad as the last few games.
ie, no steering wheel support on release. 30 fps cap and getting stuck because it tells you to hit the X button, On a pc that dosent use a joypad.
And dont forget the multi monitor setups.
sonic_uk on 1 Nov '12 said:
The problem with open world racing games such as this is I often get lost in the actual races. I would of much preferred if in the races the roads be closed off, except maybe for a few alternative routes. When being chased by the police or in free roam then you still have the run of the entire map, but in races at least I could actually get to the finish line in a timely manner instead of taking a wrong turn that through no fault of my own leads in the complete opposite direction. This was my biggest bugbear with Paradise, and it seems the developers have repeated their mistake in this sequel (I say sequel because it basically IS Burnout Paradise just with real cars this time). The other thing I really dislike is the way that you can drive any car from the start, I know you have to find them but I'm sure that's not going to be too difficult. This ridiculous idea takes away all sense of progression for me where you start with a slower car and gradually work your way up.
theideal on 1 Nov '12 said:
That's actually the thing I like the most. I love the fact that I can be flying down the road, see the Aston parked in a layby, screech to a halt, jump in it and blitz off to some new races.
This thing is the perfect fit for Vita too imo. I'm not one for spending hours at a time on console racers so it's perfect that I can just pick it up whenever I fancy a few races or a raz around town while the Mrs is watching The Amazing Race.