Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit review roundup

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is the 14th title in the franchise, and a pseudo-reboot of the Hot Pursuit brand. Criterion Games was at the development helm for this one – you may remember them from their Burnout Paradise outing.

The game revisits the original title’s gameplay. Players will have a range of exotic cars to choose from as they race each other, and evadethe police. The police vehicles are more powerful than the racer’s vehicles, and the police have a number of tricks they can employ, such as calling in road blocks and spike traps, or using radar jamming.

The game is set in a large and expansive open world. Criterion claims that there is 160km of roadway to explore and about 12-15 hours of single player campaign action.Being a modern title, Hot Pursuit also features an online matchmaking service which should add plenty of replayability to the title.

The title launches at South African retail today (19 November 2010) for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Below, we’ve rounded up the average review scores from our favourite aggregation websites, Metacritic and GameRankings. Scores accurate at the time of publication.

Pretty decent scores for a franchise that typically hovers around this critical review mark. Below we have abridged opinion from a selection of review websites.

Joystiq – 5/5

“Where Hot Pursuit really shines for me [is] the online competition. The Hot Pursuit mode itself is just fantastic when played online against (and with) real people. There’s a surprisingly deep level of strategy involved, but mostly a whole lot of fun. It really is something that feels infinitely replayable; digging its hooks in and not letting you go. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit may have been a late entrant into the race, but it both grabs the checkered flag for this year and may set a land speed record for this entire class of racer.”

Destructoid – 9.5/10

“Unfortunately, Hot Pursuit doesn’t appear to offer any split-screen race capabilities, which is a bit of a downer. It’s obvious that Criterion spent most of their time focusing on online connectivity and networking, but offline “cops versus robbers”-style split-screen chases would have been a welcome addition. Criterion hasn’t rebooted the Need for Speed series, instead taking classic key elements and injecting them with new life for the current generation. It delivers a near-perfect competitive experience, in a way that few games — racing or otherwise — can. Hot Pursuit is not only a defining moment for the series, but for arcade-style racing, period.

IGN – 9/10

“Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is pure over-the-top driving entertainment. The cars and environments are gorgeous, the crashes are spectacular, and the new Autolog feature breathes new life into the time-honored tradition of video game competition among friends. The single-player races can become somewhat repetitive and there are some presentation issues, but overall, Hot Pursuit is a blast. If you’re looking for a high-octane racer that grabs on tight but doesn’t take itself too seriously, give this one a shot.”

Eurogamer – 9/10

“Hot Pursuit does lose some of its momentum as you advance through the Career mode, opting to peg you back with squirmy racer AI that dodges your attempts to protect. The decision not to rely on traffic density for difficulty feels like the right one – crashing in NFS is more of a hindrance than it was on the streets of Paradise City (at least once the Restart option made it onto the Pause menu) – but the alternative isn’t ideal either.”

“Otherwise, though, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is an unqualified triumph. It’s stuffed with content but rarely for the sake of it, and knowing Criterion it will be handsomely supported for months to come, even though it’s already the best pure arcade racing game since Burnout Paradise. For Need for Speed, it’s a return to critical form to match, justify and potentially expand the series’ enduring popularity.”

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