Need for Speed: Most Wanted Review (Vasharal)
I do not fear, for you are with me. - Tobey Marshall
Sum-Up
In-depth analysis further down.
🟩 Pros
🟥 Cons
• Great visuals even for a 2012 game.
• Large variety of cars.
• Good variety of races and fun time.
• Cop chases are challenging and fun.
• The most wanted list is no longer as interesting
and thrilling as it used to be.
• As an old-school fan, I miss the visual tuning,
neon, and other shenanigans.
• Can get repetitive and tedious to 100% complete.
• Downgrade over the original MW game.
• Finicky controls, hard to work with without fixes to v-sync.
• Collision cam is extremely annoying.
🟨 Bugs & Issues
🔧 Specs
⚙️ Settings & FPS
Didn't encounter any game breaking bugs except collision
moments where I'd be stuck for a few seconds to see the collision.
• CPU: i7-12700K
• RAM: 32GB DDR4
• GPU: 3080 10GB
• SD: SSD
• RES: 1440p
Settings: Ultra
FPS: 60
🌌 Content & Replay Value
According to the game it took me roughly 25 hours to complete, but that's just not true. The time you see is the time I spent in the game to get 100% completion. It requires getting it for all the 3 DLC's as well, as they come with their own content. I don't see any replay value unless you like racing games and to that I say, more power to you.
💵 Is it worth buying?
Yes. But definitely consider it on discount, not because it's not worth it, but because you can get the DLC's for roughly about the worth of the game.
🎮 Steam Deck Compatibility
Runs well, but may encounter here and there bugs.
🧾 Verdict: Decent
Rating Chart Here
I wanted to like this game a lot more, but honestly, it's not as good as the original was. Maybe it's the nostalgia, but it was also the elements that were missing from this. I wish they would bring back the formula that made Underground, Most Wanted (2005), and Carbon successful back. It's not by all means a bad racing game, just not up to par to even older entries like Undercover or The Run, in my honest opinion.
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In-depth
⚔️ Gameplay & Exploration:
This like other Need for Speed games is a racing game, with different types of race events. You have the classic circuit race, sprint race, police chase races and additionally to that, you have smash and grab events, where you have to destroy elements to get as much points as possible, and drift events that I believe are related to the DLC's.
These are all fun, different and pretty numerous in number, but can be rather boring to redo once you've picked your cars of choice. You're required to do a few tasks to get 100% completion, like swap cars, smash security gates, destroying billboards and of course, take out the Most Wanted list.
For each event you do, you gather points, and with the points and missions you do you unlock the Most Wanted list which is mainly a cop chase while trying to sprint and overtake the Most Wanted owner. After beating him, you have to destroy his car in order to add it to your library.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3140290995
😄 Fun:
I enjoyed the game, but to complete this it can be somewhat unfun, especially if you're trying to find all the hot spots for cars, destroy billboards and security gates.
🏞 Visuals & Presentation:
Good part of the game is that this game looks great. Has great lighting visuals and car models. The city looks nice, despite feeling fairly empty at times.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3140290888
🔊 Sound & Voice-Acting:
Sound engines are great. No issues there. Music is a hit or miss for me. I liked the tracks they picked, but they aren't as special as they used to be in Underground 2, Most Wanted and even Carbon.
📖 Story & Writing:
None existent almost. Like the classic, you have to take down the top Most Wanted racers. That's it. There's no cutscenes, no characters, nothing.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3130682437
🧵 Length & Difficulty:
Can be short or long, depending for what you're going for. To beat the game and be the Most Wanted, you can get this in less than 12 hours.
Difficulty wise it all depends on how skilled you are with racing games. My advice is always start to do the first event for each car you start that provides you the Nitrous. That will help you out to take the other events much easier. The keeping up speed for cars was the most challenging part of the game for me.
⭕️Verdict:
Overall, NFS Most Wanted was a downgrade compared to the original game. I am not sure if the developers tried to take a more simple approach, but they didn't succeed at making the game feel as magical and fun as the original. Still, I can't help to say that if you love racing games, you'll still like this game, but might not be the best from the series.