The Burrow

And a some Hot Pursuit 2

I must admit that by the time Most Wanted was released initially, I had had my fill of the franchise. Or at least I had decided to skip this entry, and that derailed me for quite some time. However, after tackling Underground 2, my curiosity peaked. So then, how does Most Wanted hold up in 2024? I would say really well.

Most Wanted is, in some ways, a return to the series’ roots. Yes, many customization options from the last two entries carry over to this one. But the car roster is no longer dominated by import tuners. Some are still there, but there is a heavier emphasis on exotics this time, and those seem to be cut directly from those series roots. Indeed, it seems to share a little more DNA with Hot Pursuit than just featuring police. I felt that some of the game’s tracks were also pulled from the earlier games. Anytime I ran through Most Wanted’s woods, I felt like I was running Alpine Trial.

Most Wanted’s single-player campaign is one that is talked about and brought up often, and on this, I, too, can sing its praises. Yes, there seems to be a lot to do here, with new event types and old ones carrying over from Underground 2. Toll Booth being one that I was particularly fond of, requiring you to get from A to B as fast as you can while hitting checkpoints before the clock ran out. It has a very arcadey and classic feel. Beyond that, by virtue of that game’s setting, there is a little more to do during your downtime. Most Wanted tasked the player with climbing the “Blacklist,” a board of the it’s city’s most notorious racers, because the moment you arrived, you were hoodwinked by Razer, the game’s primary antagonist. Climbing that list is a great time and requires that the player do several things before they can challenge their next rival. The characters are likable enough, even though they are mostly relegated to your phone through voicemails and texts. The game does feature actual cutscenes this time around, with a considerable amount of camp. That said, I do think they are an improvement over the comic panels in the previous entry.

In addition to winning races around the map against increasingly difficult opponents, you must also increase your wanted level while pulling off various stunts against the police. These include escaping a certain number of police cars, running roadblocks, destroying public property, and running photo booths at high speeds. I like the photo booths in particular because, depending on where they are located, they become little puzzles as you try to find the best approach and avoid traffic to attain the fastest possible speeds. The driving model feels good and is an evolution of Underground 2, though I do not believe the tuning options were as robust this time around. Customizing your car is still an option, and there is a lot of choice; however, you are picking body kits instead of individual parts. It is no longer required to outfit your car with those kits to progress, but you may want to, to lower your persistent heat level if the police are giving you too much trouble in the open world.

That open world I mentioned is no longer a place of perpetual night. Rockport is permanently set on Autumn Day, and I love it. The leaves are red, orange, and falling all over the road. Where Underground 2 had a blue tint, Most Wanted has a warm haze that feels great to me. I have heard it described as yellow, but for me, it feels like home. To be fair, Fall/Autumn is my favorite time of year, so I could be a little biased. Rockport also feels large, with a bustling downtown, a big college campus, and a countryside with long stretches of open road. Visually, given that the game came out at a turning point for graphics in games, it looks great. The city is well-defined and detailed, with debris scattered throughout. The cars got a noticeable update over Underground, which is even more impressive when considering the turnaround between the two games. The roads are well-populated with civilian traffic but not to the point of being a nuisance. Thankfully, Rockport time didn’t stop during rush hour.

As a Need for Speed game, Most Wanted walks a fine line between traditional and contemporary. Tuners coming forward from Underground works for fans of that style who want to live a moment in that street racer fantasy. The returning exotics harken back to the origins of the franchise for fans of the first lap of Need for Speed games. The result is a rare game that appeals to nearly all fans of Need for Speed. This is quite the compliment in my eyes, as so many games try and fail to do this. I think that makes sense, too, and is the reason this game is looked at as another high point in the series and not too often do you find people who don’t like it. It is a game worthy of its legacy, and it’s one that holds up even when you take off the rose-colored glasses.