Arcade car games don’t seem that popular nowadays, so what is your opinion on this series?
Some food for thought (not mine)
It’s hard to believe the OG NFS Most Wanted is 19 years old. To this day, I don’t think there has been a better car game. In fact, I’d even claim it’s the best car game ever, but that would be too dramatic, so let’s just leave it at best in the franchise for now. I think a lot of people would agree with me though, and I mean a lot.
A little explanation for that title: If you’re a Need For Speed fan, chances are you support one of the following opinions:
- Underground 1/2 is the best NFS.
- Most Wanted is the best NFS.
Now, let’s see how Underground 1/2 is objectively better compared to MW:
- Customization is more extensive
The end. That’s literally it. MW on the other hand has:
- Better graphics, physics, etc…it’s just more polished in every way, which is to be expected from any game sequel, or at least it used to be.
- Police pursuits (more on that later).
I could of course say a lot more, but I don’t want to cross the blurry line of subjectivity, so let’s leave it at that. Most Wanted is simply a better made game, with an extra added mechanic: Police Pursuits.
Honestly, you could have an entire post just for the pursuits alone. Arguably what made the game as legendary as it is, at least partially. I don’t know if I’ve ever played another game that features police as good as this one. And its beauty is in its simplicity as much as it is in its execution. There are levels to how “serious” a chase can be, called “heat”. There is a counter and as long as you run from the police, it keeps counting. Get chased long enough and the heat level rises. Every time that happens, the police get more aggressive and use different methods to stop you. And it’s just done beautifully. It starts out easy, and you get cocky. Maybe you feel like challenging them. The heat rises, but you keep having fun. Eventually, you feel like it’s time to bail, and that’s when you realise that you have been played. Now they won’t let you leave. The difficulty really sneaks up on you, even though it’s absolutely linear and predictable in its progression. It can be fun, annoying, stressful, hard, in all the good ways.
That alone is enough to lift MW above any of the Undergrounds. And I’ve said virtually nothing about the rest of the game. I’m going to get into the subjective stuff now. The map is frigging awesome. You start out in what looks like the countryside, with its beautiful forested highways and what look like higher income areas. Then, as you progress further through the story and unlock more areas, you turn towards a more…dystopian look, for lack of a better word. Brown, filthy, rusty industrial areas, with garbage and graffiti. I mean look at this. This is a perfect image to give you a great idea of what this game is all about. Grunge, decadence, dystopia. You don’t get the neon lights of Underground 1/2 here, as cool as they are. And the whole thing is absolutely elevated by its metal/rap mix soundtrack, one that would be called “grimdark” today, but would also be instantly recognizable by any fan of the game. This is another way MW excels over the predecessors in my opinion. And that is the vibe. The atmosphere. I know people love the night from Underground, but in my opinion, MW offers a far more cohesive, far more complete package, and not just when it comes to aesthetics.
I feel like the whole experience is streamlined beautifully. Each thing flows into the next. The story is simple, yet it has stakes. At the same time, it plays into the game’s Blacklist mechanic, which has you competing with members of the “blacklist”, in order to climb up the ladder. But you have to challenge these drivers first, by completing milestones. That’s how the game basically “forces” you to experience all it has to offer. No shortcuts here, you have to work to get to the top and earn back what’s arguably the single most iconic car ever to be put in a video game: The BMW M3 GTR. The absolute legend, the unicorn. A car so iconic, they’re still milking it 20 years later, to remind you of the long past glory days of the franchise.
Yes, I am fanboying. I mean, this was THE GAME when it was new, especially for car people. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that it is, to this day, my benchmark for car games. Seriously, it holds up, graphics look good to this day (if you don’t focus on the backgrounds), driving physics are arcade-y, but still grounded enough to make you feel like a hero, even though they’re not even close to being realistic. This game has the mojo and the franchise has been in steady decline ever since. There were some highlights of course. Carbon was a good attempt at a sequel, but rushed, it even brought back the customization from Underground…or most of it at least. Shift tried to do something. Then there was the 2015 reboot, which is easily in my Top 3 Need For Speeds, plagued by issues as it may be, some tiny, others not so much. And ever since then…crap.
What happened to Need For Speed? When did they lose the recipe? At some point, they went back to doing classic NFS, no customization, no story, not even the option to buy cars, nothing, just races to get to the finish line first. They just can’t seem to get it right anymore. I still go back to the original MW every now and then and I can’t help but appreciate how perfect it is, within reason. Everything in that game is what it needs to be, and every thing works with each other to create a great well-oiled machine that just does what’s it’s meant to do. I don’t understand why newer games can’t get it right. I thought the aforementioned NFS 2015 was an honestly GREAT attempt, but some of the decisions made for that game baffle me. But I can forgive virtually everything about it…except for one thing. Always online? Really? I can only hope that they patch the game before they inevitably take down the servers. Anyway, I digress.
Need for Speed used to be THE franchise for car games, and now it’s but a shadow of its former self, if not a joke. I guess it still sells though, which is why they’re still pushing the games out. I just wish we could once again reach those same highs from -sigh- 20 years ago. It really is incredible that it’s been that long.
Play Need For Speed: Most Wanted if you haven’t, it’s great.
I loved UG and UG2, but honestly HP2 takes the cake for the best game, not because of the involvement but, because no other game in the series ever did the Cops system as well as it. The newer HP game was also good too, but I felt it branched off too much. HP2 you could just give a map, no reason for it, and spend the entire game dodging the cops the rest of them it felt like you were actively penalized for not pulling over. I loved the added challenge of running from the cops + racing
OG MW is still peak. The way the game comes together is better than the sum of its parts.
BUT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT Unbound.
I played though half of Heat around two years ago. And Ill say it suprised me how nice the driving and the world looked gorgeous, but I didn’t get far. This was a great attempt at modernizing the franchise, and I think it set the groundwork well for…
Fast forward to 2024 and Im playing Unbound and loving it. The map is large, expansive, and fun to explore. I legit was able to start mapping it in my head the same way I would with MW. They have such a big range of cars from classic to modern. Alebit the body kit and overall customization is slightly lacking, there’s enough variety that I find myself shopping for new rides because I want to.
And Unbound is dripping with that ASAP ROCKY, manga ass, trippy trap style that permiated the culture a few years back. The neon and drift visual effects I fuck with heavy, because it actually leans into that fun arcadey humor. The characters are cell shaded just like the overlaying style graphics, and I think it juxtaposes the photorealistic vibe if the cars and world well.
The open World Map is much improvement too. Its literred with collectables, art to collect, mini world events (speed traps are BACK, along with hot lap and drift challenges). I don’t think its as good as Rockford, but its good in its own right.
Im a little torn on how the game progression is set up. Essentially, the player gets a “week” to run races and escape from cops to earn as much cash as possible, upgrading your ride along the way, coalescing in a more important qualifier or story race on Saturday. The player can choose to participate in as many races during a day/night as they want before turning in all that cash at a Safe House, proceeding to the next day/night phase. Rinse and repeat. The player will have had to level up a car to a certain class of car (Classes are split into B, A, S, S+), and the races a player can choose to take part in will fall into one of these categories. So its highly advised and even required to have a full stable of cars, not just get locked into one. For that I appriciate it, but this leads me to my next point…
The cop chases. Ugh. Early game they’re fun and add a lot to the tension, especially when you have a shitbox for a car. But they feel less integrated into story mode than before, as you don’t ever HAVE to really deal with the police in a mission sense. They exist and will always be there to pester you but that’s just it - theyre more of a pest than fun. I could do deeper, but cobstant high level cop chases make me not want to keep playing some days.
The story is take it or leave it. Pretty run of the mill, but it didn’t actively make me hate it either, so I would says that pretty fucking solid. You can completely ignore it, but its juuuust campy enough I’ve stayed involved.
Probably going to beat it this weekend, but overall, my thoughts are that I’m excited for the next one. Heat and Unbound FEEL like the first two in a mid-franchise trilogy, kind of like Resident evil 7 & 8, and I’m totally ready for the next one.
This is quite funny to read, I quite liked Heat and played it all the way through.
Unbound however is by far my least favourite Need for Speed, and one of very few games I regret purchasing.
I just really really do not vibe with it at all, the catch up mechanic is atrocious, and the story and progression is just absolutely terrible.
I really want to try Unbound, it is the first title that has looked interesting to me in the NFS series for a while it is just a shame that I have to use their launcher, if this wasn’t the case I might actually even be willing to break my rule of not giving EA any money (although I would buy it when it was on deep sale that they have fairly often). Shame.
NFS (OG) was released in 1994. That’s 30 years ago.
I think NFS Heat is great nowadays. It holds up well and runs well. Dirt cheap as well. As in all racing games, I skipped the story tho lol; those are a waste of time and resources IMO
Def NFS underground
Carbon
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit has always been my favorite.
There are three such games in the franchise. My favorite is the original 1998 version.
Same here, although that’s probably because it’s the only one I played extensively as a kid. I always thought the Atlantica/Aquatica course was incredibly cool.
Jaguar XJR-15 was a great car, at least in the PlayStation version.
I think ProStreet is very underrated, and I’d say that’s my favorite. The car handling is a nice balance between realistic and arcadey, and the game is just a really entertaining take on track racing. Most of the game feels tight with its controls and challenges, and there are clear ways to express skill and achieve goals. My biggest problem with it is that dominating events (setting track records) is a little too easy, which probably works well for kids, but as someone who knows how to play racing games it’s often a matter of not crashing and having a reasonable car. There’s probably a mod to change that though? The soundtrack is also a bit mid compared to other NFS titles from this time but it does grow on you a bit.
Most Wanted is probably my second place, but I think it’s not untouchable. The rubberbanding almost singlehandedly kills any sort of difficulty. In MW you’re there to race neat cars and look cool doing it. There’s no real challenge, and if there is, it’s not a fair one. It could be a little less menu-driven too. Sometimes it feels very linear in how you progress through the game, just picking event after event from the menu, and even starting police chases from it.
Carbon is probably third place? It’s more interesting than MW in a lot of ways but it’s also just more mediocre in most respects. I consider MW and Carbon to be two sides of the same coin, but if it comes down to it I think you can easily put Carbon below MW. I think most people consider Carbon to be complete trash, but I don’t think it’s fair to say there’s nothing good about it.
Underground 1 just sucks, and Underground 2 doesn’t have a lot to offer in retrospect. Both Undergrounds were amazing at the time, but now that we have newer alternatives I don’t think there’s a lot of reason to return to U2, and I think U1 has aged like milk in just about every respect. I could definitely be convinced to play U2 again, but it’s not something I feel a strong pull to return to.
Other Need for Speeds have a lot of hits and a lot of misses, and it’s hard to want to put them in any sort of ranking system. They can all be fun in certain ways, but like most people I consider Black Box NFS to be the real NFS.
I wanted to love Carbon. Sadly, the way most of the cars drive just felt like ass.
I didn’t even get to try to enjoy it, one of the missions pretty early on had a 100% chance to crash at a certain point on my computer and after a year of checking to see if each game patch or video driver update fixed it, I just gave up.
I hate to say it, but you didn’t miss much IMO. I loved the idea that they were going for, but the gameplay sucked cheeks.
Most fun? Most wanted. But these days it’s just such a pain to get it running most of the times.
I had fun with heat and a few other of the new titles. But the police are just too easy and the dlc hell is just too much. I saw the last one for sale on steam this weekend. To get all the dlc i had to fork out another fifty or something and they mostly just added cars, not tracks or areas.
I have it in a bottle, works great. I just wish the resolution wasn’t so ass
I got it running in 1080p once, you can just do a custom resolution in some config file.
They should have never made a new Most Wanted, they should have taken the old one, added more recent cars and add better graphics. Instead they destroyed the whole vibe.
Holy shit, yes! I loved OG Most Wanted. That new version was interesting but had absolutely no right sharing the name. I agree they should have modernised the original instead.
Interesting, I’ll have a look into it. Thanks
Underground 1 (and burnout 3) both for ps2 are the racing games I always fall back to.
I really, really dislike open worlds, stories, pointless customization, and any sort of online play.
I want fast moving, hard to see, dodging traffic racing, with lots of crashing (or close calls).
Most Wanted is the GOAT simply for the soundtrack. Bullet For My Valentine and Avenged Sevenfold practically defined my music taste for the rest of my life.
NHL 2004 had those same bands as the soundtrack!!
That might’ve been the best year for metalcore 😭
The OG most wanted is hands down my favorite of all time.
I dropped $40 just to play on my Xbox around 10 years ago.
I’d buy it again if I didn’t already have it installed.
First one, on the 3DO. Small selection of exotics and sports cars, realistic (for the time) point-to-point road races with no music to obscure the engine noise, and an annoyingly/amusingly sarcastic rival racer that was obviously just one of the devs.
Each car had its own showcase video followed by a detailed specs sheet with a very enthusiastic voiceover explaining why you should be excited to drive this car. Even the courses had the voiceover treatment.
It truly was a love letter to cars and driving that has never been equalled, and is very telling that it’s the only one to have had Road & Track branding. Every subsequent NFS game has been so in name only.
Arcade car games don’t seem that popular nowadays
Any recommendation on steam ? I really miss now im seeing this post UG2, MW, and the burnout series
-BallisticNG
-Split/Second
-Inertial Drift
-Dirt 5
-Ridge Racer: Unbounded
-Neodash
-Distance
-Parking Garage Rally Circuit
-Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom (more of a collect-a-thon than racer)
Open to suggestions!
To add to this great list, I’d recommend Blur. Imagine Mario Kart, except fair and in a realistic setting with real cars. This game was phenomenal and should have had so many sequels. Alas, it was the swan song of Bizarre Creations.
Many thanks,
Do you play them on linux with steamproton ? I ask, regardings launchers like the EA one,Ive just dicover JDM, after asking ^^" Ive try nightrunner too, but didnt like it,
Trackmania, is to competitive for me, i like the solo experiences theses last times
I don’t have dirt 5 or split/second on steam actually but all the others I can confirm work on proton! ProtonDB say they should work!
I actually just played most wanted last year when I hacked my PS3. I was hooked immediately and played the shit out of it. I downloaded rivals as well and it’s alright. I don’t like the map as much as most wanted.
My thoughts on the series:
I used to play the DOS version of NFS1, and it was a blast at the time, but it’s outshined as new games came along.
NFS2se - I only had the demo, but it looked amazing showing off the 3dfx cards. If you play this one, it’s so janky. Absolutely horrendous driving physics, and looking back it was all flash over gameplay.
NFS3 Hit Pursuit. My friend got this for Windows as a “send in a coupon get a free game” deal. So much fun, we spent hours and hours with this.
NFS Porsche 2000. I loved it. I played it so much and for years and years it was my favourite racer.
NFS Underground- my brother had a hacked OG Xbox, so he rented the game and copied it to the hdd. We played this like crazy. I was 18 and just finishing high school if I remember correctly, also my gf had just moved away to the city, so I wasn’t having a good time. This game was a great distraction and super fun.
NFS Underground 2. I played it for a few hours only. I’d moved away from home and was a poor student, so I pirated it. I didn’t like the open world concept so I didn’t play it much.
NFS Hot Pursuit 2010. I got this on PS3 when it was released. I had a lot of fun with it. My partner has the remaster on her Switch, and it’s still a good time.
That’s all I’ve played in the series, and for me the winner was Porsche 2000.
