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The Need for Speed series has been going strong for 15 years now, but of late the series has taken a dive from what is once was in the nineties (with a few exceptions of course). Criterion Games of Burnout fame asked EA if they could take up the reins on this next instalment, to show the world how the Need for Speed formula is still incredible, it’s just lost its way a little.

After winning several awards this year at Expos around the globe, its safe to say that there’s a lot at stake here. Have Criterion fully emulated the classic games, and have they saved what once were renowned as the best racing games on the planet?

One of the first things you notice when you play the game for the first time (which is rudely interrupted by a trailer for NFS Shift 2) is that the game uncannily resembles the atmosphere of Burnout 3, with less emphasis on aggressive driving and more on racing. The handling is slightly heavier than what you’ll find in the Burnout series, however after a few minutes of driving the cars you get used to them and you’ll probably come to the conclusion that the handling here is better – there is greater diversity between the handling of the cars too.

The game features two lengthy campaigns, one for racers and one for cops – totalling at over 100 events altogether. Each campaign has a separate experience bar, used to track your progress through the game and unlock new vehicles as well as reward your online efforts. Each campaign has a variety of missions, from standard races and preview events, to time trials and duels, with the most prominent events being Hot Pursuits (the namesake of the game).

Hot Pursuits feature on both campaigns, with each campaign having a different objective. On the Racers side, the aim is to finish ahead of all the other racers, whilst holding off any competition and police with the weapons at your disposal. On the Cops side, you have to bust all of the racers before they reach the end of the race – again using the weapons at your disposal. The incredible thing about Hot Pursuits is just how well it works with the game; the objectives are simple but you’ll need skill, a bit of luck, and most importantly tactics if you want to come out on top.

Cars made by Lamborghini, Porsche, Koenigsegg and Bugatti all feature in-game

Needless to say, the campaign remains fresh and exciting throughout all 100 or so events, with the last racer event taking you on a long route around the entire county – in the games fastest and best cars. Overall, the campaign should provide you with about 20 hours of solid racing for the average gamer, with more experienced gamers getting through the events in about 13-15 hours. After that, as ever, there’s the online portion of the game – almost as seamlessly integrated as it was in Burnout Paradise – which allows you to play with friends, jump into an online game of your choice or make some new friends.

Online allows you to play either Hot Pursuits, Interceptors or Races with people from around the globe. You’ll get points for actions you complete online, which will go to your main racer/cop level (the very same as found offline) in fact all points in the  entire game go towards these levels – of which there are twenty ranks for each. Pitting your wits against humans across the globe makes for a much more strategic way of thinking than can be found against the AI and just generally makes the game a whole lot more interesting.

A fully integrated Day/Night and Weather Cycle make the game's environment even more stunning to look at.

The gameplay area is reasonably large and diverse, there are mountains, forests, deserts, beaches and more, all with varying types of road – there are several long winding roads which are particularly fun to drive around and a few wide, straight highways that make for good places to test out your cars’ top speed. There is the option to roam freely around the map, however there isn’t anything to do except drive around, take in the sights, and take photos.

The Photo Mode is extensive and easy to access, a click of a button will take a photo and send it to your Autolog – where you can easily post it to your wall and share it with your friends. However if you want to try your hand at creating better photos you can play around with options such as motion blur, colour, focal length and more in order to show off your finest moments to all of your friends.

The graphics are, for the most part, impressive; all of the cars are very well modeled and have a great likeness to their real-life counterparts. The environments are also to a high standard, however if you look carefully you can see a few flat textures – especially on rocky cliff faces, all in all though, there is very little to complain about in the visual department.

Photo Mode allows you to take stunning snaps like this one.

There is a decent soundtrack to the game, with some variation in the songs, however if you don’t like them you can always use the in-built custom soundtrack feature and play songs on your hard drive. All of the cars have a distinct engine noise but they can overpower the music in some cases.

Overall, the game is a pleasure to play and in many ways will be the best racing game you’ll play this year, however gamers who are more into a simulation racing game will find themselves much more fulfilled with a game  like GT5. There is a large amount of single and multi player gameplay to get through, and the addition of in-game awards reward you for passing certain milestones such as driving X miles or boosting for X minutes.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit produces a stellar racing experience for those who are itching to play a decent racing game, and with the addition of a few more necessary features via patches this game could be perfect. Unfortunately, Hot Pursuit will probably be overlooked with the likes of Gran Turismo 5 being released less than a week after this game comes out, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t be loved by most. The genius that is the Autolog system which the game is built on almost seamlessly integrates the single and multiplayer sections of the game, offering an easy to use interface, the latest news from the developers, and most importantly a clear cut way of competing with your friends.

With a few tweaks here and there, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit could achieve the perfect game that this series hasn’t seen in so long, and given Criterion Games’ recent track record for game support (with Burnout Paradise) there’s no doubt that we will see improvements integrated into the game soon, and the game available now will quite probably be completely different from the one we see in a year’s time. For now though, Hot Pursuit provides a great arcade racing atmosphere which all gamers into racing (novice or expert) should experience.