One of the oldest names in the world of racing games, the Need for Speed series is often touted for its more irreverent take on the racing sim genre though it is no longer unique in this area. Developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts, the downloadable title Need for Speed: Most Wanted is the 19th installment in the Need for Speed franchise of games. It continues the great arcade-style racing experience that players had come to expect from a Need for Speed title.
How to Download Need for Speed: Most Wanted
You can download Need for Speed: Most Wanted from the Origin Store. To start downloading click on the link located below the review. If you like the Need for Speed series you should also download and check out such classic as Need for Speed Underground 2 (2004), Need for Speed: Carbon (2006) or the newer Need for Speed: Payback (2017).
The Game Review
Released in 2012 (we’re not talking here about the 2005 video game of the same title), Need for Speed: Most Wanted occurs in an open-world environment similar in format to the Forza games and includes three racing types within city maps as well as a mode wherein the player is surrounded by police at the start of the race.
A convention of the Need for Speed games Need for Speed: Most Wanted takes police chase and evasion to the next level and is often praised for its intense action in this respect in multiplayer modes.
Sadly, the single-player experience in Need for Speed: Most Wanted is somewhat lacking as competitor AI is either too aggressive or too accommodating and police have no chill whatsoever.
The graphics in Need for Speed: Most Wanted are some of the best in the franchise and do an excellent job at capturing the atmosphere of the various environs to which the player travels; however, these are rarely appreciated as the game moves by at such a brisk pace that these details become incidental.
What does become apparent are nagging details when it comes to driving experience and simulation with a few portions of the game showing the seams of construction and taking you out of the simulation in the process.
Often touted as cultural touchstones, Need for Speed: Most Wanted carries this tradition proudly and features lingo-heavy dialogue as well as a top-10 soundtrack that doesn’t hold up as well so long after. Indeed, so much of Need for Speed: Most Wanted feels tired and the concepts here, while once revolutionary for the racing sim genre, are now par for the course.
Though there are reflections of the Forza series in this game they are too brief and fleeting. Instead one feels that Need for Speed: Most Wanted is an arcade classic from another time and in many ways, it is but with improvements one would expect in 2012.
Like the titles of the arcades that set the tone for much of racing thereafter, Need for Speed: Most Wanted’s driving mode straddles the fine line between intense simulation and loose arcade interpretation. This middle of the road approach makes the driving the most rewarding aspect of the game but draws a highlight to how clunky the rest of it is.
Gamers looking for a touchstone game won’t find it in Need for Speed: Most Wanted but what they may find instead is a game that is premised on fun and does a good job at delivering that consistently. Neither driving simulation nor arcade game, Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a great title for fans of the series and those who love pursuit titles.
