Is it hazardous to be this close to a volcano?
Need For Speed 6 Hot Pursuit 2 Review
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Graphics: 9.5/10
Sound: 10/10
Replayablity: 4/10
Opinion: 7/10
Overall: 7.8/10 (Good)
Evading police could be more fun.
Gameplay: 8.5
The game is based solely on racing (if you don't know what is NFS is about). In this edition, you are still racing, but now with police on your tail. Choose 20+ cars from Mazda to Lamborghinis and many other exotics and race round and round a track, with 1 purpose, to get in the top three at the same time try to keep staying in there. But the game isn't easy, even on the easiest level available, the police will chase after you, sometimes performing tatics and moves performed by real police in the real world. As you go faster, evading more police, the more attention you get from the police.
It is very neat to see the police trying to catch you. They will perform pits or try to slam you off the road, sometimes calling for the 3 backup available. There is the spike strip, to blow you away. The helicopter, which is though unrealistic, drops mines on the road which explodes if you have contacted them, sending you flying. And there is the normal extra car backup, sometimes to overtake you and try to plow you into its tail. The AI competitors also gets the police, but it is unfair as only you, the player gets hammered by backup. The 'Be The Cop' mode is exciting, you get to play cop, trying to slam into the felony, geting him to stop.
The camera modes aren't awesome. You get far chase, medium chase, close chase and bummer cam. Not much for a racing game. But the camera changes and time goes into slow motion when your car is jumping or have it's 4 wheels in midair. When your car trips a mine or spike strip, time freezes and the camera rotates around. Very cool movie style but there don't show up in replay.
The number of tracks is disappointing. You get 4 base tracks, one in the greek-roman countryside, one on a Hawaii-like island, one in the forests and one in the alpine mountains. The game would cleverly put baricades and fences to build the track. But it is very noticable when the a particular track section start to repeat. To add more than a lousy 4 tracks, there is the reverse, mirrored, and mirrored reverse. But they barely spice up the game.
The game main feature is Hot Pursuit. You are to battle with alot of competitors in 38 events, from deliverys (beat the clock), to my favorite Knock-out (Last car per lap gets Knocked-out from the race). Though there is the Championships where there is no police, it isn't as fun as Hot Pursuit.
If you race illegally, be prepared for the traffic. Not only you must evade polices, catch up with the competitors, but also dodge traffic. To make it fair, the AI also makes mistakes. Like accidently hitting a guard rail when trying to make a turn, or crash head-on into traffic. This does happens 3 to 4 times in a 3 lap race, so almost everything is fair. Controls are not a problem but it would be nicer if we were able to configure the keys.
Graphics: 9.5
Outstanding. This game is like a benchmark for your graphic card. The cars have reflection on the metalic surface. Oddly, the lower settings are much better than the highest setting for graphics. It is because the cars look unrealisticly shiny on the highest setting. I could go from a stable 15-30 FPS depending on the area. Tracks are beautiful and the occasional speed limit signs are ready to be run over.
The game could be perfected if they just add one element which is missing in all the NFS games. Damage models. You could crash into oncoming traffic, flip yourself 10 to 20 times on the road or get blown by the helicopter but all you get is a dent in the hood or bumper.
Sound: 10
EA Trax comes up with 20 over tracks for your enjoyment. Mostly are all rock music and they certainly rock. If you don't like rock music, it is time to crawl away from the rock you've been hiding under and listen to it. The car engines sounds real but the exotic cars' horns sounds like a mouse squeaking. I do not know how does the real horn sound like but the high-pitch sounds are a minorly annoying.
Replayablity: 4
The lack of tracks and events are repeatitive. It could be improved by adding more tracks and some track editor. Or a freedom track where you could travel anywhere on it, like Grand Theft Auto 3.
Reviewer's Opinion: 7
It could last you a while to complete it, and Be The Cop mode is always fun. But the game just have too little variety of tracks. Tracks reversed or mirrored does not change much. But still, racing for speed is entertaining and you could learn a thing or two in how to evade cops.
