Developer : Electronic Arts
Release date : November 11, 2005
Synopsis :
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a 2005 open-world racing video game, and the ninth installment in the Need for Speed series. Developed by EA Canada and EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts, it was released on November 11, 2005, for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance and Xbox 360. An additional version, Need for Speed: Most Wanted 5-1-0, was released in the same year for PlayStation Portable. The game focuses on street racing-oriented gameplay involving a selection of events and racing circuits found within the fictional city of Rockport, with the game’s main story involving players taking on the role of a street racer who must compete against 15 of the city’s most elite street racers to become the most wanted racer of the group, in the process seeking revenge against one of the groups who took their car and developing a feud with the city’s police department.
Most Wanted brought in many notable improvements and additions over other entries in the series, its major highlight being more in-depth police pursuits. Certain editions of the game were also packaged with the ability for online multiplayer gaming. Upon its release, the game received positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success, selling 16 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best entries in the series as a result. Its success later led to a collector’s edition, Black Edition, which provided additional content for the game.
The game was later succeeded by Need for Speed: Carbon in 2006, which provided a sequel to Most Wanted’s story, with a virtual edition being made available for PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Store in May 2012, until it was discontinued the following year. A reboot of the game, developed by Criterion Games, was released in October 2012.
Career Mode
In the game’s main mode, the objective is to race against each of the setting’s major street racers (or Blacklist Racer) and defeat them. Initially, players begin by completing a tutorial sequence of events to ease players into the game, whereupon they must choose a car to use for the rest of the game. The selection available is limited, but more become available as the player defeats each Blacklist racer, including better performance upgrades for these, with players able to sell any car acquired at any time during the game – cars can be bought at car lots, while upgrades and customization parts can be bought at garages. Events in this mode are divided into two categories – Racing events, and Milestones. While Racing events focus on the game’s main series of racing events which earn money rewards when won, Milestones focus on completing specific objectives, most of which usually involve being involved in a police pursuit and raising the player’s Bounty – a form of currency detailing how much trouble the player has caused for the police in the game’s setting, based on the number of offences and damage to property they had caused. An example of a Milestone can be the player being required to enter a police pursuit and then attempting to escape it within a set amount of time.
Police pursuits in this mode can occur in Free Roam, during a race, or from activating one in the game’s pause menu – the latter can be done only if there are any Milestones yet to be completed. Although police units will mainly impede a player if they begin pursuing them in a race, they will attempt to arrest them when in Free Roam. If the police achieve this, the player is fined based on their heat level, which is reset, and their car is given an impound strike – if the player cannot pay their fines, or receive a third strike on their car, it is impounded and lost; losing all of their cars this way and having no money to buy a new one, automatically ends the game. If the player escapes pursuit, the car retains the heat level it accumulated but can lose this by either having its visual looks changed or by driving another vehicle for a period of time. Players can view a statistic screen at any time during this mode to view their records regarding infractions, the cost to state, deployed tactics and pursuit lengths.
To take on each Blacklist Racer, players must complete events and Milestones associated with them, whereupon they must win against the racer in a successive series of races – the number increases as the player progresses in the story. Defeating a Blacklist Racer not only unlocks the next opponent and a new series of events, along with new Milestones to achieve but also unlocks additional cars and upgrade parts as well, along with allowing the player to claim two rewards from them. Each Blacklist Racer has six rewards they can offer when defeated. While three of these rewards consist of special customization parts and unique performance upgrades, the other three, concealed from the player until selected, consist of the racer’s personal car – a uniquely modified vehicle – and two randomly selected bonus functions – extra money; impound recovery of lost vehicles; a “get-out-of-jail-free-card”; the removal of an impound strike on any car. Any component Markers selected can be acquired by visiting the garages after returning to Free Roam. In addition, defeating specific Blacklist Racers also unlock access to the other districts of the city – the player has access to one district, to begin with, but unlocks more as they progress in the game, including additional safehouses.
Source : Wikipedia
