N-Philes :: News :: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2

Viewing Entry

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2

Everybody loves highway cops and the pranks that they pull. If you don't believe me, rent Super Troopers and enjoy an entertaining comedy. Pulling people over for speeding when they haven't along with other such greatness is part of the highway patrolman's life. Occasionally, though, people do speed and the cops need to get serious. Reasons for speeding range from "It's just good fun to go fast" to "I was just trying to find out whether my Porsche was better than his Ferrari." Most of us, however, cannot afford these great speed machines and resort to lesser cars like Fords and Chevrolets. While we may have to settle for this in real life, EA has given us the chance, in the form of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, to race in these speed demons along great stretches of highway. Like any good highway, don't expect to be able to just cruise along at 200 km/h plus. The cops are out in full force to get the speeders and will use any tactics necessary. Feel that need for speed yet?

Gameplay

The Need for Speed series has been around for almost ten years. In it's third iteration, the developers added the subtitle Hot Pursuit due to the emphasis on racing while having the police chase you. It gave the series a new look, and EA decided to bring out a second game in the Hot Pursuit vein. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is the series debut on the GameCube, but it isn?t the first time the team behind the games has worked for the system, as they also did the driving missions in the James Bond games. While those were fun, this is where the team really gets to show their stuff, in a racing game.

They took full advantage of the opportunity to make a full-blown racing game as there are two totally separate modes, Hot Pursuit and Championship. The first mode, what the game's title is based on, is the more intense of the two modes. The reason for this is that not only is the race against computer opponents, with the amount varying dependant on the race, but also the races are on open highways meaning that there is some traffic to contend with. The traffic is minimal however. The real intensity comes from the police cars which initiate pursuit. There are police cars situated along the side of the road and, theoretically, as the cars speed past they start chasing after the speeders. I say theoretically because the way it truthfully works is that the cop will start up his siren approximately thirty feet in front of where the speeder would pass his vehicle and start down the highway to get a head start. As they engage they will do whatever it takes to get the violator onto the side of the road. This includes ramming into the barrier, slamming on the brakes ahead of the other car, or using secondary forces. As races go on and faster cars are used the police have a grading system on how dangerous the racer is with a maximum of five stars. As more stars are issued, extra police cars, barricades and even helicopters are employed to get the bust. If the cops bust a speeder he's out of the race.

To evade the police, any tactics possible must be used. The police seem to be able to constantly catch up with any speed that the car may go, so simply outrunning is not an option. Racers must employ use of other cars as a barrier between the police and their car, go off road to try and shake them, use a shortcut when available, or any other conceivable means. If a decent amount of separation can be reached between the racer and the cop the chase will be called off as too dangerous. The way to tell if the cops are gonna? give up is via a bar right under the rear-view mirror. As the bar depletes they are closer to giving up. When it is empty they have stopped chasing until next time.

The other main mode is championship, which are races without having to worry about police or traffic. It's just the racers and the track. While this mode may not be as hectic as hot pursuit, it allows for a nice change of pace. It's also nice to see it in a mode of its own, as opposed to a small addition. The races do get to be very challenging on their own and are quite enjoyable.

Each of the two modes is made up of different event trees meaning there is a choice of which event to do. While the crux of these events is the usual races, there is a good amount of other types of events. In the hot pursuit mode there are knockout events and tournaments. Tournaments are just a series of races with the winner being the racer with the most points after the series. Knockouts make for an interesting twist as it is a race with drivers being knocked out until only one racer remains. In addition to these three types of events championship has another two. The first mode has just one car on the track with a goal to achieve the best time. The second mode gives the player the opportunity to be the cop. All of the extras that are available to the cops when they?re the AI can be chosen. To get the speeders they have a life bar that goes down as they're rammed or otherwise hit. They can also be busted by being blocked off. After playing this type of event, I had to wonder why I had no life bar when I was speeding away from the cops. It would have added an extra element, and is a glaring oversight.

The actual racing is a bit tough to get down at first. The cars are oversensitive to the degree that they seem to careen all over the place when a simple left is trying to be executed. The acceleration and braking is set by default to the A and B buttons respectively, though this can be changed to R and L, unfortunately without analog control. Once the turning is mastered, there are still plenty of spinouts ? as the handling can get a bit messy with the police ramming and other vehicles bumping into your car, though it's always under realistic control. Some of the most fun I had was in spinning out and getting it back under control by doing proper maneuvers. Another cool trick I was able to pull was driving backwards in an alley. Due to a spin out I was facing the wrong direction without enough room to turn around in time. I hit the look back button, drove backwards to the end of the alley, pulled out and zoomed off. Very cool to pull off.

Early on while competing against slower cars mean the races can be easy to win, or at least place in the top three to be able to advance on in the event tree. There is a medal to be earned for each event, gold, silver or bronze, with each one having a different amount of money earned for each. This money can be used to unlock extra cars and tracks in the multiplayer mode. The later events do get considerably harder and it will take awhile to get gold on all the events in both hot pursuit and championship. For a break, though, there are three different multiplayer modes. The first is a single race. You and a friend can go head to head with optional AI opponents as well. There is also the multiplayer knockout mode similar to in the single player. The third mode allows both of the players to be cops and the one who nabs the most speeders wins. While this is entertaining, it could have been so much better if there were extra option such as the ability to be two cops working together or one person being the speeder and the other the cop. However, what's there is good and rather fun, but only for two players. It's about time EA started using all four controller ports.

Visuals

If the game is going to have Porsches and Ferraris then they better look like the cars they claim to be. EA has done just that, looking like the expensive, unattainable cars that they are. All the curves and smooth driving you expect from the cars are experienced well. They are also very shiny, but lack an important aspect of being shiny: they're not reflective. They seem to look fairly bland without reflecting any light off of them. Perhaps a minor complaint but it ruined some of my belief in the game that does try to be realistic in some respects. The other thing to be noted is destruction. The cars don't take damage to the body of the car. The only damage that can be seen is to the front, and that can only be viewed when using the camera angle in front of the car. This damage itself also looks poorly designed.

The tracks are lovely, vibrant, and full of life. They appear as if they were taken out of actual photos of real places. Vistas, cliffs, towns, villages, and other areas are all clearly defined and are each unique in their own way. Interaction with the tracks is also performed well, as you can see dust kick up whenever your car goes off road. There is also one area with a puddle that has a great reflection effect, unlike the car models. The framerate is solid running almost always at a constant rate regardless of what's going on, or how fast your car is going. Though it's only at 30 fps.

Audio

The engines of these machines purr, and there is no other way to describe it. Otherwise there aren't a whole lot of sound effects. The police siren sounds like a siren should, horns sound like horns, and everything else works. The music in the Hot Pursuit 2 isn't all that great. While there are some good tunes, there are an equal amount of bad ones. There also aren't a whole lot, and to make up for this EA has made instrumental versions of all the songs. A nice way to draw more out from a limited amount of songs.

This game gets an N-Philes score of B.

This was my first introduction to the Need for Speed world, and it was mostly a positive experience. The amount of events available makes for a busy amount of things to do, with a great multiplayer mode to complement it. The control can sometimes be a bit tight though, and with Burnout 2 on the horizon, it might be wise to see how that one turns out before committing to Need for Speed.

Posted in: Reviews