If you're of a certain age, you'll likely remember taking part in a school-wide game of Cops and Robbers, with the bad guys trying their best to evade the wannabe-constables, ducking, dodging and weaving their way around the entire playground, like a giant game of tag. While the game may not be as popular as it used to be, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit draws a lot of inspiration from the classic playground pastime - although we'd imagine back in the day, the bad guys wouldn't have been making their getaways in Aston Martins... Not real ones, anyway.
Set on the highways and byways of Seacrest County, a fictional area in the US of A, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a racing game that's built around the enticing concept of cops vs. robbers. But while the idea may draw up images of a chav, complete with Burberry cap, making their getaway from the cops in a banged up Corsa, with lowered suspension, neon lights, and a bass system shaking every screw out of its socket, before eventually getting lodged on a well placed speed bump, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit attempts to be a lot more glamorous and exciting. With the cops, and the robbers, both fully equipped with ridiculously large engined cars, from real manufacturers, the idea, and literal name of the game here is speed - at any cost.
Try and slice your way through the middle of the road block without hitting anything...
In the single player, you'll be presented with a map of Seacrest County, which is spotted with events for either the Cops, or the Racers (robbers, to you and I). Completing the races will earn you points, which increase your rank - either earning you promotions for the police, or increasing your "wanted level" for the bad guys. You can switch between both sides at any time, so there's no need to worry about entering a life of crime and then deciding you'd rather work with the good guys - there's not really any structure to either of the paths, you simply pick a race, and get going.
Of course, being the nice, wholesome people that we are, we decided to delve straight into the police career, and were promptly treated to a fancy cutscene, showing the long arm of the law putting crooks back on the straight and narrow in the best way they know how - spinning them out, ramming them, and basically making it so the crook's car's just driven its last few miles. It certainly whet our appetites for what was to come - but no sooner had the game got us excited, than it tore out our hopes, and smashed them on the floor, like a headlight from said beat up Corsa.
The problem is, the racing in Need for Speed just isn't as much fun as it should be. You're a policeman, you're in a high powered car, you're racing at ridiculous speeds - this should be exciting. But it's not. Taking down a bad guy should get your heart racing, as you struggle for control, your traction against his - or, you could rely on that old policeman staple, the same one they show you in the introduction, known as the pit manoeuvre, where you nudge the back end of your opponents car, forcing them to spin out.
There are loads of licensed vehicles in the game - but if you don't know your Lamborghinis from your Aston Martins, there's no easy way to tell which ones "better" for you - no bars detailing the speed, handling, acceleration, etc...
The only problem is, somewhat inexplicably - you can't. Nudging the back end of your opponents' cars does nothing but reduce their health bar - and even then, it's only if you're lucky. Every car you're meant to take down (so racers for the cops, and vice versa) has a health bar above their car that shows how damaged they are, and it seems that the only way to force them to stop is to reduce it to zero. You can't flip them, can't immobilise them in any way - all you can do is smash into them until they can't keep going. It's disappointing, because we'd hoped for so much more - the ability to spin your opponents, (or at least alter their course!) was one of the most basic things we expected to be able to do, but instead, we're left with an empty feeling inside. It's like rushing to go on the dodgems, fumbling as you put your pound in the slot, only to find you're the only one there.
And even this wouldn't be too bad, if the crashing were actually all that reliable. But it isn't. You can get in front of a car, and slam your brakes on, making them smash into the back of you at 200 miles an hour - and emerge unscathed. Inexplicably, it does no damage to you, and no damage to them either. If you drive from one side of the road to the other, and attempt to smash the back end of your car into the front end of your opponent, again, more often than not, it'll simply register as a "shunt", and does nothing to your opponent, who'll carry on blissfully unaware. Collisions of all sorts seem to only damage your opponents if they're done with a certain amount of force, but it's incredibly hit and miss as to whether the game will deem the impact forceful enough. Again, this wouldn't be a problem, if the crashing into them caused them to spin out, or get pushed off the track - but it doesn't. It's like your opponents are racing in a groove that's been cut into the track, and you'll never push them out of it - the only one who's going to come off badly in any crash is you.
There's no getting away now!
Thankfully, there are other ways to bring your opponents down - or at least attempt to - in the way of Need for Speed's technology. Activated on the d-pad, the weapons differ slightly between the police and racers - while the Police can call in a helicopter to drop a spike strip, fire an EMP to disable the racer's electrics, deploy a road block, or drop a spike strip out the back of their car manually, the racers have a nitro, and a jammer replacing the police's helicopter and road blocks. The problem, again, is that all of these weapons have very little effect. EMP shots have to lock on to an enemy car, at which point you'll get a little cutscene showing it frying the opponent's circuitry, only for them to slow down ever so slightly, then shoot off again like nothing's happened. Racers smash their way through road blocks seemingly without losing any speed, while spike strips fail to damage their tyres, or make them lose even the slightest bit of control.
All this isn't helped by a variety of race types that seem designed to frustrate. While the title's namesake - the Hot Pursuit - isn't too bad, pitting a team of police against a group of racers, with the object either being to take the racers out (for the police), or to reach the end and survive (the racers), the game's over reliant on time trials, which are incredibly frustrating. Charging you with getting from A to B within a certain time limit, without having to worry about any other opponents, it's simply you against the clock - and that's part of the problem. Collisions with objects, or other cars, penalise you, so even the slightest scrape will add between 2 and 3 seconds onto your clock.
Things are further complicated by the incredibly stupid traffic on the roads. There you are in your police car, sirens blazing, tearing down the wrong side of the road, only for a driver to spot you, and simply come to a complete stop where they are - which just happens to be right in your way. Seemingly oblivious to your presence, and without even the most basic of survival instincts, traffic makes no effort to pull to the side, or generally get out of the way of the crazy policeman who's barrelling towards them at 200 miles an hour (then again, from what we've seen on the roads, this is probably realistic).
And they STILL don't see you coming!
Again, this wouldn't be so bad, if the handling was up to scratch - but it isn't. Cars drive as though they're on ice, and often simply don't turn, instead choosing to career into a wall, fence, or tree rather than taking the bend like you told them to. To further rub salt into the wound, it never seems to affect the computer controlled opponents, who you're trying your best to keep up with. In fact, very little does. Seemingly able to take 90 degree bends without breaking, or crash into traffic, flip off a cliff, and then suddenly be driving past you like nothing had ever happened, the awful AI of your computer controlled opponents cheapens the game a lot, and makes you wonder why you bother. After all, if you really can't increase the gap between yourself and your opponents, what's the point in trying?
While we're talking about controls, it's also worth pointing out that Hot Pursuit doesn't actually tell you what button does what when you start playing. You have a nitrous boost in your car, which you can use by pressing A, but when you start playing the game, not once does the game tell you. It also doesn't make a point of telling you how to charge your boost - which you can do by driving down the wrong side of the road, or having near misses with traffic (which makes sense - as obviously breaking the law should charge the police's boost) - in fact, the closest we saw to an explanation was in a tip on a loading screen. You're left with the feeling that the developers, Criterion, are expecting everyone to have already played their previous Burnout games (which uses the same boost system), and therefore know exactly how everything works - but even so, not explaining the controls is an oversight.
While the graphics may be stunning, unfortunately, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is far too much the proverbial mutton dressed as lamb. With no split-screen multiplayer, ropey handling, a complete lack of freedom in how you take enemies out, and awful collision detection, what's most disappointing about Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is just how little fun it is to play. When you think of the concept, and imagine how good it could have been, we were honestly expecting to be sitting here singing its praises - but sadly, rather than a dream ride, it's the gaming equivalent of a dodgy old banger with 100k on the clock - one you should probably avoid.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
