Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005) - PC Master Race #10 - Retro Review
For decades the video games of automobiles have had a great role in the gaming industry, they have evolved in a quite remarkable way, either in its graphics, gameplay, gameplay among many aspects, personally since I was very young I am passionate about this type of games, speed is something that has always caught my attention, but a sure way to "experience" it is through videogames, this time we will remember a classic of this great genre which came out on multiple platforms, being well remembered by fans of this saga, Need for Speed: Most Wanted (NFSMW).
NFSMW was initially released on the PC platform in November 2005, to later be on different platforms such as PSP, PlayStation 2, GameCube, among many others, developed and distributed by Electronic Arts, this would be the successor of NFS Underground 2, but rescuing the essence of the police persecution that Need For Speed 3, in a city that is dominated by a gang of runners fans to the street races, but these are highly persecuted by the police, who will do everything possible to stop these illicit acts in their whole.
Despite the fact that this videogame was released on multiple platforms, my favorite version is Windows, I believe that it expresses all the potential both graphic and in gameplay, I clearly remember that to play NFSMW I had to buy a graphic card with more power, at that moment it was an Nvidia GeForce 5200, it was low-end but it had enough power to move the game correctly, there were many hours spent in front of the monitor passing each of the challenges offered by NFSMW, becoming one of my games Favorite races of all time.
NFSMW uses the graphics engine EA Graphics Library 2 which was widely used by a video game sequence of Electronics Arts in the year 2000, Need For Speed Underground 2 was also one of the videogames that use that engine, the effects of speed, slowdown of time, camera approach among many more are really excellent, one of the effects that I liked most was when we had the N2O available, it seemed that the vehicle reached high speeds in a short period of time.
The designs of the vehicles are quite similar to reality, having a wide variety of models, the effects of reflections on the cars to be a game of the year 2000 are quite showy at first sight, they do not have effects of damage in the crashes, The only thing that we will see is how the glass when colliding is broken a bit, it would have been interesting to see, even if some of the doors of the car are flying through the air.
The "custom" upgrades of the cars look fabulous, they give it a very relevant aspect, as we advance in the game we have more accessories available to place it to our liking, but in addition to the vehicles, the big city has many visual aspects that make it unique, unlike NFS Underground that everything developed at night here is daytime, maximum will arrive at dusk, also sometimes we will be in the presence of scattered rains, this slightly modifies the handling of vehicles.
Sometimes we will see short films which were recorded with real actors, they will describe the outcome of the story, making the game in each step we advance more interesting, making it seem as if it were a television series or movie, it is one of the things that pleases the gamers that experienced this videogame.
NFSMW has many of the properties of the gameplay that had its predecessor game, only that in this is added the police chases which represent a great challenge for the player, as we advance in the history of the game the police vehicles will be much more difficult to evade in a pursuit, will reach the limit that a helicopter pursues us, that to get away from it will be a big problem.
There are different modes of competence, all must necessarily come first, failure to meet this objective will be necessary to repeat the competition, these are called "events" which we must earn by complying with certain rules that depend on which we select, we will have the classic circuits, Sprint from a point "A" to a point "B", races against the clock and many more, sometimes becomes a little repetitive, but what radically changes the competitions are the police persecutions.
When we win "events" we get income which we can invest either in new vehicles or enhance the one we already have, we must bear in mind that we must manage this money very well, if we spend it on a new car but we do not have enough to place it the height of our competitors will be very difficult to win the first place, it is always good to have a car with full upgrades and leave it up your sleeve, one of the vehicles that I loved the most because of its power, acceleration and speed was the Ford Mustang GT.
But in addition to the story mode we also have the option to perform "challenges" which are very similar to the "events" that the story of the game contains, but raising the difficulty of the game quite remarkably, if we complete several of them they will give us unique improvements that we can not get in the story mode, apart from that they are a total challenge for any player of this video game.
The handling of most vehicles is quite pleasant, this changes radically as we improve the vehicle, we can experience this with the first car we buy, lack of speed, N2O, little maneuverability, but once we invest in it it becomes in a totally different car, this offers a kind of "satisfaction" to the player when he sees how his effort develops with the evolution of the car.
The music contained in NFSMW is distributed in different songs licensed through EA Trax which belong to different musical artists, such as Static-X, Disturbed, among others, having a great variety between electronic music, Hip-Hop and Rock, I consider that it gives at the necessary point to entertain and keep active the player in any of their competitions, we can also change the song as if it were a radio station, this is excellent if you only want to listen to your favorite songs, the sounds are of a quality excellent, the cars have their peculiar sound of a modified racing car, the effect of the N2O gives an excellent touch to that acceleration, the collisions between vehicles, the skids, you just have to play it to be able to experience all these aspects mentioned above.
With all the respect of its predecessor Underground 2, NFSMW is one of the most entertaining games of the saga with a quite addictive story which forms at all times an important role to be number 1 in the whole city, I would not like to tell much respect to not spoil the experience of those who have not played, its different game modes, variety of vehicles, system modifications, music and a great sound finish make this game one of the best of many NFS, I recommend the version of PC because it is the most complete and the one that can give you a better experience in many aspects, once you see its introduction and the beginning of its history it will be very difficult to avoid finishing it completely.
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i love this games and thanks for sharing .
NFS Most Wanted is so great. It doesn't look like a 13 years old game!
Arguably the best need for speed game ever. I really liked underground too though :)