Need for Speed: Most
Wanted (commonly abbreviated to as NFS: MW or just
Most Wanted)
is a 2012 open-world racing video game, developed by British games
developer Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts. Announced on
4 June 2012, during EA's E3 press conference, Most Wanted is the
nineteenth title in the long-running Need for Speed
series and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3,
Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, iOS and Android, beginning in North America
on 30 October 2012, with a Wii U version following in 2013. The game
picked up on the Most Wanted IP, as opposed to the Hot Pursuit
reboot that Criterion developed previously.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted takes on the gameplay style of its
first installment, Most Wanted title in the Need for Speed
franchise. Most Wanted
allows players to select one car and compete against other racers to
reach a destination. Cops are integrated into certain racing sessions,
in which the police deploy vehicles and tactics to stop the player's car
and arrest the player, like the original Most Wanted. The game
will feature a Blacklist of 10 racers, similar to the single-player
section of the original Most Wanted, which featured 15 Blacklist
racers. In this reiteration the focus shifts from Rockport, the city in
the original to a new city called Fairhaven.
Most Wanted has been likened to Criterion's Burnout
series. Like Burnout Paradise,
races have a start and end point but players can choose their own route
to the finish line, a departure from the original Most Wanted,
but similar to "crew challenges" from the sequel, Carbon.
Destructibles, such as billboards and fences; and drive-thru shops,
such as petrol stations and repair garages, from Paradise are
also featured.
The game will use Autolog, the competition-between-friends system
developed by Criterion for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and since
used in other titles in the Need for Speed series. Autolog in Most
Wanted
plays a larger role and gives more information to players. Activities
in-game allow players to earn Speed Points which can boost players up on
the Most Wanted list. Autolog recommendations have now been integrated
into the game world, rather than sit externally on the menu system.
Most Wanted features a new social system called Cloudcompete,
which strings together Most Wanted
across all platforms in an inspired example of cross-compatibility. One
profile will be used for all versions of the game, allowing the player
to rank up on one format and continue progress on another.
The driving model of the game has been described as "deep, physical and
fun", not as arcade-styled as the Burnout series and Hot
Pursuit, but far from a simulator. Most Wanted
has a range of real-world vehicles, a mix of muscle cars, street racers
and exotics, described as "the wildest selection of cars yet".
The cars can be altered with visual and performance upgrades, such as
paint colors, reinflatable tyres, suspensions, engine, nitrous oxide,
and body work that enables players to crash through roadblocks. A
feature called EasyDrive enables players to customise their
vehicles while in action. For the first time in Need for Speed
history, all of the cars will be available from the start, hidden in
different locations throughout Fairhaven; the player will have to
discover them in order to unlock them.Screen Shots:
