Need For Speed: Most Wanted [Vita] - Game Review

Reviewed On: Vita
Also On: PS3, 360, PC, Wii U
Original Published: 10/21/2013. Review Updated: 01/10/2014

"Welcome to Fairhaven City."

Need For Speed Most Wanted is definitely an impressive portable racing game but it doesn't come without its flaws. While it isn't perfect, it is definitely still a recommendable game for racing fans and Vita owners.
Difficulty: Average
Time Spent Playing To Date: 27 Hours
Worth Playing?: Yes
The Bottom Line: "Check Your Bargain Bin"

I'd like to start off by saying that this is a review of the Vita version specifically and I have no experience with the console counterparts.

If you look on YouTube, you'll the hype for this game is massive. Everybody seems to think its easily the best portable racer out there, and in a few ways it is. However, the structure of the game prevents Most Wanted from truly being the best it could be. Sure there are advantages to being able to find cars early on but once you find say... the Nissan GT-R Egoist, you likely won't care about driving the dozens of cars slower than it... because there isn't a reason to. 

Gameplay:
Most Wanted is an open world racer with arcade style races. In a lot of ways it is like Burnout Paradise, the Criterion Team's 2008 title. Except for the fact that Paradise City has a lot more variety and flair than Fairhaven City ever will. 

Controls:
The game controls surprisingly well. All the controls feel comfortable on the Vita and doesn't leave you with that usual cramped hands feeling of a handheld. Everything is very nice. Only thing to note is that if you pause with the PS Button, pump the accelerator once you go back into the game otherwise you will lose speed.

The purpose of the game is to become the Most Wanted Driver, or number 1 of 10.
You do this by earning SP from races and successful pursuits where you escape the Police. After earning enough SP you unlock Most Wanted Races, these are essentially boss races. Beat the target to the finish line then shut them down to own their car. Simple enough.

CRASHED:
Crashing in this game is probably the worst aspect of the gameplay. Sometimes you will be moving along the freeway accidentally tag a wall and go flying. Other times, you might barely clip the side of a building at low speed and wreck. Other times, you can do both of these things and nothing happens. 

Like other arcade racers, civilian cars are built like brick shithouses and cannot be crashed into without wiping you out. At the same time, other racers can be pushed around and crashed into without consequence. 

Only in races will your car be set back on the road if you crash. Even with this, if you crash even once in most races you will have no chance of winning. The race continues on at normal pace while you're stuck looking at the "CRASHED" Screen. 
Crash outside a race and you get the same crashed screen but just appear where you crashed with your car completely stopped. If the police corner you, you can get busted pretty quickly.
On top of all this, the game has some aspects of its visuals that are good, but where it becomes difficult is spotting traffic, and in multi-player cars will spawn and disappear rather frequently.  

Jack Spots:
Cars are found in this game, the only cars earned come from Most Wanted Races. The game has 41 cars, each has 3 locations in the city they can be found in. Find them and the car can be accessed in Easy Drive as your own. 

Pursuits:
Generally, in races the police won't show up too often but when they do expect random spike strips everywhere. The police in this game are a hassle. Pursuits can also start when you are just driving around the city. If your heat level gets too high it can be very difficult to actually escape the cops. You have to cool down but in order to do that you have to have somewhere to hide. The police in this game will follow you just about anywhere, making escape sometimes take an upwards of 10 minutes or longer, unless you're in a fast car like the Veyron. 

Races:
The point of races is to win, or at least place top 3 to unlock parts for that particular car. These are considered mods. Mods improve performance and with use, can be upgraded into pro mods. Races are pretty straightforward with little variety: Speed Runs, Sprint Races, Circuit Races and Ambush.

Extras: 
Like Burnout Paradise the game also features smash gates and billboards to knock out. These are scattered all around the huge open world. There are also speed cameras around the city, that the player can trigger and have their speed recorded on. All of your found "collectibles" can be viewed through the menu except smash gates.

UI & Navigation (Easy Drive):
Easy Drive is the system the player uses to interact with everything in the game. This includes changing cars, starting races, or switching parts. The system works beautifully and easily and is streamlined right into the game so no need to pause. Part types can even be switched while driving which is really awesome!

Online Multiplayer:
I won't go into too much detail because a lot of multiplayer is similar to the single player. On the Vita you get 4 player online vs the PS3's 8 player online. However, it is still very much the same giving free roam of the open world. It really isn't all that great and it really isn't all that fun with random people. The games can lag and it is easy to feel bombarded with events one after another.

Visuals & Presentation:
This is where the game really seems to shine in certain areas. It is hard to tell from these screenshots but the game is quite beautiful in some places. Certain areas of the city feature seemingly worse looking buildings though. However, for the most part, the game really does look great when considering the scale of the map.

The mountains are probably some of the most beautiful aspects to driving

Issues with Font Size:
The game does suffer from microscopic text though. Some text on the loading screens is so small it's near impossible to read and unless you hover the Vita an inch or two from your face. There definitely needed to be some scaling up here. 

A head on collision on the freeway at 160 MPH+

CRASHED (again... and again):
Another big problem here are the crashes. The game likes to pretend that it is Burnout with frequent (and I do mean frequent) crash screens. The cars in the game however, do not feature any damage. So crash into a wall at 200 MPH and literally nothing will happen aside from some black grime, dents or scratches, and a shattered windshield. The lack of damage wouldn't be an issue if there wouldn't be such a huge focus on crashes. Overall, the crash screen just becomes a frequent annoyance more than anything and detracts from the gameplay. 

The extent of visible damage

Traffic:

The only other noticeable problem with the visuals is sometimes difficulty spotting traffic. The Vita version does thankfully feature less traffic but I crashed so many times into other cars not seeing them, or thinking they were other racers. All in all, the game would probably be a lot better without having traffic on at all in my opinion. 

Driving with the bumper cam is probably the best way to not crash

Overall, Most Wanted isn't a bad game, if you like racers and own a Vita it's worth giving it a shot at the very least. 

Pros -

+ Great Controls

+ Smooth Interface with Easy Drive

+ Fun Most Wanted Races

+ Good Visuals and Car Models

Neutral -

~ Decent Online Multiplayer

Cons -

- Crashing even once can cause you to never be able to catch up in a race

- Not much variety to Races

- Police Pursuits can last way too long

- Difficult to see oncoming traffic

- Focus on Crashing with no car damage

 6.5 / 10 - Fair