![]() ![]() It’s possible I’m just not very good at avoiding the police. I was unable to progress until I cleared it. I failed one of these events again and again (and again). It’s possible to lose them, but far more often they will simply attempt to PIT you time and time again, incurring repeated time penalties. The catch? You’re almost always relentlessly pursued by the fuzz. These races require gamers to cross the finish line within a time limit and hit gamers with a time penalty any time they collide with the wall or another vehicle. Especially notable are the Hot Ride races. Certain events, littered around the campaign seemingly at random, are simply inexplicably hard. Unfortunately, Most Wanted’s high level of frustration almost completely overwhelms these moments of exhilaration. Drifting through a lazy highway turn, threading my way between two oncoming cars and then swiping upward to kick into nitro boost on the next straightway is exhilarating. The controls take plenty of getting used to, but once I adjusted to the need to start every drift early and adjust to the game’s weightiness, the experience felt great. Touching and holding the right side of the screen initiates a drift. Players can steer their vehicles with tilt controls or a left-hand virtual steering wheel (with adjustable sensitivity). Any time I misjudged a turn and slammed into a wall or oncoming car I couldn’t help but cringe – there is no Asphalt-style pinballing around Fairhaven’s courses. Although Most Wanted is far from a sim, the team at Firemonkeys managed to give all the vehicles real heft. ![]() The overly wide roads feel oddly empty for a game about public street racing. None of the courses have much visual or gameplay personality. Fairhaven comes off as a boring and lifeless non-place. But the entire package suffers from a dearth of personality. The gameplay is fast and fluid on a 3rd-gen iPad. The courses and cars are all extremely impressive from a technical perspective. Performing a standard street race at mid-day in a sports car feels considerably different than competing in a midnight event that requires you to maintain a speed of 180 MPH in an SUV while being harried by pursuing police. The ten tracks are all raced forward and back across a wide collection of event types and times of day, ensuring there is plenty of variety. The iOS version does not feature an open map, but isn’t left wanting for content regardless. Like its console big brother, Need for Speed Most Wanted lets gamers compete in a variety of street racing events in the fictional, vaguely East Coast-esque city of Fairhaven. Are some races intentionally difficult, to convince gamers to pay up? I can’t tell. Finally, the game’s questionable use of difficulty-easing In-App-Purchases calls into question its balance. But when compared to the polished & full-featured Vita release, Most Wanted on iOS also shows that big publishers still don’t treat mobile with the same respect as dedicated game consoles. The game is a perfect showcase for just how rapidly phone and tablet gaming has grown up and improved. Most Wanted’s incredible visuals stand in contrast the blocky graphics that dominated mobile until just a few years ago. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |