'Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit" finds the creators of "Burnout" not only playing in another racing franchise's yard for the first time, but finds them refreshing what arguably was that series' finest hour.
Predictably, compromises have been made in the rebooted "Hot Pursuit," with facets from both brands now sharing the same road. But it doesn't feel like a compromise as much as the best of two great worlds.
Like a typical "Need for Speed" game, "Pursuit" comes loaded with real, licensed cars from the likes of Porsche, Lamorghini and Pagani. The on-track action, particularly once the fastest car class is unlocked, is as blistering as a typical "Burnout" game, and the crashes and take-downs are every bit as spectacular. But the weightiness of the cars feels more like "Need for Speed."
The choices made between speed, weight and durability are of no trivial importance to "Pursuit," which gets its name by letting players play from both sides of a nasty highway battle between street racers and cops (who have cruisers that are as exotically branded as what the racers drive).
The single-player component divides its events between both sides, and in a move that will dishearten anyone who enjoys the B-movie storytelling of "Need for Speed," it opts for the "Burnout" approach of just letting players jump into events without narrative provocation. Street races and time trials are prevalent on the street racing side, while the cop side has duels against racers and a time trial variant that also prioritizes mistake-free driving.
The game's speed and polish make all these events perfectly fun, but they pale in comparison with Hot Pursuit mode, which pits a squad of cops against a sextet of street racers who also are competing with one another to win the race.
The game spices up the mode -- which is available online (eight players) as well as in the single-player portion -- by providing both sides tools of sabotage (spike strips, roadblocks, EMPs, radar jammers, even a police helicopter) that add a nice layer of strategy to the mayhem. The freewheeling chaos of the mode, and how perfectly it meshes legitimate racing with combat and dual layers of competition, easily stands alone as the game's hallmark feature. The single-player component regularly offers new Hot Pursuit events to play, but not nearly as many as it should have in relation to all those other modes that can be found in just about any street racing game.
The game's flashy interface award instead goes to the Autolog, a social network that allows players to post messages and photos, see how their event times stack up against others', get alerts when friends beat their times and, of course, instigate online competitions. The omnipresent nature of the Autolog makes it a terrific benefit for those who have friends also playing the game.
