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Tons of fun, but it coulda been great

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 20 / 22
Date: October 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

...This game is a lot of fun, you'll get a kick out of it for a variety of reasons, but it really does seem like a step-down from previous incarnations of Need for Speed in many respects. Well, let's get to it...

PROS: Incredible graphics, stunning sound and intense music, hot pursuit mode will get your heart pumping, beautiful cars.

CONS: Poorly implemented "point" system for unlocking new cars and tracks, not enough tracks, no nighttime racing or inclement weather racing as in previous versions, not terribly challenging.

First thing I noticed were the graphics. After playing around with the demo for awhile, I loaded up Need for Speed: High Stakes and was absolutely floored at how far the graphics have come. It made the beauty in Hot Pursuit 2 that much more striking. Beautiful tracks, gorgeous surroundings, and beautiful cars. Second thing I noticed was the music. You don't get a feel for this in the demo, but as soon as you load up the full retail version and get to the main menu, this incredible music starts to play. Not instrumental [garbage], but full band stuff, a bit between techno and alternative. Hard and fast. I've got the game loaded and playing even when I'm in the other room just so the music will play. Wow! I don't know how EA got all this music, but what a great job! The sound effects are equally well done. Nice job on immersion, EA!!!

As for the cons... You don't have nearly as much choice in what car you get to race as you did in previous versions, at least in the tournament and hot pursuit modes. The game structures these as tournament tree events; when you win one event, one or two more events "unlock" for you to race them. Each event offers only a select number of cars (between 1-4 on average). So, if you love the Porshe 911, you're out of luck, because you may not be able to get it. This is seriously disappointing, and takes away an element of realism. (High Stakes did this nicely, where you "bought" a number of cars, got to paint them, modify them, and race them. If you wanted to race your favorite Pontiac Trans Am against a Ferrari, you could--you'd lose, but you could, and more importantly you had the option. Not so in HP2.)

Also, far too few tracks. There are only four tracks. They're beuatiful, stunning, gorgeous... EA did a great job on designing them. But only four!?!? God. I can see this is going to get repetitive very quickly. Hopefully we'll have the option to download new tracks, but I doubt it. Again, High Stakes had this -nailed-, with nearly 20 different tracks to race on. You can, of course, race the tracks in reverse, or on a mirror image (or in reverse on a mirror image) but it's still the same track.

And no, it's not all that challenging in comparison with past versions. Still, if you're just looking for some fun and fast cars, or you just want a decent racing game for the PC (for which there are too few), HP2 is worth a look.

(BTW--Download the demo!!! The demo is very representative of the actual game, minus the music. If you like the demo, you'll like the game. If you hate the demo, you'll hate the game. So, download the demo and give it a run or two.)

Looks Like Gran Turismo 3 has a Rival

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 36 / 51
Date: July 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Great Game

Graphics-
I've seen about 200 photos from the game and they seam quiet impresive, although the PC shots are better than the PS2 they still are 5 star graphics. The game play is actually quiet entertaining. These are the 6 different gameplay modes
Top Cop (In which you play as the cop and go through over 30 different events, PC, Xbox, and Gamecube only)
Championship (In this mode you go through events and tournements and buy, sell, and unlock easter eggs.)
Quick Race (In this mode the computer/console selects a random car and track and then you start)
Single Challenge (This mode is the exact opposite of quick race, you select your car and track and then the race starts.
Hot Pursuit (Ah yes good ol' Hot Pursuit in this mode mode you can selecteither a pursuit car or the typical sports car.

Replay Value-
Very High due to the amount of cars...
Aston Martin Vanquish
BMW M5
BMW Z8
Chevrolet Corvette Z06
Chevrolet Corvette SE
Dodge Viper GTS
Ferrari 360 Spider
Ferrari F50
Ford Falcon
Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R
Holden HSV
Jaguar XKR
Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0
Lamborghini Murcielago
Lotus Elise
McLaren F1
McLaren F1 LM
Mercedes CL 55 AMG
Mercedes CLK-GTR
Opel Speedster
Porsche Carrera GT
Porsche 911 Turbo
Vauxhall VX220

Pursuit Aston Martin Vanquish
Pursuit BMW Z8
Pursuit Chevrolet Corvette Z06
Pursuit Ferrari 360 Spider
Pursuit Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R
Pursuit Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0
Pursuit Lamborghini Murcielago
Pursuit Lotus Elise
Pursuit McLaren F1
Pursuit Opel Speedster
Pursuit Porsche 911 Turbo
Pursuit Vauxhall VX220

There are also HP versions of most cars which adds horspower and torque, etc.
Replay value is also added due to the amount of events and parts.

Thus this game is simply put AWESOME!

Great

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 20
Date: November 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit has been criticized for lack of realistic physics, lack of good gameplay, and bad replay. After playing the game over the weekend heres my take on the game:

*Game Play* With the option of being a cop (you can call for backup, a roadblock, spike strip, and a helicopter) and running away from the cops as well as the regular racing mode this game offers non stop fun. 5/5.

*Graphics, Sound Effects* The graphics are nice but the graphics are not much better than need for speed prosche unleashed, same thing for the sound effects. 4/5.

*Music* The music choice was great offering a good selection of songs. 5/5.

*Cars* Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 not only has a nice selection of exotic and regular cars but also has over 24. 5/5.

*Tracks* There are a lot of tracks in NFS Hot Pursuit 2 which all have a good number of shortcuts and alternative routes but are also nicely detailed. This being said the tracks lack creativity. There are about 13 tracks but it seems like theres only 4. The tracks can be grouped in 4 catogories, Island, Mediterranean, Foreset, and Alpine. The tracks in these catogories look like copies of these 4 tracks. 3/5.

I will add one point for the great install feature (it takes virtually no time to install becuase of the new tecnology EA is working with).

Overall 23/25. 92% A-
Great Edition to the NFS series with some notable faults.

So many things wrong, still fun, but shallow

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: October 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

After finishing all 32 events in both event trees, single challenges, and two player races, I feel it is a good time for this review.

The Good: Nice graphics, great look-ahead, and the best feature is the sheer speed. Everything blazes by. That is the only saving grace of the game. The Hot pursuit mode is fast and furious and worth playing.

The Bad: Frame rate drops and choppy action. Not much skill required. The only delicate touch is barely clipping traffic to lead the cops into them. The opponents [are lousy] and the program starts cheating to slow you down, i.e. get pushed into a helicopter mine/canister just to hit another one, and then get hit by a missile. The dashboard view only becomes available in events 31 in HP and WR respectively. The dashboard view has always been a staple of previous NFS games.

The Ugly: The game is completely shallow. It is just an arcade racer. There are no car upgrades, and this is another step down from previous installments. After finishing the event trees, there just seems to be no point in going on. There was not much of a challenge, you can't improve the cars, and there is no reason to replay this game. The game is just a pedal to the metal, or gas on gas off racer that requires little skill. Additionally half the cars are the "Need for Speed Edition" of the first half, but with ugly paint jobs. The cheesy blue viper with cheesier blue flames was probably created by a Kindergartner, and takes this years award for extreme bad taste. And the game is so short. One weekend and it's over.

This game could have been great if it had car upgrade/tuning features, maybe a money system, and anything new. Frankly the format of the PC version of NFS High stakes would have been good, or the format of NFS Porsche unleashed, where you can accumalte cars in your garage and set them up for different races. The days of shallow racing games are gone. Arcade style is not retro, it's just plain boring, and it's actually an insult to gamers. At best offer options for both style of play. EA should have learned that from their previous games and customer reactions. Their marketing department needs a good slap in the head to jar their brains back into action. Unless they are just trying to duplicate the marginal sales on Hot puruist one, followed by the high selling High Stakes. So we probably will soon see High Stakes 2.

With this piece of work EA has earned themselves a place in the "try before you buy" category with me. And I recommend you rent this game, since finishing it in 5 days is not hard, and you definitely want to try before you buy this one.

Awful

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 23
Date: October 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a wretched piece of software. The game works fine, and the graphics and other bells and whistles function well. But the game is not just a racing game, and the "E" rating is very misleading. Unfortunately, the player is pursued by police, who come equipped with rocket-charged helicopters capable of firing on and destroying the vehicles they are chasing. The end result, far from being a simple race, is often a fireball.

I do not understand how a manufacture can peddle something like this with such a benign rating. This game is not benign, constructive or even fun. The sound track is grating, and the action is worse. It is unsuitable in any case for children under age 16, and in my humble opinion, it isn't really suitable for anyone.

Nothing hot here... not even luke warm! :-(

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: October 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Having spent some time with the retail PC version of this game, I have no problem giving it two firm thumbs down. This game had all kinds of potential but it looks to me like EA was in a major hurry to get this to market.

I will say that the graphics are stunning. The tracks and cars are extremely well done. The gameplay and features on the other hand leave so much to be disired that you could probably have just about the same amount of fun playing the old Pole Position title on an Atari 2600. Think I am kidding? I kid you not. Think of Hot Pursuit II as Pole Position with REALLY good graphics. Period.

EA had done almost everything right with the Porsche Unleashed title. The unique handling physics made it one of the best driving games ever. The physics model in this game? hmmm... ok, picture yourself in a supercharged Winnebago cruising the back roads. The terms "vague and unresponsive" epitomize the handling characteristics of this game. How sad.

PROS:
1. Graphics are stellar
2. Cool cars (once you suffer through the game long enough to unlock them)
3. Nicely rendered tracks (once you suffer through the game long enough to unlock them)

CONS:
1. Force Feedback... or shall I say the nearly complete LACK of feedback. It also does not officially recognize my wheel (Thrustmaster Ferrari wheel) which means that hardly any of my POV buttons, etc. can be used. Uh, Houston? We've got a problem.
2. ZERO physics model. The cars behave like sticks of butter in a frying pan. OK, if you're not old enough to drive a real car and like to fantasize that you are Mario Andretti, you might think this game is cool. For those of us who have driven real cars and driven real cars on a road race course, this game is a major bummer. OK, so it isn't a "simulator" you say? I agree... it also isn't a very good arcade title.
3. Replay function is boring... only one camera angle available.
4. Limited cars and tracks. They taunt you with all the cool cars and tracks yet they don't mention that you have VERY limited access to the GOOD cars until you suffer through hours of game play to earn enough 'credits' to buy another car. In games like NFS Porsche Unleashed this was not a major problem because the game was actually FUN. What a concept. ;-)

I could go on and on, but I would sum it up like this: If you're a kid looking to race some cool cars, go ahead and buy the game. If you're a little more experienced and appreciate a glimmer of realism in your driving games, skip this one for sure. Older titles like Porsche Unleashed and Sports Car GT blow this one out of the water in my opinion.

NFS fan meets with disappointment

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: October 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I am (or was) a big fan of the Need for Speed series. I own all the previous versions and consider them to be some of the best PC driving games ever made. I particularly liked NFS Hot Pursuit (the original) because of the high replay value and the tournament play which featured currency-driven upgrades.

Thus, I confidently preordered NFS Hot Pursuit 2 in September and anxiously awaited its arrival. Well, it's here and I am royally disappointed. This pretender to the throne is really a quarter-pumping arcade special in disguise. If I wanted to play garbage like this I'd have bought a console system, not a PC. This is clearly an unimaginative console port which has no place, or lineage, in the Need For Speed heritage. Shame on Electronic Arts for abusing the NFS namesake in this manner.

Here are only a few of the gripes I have with this game: poor gameplay, busch-league physics, and third-person perspective. These things lead to a seriously monotonous race experience, and create an overall sense of boredom that I never associated with previously released NFS games. I can only hope that this is a blip on the radar and that future releases will not be based on this framework.

The only plus for this game is the greatly improved graphics, which are quite impressive. However it seems that the designers focused their energy only on improving this instead of the actual gameplay. In fact, the gameplay is decidedly worse in this game. It is apparent that the NFS gaming engine underwent a 100% overhaul since the last generation, and it's paintfully clear that the heart and soul of the old series aren't a part of the new body.

Surprisingly Good!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I am a diehard NFS series freak going back to NFS3, the first Hot Pursuit, which is still a blast. No video game driving/racing series has ever come close, come on, let's be real. NFS: Porsche Unleashed (NFS5 for short following NFS: High Stakes, the fourth in the series), is still by far the greatest game in this series, imo, and probably the greatest PC driving game there is in almost every way. But I digress...

I had tried the demo for Need For Speed Underground but it ran slow on my (fairly recent and powerful) system, and didn't look all too special anyway, but, I had heard and read some bad things about this game, so was reluctant to buy. After trying the demo for this and finding everything working perfectly, I couldn't see what all the bad press was about. This is not the greatest NFS PC game out there (Porsche wins that hands down), but this is STILL NEED FOR SPEED, and it's pretty darn good.

True, this is much more "arcade" than a realistic driving sim (Porsche). A lot of the physics are such, a lot of the cars drive the exact same way it seems, and engines here, they all sound the same to me. There's not much scenery here either (though pretty, all tracks are based on only about 8 mirrored routes I believe, so soon all tracks start to look alike), or night driving, but what there is still beats 99 percent of most PC driving games out there, and that's good enough for me.

There are two main areas in the game, Hot Pursuit and Tournament challenge type. Almost everything is "locked" at the beginning, but veteran NFS players won't have much trouble getting through some of the early levels. It gets pretty tough soon enough though. A "points" system is used whereby you may unlock cars and tracks, as well as a gold/silver/bronze medal feature which adds to replayability, but I CAN understand these being rather lame to some perfectionists since almost every car, regardless of its beauty, handles and sounds the same. The AI is very good throughout however, and the fuzz can be tough to shake at times. Or of course, be the fuzz, and get the evildoers yerself!

Graphics-wise, this has higher-spec requirements than Porsche Unleashed (the game in the series before it), but the graphics even maxed to high, are really only pretty much as good (and they are very good) as Porsche, so I don't see why they couldn't have put in some extra features, perhaps a rushed console port? Still, it's a good one, imo, and at the price this is going for now, no TRUE Need For Speed series fan oughta be too disappointed.

There is a cool replay system still available, at least, and a pretty good mix of rock and techno. If you play MP3's, you can also turn down the music in the game and play your own music, which is always a great feature for me in a game. Just put together a playlist of MP3's, start your MP3 player, start the game, turn down the game's music in options, and drive/race away. To your own tunes.

Perhaps Porsche spoiled a lot of people, though even that game has its (CRAZY) detractors. And while this is really more of a 4 star effort, compared to NFS3 and Porsche, I'm going to give it 5 stars simply to raise its rating here a bit. In the end, it is still NEED FOR SPEED, despite its setbacks and some obvious programming overlooks, and anyone looking for a pretty decent but flawed PC driving game should add this to their collection.

It's all a matter of expectations however. If you're looking for a sim, for more locations and scenery, for the ability to tinker down to the bone your speeders, and for more general features, get Porsche Unleashed if you don't have it. If your system (and wallet) can't quite handle NFS:Underground, or you've tried the demo and wasn't impressed, and haven't tried this, buy this. It's easily worth double the current asking price, and hey, it even works on XP without a patch! Doggone it! Will miracles never cease?

Highly recommended with insignificant reservations. I've already gotten 10 times my money's worth in speedy driving chases and challenges, so I ain't complaining, really. Try the demo for this. If it runs nice on your system, and you're at all impressed, the actual game will do much more than that.

Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: July 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is fun, with a very easy way to progress. You don't neccessarily have to win races, you just need to earn points. And you earn points all the time. The graphics are great, racing takes place in many gorgeous, ficticious locales, with many exotic cars, some of which are very obscure. Race these cars against the computer drivers and cops, who also have many exotic cars (I want to know what police dept has the budget to turn a Lamborghini into a police cruiser). The physics are good and the controls are the same as the previous NFS games. If you are a fan of the NFS series, this is another great one to add to the list. If you hated even the 3rd version, which is when they started to really get good, you may not like this one.

Not what I hoped

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 16
Date: October 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is a big disappointment for me; the great handling and car feel from Porsche Unleashed have been replaced by silly arcade handling. It feels like the car is just floating. The graphics are ok but not much better than Porsche; it's an easy to see this is a console port. The helicopters that drop exploding barrels just make it even more crazy. This game is also has problems on some video cards. If you try to turn the graphics up above normal it locks up the computer.

If you like real feeling racing games like Porsche Unleahsed or NASCAR 2003 then stay away from this, but if you like silly arcade racers this might be the game for you.

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