There are ambush races, in which you must escape from the cops as quickly as possible and circuit races that take place both on and off-road. Stock races are point-to-point affairs with checkpoints delineated by white poles (the circuit-defining chevrons from Burnout are mostly absent). It's grimy in places, picturesque in others, and will have you marvelling at how developers have got to grips with milking every ounce of graphics-processing power at this late stage of the console cycle. To race, you select one from a menu and the mini-map displays your route to its start – everything in Most Wanted is geared towards encouraging you to explore Fairhaven, which is fine, since it looks drop-dead gorgeous. You can swap in upgrades according to the type of race. Cars you can acquire are located at "Jacking Points" throughout Fairhaven, and when you come across them, you can simply jump into them.Įach car has its own set of races, and if you win them or come second, you don't just get speed points, but car upgrades.Įach car has its own set of races, and if you win them or come second, you don't just get speed points, but car upgrades like nitrous (always the prize for winning the easiest race on offer), off-road and racing tyres, lightweight and strengthened bodies, aero kits and much more. Unusually, the game's array of incredibly desirable machinery, old and new, is unlocked from the moment you start the game, but there's a twist: you have to find it. This is achieved by amassing speed points by winning races, achieving challenges and driving like a nutcase – pulling off drifts, slipstreaming, escaping the cops' attentions, smashing billboards, passing speed-cameras at unfeasibly high speeds, to name but a few.
Your overarching mission is to join the ranks of the 10 most-wanted street-racers in Fairhaven, then work your way up to being a four-wheeled public enemy number one. It takes place in one of Criterion's famed American cities, Fairhaven, which is bigger and richer than any of its previous ones, with jumps galore, elevated freeway sections, docks that are basically sandboxes for hooligans and so on. Luckily, Criterion has honed the art of making arcade-racers to such a rarefied level over the years that Most Wanted justifies the hype with almost contemptuous ease. Everything in Most Wanted is geared towards encouraging you to explore Fairhaven, which is fine, since it looks drop-dead gorgeous – even the grotty bits.
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