Need for Speed features a variety of modes to select from, the main one being, of course, Career Mode. You’ll start off as a racer without a name, and as the story begins you find yourself placed right into a race with an egotistic and completely over the top rival racer named Razor. Come to find out, Razor has made some “unnecessary modifications” to your vehicle, and when you start losing fluids, you’re forced to lose the race. The end result has you losing your entire car to Razor, and the story begins with the revenge angle from there.

When the game actually begins, you’re able to select from a small set of vehicles that will eventually pan out into a 30 plus car selection with offerings from most major manufacturer’s, such as Audi, Chevy, Ford, BMW, Ferrari, and more. The car models are beautiful, with only slight render issues that are more from hardware limitations than anything else. You’re also able to upgrade your current vehicle with different packages. Things don’t become quite GT4 detailed here, you’re not required to pick up specific individual parts, just different packages that will combine all the items you might be looking to upgrade. There’s quite a bit to be had in the cosmetic changes though, and you’re given a lot of freedom to make your vehicle look distinct out on the road.

The sound of the game is fantastic. The engine noise for each vehicle is distinct, and the in game track list is pretty much what you’ve come to expect from EA. Say what you will about the company, they end up with some pretty good licensed stuff when it comes to music. Every little sound effect you’d imagine hearing within a streetcar race is present, whether it’s the whine of the turbo, the screech of tires on pavement, or the grinding metal of car on car impact.

While the majority of the story mode has you working your way up the “Blacklist” (15 rivals that act as the “bosses” of the game) you have to work your way up thru a series of challenges and races to compete against each of the Blacklist racers. Some of these are simple point A to point B races, while others will have you maintaining a police pursuit for a set amount of time, or causing the State to spend a certain amount of money in trying to apprehend you, etc. There’s a lot of racing to be had, and the game does give you quite a bit for your money, so you won’t be blowing thru the whole deal too quickly.

The starting races aren’t incredibly tough or challenging. Your opponent typically has no problem keeping up with you, but the same applies in reverse. Even if you screw up a few times in a race, you’re generally able to catch up with little to no effort. However, at a certain point in the game the difficulty level increases dramatically, and it will throw you off at first. It’d be nice to see things slowly work their way up in difficulty instead of a huge shift in gears, but you’ll eventually adjust to the change and still enjoy your time playing.

The biggest draw of the game does come from the actual police chases. You can encounter these at almost any point or in any race of the game. If you end up being spotted by the police, your screen will flash blue and alert you that they’re on your tail. From there its up to you to shake them, either by driving thru certain spots that will create obstacles for your pursuers, or by gaining enough of a lead to pull a Sam Fisher and hide your car in the shadows. The chases can become pretty damn insane, with a dozen or more cops tailing you throughout the city. Thankfully some of the challenges make use of the feature, because it’s really the best part of the game.

And since I’ve touched on the best part, I might as well mention the worst. The cut scenes. Good god, these things are bad. They’ve tried to present something similar in style to what’s being done with the movie “A Scanner Darkly”. They don’t LOOK bad, but the acting is atrocious. It’s much like something on the level of Sewer Shark or Night Trap. I would have almost preferred all text-based stuff than having to sit thru any of these scenes. Ugh.

Besides that gripe though, this is really a solid racing game. If you’ve grown bored of Burnout Revenge, or don’t have a 360 to try out Project Gotham Racing 3, than this is your next best bet. The controls are solid, the storyline is at least entertaining, the cop chases are fun, the graphics and sound are both well done and polished, and the time it’ll take you to finish it makes it worth a purchase.