Summary
- 🎮 Name of the game: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered
- 📅 Launch date: November 6, 2020
- 🏢 Developer: Criterion Games / Stellar Entertainment
- 📌 Publisher: Electronic Arts
- 🖥️ Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
- ⚔️ Gender: Racing, Arcade
- 🌍 Context: Remaster of the classic Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2010, reviving the cops vs. racers experience in a fictional open world with enhanced visuals and crossplay multiplayer.
History and narrative
There is no traditional narrative. The game is based on individual events where you take the role of an illegal racer or a police officer. It's all about accomplishing event objectives: winning races, running away from the police or completing challenges against the clock. The mode as a cop is the same. The “narrative” is mainly given through brief descriptions of the cars or places the narrator mentions. If you're not interested in knowing the story behind each car, this may go unnoticed. As in most racing games, the narrative is not the focus.
Gameplay
This is the game's strongest point, but also its greatest weakness. The races are extremely high speed and, in fact, it is of the Need for Speed where this sensation is most noticeable. The game mixes traditional racing and Hot Pursuit type police chases, the most outstanding event. Here you must flee from the police while they use all possible resources to stop you: roadblocks, helicopters, spike gangs, EMP, among others. You can defend yourself with tools such as turbo, ramming, EMP blockers, etc. It's a fun and very original chaos, but some events feel very long (up to 6 minutes of uninterrupted chase), and if you get hit three times, you have to start over.
A big problem are the “crashed” the game puts civilian traffic (NPCs) that in some curves seems to be there just to make you crash. This breaks the rhythm a lot. Some vehicles have a very bad stability: they have high speed, but they don't reach it because they are very unstable. To advance you must get at least a bronze medal in the events, which is not difficult, but it can be frustrating in 10-minute races that you lose in the last seconds. Although there is variety (Hot Pursuit, time trial, etc.), over time it gets repetitive. The cars are balanced, there is no clearly better one. Some events are overkill: cars that throw three bands of spikes impossible to dodge, inaccurate EMPs that you can rarely avoid if you don't have an inhibitor.
The AI has realistic and absurd moments. In some games there is always an NPC that goes first and nobody overtakes him. Here that happens less, because crashes or police attacks change the order. The multiplayer is fine, but it has problems: there is no level balancing, so you can face very advanced players. This causes new people to drop out. Still, the controls are responsive and easy to learn.
Graphics and visual design
Improved over its original version, with better lighting, shadows and resolution. But it still doesn't reach 2020 standards. The design of cars and tracks is fine. Shortcuts exist, but they are not very useful. The landscapes don't stand out, nor are they memorable, and that's because they are repeated a lot. Textures are simple and somewhat flat. The visual style is stylized realism. There is no customization beyond color. For a remaster, it's okay, but it doesn't compete with other racing games of its time.
Sound and music
I found the soundtrack to be an excellent mix of electronic and rock music that goes very well with the atmosphere and street racing action. The sound effects such as engines, sirens, crashes, and the atmosphere are very well done. I do not really highlight anything, because I think everything is very well balanced in this section and overall a good job where you really feel what a chase is. The game does not have voice acting.
Difficulty and accessibility
For someone not very experienced in racing games, the difficulty is normal. The drift system is accessible and easy to use, much more than in other games. The races are progressive but long. There is no difficulty selector.
In terms of accessibility, it has limited options. There are no functions designed for people with visual or motor disabilities, which would have been a good improvement in this version.
Additional content
Completing all the events takes between 15 and 20 hours, depending on your skill and if you repeat tests. It's not a campaign as such, but a list of events. Still, it is replayable: you can search for better medals or play multiplayer. There are no mini-games or side missions, but the events as police can be seen as a secondary campaign with the same quality. It includes all the DLC content of the original: cars, events and extra trophies.
Technical Aspects
Very solid. Runs well on all platforms. I played the PS4 version on PS5 with no problems. Almost no bugs or glitches, except for some minor glitches in multiplayer. Much improved in load times and optimization over the original.
Value for money
Its launch price was $39.99 USD. For a remaster it's fine, but I wouldn't pay that full price. The game has some very good stuff, but it also gets repetitive and somewhat overdone. Personally, I was entertained for about 10 hours, then I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again. The races get longer and more chaotic. If you loved the original, the nostalgia is worth it. If you're a casual gamer, I'd wait for a $15 USD max offer. I got it for PS Plus, and with that it was worth it.
Trophies / Achievements
- Platinum obtained: No
- Percentage of trophies obtained: 27% excluding DLCs.
- Estimated time: About 25 to 30 hours
- Platinum difficulty: 5 out of 10. The most complicated thing is the patience to be able to complete all the events that feel repetitive and to be able to get a gold medal in everything. It feels longer than it really is and sometimes you need more luck than anything else in some events.
Conclusion
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is an experience focused on the pure adrenaline of chases and races at full speed. It has no story or some dialogue, the gameplay is good, but it fails a lot in being inconsistent and being too repetitive in such a short time, it is a game that I recommend playing more occasionally, it is not a game to sit for hours, in fact, has a relatively high level of attrition. Its graphics in general comply, but nothing outstanding and the soundtrack if that is fine along with its technical section. It seems to me a racing game with very good ideas that I never saw in another of its genre so it was fun for a while despite its repetitiveness.
My final rating for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is:
3.6/5
