Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered Preview — A Big Fuel Injection

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit remains one of the high watermarks for the long-running series. It was Criterion Games' first game since releasing the wildly successful Burnout Paradise and the studio's get-go get at the Need for Speed property. Hot Pursuit built on that successful foundation while also taking the series back its roots.

Well, since Exhaustion Paradise got the remaster treatment two years ago, information technology just makes sense for a Need of Speed: Hot Pursuit remaster to driblet this yr. The game is coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November half-dozen and Nintendo Switch on November 13. It looks nifty and brings some cracking new additions to the table.

Most excitingly, the team'due south highly-touted Autolog system is now cantankerous-platform. Meaning, regardless of your buddy's platform of choice, yous can compete to become the fastest time on the track. They've also added a new wrap editor and more than car paints to make sure your ride looks exactly like y'all want information technology to. Plus, all the post-launch content is now woven into the campaign. Merely what really matters is if it still plays well.

Fortunately, I was able to sit down with a preview version of the game recently and spent a adept chunk of time racing effectually Seacrest Canton. Like an sometime pair of leather gloves you found stowed abroad in the back of your glovebox, Hot Pursuit slips back on perfectly.

Look, I've made zip secrets that the direction Ghost Games has taken the Need for Speed franchise isn't my loving cup of tea. It'due south a franchise I grew up loving, spending endless summer nights staying up as well belatedly playing Underground, Hot Pursuit, and Most Wanted. But since Benchmark moved on to other projects afterward Rivals, the serial has simply been spinning its wheels.

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Over the terminal few entries, the serial has been missing a direction. Heat tried to bring back the thrill of running from the cops. However, the mechanic was so overbearing and a hindrance to progress that I was instantly turned off. Hot Pursuit brings the franchise back to what it used to be: great racing, smart gimmicks, and no fluff.

Of form, if y'all played Hot Pursuit dorsum in 2022, this isn't surprising. The game was amid the almost well-received Need for Speed games of all time for good reason. This remaster is running off of the same engine, simply with some extra touches.

The cars command like an arcade dream. No, this isn't a sim racer. Yous don't need to perfectly hit every line to have a adept race. Instead, Hot Pursuit wants to pump up the activity in every sequence. You're drifting around corners, striking the nitrous in direct-aways, and deploying spike traps to slow downwardly the cops. Oh yeah, that'southward important to remember. Hot Pursuit has elements of a machine combat game.

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In fact, in many ways the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit remaster is everything that putrid Fast & Furious: Crossroads game wanted to be. Where that game felt like controlling a wet turd sliding downwardly the highway, Hot Pursuit feels like an arcade racer should. Where Crossroads tried unsuccessfully to incorporate weapons into the mix, NFS keeps it simple, leading to races that actually feel fun.

Plus, with Hot Pursuit the crashes you inflict actually feel bang-up. This is from the squad that brought yous Exhaustion, afterwards all. And the game lets you see the on-road disharmonize from the perspective of both street racers and cops.

Now, information technology'southward a piffling weird to play as a supercop who's police upkeep has apparently exploded into James Bond territory. I hateful, nosotros're simply chasing down people for speeding tickets. Do I really need to hop into a blackness and white Porsche? Regardless, jumping betwixt the two sides of the campaign is a ton of fun. They each accept their own race types and, outside of the 1 where you can't touch anything as the police or you lose time, I think they're all pretty solid.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to check out the multiplayer modes much in the preview. They audio absurd, but I can't actually say one way or the other just nonetheless. There's one chosen Most Wanted where players are either on squad street racer or team cop. The street racers are trying to protect ane of their own, while the constabulary attempt to knock the most wanted out of committee.

Another gives players full admission to all the weapons and aims to feel like a car-based deathmatch. Again, these sound like a ton of fun, but I couldn't find any other players during my express preview access.

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From what I did play, Demand for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is shaping upwards to be quite the product. The game takes the series back to its streets vs cops roots and the arcade racing feels as skilful as you remember. For people that have friends, the Autolog arrangement should make each runway feel even more competitive. And, if you lot're similar me and don't collaborate with other humans, it should affect your experience likewise much.

Of course, this is a preview build. Things can still change and the team has a bit of work to do to get functioning totally up to snuff. However, everything I've seen and so far has me convinced they can become there. After all, only await at the Burnout Paradise remaster.

Most importantly, Hot Pursuit has me actually interested in where the series goes from hither. I was pretty much ready to write the serial off after Heat, just Benchmark has flipped my stance. Hopefully, with them back at the captain, Demand for Speed gets dorsum to the superlative of the arcade racing pile.

Demand for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered comes to PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November half-dozen. The game will launch on Nintendo Switch on Nov 13.

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