Despite a few disappointments, Hot Pursuit is still a great addition to the Need for Speed series.
The most interesting aspect about this title is the fact that there are two different careers to play through as far as the single player goes. There's the choice of playing as a cop, or as a racer. Both sides are often pitted against one another in all-out chases called Hot Pursuits where the cop tries to bust the racers before they reach the finish line. You can play all the way through as a racer, or as a cop, or play through both at the same time, alternating between events. So is there is a small element of choice when advancing through the single-player career. Despite that, you are still forced to play through specific events before doing other ones. All events occur within an area called Seacrest County, which is an open-world similar to that of Paradise City in Burnout. All events however are Point A to point B-styled. Not all of the events are all that enjoyable, and some that can be played from both the perspective of a cop and a racer are usually not as fun on one side. For example, I generally had a fantastic time busting racers as a cop in Hot Pursuits, but as a racer did not enjoy getting obliterated by cops constantly before reaching the finish line.
There are of course events other than Hot Pursuits such as basic races and head-on duels for none other than racers. In addition to Hot Pursuits, events that can be played as both a cop and racer are basically different versions of time trials. And unfortunately, time trials are the worst part of the events, and probably the most common. There are several different variations like your basic time trial, Rapid Response for cops, Gauntlet for racers, and Previews for both. The most dreadful part of said time trials is the sheer amount of traffic that must be dodged in order to obtain a respectable time. It wouldn't be so bad if cars weren't flooded on both sides of the road at times. And in other instances you probably won't even see a car before it's too late, and your vehicle is already is several different pieces. Traffic will likely account for an unnecessarily high amount of crashes, and is also a nuisance in most of the other events as well.
On the bright side, the gameplay is for the most part solid. The learning curve isn't too steep, especially if you've played other similar racing games. It can be difficult to judge exactly what you should do at specific turns. The handbrake seems a bit too sensitive at times, but is usually not to hard to handle. Throughout both careers, power-ups are unlocked and upgraded upon successful uses. However, they are limited (sometimes to the point where they can't even be used) in specific events. As a racer you get spike strips, turbo, EMP shots, and a jammer that disables a cop's power-ups for a limited time. Cops share two of the same power-ups, EMP and spike strips, and get two unique power-ups; road blocks, and the ability to call in a helicopter that places a large spike strip in the path of racers. Opponents are typically just about as armed and dangerous as you are, which levels the playing field. Jammers are used to eliminate incoming EMPS or spike strips. Spike strips have the potential to spin out an opponent targeting you with an EMP, thus throwing them out of range. Road blocks may effectively slow down a pack of cars, and helicopters are oftentimes useless against tougher opponents, and can even back-fire when they place the strip right in front of you. All of this can make for some intense and thrilling gameplay. Enemy AI at times may feel cheap, but only because some of the power-ups are practically unavoidable at times, but the enemy AI does deserve props for being tricky and challenging.
The visuals are quite impressive overall. There are occasion stutters and glitches, but these mainly occur when crashing an opponent or yourself, which can be distracting to the action going on. The audio gives a nice feel the at-times exciting gameplay, but for me much of that was drowned out due the wonderful feature of being able to listen to your own music stored on your system instead of the crappy soundtrack they have to offer.
What's considerably disappointing is the online play of Hot Pursuit. There are just three modes to choose from (without purchased DLC), one obviously being races, then there are Interceptor and Hot Pursuit game modes. Sure, it's rather entertaining playing against other people online, but there's hardly any purpose after a while due to the lack of elaborate stats or leaderboards. What's even worse is the fact that they included in an "Online Pass" with this game, so you can't even enjoy the somewhat lackluster online portion of this game without purchasing a brand new copy, or shelling out an additional $10 if you buy a used copy. They at the very least do give two days for free without a pass though, but it was still a rather pathetic decision to include an Online Pass with this game. There is another online feature that is free luckily, and that is the Autolog. With it, you can keep in touch with friends and share/compare stats to add some competition amongst your friends.
In all, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit offers a fairly generous amount of content with both careers. The leveling system continuously gives access to new cars, but many lack distinction when taken out on the roads of Seacrest County. It's neat that you can also level up when playing online, but past a certain level there is nothing more to unlock, thus making leveling up a useless task with the exception of trophies rewarded for reaching max levels. Even with a good 30 hours or so of content, some of it is bound to be dull *cough* time trials *cough*, and at other times frustrating *cough* traffic *cough*, but any Need for Speed fan or fan of racing games in general should not pass up the chance to play this.
Overall score: 8.2/10