Need for Speed: Carbon PS2 review

When Need for Speed: Most wanted came out, I didn’t even know. It wasn't a great success, and even though it had great graphics and all, I started thinking Need for Speed had done the impossible...It had finally lost its touch.

The first time I played need for speed was Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. I love driving those cars, you could really feel the power, the handling was great and the sounds of the engines were top stuff. It was one of the first racing games with cops chasing you. Then when Underground and Underground 2 came out, the whole customize your car with cool extras and making your engine very powerful was revolutionary. Plus, the extra driving around to get to races was an awesome feature. It was all new stuff to Need for Speed and the consumers loved it.

However, there was no top notch features of Most wanted, and even Underground 2 didn’t have the best handling, and I got a bit tired of having to drive five minutes to save my game. The games were slowly disintegrating and getting worse.

Enter Need for Speed: Carbon here. The power of the muscle cars, the handling of the tuners and the looks of the exotics capture the world of gamers. The Auto sculpt incredible, the whole concept of territory control amazing and it was all put to a top notch story line. The all new fall off the edge of a canyon while racing was a great idea, and stopped the hit-the-wall-to-steer idea. The sounds of the engines were back and the supercars were once again domination the later part of the game. The featured Audi is lush, and I constantly wanted it whilst I had my little Mazda or my so-so DB9.

The gleams of the cars are realistic enough for me; actually, it blew me away when I first drove the cars. I spent the first races admiring the graphics before I realized we had started. And the best part is yet to come: The game incorporated every aspect of the previous games in one well designed and planned out game.

So, what’s the down side of this game? If any?
Well, the first parts of the game are quickly completed, and all in the entire map doesn't make use of the amount of road there is. Actually, I was surprised at the small amount of races. It does look like a lot, but there aren't that many compared to the size of map.

Second, there is a point in the game where you have the chance to change to buy a supercar. I took the chance and encountered a problem. I bought it, and in an attempt to upgrade it, I had to sell all my cars in the process. Turns out, I ran out of money and spent ages trying to win races to get the odd bit of cash.

Personally I would say this is their best so far, but having not played Pro Street I can't be certain.

My verdict: Get it!

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By: sgeour
Published: 04/08/08