This review is not only a comparison between the original and remastered version of the game, but also a review of the game itself as a alone published game on which my final user score will be based on.

After 10 years Criterion launches a remastered version of one of the best Criterion games made so far. This title is practically a sequel of the well-known NFS Hot Pursuit 2 released back in 2002, even though it differs in some parts.
The game itself is a racing arcade, as all Need for Speed games are, you play both as a racer and a cop in already designated events, this is where the first difference from the 2002 title comes in. In NFS HP2 you had the chance to decide which car to use, which track to drive onto (and you still got the chance to get bounty points), on the top of that, you also had offline splitscreen mode available if you wanted to play with someone from your family or friends. None of this appears here, you have events on which you have to use a specific car or car class in a specific part of the map.
What is more, you have the Free Roam mode in which the only thing you can do is just drive, no racers or cops appear within the map, so practically a useless mode.
Ok, now after saying what wrong with the game, what are the good things? Well, of course the gameplay, you are gonna have such a great time playing this game, there are many race modes, like Hot Pursuit (of course), Interceptor, Race, Time Trial,... and the best of them are playable in online mode with other people who are gonna give you a hard time beating them, but you are probably gonna enjoy it more than playing singleplayer mode.
With the DLCs comes new cars and singleplayer events and a completely new online mode called Most Wanted in which there is a player who has the most bounty points (he's the most wanted), racer's objective is to protect him from being caught by the cops and the cops have to bust him before he escapes.

Now the difference between the original and the remastered version is that all DLCs are already in the game, given for free. Also 4K support but 30fps, and 2K 60 fps, graphics improved, but not drastically, which is a big flaw for all pc players as mods can render the game even better than remastered without buying the new version.
So for whom is the Remastered version? Well, for new players who haven't experienced the game is a must buy, but for others, well it depends on if you want to spend many hours on online mode, than probably yes as there is crossplay enabled and you can play the game with friends on different platforms. For people who already played the game (especially for pc players) and played it only for the singleplayer experience, than don't buy it, it isn't worth your money.

All in all a great game, one of the best from the Need for Speed franchise, the game itself is a must buy for all racing arcade fans, but when it comes to the Remastered version, than it isn't for everyone, for new players yes, but for others it depends.

I remember fondly how i downloaded the demo for this on Xbox 360 back in the day and i loved it but never came around to actually play the full version.

As i was in the mood for some racing and NfS i played this finally and i feel mixed about it.

While the fast paced arcade racing action with the exciting heists and Hot Pursuits (name drop lmao) are really fun, the game kinda lacks different stuff to do.

Yeah there are several modes and you can play as the racer or police but lookint at the sheer tone of events to complete this game, it is getting kinda repetitive. And since the races are just segments of a big overarching map, the tracks are also repeating themselves.

In another it's also cool to drive tracks in reverse or just segements of them and going into different directions at some point. But overall the game overstays its welcome a little.

Despite that NfS Hot Pursuit still manages to sometimes get me into the zone and just drive with tunnelvision and make me feel like a racing god when drifting perfectly, evading everything and finishing 1st.

And the graphics are nicely remastered too! So good, but too samey.

A Need for Speed game that is more frustrating than fun. Handling is my biggest gripe with Hot Pursuit Remastered. Cars feel heavy and control like rocks. This comes off even more annoying considering it can be easy to crash into oncoming traffic. Cop time trials (referred to as Rapid Response) really don't work well with the under-steer handling physics. Hitting walls penalizes your time and adds 2-3 seconds, making earning a gold merit very challenging.

Gameplay is fine. Two parts exist. Cop Career and a Racer Career. The cop side has you participate in time trials and events centered around busting racers, while the Racer side has its own set of events like time trials and races (most of which throw cops at you mid-race and turn into a race-getaway pursuit to the finish). Winning events rewards bounty points, with more events and cars being unlocked at higher bounty point levels. Car customization is as basic as changing a car color and selecting from a few preset vinyls and wraps. A free roam mode also exists.

The Burnout comparisons are definitely true and present, seeing that this game was developed by Burnout team Criterion. Takedowns are a key gameplay aspect, working the same was as Burnout even down to the takedown camera that shows after one is successful. Essentially, this game can even be described as Burnout with cops, free roam and very heavy driving physics.

Another issue I have (which I am not sure is a Remastered issue, if it was present in the original, or because I was playing on the Switch version) is that after unpausing the game, the action resumes like normal, but there is a 2-3 second delay before control input registers again. This, of course, has caused me to crash into walls, traffic and lose speed in pursuits.

I can see why a lot of people like Hot Pursuit because it is a well made game. However, the handling and physics weren't enjoyable enough to draw me in.

Stretches the definition of "remaster" a bit, but I think in this case that's for the best. I referenced Need for Speed's identity problem in my review for Unbound, seeing how two years after 2010's Hot Pursuit came out, Forza started pulling NFS' identity as "the fun one" out from under them with each new entry in the Horizon series.

("The fun one" isn't meant to suggest that other games like FlatOut or Burnout didn't exist, but if you were in it for the racing or the licensed cars - not the destruction physics - Need for Speed was the safe bet, the game popular enough that you could talk about it with acquaintances. It's also worth pointing out that Burnout hasn't had an original, mainline entry in the series since 2008, and FlatOut has received 2 sequels since then that have both disappointed series fans.)

Hailing from a pre-Forza Horizon era, Hot Pursuit still feels confident. The game is a playable car commercial. Not the ones about how your car will stop you from turning pedestrians into tomato paste, but the ones about how buying a new minivan can help you re-discover the joy of driving on an impossibly well-paved road winding along a cliff by the sea.

If the playable car commercial was indeed the inspiration for this entry in the series, then it executes on it admirably well. I'm not going to claim that the race designs are groundbreaking, but each one has a concept that keeps the whole affair from becoming a checklist despite the total lack of a story to guide the campaign. The roads are just wide enough and the traffic just sparse enough that you'll have to remain vigilant, but worry not - you'll be frequently rewarded with opportunities to fully open the throttle and just let loose on the open road. The voiced introductions for each car (played alongside the roar of its engine) are dramatic, sure, but they fit so well with the game's aesthetic and the narrator speaks so authoritatively that you'd be forgiven for thinking that something as mundane as the Nissan 370Z could play a pivotal role in automotive history, "redefining what an affordable sports car could be".

There are conventional races, there are time trials (mostly used as an opportunity to let you drive a Bugatti way earlier than normal), but the game is at its best when the cops show up to a race and you're clawing for first place while everyone involved - including you! - is flinging spike strips and EMPs all over the track. Where this game's slightly larger, straighter roads might make another racing game boring, you'll need the space to be strategic when the intensity is cranked this high. Otherwise, you'll find yourself cornered by a spike strip that has drifted into your path, still trying to come to a stop after being deployed at 240 mph. The large roads and the limited usage of player gadgets means that the emphasis is on driving skillfully first and foremost, and the simplicity of those gadgets keeps the mental load light while doing so. It still skews closer to straightforward NFS titles than a kart racer, but it does so without feeling rote or unfocused.

Except, uh, if you know this game you know I've been mostly talking about one half of it. I'm not nearly as enamored with the cop missions, which are typically going to task you with taking down racers before they finish a race or a certain amount of time elapses. There's just not enough present here to make the cop missions feel like anything more than a distraction, comparatively. The big distinction between cops and racers is the focus on a deadline, but the abilities that are unique to cops can't sell the fantasy of being the cat in a game of Cat & Mouse when the racer abilities do a better job of conveying impact. Helicopters and roadblocks are more fun for racers due to the added tension, but racer abilities don't return the favor: Turbo feels like you're piloting a missile for a few seconds, but from a cop's perspective, your target just gets faster? You're not getting the same sensation. This isn't to say that cop gameplay totally lacks excitement, because on a fundamental level you're still racing, you're still using gadgets (and spike strips still pack a punch), but you lose ~20% of the Racer campaign's thrill when you're not chasing a podium while staring down the barrels of two different factions trying to turn your car into tinfoil.

I suppose now is the point where I admit that I'm more than a little biased. I didn't realize I'd be so sentimental about this whole thing until I fired it up and realized this (or rather, the original version of this game) is the last game I remember being excited about before I started racking up adult responsibilities, and this is the first time I've picked it back up in 13 years. So uh - take all this with a grain of salt?