This game is... disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it can be really fun. And the soundtrack is fucking incredible (probably the best part of the game). But its so damn frustrating at times. To address the elephant in the room, yes - it'd have been received much better if it did not have "most wanted" in the title. But that's hardly a major issue unless nostalgia goggles are glued to your eyes. Every single moment made me think "This was done WAY better in hot pursuit 2010 and even burnout paradise. What went wrong here?" The map is good on its own. The handling model is good on its own. But taking both together you'll realize that this handling model is not AT ALL suited for the map design. To put it simply, the game rips off the map of paradise city and puts in the hot pursuit physics which DO NOT work well together. It takes a LOT of time to finally get used to the driving in this game. Watching the beta footage on youtube is just sad man. This game could've been so much better.

2005 saw the release of one of the most beloved games in the NFS franchise, Most wanted. The game mixed street racing with an open world environment, police chases and street racing gangs. Unfortunately, it has been fairly downhill since then. The series has gone a bit off the rails with no real direction. While there has been some decent games, the street racing feeling has really gone missing. Most Wanted is EAs attempt to cash in on people's love for the original game, without really addressing what people loved about the original game and it's not massively successful. It does has some similarities with the original mixed with some parts of hot pursuit. Like most NFS games, the game handles well and the racing is pretty nice. It is the standard arcade style racing you would expect from the series and when you are actually in a normal race, it is pretty fun. The problem is that the game is bogged down by a lot of rubbish that you don't really want in the game. Now, I'm really not a fan of open world racing games. I think most of the time tracks are more suited for close contested racing battles. This one is no different, it looks great but doesn't really work in terms of racing. That's if you actually get into the racing. There is time wasted driving around the city, time spent avoiding the police and time spent on non-racing events. Another huge time waste is the long crash animations, every time you crash you get a shitty 5 second cut scene. It totally ruins the flow of the races. Overall, the game feels vapid. From its' lack of racing to its' horrible music, it's another case of NFS not really working out. The basic mechanics of the game work but all the silly extras just bring it down.

This is a great arcade racing game but it's a little bit messy for a Need for Speed game, the physics are chaotic and the handling is drifty, which makes for an unbalanced racing experience overall.

There are many challenges you can do, unlock cars and upgrade them, surpass other players in the leaderboard and grind for more points.

The biggest downside is that there's pretty much no car customization, you can make your cars faster and you can swap colors but you can't change their look.

Despite its obvious issues I still like this game.

Final Rating: "Decent" ~ 6/10

Sorry , this is EA at its scummy best, calling it most wanted to cash in on the name of their best NFS game without actually making a game even resembling it.
There is no story first of all. The original most wanted was built around a setup and had a decent story.
There are barely any events, none of them too interesting, the game gets boring really fast.
The sound track is way worse, songs like fired up and nine thou sold the original most wanted, this is not memorable at all in any way.
The only thing this game can claim over Most wanted 2005 is graphics which is expected for a game made 7 years later and anyway the 2005 version's graphics hold up quite well even in the modern day.
Just overall an average racing game that looks even worse in comparison to its namesake.
Clear cash grab based on name, just play most wanted 2005 instead .