A fine sequel to Most wanted (2005)
Need for Speed Carbon I guess you can say is almost a carbon copy of Need for speed most wanted. That should be good news right? Yes and no. Although this game came almost an exact year after need for speed most wanted, there is certainly a lot that came over to this game but also some interesting albeit frustrating mechanics this game offers.
First and foremost, the game is relatively short. Extremely short compared to what came before it. You can easily beat this game in 2-3 sittings if you are grinding away at the races. They made the entry of this game a little too easy to start and it’s not till the last 25% of the game where the raise up the difficulty without any warning honesty. It slows the pace down dramatically like they knew this game needed padding so they just turned on the hard switch and potentially ruined the enjoyment I was having at the beginning. Although the difficulties was scaled, they make it really hard for you to beat the game with your favorite cars due to its tier classification system(Tuner,Exotic, Muscle) which has pros and cons to each race and mention that it also changed they way you unlock things in the game. The final boss in this game is honestly do or die. If they are even ahead of you on a 0.6 second split it’s basically over. I needed to git gud and practice to even have a chance. They made the end game pretty chore like which sucks because again I was enjoying the game at the beginning.
A few new other things were race partners and it’s gang territory that progresses the main story. Race partners were honestly wasted as I felt like I didn’t have a need for them besides the first you get and the last one. Every felt very filler based on their race and career bonuses. I see what they were trying to do and I do think it was a neat idea but there is a reason it hasn’t shown up again in NFS.
The driving all in all is solid. Take what made it good in NFS MW 05 and add some weight to it. That’s how it felt like to me. Rubber banding in this game isn’t as strong like NFS MW and it seems dialed down which is good but they make it up in how curvy the roads are in circuits or sprints so there is a fairness to some degree. Punishment in the game seems fair as I felt the wrong moves I made in the game were my fault and not the game so it had a nice balance there.
Overall Need for Speed Carbon had some interesting ideas and a decent continuation from most wanted. It’s not a bad game looking at the package as a whole but the truck that hits you in the face about the difficulty spike certainly may have folks be turned away from this game. I felt very underwhelmed coming from playing most wanted. The police’s Chases in most wanted I felt like we’re very visceral and fun but in carbon they almost feel non existent honestly as they wanted to focus on the racing aspect which is fair. I feel like if it had another year in development and fleshed out mechanics it could have honestly been the sequel to be on par with most wanted if not surpass it but it doesn’t quite get there unfortunately.
Need for Speed Carbon I guess you can say is almost a carbon copy of Need for speed most wanted. That should be good news right? Yes and no. Although this game came almost an exact year after need for speed most wanted, there is certainly a lot that came over to this game but also some interesting albeit frustrating mechanics this game offers.
First and foremost, the game is relatively short. Extremely short compared to what came before it. You can easily beat this game in 2-3 sittings if you are grinding away at the races. They made the entry of this game a little too easy to start and it’s not till the last 25% of the game where the raise up the difficulty without any warning honesty. It slows the pace down dramatically like they knew this game needed padding so they just turned on the hard switch and potentially ruined the enjoyment I was having at the beginning. Although the difficulties was scaled, they make it really hard for you to beat the game with your favorite cars due to its tier classification system(Tuner,Exotic, Muscle) which has pros and cons to each race and mention that it also changed they way you unlock things in the game. The final boss in this game is honestly do or die. If they are even ahead of you on a 0.6 second split it’s basically over. I needed to git gud and practice to even have a chance. They made the end game pretty chore like which sucks because again I was enjoying the game at the beginning.
A few new other things were race partners and it’s gang territory that progresses the main story. Race partners were honestly wasted as I felt like I didn’t have a need for them besides the first you get and the last one. Every felt very filler based on their race and career bonuses. I see what they were trying to do and I do think it was a neat idea but there is a reason it hasn’t shown up again in NFS.
The driving all in all is solid. Take what made it good in NFS MW 05 and add some weight to it. That’s how it felt like to me. Rubber banding in this game isn’t as strong like NFS MW and it seems dialed down which is good but they make it up in how curvy the roads are in circuits or sprints so there is a fairness to some degree. Punishment in the game seems fair as I felt the wrong moves I made in the game were my fault and not the game so it had a nice balance there.
Overall Need for Speed Carbon had some interesting ideas and a decent continuation from most wanted. It’s not a bad game looking at the package as a whole but the truck that hits you in the face about the difficulty spike certainly may have folks be turned away from this game. I felt very underwhelmed coming from playing most wanted. The police’s Chases in most wanted I felt like we’re very visceral and fun but in carbon they almost feel non existent honestly as they wanted to focus on the racing aspect which is fair. I feel like if it had another year in development and fleshed out mechanics it could have honestly been the sequel to be on par with most wanted if not surpass it but it doesn’t quite get there unfortunately.