Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (PS2 Review)

The Need For Speed franchise has been one of the most prolific racing series in the history of video games. Dating back to 1996, there are very few titles that can boast of such a dramatic sales history along with having six additional games released after the original in such a short timeframe. Along with five straight-up racers, Need For Speed has also branched out into the rally racing scene with the V-Rally franchise.

The tradition of sequels for video games dates back to the earliest of beginnings. Even systems like the Atari 2600 and the Commodore 64 were graced with game titles that were followed by a number or two. However, usually games built on what had come immediately before the most recent game rather than skipping back into the deeper past to revisit and capitalize upon it. Nevertheless, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 has taken a double-jump backwards to work from the successful formula of cops and racing cars to bring the franchise into the current generation of gaming systems.

For those familiar with the history of the series, it is no surprise that EA decided to go back into the deeper past to generate some new excitement on the PS2. Need For Speed: Porsche Unleased broke the normal NFS formula and concentrated on one vehicle make only and was not widely accepted within the gaming community. This break from the norm left EA and gamers alike scratching their heads wondering what had gone wrong. Although nabbing the exclusive rights to one of the world’s premiere automobile manufacturers may have been a battle coup, sales across the gaming spectrum heavily declined. It was through this revelation that EA went back to the drawing board and revisited what had worked in the past. Now, I’m sure that you all are wondering if Hot Pursuit 2 is nothing but a cheap knockoff looking to capitalize on an unsuspecting public or it is a worthy successor to what had come before? Well, there is only one way to find out. Reach up boys, and pull those belts tight. We’re about to go racing.

The original Hot Pursuit was more like having two games for the price of one. Gamers got to run the courses in the best of the best automobiles available on the market against a full field of competitors in a standard racing affair. On the other side of the fence, you got the opportunity to take the law into your own hands and either chase down other speeders or run from those same police officers in the Hot Pursuit mode. Either half of the game would have been enough to satisfy gamers of that era, but EA decided to raise the bar to push the limits against their rival at the time, Test Drive, to firmly take the lead in the arcade-styled racing genre.

Once again, HP2 is clearly broken up into two sections. Both areas have enough of a selection to be a game in itself. The Hot Pursuit part is broken down into four separate categories: Quick Race, You’re the Cop, Challenge and Ultimate Racer. The Quick Race selection will put you into the think of things with the minimum of button presses possible by choosing the type of race, your vehicle and the course for you to run. This is perfect for those that have very little time available and just want to get in a quick racing fix. The You’re the Cop mode puts you in the position of a police officer hell bent on bringing all of the racers on your beat to justice within a certain time limit. You can even call in assistance from the police helicopter or road blocks to make your job easier. There are a limited number of assists that you can request and invoking one in no way ensures a quick capture. Challenge is a highly customizable race against either computer controller vehicles or a friend where every option is selectable. 

Finally, we have the Ultimate Racer. This is styled in a Christmas tree format where additional venues can be unlocked only by completing the previous challenges. There are a total of 30 contests to conquer, and let me tell you these are no walk in the park. 25 of the races have you running from the law all the while competing against three other racers to cross the finish line first. That may sound simplistic, but you have to include the enormous police force that is tracking down the field at the same time and boy do these guys make the shows on Cops look like a Saturday morning cartoon. From the second that they catch you in their radar, these boys are all over you like white on rice and these guys are not afraid of trading paint to put you into a guardrail or two. Just getting through the course without getting pinched is an accomplishment in itself. 

Once this becomes old hat, or you get tired of being put behind bars, you can mosey over to the World Racing section of the game. Here the competition raises the racing stakes and matches you up against seven other racers in three different categories. The Quick Race and Challenge modes are just the same as the Hot Pursuit versions except they are sans police officers breathing down your neck. You also have the Championship mode where another 30 race Christmas tree awaits you. In both modes, you can unlock new vehicles or tracks to be used in the other categories, however to get the really good stuff you have to get used to crossing the finish line first. You have quite a challenge ahead of you because the racing competition knows the track just as well, if not better, than you do and will utilize the shortcuts scattered around the tracks to their advantage.

For those of you who think this is just “another” racer, let me awaken you to reality. Every one of the 49 different vehicles handle differently and it is only through experimentation that you are able to find one that suits your personal taste. Some of the exotic powerhouses pack a mighty wallop, including the five different police chase vehicles. Although the total amount of cars might not be a huge number in today’s age of gaming, the entire who’s who of expensive makes and models have made an appearance. Furthermore, these babies are not indestructible as they reflect a limited version of real-time damage when you abuse them around the track. Windows crack, steam pours from under the hood, exhaust systems belch black smoke and vehicle bodies all illustrate your lack of driving prowess after repeatedly bumping and bruising your way around the course. Vehicle performance also declines as it is beaten up, which makes your task of winning the race even more difficult. Racing clean and keeping you car on the track is the key to many a victory rather than just keeping the hammer down and hoping for the best.

Control factors are plentiful and can be customized to however the player prefers his or her ride to handle. Handling comes in two different varieties: Classic and Extreme. The Classic setting will allow players to stick more to the roads, but the tradeoff is that it will limit some high-performance maneuvers. The Extreme choice gives drivers a looser feeling car, and we all remember from the movie Days of Thunder, loose is fast. This choice also has its drawbacks as heavy-handed drivers will find themselves facing the wrong way, often spinning out when running through the turns. You must have a lighter touch than that of the Classic setting and cannot simply lean on the thumbstick and expect to make it through without swapping ends numerous times. Nevertheless, no matter which of the two that you choose, this is classic Need For Speed control and you will never feel at a loss when negotiating any of the many, many tracks. 

There are also choices for three different transmissions: Automatic, Manual and Semi-Automatic. Of course the first two are self-explanatory, but the last one does deserve a bit of expansion. The semi-automatic tranny will act in all manners as a normal automatic transmission, however players can “force shift” the vehicle when the car is simply not in the optimum gear for the circumstances. This frees up the player to only have to shift when the car is bogging down or seems to not be able to get to the next gear and spend more time concentrating on the road ahead.

The racing Head’s-Up Display (HUD) gives players a complete overview of everything that is happening within the race. Even though the screen is jam-packed with information, players will not have to sacrifice their driving view for information. This HUD, along with the rearview mirror, can be switched off or customized to limit the amount of things being displayed, but I can’t see why gamers would want to handicap themselves by not allowing everything to be there at a moment’s glance. The active rearview mirror is exceptionally helpful when putting the block on an encroaching vehicle and really helps in keeping track of the speeders you are trying to catch in the Hot Pursuit modes. There are four different split time displays (vs. leader, vs. record time, vs. last lap and vs. best lap), vehicle speed can be displayed in either MPH or KM/H and there are five different map types that can be utilized for keeping track of the competition.

If you were expecting this to be another bland racer, I’m sure by now you have been converted to the other side of the church, however we are far from finished on what you can expect to see when you boot this bad boy up in your PS2. The racing environments are diverse and full of challenge. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 offers ten unique tracks which are quickly doubled when you include the reverse courses into the mix. Although most reverse courses are not worth mentioning in other racing games, the tracks in HP2 offer players different challenges and jumps that take on a completely different feeling when running them in the opposite direction. The roadways are full of destructible items from street signs to trash barrels and even barricades disguising shortcuts. Unlike other games, it actually pays to find and utilize all of the shortcuts on the tracks as they will cut down on your lap time and can be exceptionally helpful when looking to get around the police roadblocks. All of the racing environments are lush with background actions and greatly diverse in their locale selection. You get to drive at breakneck speeds through a raging forest fire being attended to by firefighters, an island paradise and even a dust devil in the middle of the desert along with seven more places that each have their own special touches that will push you to unlock them.

These road are not empty either as there can be found a healthy dose of civilian traffic, which can be turned off or ramped up to rush-hour levels in certain racing venues, that react to their surroundings surprisingly well. Cars will actually pull off to the side when police vehicles are in pursuit and drive off the road to avoid head-on collisions. These cars also remain on the track when they are run into and can be repeat obstacles when you have to complete numerous circuits of a track. The police also show some advanced levels of intelligence when they are in pursuit. Not only will they radio ahead for backup but also call for roadblocks, spike strips and even helicopter support.

But why drive on the roads when you can take to the air. As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of opportunities to get your vehicle up, up and away. Just about each time the car gathers some big air underneath it, you are rewarded with a special Matrix-styled 360 degree camera swing seen now today in newer games like Burnout 3. This same effect happens whenever you take some collision damage when running a police roadblock or smoke grenade dropped from a helicopter. You even have the ability to take a peek at the layout of the road ahead to help you line yourself up for the jumps and running the roadblocks via the Zone Cam.

Graphically, HP2 is another marvel of polygonal goodness. The tracks all have plenty going on in the backgrounds and there is no clipping or slowdown to speak of at all. There does seem to be a slight collision detection problem when trying to squeeze through tight spots, but this may have been an optical illusion from me just thinking there was enough room to fit my car between the two objects when really there wasn’t in the first place. Your sense of speed is really tested, along with your reaction time, as the vehicles all seem to fly around the courses with real life accuracy and it once you have one of the true powerhouses up to 180 MPH the scenery is nothing but a blur. Nevertheless, gamers have the opportunity to catch all of the sights by utilizing one of the best replay modes ever seen in a game with multiple camera angles available at simple press of a button. Rewind, fast forward and even slow-motion are all packed into the player so you can review the entire race that you have just run to your heart’s content. In fact, you even have the ability to save your replays for showing off at a later date to friends who might not quite believe how hot of a racer you actually are.

The audio portents are nothing less than the usual EA magic. All of the musical selections are customizable via the EA TRAX section. In fact, players have the choice of using either instrumental or the regular mixes with the song lyrics included. Nevertheless, the style of music is rather limited as gamers have the choice of Rock, Rock and more Rock with a mere smattering of Techno to break up the monotony. You also have the privilege of listening to your gaming experience with the standard Need For Speed Dolby surround sound setup which has been included in the series since the very beginning. Furthermore, each and every aspect of the in-game audio has an independent volume control so you can tune the game to your specific hearing tastes. The radio chatter from the pursuing police forces is always relevant and it pays to keep an ear peeled for their next attempt at stopping you or that a car has been taken out of the chase. Their conversations over the radio seem like they were actually taken from a real-life drama and the cars will have two-way conversations between the many vehicles and the police dispatcher. No expense was spared in making sure your ears were exceptionally pleased in what Hot Pursuit 2 has to offer.

Even though Hot Pursuit 2 was brought out before the time that Sony went headlong into its online support, gamers do have the opportunity to take on different players in all of the modes in the two player version of the game. However, that is not all that you have to look forward to in the game. You also receive points for each and every contest that you win to be used for unlocking additional “special” vehicles and tracks. Usually these are just different versions of the already accessible vehicles, but their speed and handling attributes are noticeably better than the stock versions and they all come with a special NFS paint scheme.

Finally, fans of the series will be pleased as punch to find a “making of” video tucked away in the credits that has most of the Black Box team telling the viewer how the game came into being. There is also video included with real-life vehicles being put through their tests so the developers could get an actual “feel” for how the cars should react in the game. Even though it lasts no longer than five minutes, I must tip my hat to EA for including a gem like this into the game where there are so many other producers that will give absolutely nothing as an extra bonus for their loyal consumers.

Everything about Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 hits the spot in just the right way. Besides the lack of online play, which was just in its infancy at the time of release, there doesn’t seem to be anything missing from a very successful formula. EA and Black Box both came to the table with a hefty history to stand up to and they came through with flying colors. NFS: HP2 is simply the best game ever to wear the moniker of the series and definitely is one of the best arcade racers to ever grace the PlayStation library. Everybody who is anybody in the automotive world, from Aston Martin to the Jaguar XKR, have been represented to the tiniest detail and this is just the place to come when your need for speed must be satisfied. There is no doubt that this is a must-have game for any racing fan, and it should be a crime if you haven’t taken out the time to track this one down at your local electronic gaming store.

Difficulty: 8

Control: 10

Visuals: 9

Audio: 9

Replayability: 10

Overall: 9.5