Alright, finally put some serious time into this years NFS, 3 straight hours more or less. My platform is PS3 and the following will address my single-player impressions. I might also write another impressions/review later down the road as I'd like to see if my opinions will change.
Initial impressions
I'd like to mention that the first time I played was 2 days after the hurricane hit, so bear in mind that my real life circumstances greatly influenced my mood when playing the game. Nevertheless, hoping to relieve some stress, I fired up MW as soon as I got power back in my house.
Upon entering Fairhaven and driving aimlessly, I recognized a few jumps and shortcuts that were reminiscent of Paradise City. Right away, the city gave me the feeling of being at "home".
First thing I did was get into a pursuit. Unfortunately, the pursuits, being one of the selling points of MW, turned out to be the biggest disappointment for me so far. It might be because of my experience with past NFS games, in fact I'm definitely sure it is, but the cops were of no challenge to me whatsoever. I struggled to get to the highest heat level because they couldn't keep up with me, and once I did, the challenge was average at best. With pure ease, my very first chase lasted over 20 minutes, until I purposely decided to get busted out of boredom. What a way to spend your first hour with your newly bought game, eh? At that point I decided to take a break and come back when I was in a better mood.
Fast forward to last night, I finally mustered the energy to give it another go, hoping to shake off my disgusted first experience. This time I decided to familiarize myself by doing races and testing out cars.
Driving physics
There should be no surprise here; anyone who's played HP2010 will instantly be familiar with the almost unresponsive steering when maneuvering through traffic on the straights, as if each vehicle is carrying its weight while switching lanes.
Where MW differs from Criterion's last game is in the cornering; the reason for this is to accommodate Fairhaven's road design. Drifting is just as easy to pull off by easing onto the brakes or quickly tapping the handbrake. Of course you'll need some speed to pull off long drifts, which can effectively be performed on certain sections of the map. With that said, unlike in HP, drifting isn't something that needs to be performed on every corner. Moreover, considering how dense the city is, with its low speed cornering sections, drifting is only an option (but still useful to build up nitrous when you're on the appropriate roads). Overall, I found the physics to be an improvement over HP2010.
Environment
To be honest, I was never I big fan of free roaming in a city landscape. I easily get lost during races with all the many distractions littered about. Couple that with high speed driving, and you'll see me becoming intimate with the concrete walls more so than I'd normally like to be.
Not quite as breathtaking as Paradise City like I was expecting, but perhaps it's just my jaded perspective of city free roaming games. It has some interesting locations, a variety of terrains, plenty of jumps, alleys and parking garages to explore, but the city just doesn't inspire me like Seacrest County. Again, I'm generally not a fan of city environments.
Cars
I'm more about quality over quantity, and while the latest NFS supposedly delivers the most varied selection of vehicles, it does feel like a few cars have been omitted.
I haven't spent much time with all the cars other than the Atom, Countach, Focus RS500, and Panamera (which I used to shut down the first 4 MW cars). But from the ones I've used, I already felt the vast differences in each car's ability to execute drifts and how well they can withstand beatings from the AI. Some felt heavy and sluggish, while others felt grippy and agile; pretty much all behaved as I expected.
One thing I'd like to mention is my ever growing appreciation for sturdier vehicles. There's just so much satisfaction in ramming the AI out of the way, who cares about your race time. Lightweights require skill to handle, but are much more rewarding if you can manage to get by unscathed. Seriously, an Atom with SUV cops chasing you can be a nightmare.
Graphics and sound
Gorgeous as expected. I however did experience some slow down during the start of the races when all the AI cars were cluttered together while driving in wet conditions.
I've never had a problem with the sounds in any of the recent NFS, and this is no exception.
Gameplay and my impressions of it as of now
Admittedly after 3 hours of getting used to the game, it started to grow on me. I've played Paradise and HP, and as a result the gameplay as well as the structure of MW are familiar to me.
One thing to note is the aggressive cops and racers; you really have to be cautious when overtaking a racer because a side swipe from them can cost you. It really pays to be equally aggressive because everyone seems to be fighting for position. As for the cops, they can and will T-bone you out of no where. And along with cops laying spikes out ahead of you, certain cops at higher heat levels will speed up ahead and do a rolling spike drop like in HP. However the difference here is that after a few seconds from the previous drop, they can drop another one and continue on in this fashion until you overtake or take the cop down. So do not tail him.
Another thing I've noticed is that you can challenge the Most Wanted Racers in any order as long as you unlock the race for them with enough SP.
Race events and pursuits are as action packed as I expected. But as I mentioned in my first impression, the difficulty of free-roaming pursuits are severely disappointing. It feels like I'm cheating whenever I go through repair stations or switching cars; the latter I was expecting would be integral in creating one long epic chase. But really all you need is a durable car and a few memorized repair spots and you're good to go.
Other positive and negative aspects worth mentioning
Negatives:
-As some have mentioned, no rear mirror.
-Perhaps I'm used to BP, but the lack of DJ Atomika makes the game seem quiet.
-No helicopter.
-Cops don't have presence or that intimidation factor, like in HP2010. They feel like they're just there.
-No radar to warn you of cops.
Positives:
-Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm enjoying the hell out of the opening cinemas for the events. I literally yelled "WTF" when I saw the opening cutscene for the Panamera's pursuit event. Always nice to see Criterion injecting some humor in their games.
-Music, while some may not be to my liking, is still appropriate for MW I find. Much better than what they have in Horizon, yuck!
-They freakin' calmed down with the crash cams! Thank you, Criterion. The crash cam triggers only when you crash (taking down AI, or running over spikes doesn't trigger it).
-Damage is very impressive and improved over HP2010. Cars can also accumulate dirt.
Verdict
Having spent a few hours with MW, I can already tell that this isn't the NFS I see myself getting addicted to, seeing as everything I've experience so far has been done in games I've already played. Thus, I see MW more of something I'll be chipping away at little by little, when I'm not occupied with my other games.
This is not to say MW is bad by any means. It's just that I have this feeling like I already played this game. MW introduces nothing new to me. Multiplayer might change my view, but then again I am mostly for the single-player. Nevertheless, everything, except for the pursuits, has lived up to my expectations. I was never overly excited about this release, just simply interested.
While I can understand the frustration of long time fans of the series seeing Criterion taking a new direction with NFS, I can still see the fun in MW2012. Yes, like everyone else I'd prefer to keep everything separate. But with all that is said, it still is your typical fun arcade racer.
I'd advise anyone on the fence to rent it first. Form your own opinion, give it more than a few hours and try to learn the game. Don't worry about the negative reviews from long time NFS fans. If you enjoyed Paradise and love online gaming, this might be suited for you. As for someone looking for a traditional NFS game, I highly recommend you rent it first.
No regrets getting it on day one, with all that I've said.
Anyway, if you've read this far I commend you. I had fun writing this.
