Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2

The player in pursuit of a speeder, having called for backup in the form of an additional police unit.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is a racing game with an emphasis on evading the police and over-the-top courses featuring lengthy shortcuts. It draws primarily from the gameplay and style of one of its predecessors, Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. Two primary game modes are offered: World Racing Championship, in which the player competes against other drivers in a series of races, and Hot Pursuit Ultimate Racer, which adds police to the races. In the latter players must complete the races while also evading capture.

There are several a la carte race types in Hot Pursuit 2. Delivery is a timed point-to-point dash, with the police in pursuit. This is similar to the delivery mission in Porsche Unleashed while the police pursuit makes it more challenging. Sprint is a point to point race where competitors try to get from one end to the other before their opponent. Time Trial gives players three laps on a level with the goal being to beat the required time to get the gold, silver or bronze medal. Lap Knockout eliminates the last racer in each lap until one player remains the victor. Knockout follows a similar principle, but eliminations are made to the last racer at the end of each race. Races are usually restricted to a certain class of cars. Faster cars are used near the end of the Championship and Ultimate Racer modes.

The player also has the option to play as a police officer trying to arrest speeders. The player must disable speeders by ramming the speeding vehicle multiple times to disable it, akin to a PIT maneuver. The player must turn on their lights and sirens while in pursuit. As a police officer, the player can call for a barricade, additional units, spike strips, and request help from a helicopter to assist in chasing the target vehicle. At the end of each event, the player is awarded for the number of arrests. The PlayStation 2 version, this mode is called "You're the Cop" mode while in the Windows, GameCube, and Xbox versions, it is called "Be the Cop".

The game features cars from a variety of manufacturers. One or more cars are available from the following manufacturers: Aston Martin, BMW, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ferrari, Ford, HSV, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Lotus, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Porsche and Vauxhall Motors. Many vehicles have an unlockable police variant for their respective mode. Hot Pursuit 2 also contains Need for Speed Edition cars, which are upgraded versions of some of the stock vehicles.[1]

Races take place in four environments which differ in atmosphere, each with a few unique courses. The courses in an environment are formed by different roads being connected or separated by road blocks. A fictional tropical island, reminiscent of Hawaii, is the most varied environment; the track traverses a city as well as near a volcano, waterfall, beach, rainforest, and two villages. The coastal forest environment is reminiscent of the Washington coast because of its forest and nature. The Mediterranean coast which resembles Greece because of the stadium and a building which resembles Parthenon. Lastly the so-called Alpine environments that resemble Alaska are more homogeneous, with little variation except the occasional short cut. The PlayStation 2 version also contains a Desert environment resembling the Sonoran Desert of Arizona that sometimes has thunderstorms in the North American Monsoon.

The PlayStation 2 version did not feature a career mode. Instead, there is a point system where cars are purchased from winning races. Points are determined by laps led and finishing position. In the Championship and Hot Pursuit trees, extra points are awarded if a medal is won. If the tree is completed, extra bonus races are unlocked. These races include the hardest competitors and the hardest courses. For the multiplayer mode of the Windows version, players can host a game server for LAN or internet based playing. In addition to this, the GameSpy internet matchmaking system can be used to publish and locate such servers.

As with other games in the Need for Speed series, Hot Pursuit 2 features real world cars, including the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR (pictured).

Different versions of the game were produced for each game platform; the Xbox, GameCube and Microsoft Windows versions were developed in EA Seattle, a subsidiary of EA Canada, while the PlayStation 2 version was developed by EA Black Box in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[2] The PlayStation 2 was the lead console during development, and due to this several differences exist between it and other versions of the game. It is powered by EA Graphics Library (EAGL), which was used in several other Need for Speed games, as well as the driving sequences for James Bond 007: Nightfire and James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire.[3][4] It was unveiled in October 2001.[5] Hot Pursuit 2 also was present at the Electronic Arts booth during E3 2002.[6][7]

Many of the cars featured in the game were not available to the world market until close to the game's release. Because of this cars were modeled by mapping photographs to a front, top, and side plane of the art program used. 3D artists then extrapolated the shape from those references.[8] Consultants, such as stunt drivers, were brought in to help the team understand how drivers and vehicles would behave in given situations. This in turn allowed the team to more effectively set up the AI racers. Motion capture was used to animate characters during the arrest sequences.[8] Near the end of development Electronics Arts revealed that only the PlayStation 2 version would receive features such as the desert courses and mirrored tracks, as these were added late in development and there was not enough time for EA Canada to prepare these assets on the other platforms.[9]

Hot Pursuit 2 is the first Need for Speed game to feature licensed rock music, along with techno music composed by contract artists. The game features several popular recording artists from its time such as Uncle Kracker, The Humble Brothers and Hot Action Cop. The game's soundtrack consists of eight vocal rock songs and seven instrumental rock and electronic songs, all fast-paced with elements of grunge, hip-hop and rap. The vocal songs are also featured in a second, instrumental version. In the Be the Cop and Hot Pursuit game modes, the instrumental versions replace the vocal ones, which avoids obscuring the police radio messages by the song lyrics. In the PlayStation 2 version, there is the option to change whether or not certain songs are played in normal races, hot pursuit races, the game menus, or if they are not to be played at all. The Xbox version also allows custom soundtracks.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 received "generally favorable" reviews on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox,[12][13] while the Windows and GameCube versions received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[10][11] In 2002, the game was awarded "Console Racing Game of the Year"[46] at the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. It was a runner-up for GameSpot's annual "Best Driving Game on GameCube" award, which went to NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona.[47]

The game received praise during its E3 debut and prior to its release. GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann noted that "fans of the original Hot Pursuit will likely find a whole lot to like in Hot Pursuit 2 when it ships".[7] David Smith of IGN lauded the return to the police chase action. He stated that Black Box "went right back to the best game in the Need for Speed series (c'mon, it was) and decided to create a sequel to it."[6]

Maxim gave the PlayStation 2 version a perfect five out of five stars and stated that it "not only gives you the keys to more than 20 exotic cars, it also gives you the unsurpassed joy of leaving traffic cops in the dust."[45] Entertainment Weekly gave the game a B+ and stated, "Killer aerial shots, intense chases, and a rock-infused soundtrack make for a heart-pounding ride."[48] BBC Sport gave the GameCube version a score of 80% and stated that "With plenty of racing challenges it should have a decent amount of longevity but their repetitive nature might grate for some."[44] AllGame also gave the PlayStation 2 version a score of four stars out of five and said that it "offers an impressive amount of arcade-style fun bolstered by the number and variety of courses, challenging Hot Pursuit mode, and excellent lineup of vehicles."[14]

At EA's conference for E3 2010, it was announced and shown that a new Need for Speed, called Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, was unveiled. It was developed by Criterion Games, the developers of the Burnout franchise. The game is considered a reboot of the sub-series, and was released on November 16, 2010 in North America, and on November 19, 2010 in Europe.

• ^ Differences between the PlayStation 2 version of the game and all other versions are described in the Gameplay section

• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 at MobyGames