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Nfs carbon review
OK, i am only a few hours into this game but have done enough that i can put together a decent review. I have only played the Xbox version so far but i assume the PS2 will pretty much be the same. The PC version will differ with the fact that it has online play where as the console versions (Xbox and PS2) do not.
In the start of the game you will have the usual story line before gameplay. To start you will only have 3 car choices. RX-8 (my choice), Camaro SS, or Alph Romeo Brera. One from each class.
For fans of the series this game will come as no real big shock to the system. I do not want to say that it is the same as previous releases but it does have most of the same elements and gameplay as Most Wanted.
The police are still there to hassle you, although this time i think that they have made them insanely hard to shake. I was in my third or forth race when they showed up in the middle of the race. I finished the race and the chase was on. But they seem to find you easily, they are all over the place, and getting them off your tail is no where even close to as easy as Most Wanted was. In most wanted i toyed with them, in Carbon i ran for my life and for quite a while until i could lose them.
You still have the rival racers to deal with except in Carbon they run in teams who control territories. You will beat a series of races and take over territories until you control them all. You will also be challenged by rival crews for territories you own. These territories will change throughout the game as one rival crew takes out another, including your crew. Yes, i said your crew. There are three different kind of crew members that you can hire. You will start out with one and can hire or fire others along the way. There are blockers who will help block the other crews members during a race. Scouts who run ahead of you and will direct you to the shortcuts in the course. And drafters who you can run behind to gain a little speed from the draft and use a slingshot method to spring ahead when needed.
To be perfectly honest the crew feature should have been left out of the game. I have found it more annoying than helpful in a few ways. One is that they get in your way during races and slow you down. Two is that they can win races for you which defeats the purpose of a racing game. Three they talk to you during the whole race which is annoying. The problem is that some of these members are needed on the team just so you can use certain features like autosculpting. They also have other benefits like some can get you 10% off parts. Each crew members benefits will be listed when you look at them.
Autosculpting is a section where you can take certain parts and it will give you several slider bars to move so you can slightly change the way the part looks. A cool new feature but nothing that will really wow you.
I have read other reviews on this game and they will tell you that the drift races are a new feature. But fans of the series know that this is not true at all. They had drift races in previous versions as well. The drift races are well done and the feel of drifting is really smooth once you get the hang of it and get a car set up the way you like it to handle.
They have done away with the drag racing, but for most people that will be no real lose. It was probably my least favorite of the race types in previous games. The race i miss the most from previous versions was the Street X races from NFSU 2. It was nice to have an auto X style race where it was more about driving then full out speed. It was harder to win because unless you were quite good you did not pull away from the others in the race as easily. And if you fell behind it was much harder than a standard race to catch up.
The other races remain, Circuit, Sprint, and others. Another new but i think not needed addition is the boss canyon races. When you take over a territory you will be confronted by a boss. You will as in previous games race him in a normal race. But then you will have to race him again in a 2 stage canyon race. The first stage puts him in front and you have to follow as close as you can. The second reverses that. The one who gets the most points at the end of 2 races wins. And the guardrails give way so hit the outer part of some corners and off the side you go and the race is over. As with most races you can always restart when things go bad, but do this on the second stage where he follows you and you have to start from the beginning race where you are following him. The canyon race just really isn't all that fun in my opinion. And as with NFSU 2 after you defeat him you will have a choice of two cards from the 6 they give you. 2 will be upgrades and will have it marked on the card. 4 will be blank and have various prizes including one which is the pink slip to the boss car you just beat.
The addition of some muscle cars is nice. I know Stang will like that one.
There are 3 car classes. Muscle, Tuner, and Exotic. Each class handles like it should. A muscle car is all about raw power and a strait line. No so great in the corners. So you will get a nice feel for which works best in each race type.
The upgrades to cars work about the same and have about the same types. The difference is that instead of having to go to a body shop and parts house like in NFSU 2, this is all done at the safehouse. The one addition is that when you buy the parts you have several ways in which you Can set it up to suit your needs for that particular car. For example when you buy tires they can be set in the middle, or set to either grip or drift. Or you can set the car to lean more toward oversteer or understeer depending on what you want to use it for and your handling preference.
All in all it is a game that the Need For Speed fan will enjoy. There are no parts missing that you will be upset about, and the new additions that they have made are needed to set the game apart from previous version. Even if most of them are useless and could have been left out. The driving physics on the arcade side rather than the simulation side. The cars are nicely detailed. And the graphics and sound are well done.
I think what really would have grabbed me is a combination between the new Need For Speed Carbon & The Fast & The Furious Tokyo Drift.
Both had elements that were both good and bad. But combine the best from each and you would have yourself one of the best arcade racing games produced.
I will give NFS Carbon a 7 out of 10
My anticipation of this games release for quite some time may have lowered my rating a few notches as i really expected big things from this years offering. Especially since it would be released for pretty much every system available or coming soon.
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