Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) for Xbox Reviews by Gamers

The Need for Speed series has gone through several incarnations. Most Wanted takes the exotic sports cars and police chases of Hot Pursuit with the free roaming world and customization of Underground. And the combination works well and does not feel forced. The story mode takes you through the ranks of the blacklist, battling 15 racers to get to the top. IN order to do that, you need to win races, achieve milestones (goals for police chases) and get a certain amount of "bounty," which you receive from successful evasion from the cops. The cutscenes are like digitized versions of live-action sequences and look great. Also great are the graphics, presentation, gameplay and sound (although the soundtrack is relatively limited). The sense of speed is comparable to the Burnout series. However, as the career mode moves forward, you'll start to wonder if it's worth continuing. In fact, I simply stoppped playing after making #5 on the blacklist because the goals required to race #4 seemed too tedious to be fun. There are other modes to keep you active and online support is a help, but it might start to feel like a chore as the game rolls down the highway. It's still a solid racer that will satisfy your velocity fixation.