Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 304 Ratings

  • Summary: Need for Speed Hot Pursuit players will experience the thrill of the chase and the rush of the escape as they play through full careers as both a cop and a racer – solo or connected. The blistering speeds, brutal busts and heart-stopping getaways are all connected via Need for Speed Autolog.g. This network not only connects friends for epic head-to head pursuits and races, but also enables players to compare performances and stats, thereby setting the stage for the ultimate in friendly competition. Collapse
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 14
  2. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Jan 29, 2011
    91
    Intoxicating. [Jan 2011, p.104]
  2. Jan 11, 2011
    91
    Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a really good racing game with great graphics and gameplay. The only flaw is that there is no opportunity to tune your car like in Need for Speed Underground 2.
  3. Dec 20, 2010
    86
    This is not only a Need for Speed how it should be, it's also a nod to the best part of the series. What a car park! Those car chases! And the rush of speed. And online it's even better.
  4. Jan 3, 2011
    70
    This NFS/Burnout hybrid reminds me of Split/Second – it is simple, fast, spectacular, and lasts a week at best.

See all 14 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 44 out of 94
  2. Negative: 39 out of 94
  1. I'm sure many newer players will not be satisfied by this turn of the game.

    However, older players like myself, who have played since the beg
    ging of this series and remember what Need for Speed used to stand for, will love this game.

    NFS back in early days it was just 2 simple things. Exotic cars, racing at exotic places. Add some cops for a spicy note and here we are.

    The last NFS with this recipe was the Need for Speed 6, a.k.a. Hot Pursuit 2 (because the original Hot Pursuit, was NFS 3).
    After that Underground and Most Wanted were good games, but the only common they did had with the past of this series were just... that you drive cars.

    Sorry guys, I enjoyed UG and MW but I never felt them like NFS games.

    Now NFS is back to the root and I can't give less than 10 for this great game. I wish the series will get separated, 1 at classic style like this game and one with tunned imports. Everybody will be satisfied, including myself.
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  2. Need For Speed has been my favorite series since the first release of The Need For Speed but i really got into Need For Speed when the sequel came out then of course Need For Speed 3 Hot Pursuit really got me more into the Need For Speed Series. There is a good amount of Need For Speed games and EA keeps the genre right with keeping the Need For Speed name for there racing games minus the Burnout series which is more like a Stunt game then a racing game. When Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 was released for PS2,Xbox,GC and PC they were made different on all consoles. PS2 made the better version and the PC, Xbox and GC versions were made differently and some of the reasons was they had to get the PC, Xbox and GC versions ready for release date so they had little time and somethings were missing that the PS2 version had. I played merely on PC and i thought the game was fun minus the issues with the FPS and missing graphics and was unhappy that 2 player offline was missing which of course is still missing today in most PC games but even console is having those issues today. Anyways now im going to get into Need For Speed Hot Pursuit (2010) which is now being developed by Criterion Games the creators of the Burnout series of games. This game was much different then there other series of Hot Pursuit games and at first i wasnt to much about the game. First thing i wasnt happy about was the graphics which of course for PC has been getting worse for some games cause they are now usually direct ports from consoles. Its not that the graphics were totally horrible but of course you could see a little bit of poly's which on PC shouldnt happen unless of course your computer really sucks and you have to go to the lowest settings. At launch there was some missing graphics like rain and snow effects which you'd think would already be available in the game but a patch fixes this and that patch sharpens things up a bit better then they were. For sound in the game all cars sound effects sound great and when it comes to music the songs are great but not all fit in the Hot Pursuit genre of music. The game play was also different not only in cop mode but in some sports car races you get weapons aswell. At first i thought it was weird only cause this wasnt something in the other Hot Pursuit games but it soon gives meaning to the game. The controls with the Xbox 360 controller are really accurate so the game plays really well. The drifting is amazing unless of course there is a car in the lane which can get you a little tempered at times but it gets worse when there is a car in each lane so you have to squeeze in the middle which can be kind of tough during a drift. I seen other reviews for the so called slo motion vid crash, or smashing another opponent and they were complaining that after the auto slo motion vid the car would not always remain in a good position meaning that they place your car in front of on coming traffic or your set on a drift thats not accurate. After reading that in another review i seen that very rarely and i seen they did a near accurate job of those small little sequences and made sure that you would be able to control your car after the sequence is finished. There is also a new feature in the game called Autolog which is almost like a leaderboard but of course only contains friends. Once you add a friend you'll be able to compete against each other and beat each others records and of course play online together. Though a leaderboard is missing i dont believe that to be a big issue the reason is i'd find it hard for anybody to come first place anyways and your usually placed pretty low on the board anyways. I havent tested the online mode part so i cant review that but from what i heard its mainly like your single player mode except your versing components online and the difficulty would probably be harder then offline mode. There is supposedly DLC coming out but as of right now im unsure if its being released for PC and if it doesnt get released for PC then your probably better off getting the Xbox 360 and PS3 version of the game. So this is not like your average Hot Pursuit game and you have to give it some time to get into but im sure you'll enjoy the game i know i did. Expand
  3. "Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit" is a great racing game with clean, smooth graphics and solid gameplay. However, the controls are kinda buggy for PC and if you're not playing online there really isn't much to do with the single player. If you want a solid racing game, NFS: HP might be your best choice....for now. Expand
  4. They've managed to catch the "Hot Pursuit" spirit and looks, in fact, sometimes it even looks like remade NFS:HP2. However, the gameplay department has nothing to do with the NFS franchise. It is about ridiculous power drifts that take place easily, and unresponsive cars that have a hard time turning. It should have been called Burnout: Hot Pursuit, because it does play like that.

    As a PC game, it's a weak port. Graphical options are resolution, shadow detail and motion blur on/off. It does run well on mid range computers, but it has unexplainable stutters even on powerful rigs. Oh, and IT DOES NOT SUPPORT AA.

    If you liked Burnout, this might be the charm for you, if you are a hardcore Most Wanted/Underground fan, skip this.
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See all 94 User Reviews