Mixing
elements of Underground and Most Wanted, Need For Speed: Carbon brings
players back to the racing underground with an intense underground
experience. Adding a Crew system allows some changes to the gameplay, but
the basic feel of the gameplay has remained largely unchanged. Carbon
takes you to another large city as you look for races, upgrade your cars,
battle rival gangs and evade the police. Additional new elements include
body sculpting, and an intense new series of canyon races that unfold at a
blistering pace. While NFS Carbon doesn't reinvent the wheel, it's another
solidly entertaining installment in the popular racing franchise.
Last year's Need For Speed: Most Wanted
successfully upgraded the series with high-definition graphics, an
open-ended city to race in and tons of customization options. This year's
edition takes most of those elements, brings the series back to its
nocturnal Underground feel and adds several important new gameplay
elements. The most significant of these is the new crew system, where you
have additional racers at your side during the race. You start off with a
very small crew, but you can recruit additional members by winning races
and defeating rivals. Referred to as Wingmen, these new characters come in
three types: blockers, scouts and drafters. Each one helps you in
different ways with the Blockers helping to impede opponents, while the
drafters race ahead, allowing you to use their speed to burst into a
sudden speed boost. Drafting is a tricky technique to master, but quite
effective once you do. The scouts search for faster routes and short-cuts
for you during the race. This additional makes the races feel a bit more
dangerous and adds to the strategy, since you are no longer racing alone.
It can become annoying to have someone constantly barking orders in your
ear, but it's not as intrusive as it could have been. The structure of
Carbon City is fairly similar to last year's NFS in that you still have a
fairly open area to drive in free roam mode, though there are now
different gangs who control each area of the city. When you enter one of
these sections, rival racers will challenge you. Defeating them allows you
to claim territory, which reduces the heat you'll face and unlocks
additional safe areas and other items. As you gain reputation and
experience, you'll also find that the police get on to you, making your
car an almost immediate target. This means you have to switch and change
vehicles more frequently than in the past. For the most part, the game
follows the structure and feel of the last few Need For Speed titles,
though there are some impressive additions that bring a new feel to the
series.
One
of the biggest changes this time is the ability to affiliate your
character with one of the vehicle classes. The game includes real
manufacturer's vehicles, but you can now select which type you want to
represent - there are three classes: tuner, muscle and exotic which
encompass tons of vehicles. Once you've selected which type you want to
use, it enhances your identity and adds yet another rivalry to the mix,
adding some depth to NFS: Carbon. Many modes have been carried over from
last year's edition, though there are a few new ones. Players looking for
sprint, circuit, drag and drift racing will be happy to learn that these
are all back. There are also several new modes including trading paint,
where you have to cause damage to another vehicle. As you win races and
upgrade your vehicles, you'll unlock additional races in the Challenge
series. You'll also face off against several boss characters at the end of
each round. Defeating these characters not only adds to the vehicles in
your garage, it also opens up additional areas of Carbon City for you to
race through in Free-Roam mode. While the city itself bears some
similarities to the one in last year's game, there are some big changes
which go a bit deeper than the use of Neon lights. The coolest of these
involve the new Canyon races, which take place on a twisting course in the
darkness with new railings which you have to avoid or else risk plunging
over the side, adding a sense of danger to the races. These are
impressively done and the intensity and challenge of these new Canyon
sequences definitely makes NFS Carbon much more exciting, with a different
type of racing that's more primal and intense than you'd expect. The sense
of danger and doom is definitely a new element in the series, and this
alone makes the gameplay more challenging and exciting.
The gameplay unfolds at a good pace, you
begin at the bottom of the rung and work your way up through the ranks. As
you win races, you'll unlock additional vehicles and earn money for parts
that you can use to upgrade your vehicles. The game's customization
options are impressive, with the new body sculpting mode allowing you to
create a truly unique vehicle that reflects your personality. NFS Carbon's
progression is fairly non-linear, and you're allowed to jump around
through different modes such as going back and forth from the free roam,
career and challenge modes. This lets you explore the city, try out
different vehicles and upgrades at your own pace, which is one of the more
appealing aspects of the game. You can use the Safe House menu to manage
your garage, select your crew and vehicles, customize your rides and
select which type of race you want to compete in. The game's controls are
fairly easy to understand, and Carbon doesn't really change the familiar
formula too much. Vehicles remain quite responsive and easy to use, though
the drifting and nitrous seem a bit more refined this time around. The
biggest change is using the d-pad to call up your wingmen, which can
become intrusive during the heat of a race.
As
noted earlier, NFS Carbon's aesthetics take the game back to its
night-time roots and the city itself glistens with neon, and blurs
together pavement and steel to create the best looking game in the series
to date. The game looks fantastic in HD, with small cracks and indents in
the pavement surface clearly visible. Impressive weather effects such as
rain and fog add even more realism to the experience. Each car model is
robustly designed with detailed mapping, reflections in the paint and
beautifully realistic design that makes them look fantastic. Carbon City
is an impressively large canvass for you to ride through, and there are
many unique areas in the game that help to make it feel like a large,
expansive urban environment. The scale is impressive, and this approach
gives you a variety of racing, with plenty of challenging turns, long
straights and short-cuts to keep you motivated. The city's layout is
realistically mapped and includes everything from bridges, highway
intersections, winding back roads and short-cuts, which you can explore in
the free-roam mode. This allows for a variety of racing techniques and
this variety goes a long way in keeping you motivated throughout.
Progression is fairly painless and the new areas seem to offer something
new throughout and this open-ended approach gives NFS: Carbon plenty of
replay value. The vehicles perform and feel like their real world
counterparts would as well, giving this a level of authenticity that makes
for an exciting and believable racing experience.
Need for Speed Carbon doesn't
significantly alter the successful formula from the past few games, it
still offers some exciting changes and updates that help to keep the
series fresh. Adding crews and gangs gives you a more interesting
backstory, though it doesn't always work and can be distracting. However,
the upgrades in vehicle customization are welcome evolutions for the
series. It maintains the open-ended structure of previous games, but
Carbon's Canyon sequences are intense and bring a new sense of urgency to
the races. These additions seem minor in isolation, but taken together
they create a significantly improved and more intense game that makes for
a more intense, deeper racing experience than expected. While the changes
and additions add depth, this is still at heart an intense racer and
Carbon succeeds in keeping this solid franchise from seeming stale. Need
For Speed Carbon is a highly polished, solidly entertaining and engagingly
deep game that delivers the exciting racing players have come to expect,
along with a few surprises.
- Michael Palisano
Grade: B
