Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered Review

Need for Speed is a simple game in its existence. Complete races and time trials as fast as you can, with a wide variety of cars to choose from. The series has seen its ups and downs, and also released on a wide variety of platforms.

Need For Speed is also possibly the only IP to have completely escaped EA’s scrutiny when it comes to outrageous gambling and other problems. Though those games have also had microtransactions in the form of in-game currency in some way or another, they weren’t absolutely game-breaking. They were more an annoyance than anything.

However, that isn’t why we’re here exactly. What we’re here for, is the surprise release of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered. Released on November 10th, the title comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and later Switch. Does it deliver on what was advertised, or is it another silly cash grab from EA? Today, we hope to discuss that at length. Welcome to BagoGames, and this is our Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered review.

(Author’s Note: The version reviewed for this game will be the PC version.)

Welcome To Seacrest County… Upgraded

The game takes place in the beautiful Seacrest County, with its open highways and coastline available for racers and cops. Both sides have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it makes the gameplay dynamic as you’re either outrunning the law or enforcing it. It all starts in the career choice, especially.

Racers and Cops have their own events and game modes, but mainly have the same themes. However, unique to this version of Hot Pursuit is that the formerly DLC vehicles, such as the Gumpert Apollo S, are integrated into the game’s main unlocking system, rather than being purchasable DLC. This is great, especially since the original PC release was delisted, and didn’t release with all of the DLC.

The game’s textures and overall appearance also received an overhaul, looking significantly cleaner than the PS3 and Xbox 360 release. The game also had graphics settings added (such as texture quality), and allows you to choose between a 30fps and 60fps frame limit. EA’s also given a page on their website that shows graphical differences, which you can see here.

Hot Pursuit Remastered and its Autolog System

Making a return from the original Hot Pursuit 2010 is the Autolog system. It’s a way to showcase between you and your friends who can complete events the fastest, displayed as the Speedwall. Autolog actively updates based on when you and your friends complete events, and can shift any number of times in a day.

For each event, Autolog tracks your completion time and how many times you’ve played that event. For an attempt to count, you have to either complete it or crash out in the middle of it, but at least you won’t need the help of a Tampa car accident lawyer in this instance. Completing an event at the top of your Speedwall will grant you a small XP bonus. During our Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered Review, it’s been used about once or twice, though.

The Autolog system is cool, but other than being a cheeky leaderboard system, it feels wholly unnecessary. Like, why is it there? Other than being a glorified friend leaderboard, I don’t see any point in giving it a fancy name.

The Racer and Cop Arsenals

Racer cars have slower nitro recharge, but are faster overall, and only three weapons instead of four at their disposal. The fourth weapon slot is reserved for Turbo, which basically acts as a sort of super nitro for a limited time. Racers also have access to Jammers, a weapon that completely blocks all Police weapons for a short duration.

Cops have two weapons unique to them, like Racers have their Turbo Boost and Jammers. Performance-wise, they have faster nitro recharge, faster acceleration, and are more durable than racers. Unique weapons to the Cops are Roadblocks and Helicopters. Roadblocks block off a portion of the road, allowing for racers to be busted easier. Meanwhile, Helicopters go far ahead to drop spike strips to slow down and damage racers.

Cops and Racers have two weapons identical in function, being EMPs and Spike Strips. EMPs lock onto a car and after a short duration, damage the car’s electrical systems significantly. Spike Strips are exactly what they sound like, the car drops a wide bar with spikes on it. Hitting the spike strip slows your car down to a dead stop, damages you, and causes you to spin out. Avoiding them is key. Upgrading weapons can be done by using them extensively.

The Appearance of Crossplay

Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered also adds a new feature to the game, available in all versions. That’s right, full crossplay is enabled in this game, and you can play in eight-player lobbies with PS4, Xbox One, and PC players through Origin. The only real requirement aside from owning the game is signing in to Origin (as matchmaking is done through there).

Crossplay goes off without a hitch in this game, and works well, to be honest. I was only disconnected once in the almost 100 races I played online, and I got into a different session within a couple of minutes. It’s absolutely surprising that it works this well, and all it does is make me want crossplay in future Need for Speed titles.

Overall Thoughts

Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered, for what it does, is pretty nice. It also extends the proper version to the Nintendo audience, especially since the game was wildly edited to play like another title entirely. For context on that, the Wii version of Hot Pursuit plays strikingly similarly to Need for Speed Nitro, a different game mechanically entirely.

However, there are a few problems here. Overall, if you’ve already experienced this game in its entirety, I find a hard time quantifying purchasing it, especially if you own the game. Crossplay is nice, sure, but it’s not worth $29.99 or $39.99. But if you’ve never played Hot Pursuit 2010, this one is a great edition to buy, as it contains all the content, regardless of platform.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC via Steam, and Nintendo Switch.

What did you think about our Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered Review? Did you like the game? What would you change about it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.