- 1 or 2 Players.
- Analog Control Compatible.
- High Stakes Mode.
- Hotter Hot Pursuit.
- 19 Cars to Collect and Customize.
Product description
-------------------
Game is Complete in Box (Game, Manual & Cover Art)
.com
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The Need for Speed series is already established as one of the
best racing game series on the PlayStation. Need for Speed: High
Stakes continues the tradition in fine style by adding several
new elements to the gameplay, and offering a wide variety of
tracks and cars.
Where the previous game in the series had you running from the
law, this one has you racing for pink slips. Sure, you can still
play cops and robbers (this time even playing the role of John Q.
Law), but the real fun in this game comes from racing to win so
that you can buy a better car. Once equipped with faster wheels,
you can hook up with a friend to race for titles in the
two-player mode.
High Stakes boasts the best graphics in the series, but they come
at a price: slowdown. All too frequently, we found ourselves
hitting a wall or an nent's vehicle because the game
stuttered as we drove into a graphics-intensive portion of the
track. Good visuals are nice, but they should never come at the
expense of gameplay. Still, when else will you get a chance to
blow away a buddy's shiny new McLaren F1 in your "lowly"
Corvette? --T. Byrl Baker
Pros:
* Fun tracks and a variety of high-performance vehicles
* Playing as the cops can be fun
* Excellent sound effects
Cons:* Suffers from slowdown too often
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Review
------
Need for Speed: High Stakes is a good example of how to do a
sequel. It doesn't really mess with the formula of the last game,
but adds enough new features and options to keep its fans
excited.
For starters, the game is more cohesive than other NFS games. In
High Stakes, you must purchase cars before you can drive them in
the game's main mode, the tournament mode. There are several
different tournaments, each one having different car requirements
and track variations. Also, there are special events, which cost
money to enter, but frequently have larger payoffs than the
tournaments. Some events are geared toward specific cars, while
others put you on the open road, complete with traffic. NFS3's
knockout mode has been confined to the special events section.
Technically, all the tracks are available for one-player play
right at the beginning of the game. However, since each
tournament requires a different two or three cars, you'll have to
own the proper car to see each of the later tracks. Suffice it to
say, you'll be springing for new rides pretty frequently. Placing
first in a tournament unlocks the final track of the tourney for
two-player and hot pursuit mode use. The track design is fairly
varied, and each track can be raced backward, in mirror mode, at
night, in the rain, or any combination thereof.
Hot pursuit mode is roughly the same, except you can now drive
the car, much like in the PC version of NFS3. As the cop,
you're given a set a of time to stop ten speeding cars. The
first few pull off the road without much of a fight, but the
later cars won't pull over unless you smash them into the side of
the track, forcing them to stop. You're also given the option to
call occasionally for backup, set up a roadblock, or set up a
tack strip, which pops the tires of the speeder if he fails to
avoid it. There's also a two-player version of hot pursuit, but
when you play cop vs. speeder in two-player, the cop is on his
own. And without being able to call for assistance, the cop is
put at an extreme disadvantage. All the speeder has to do is,
well, not stop moving. As the speeder in a two-player match, you
simply must remain on the lam until time runs out, so you can
just get ahead of the cop, flip around, and drive back the other
way. As long as you can play a decent game of chicken, you'll
never, ever get caught.
The graphics in High Stakes are better than NFS3's graphics, but
the jump isn't terribly dramatic. The lighting effects, including
the sparks that fly after most collisions, are the real stars of
the visual portion of the game. The tracks do look very, very
nice, and there isn't a lot of pop-up, but as time goes on, the
blockiness of the game is undeniable. Also, the framerate isn't
constant. The game runs very well in the first-person camera
angle, and for the most part, it runs fine in the other two
angles. But drive through anything more complex than a simple
forest road (for instance, a town), and the game starts dropping
frames left and right.
NFS:HS has really terrific sound. Most of the music fits the game
perfectly, and the sounds of driving (engines, tire squeals,
scrapes, and ces) are all done extremely well. The hot
pursuit mode has the bulk of the game's sound, with constant
chatter keeping you aware of The Man's constant vigil. The
cops will even speak in their native tongue, which, of course,
varies depending on where the course you're driving on is
located.
The game controls quite well with the dual shock controller, and
those of you still playing driving games with the digital pad
will also be satisfied with the game's digital control. That
said, it still would have been nice to see EA support Namco's
Jogcon controller. The game starts off at a nice, easy pace, but
eventually the difficulty becomes pretty unforgiving. The later
races force you to drive nearly perfectly to win, and scraping a
wall or sing vehicle can be the difference between first
place and third.
The game's main two-player mode is the game's namesake, the high
stakes mode. HS is a two-player matchup that pits your cars
against the cars of a friend. But you aren't just racing for mere
prestige. In HS mode, you'll be racing for pinks. The winner gets
the loser's car to race, sell, or just smile at. Some precautions
have been taken to deter some cheaters from keeping their cars
after losing them (both players' cars are removed from their
cards at the beginning of the race), but you can still simply
copy your saved game onto another card before putting your garage
on the line.
All in all, Need for Speed: High Stakes is a great driving game,
but a few of the game's smaller problems keep it from being all
that it could be. The inability to call for backup in two-player
hot pursuit games is completely unforgivable and keeps the
gameplay score from being even higher. The framerate problems and
generally pixelated appearance of the game simply show the age of
the PlayStation. I, for one, hope the next NFS game appears on a
system that can handle a complete graphical overhaul. --Jeff
Gerstmann
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