Need for Speed: Most Wanted for Windows

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is an open-world racing game created by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts. You’ll take on the role of an anonymous protagonist seeking to become the most infamous driver to roam the Fairhaven streets.

Free-roam open world

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is the nineteenth title in the NFS series and a remake of the 2005 original. It’s available on mobile, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

The open-world environment is fast-paced and competitive. Unlike Driver: San Francisco, it doesn’t put much emphasis on the storyline. You’ll explore and navigate through Fairhaven, a beautiful city with realistic winding streets and industrial districts.

The game has plenty of replayability potential. It’s even more significant thanks to the 31 different cars, each with distinct strengths and weaknesses. EA took a more F1-style approach with this release, making vehicles central to your victory or defeat.

Streamlined mechanics

All vehicles are available for unlock without the need to pay for them. To drive them yourself, you need to defeat their drivers and then find each car scattered across the vast city. 

Cars come with stock equipment and components. Gather enough Speed Points by entering races and performing other audacious activities.

Each set of wheels can go through five races. The mechanics are simple enough, spiced up by the necessity for different strategies to tackle various settings.

Gameplay variety

There are four game modes:

• Sprint - race through a generated course
• Circuit - like Sprint, but with a set number of required revolutions
• Speed runs - reach point B as fast as possible
• Ambush - evade the police’s hot pursuit as quickly as you can

Besides the races, you can drive around the open world, race friends, outrun the police, and more. The gameplay is as exciting as you want it to be.

Our take

Overall, Need for Speed: Most Wanted takes the most fun franchise elements and puts them together in a thoroughly impressive game. While it would be nice to follow a campaign, the open-world setting is immersive enough as-is.

Should you download it?

Yes. If you enjoyed the previous releases or you love racing games in general, this one is a must-play. If you like track racing, you can try  Real Racer 3.