Need for Speed: Carbon

After the resounding success of "Need for Speed: Most Wanted", which set the bar for street racing to an unattainable (in my opinion) height, the next game in the series had to, if not surpass its predecessor, then at least stay at the same level. "Need for Speed: Carbon" seemed promising to me: night chases, cool cars, a new system of team races. But in fact, it turned out that the magic of the series had gone somewhere.

The plot is once again about bad guys and cars. The story in "Carbon" continues the "Most Wanted" line, but it does it rather weakly. Our hero arrives in the city of Palmont after the finale of the events of the previous game, but faces problems. He is immediately greeted by the well-known police officer Cross from the last iteration, and then the crime boss Darius is announced, who accuses us of running away with a large sum of money. To prove our coolness (and innocence), we will have to prove ourselves again - build a racing empire, capturing city districts and defeating street gang leaders. Along the way, there will be pompous antagonists who are even difficult to take seriously. Unlike the same Razor from "Most Wanted", the local villains are more like caricatures of Hollywood bad guys. There will also be a friend who helps. The role of the heroine is played by Emmanuel Vaujier. But her charisma is clearly inferior to Josie Maran from the last game.

The gameplay has remained familiar: we drive around the open world, participate in races, assemble new cars and tune them. But Carbon tried to bring something new. For example, the territory system. Now the city is divided into districts controlled by different groups. By defeating them in races, we expand our territory. It sounds good in theory, but in practice it quickly turns into a routine. And in terms of time, such a passage takes little time. By the way, the whole game is much shorter than its predecessors.

There are team races - now we have teammates who help in the races - block rivals or pave a shorter path. But their intelligence leaves much to be desired: sometimes they really help, and more often they just get in the way. Honestly, sometimes you think that it would be better to travel alone than with such assistants. The canyon races are memorable. This is one of the main features of Carbon, dueling on winding mountain trails. There is a real sense of tension here, and this is the mechanic I remember the most. And the infuriating chuckles of the opponents that turned on the screen when you made a mistake on some sharp turn. Otherwise, it's still the same "Need for Speed", but with less spectacular chases and a less catchy atmosphere.

If "Most Wanted" impresses with the bright daylight of an autumn city, then "Carbon" has completely gone into darkness. The city seems to be drowned in shades of gray and blue, street lights and bright effects do not save the situation, and the general feeling of gloom depresses rather than adds to the entourage. Yes, perhaps the developers wanted to repeat the "Underground" style, but instead of a stylish night city, they got a visual style that was not the most pleasing to the eye.

"Need for Speed: Carbon" tried to repeat the success of the previous installments, but in the end it turned out to be a pale copy of their best ideas. The racing is still good, there are enough cars, and the canyon duels are really exciting, but otherwise it's a step back (or even two). The graphics have become darker and less pleasant, the plot is lame on all possible legs, and innovations could not save the situation. After the "Most Wanted" drive, playing "Carbon" was more of an obligation than a pleasure.

5 out of 10.

McLane, the game isn't THAT bad. It wasn't a waste of money, granted it wasn't the best game, but there aren't that little cars, maybe 3 or 4 less than what MW had, but what they lack in cars they make up for in body kits and fully customizable body kits with the molding ability, that and you can import your own paint jobs too. The story line is great too. The game I think deserves more than what you give it credit for. Its the first of its kind, really to continue the story from Most Wanted. Its good game but I do suggest buying Most Wanted before Carbon if you've yet to play it, otherwise the storyline wont make as much sense. ALSO, they added true American Muscle to the game. FINALLY the 67' Charger makes it's well deserved appearance!

The NFS games are probably the best street racing games around. Over the years they have grown from basic racer to genre defining games...until this version.

EA are removing gameplay ideas and options, not adding them for the next generation. (Also see FIFA) You have less cars, less races, less bosses, less customisations and overall a lesser game from the previous game in the series...yet they charge more for it.

I really would not even bother with this unless you find it in a bargain bin somewhere for less than 10 notes.

If you have NFS: Most Wanted, stick with that, it a FAR better game. If you don't, buy it instead of this version. You can thank me later.

Hey guys and girls It's late 2022 and I accidentally found this game's page here I don't know if the creators of this game see the comments or not, but this game is still great and I enjoy the experience of this game.

How quickly we got old :( I remember playing this game on my weak system and enjoying it, and the graphics were stunning at that time.

I wish I could enjoy the games again I used to play this game for maybe 6 hours a day and I never got tired of playing this game Thanks to the creators of this game.

Even my family used to play this game and enjoyed its experience :) This game was great in its time!

I thought overall the game was just a bit better than most wanted. The customization was better, allowing ride height to be changed and more performance customization details. Autosculpt was a great feature and also you can move the vinyls, skew, rotate, and change colors. I was disappointed though that many things in the game had to be unlocked by completing challenge series or reward cards, where in most wanted you had to beat bosses. Also, most wanted had a bigger focus on police pursuits which i thought was much better than carbon, where you didn't even need to engage in a single pursuit to finish the game (although sometimes you had no choice; they sometimes show up in the middle of races). The ending was rather weak, but I won't give it away.