Need for Speed - Most Wanted - A Criterion Game (USA)
PlayStation 3
🇬🇧🇪🇸🇫🇷
Reviewed in 2012
84
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✪ Reviewed on June 20, 2024
78
Need for Speed Most Wanted Criterion is an open world racing game with the blacklist to beat. Giant open world to explore freely, asynchronous Autolog, brutal speed sensations. Excellent.
Your verdict
Category
Racing4 players7+
Description
Need for Speed racing game from Criterion Games recreating the Most Wanted A Criterion Game spirit with edgy gameplay and vehicle customization. Published by EA, released in Europe in November 2012. Course-poursuite en monde ouvert avec voitures de luxe, over 50 licensed cars, narrative career mode, deep customization, and online multiplayer. Arcade racing reference. European version.
Need for Speed - Most Wanted - A Criterion Game review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
Sepia light, breathless police chases and a city torn through at full speed: everything is steeped in a permanent cinematic tension. The warm filter and the snappy staging heighten the adrenaline of the escape. This visual identity, dynamic and stylish, left a lasting mark on the urban racing game.
Blending taut orchestra and electronic rock, the music raises the adrenaline of the chases against the police. Each pursuit intensifies to the rhythm of a nervy, cinematic soundtrack. This sonic energy, cut for speed and danger, is an integral part of the game's legend.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
An open city to roam freely, where you challenge rivals, shake off the police and climb a most-wanted list through wild races. The freedom to bomb anywhere you like and the thrill of chases create a constant high. Snappy, spectacular and superbly made, an arcade racer that turns the whole city into a playground for outlaw drivers.
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Crisscrossing an open city to challenge the fastest machines and shake off a tenacious police force sets up a loop of racing and fleeing where the next goal springs up at every intersection. Improving your cars and climbing the Most Wanted list renew the urge. Its atmosphere can feel cold, but the thrill of the pursuit and the freedom of the terrain hold you for the long haul.
Difficulty
"Balanced"
Lifespan
"Massive"
The open-world take on Most Wanted scatters cars, milestones and challenges across every corner of Fairhaven, found behind the wheel between police chases. Climbing the most-wanted list, hunting down each hidden ride and beating friends' Autolog records fuels hours of high-speed exploration. A freedom that still sustains its aura.
Technical info
💾4,5 GB📅30/10/2012
Published by Electronic Arts
Need for Speed - Most Wanted - A Criterion Game (PS3) price, value & rarity
Criterion's take on Most Wanted, an open-world racer stressing freedom and pursuits, with a mixed reception against the original same-named game. Printed widely, it stays unremarkable and lightly priced, its online aspect now closed. Its collector interest is modest, a secondary entry of a big racing series, without scarcity or strong demand beyond genre fans.
Better with friends
An arcade racer with the thrill of the getaway, where police chases and full-speed duels send adrenaline soaring. The competition blends aggressive driving and risk-taking, the slightest shortcut or contact able to upend the pecking order. The original online leans on uncertain servers, but the snappy, accessible formula keeps all its bite in multiplayer, between rivalries and fits of laughter.
Is Need for Speed - Most Wanted - A Criterion Game still worth playing in 2026?
This Criterion reworking of Most Wanted trades the original's narrative structure for a vast open world to roam freely, where each car is hidden in the city rather than unlocked. The brutal arcade driving, the sense of speed and the police chases deliver an immediate pleasure, heightened by the asynchronous Autolog that sustains a permanent competition between friends. The blacklist to overtake provides a goal. Online depends on now-unreliable servers, but free exploration stays exhilarating. For the fan of open-world arcade racing, this title remains an excellent proposition.
