If you’ve been looking for a new game that asks for even more of your money before you can play it online with your friends, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (N4SHP) is just the ticket.

N4SHP opens up with a cruise down a seemingly endless stretch of road as the backdrop for it’s sometimes higher-than-others contrasting main menu. Menu choices appear horizontally spanning the entirety of the middle of the screen and include (from left to right): PHOTOS, WALL, HOT PURSUIT ONLINE, CAREER, AUTOLOG RECOMMENDS, NFS NEWS, and NFS STORE. Each being represented both alphabetically and graphically by circular icons of their own individual appearance, and while selected are encircled by larger, thinner circles.
Unless you choose to become a subscriber to EA’s subscription service for N4SHP, the main menu will be severely limited leaving players with the choice of career or nothing.
Upon entering career mode, players find themselves having landed on a map, not un-like the kind you might find in a car’s glove compartment, or possibly more up-to-date, a GPS system. The map itself is easy on the eyes with roads and race starting points being not too tough to see, though the indicators used to mark starting points could be a little larger, both when un-highlighted and highlighted.

In N4SHP, players find themselves on both sides of the law, and sometimes play as police and sometimes play as the criminal element. As such, there are two different icons that appear on the map, one for the SCPD and one for the less-than law abiding. The SCPD icon looks like “SCPD” spelled out in white across a blue license plate, and the counterpart icon looks like a “Caution: icy road” sign. They look so different, they are not easily confused.
When highlighted, the icons will become slightly larger and the same ringed indicator as on the main menu will encompass the icon. To the left of the ringed indicator will appear a slightly see-thru rectangle containing general information on how you’ve done in that location so far. The rectangle itself is a see-thru gray which is easier to read in some places than others; information displayed within are the location’s name, races available, races passed, and the number of recommended races along with a medal-colored graphic that I’m not really sure about.

After selecting a location, it’s sub-menu will open up on the map, and things will get visually interesting depending on the location on the map. Player information will remain anchored to the upper right of the screen while more player info will show up at the bottom left of the screen, a list of races (both available and locked) will appear along most of the left side of the screen, and information on that particular race will appear in the lower right corner of the screen. The list of races itself will appear in a white font on whatever part of the map it’s on, and all other information will be held within a not-unfamiliar see-thru gray box bordered in white with a font of the same color. Information found within boxes is pretty nicely contrasting, but the font could look a little bit more clean, as sticking with the digital-looking font used throughout N4SHP has it’s moments of clarity.
The race list is done in a white font while not highlighted telling players the name of the race, type of competition, weather conditions, if it is a recommended race, and what the player’s best showing was in gold, silver, bronze, or empty depending on whether or not the race has been attempted yet. When a race is highlighted, the information remains the same, though the colors of all but the color of the medal awarded is.

There are a lot of different styles of competition to be had in N4SHP, some of which are exclusive to one side of the law or the other. Competition types include: interceptor, preview, hot pursuit, race, duel, time trial, rapid response, gauntlet, and I’m pretty sure that’s it.
After deciding on a type of competition, it’s time to decide on a car - or not, if you unluckily choose an event with limited entry like I just did. Depending on entry circumstances players will either be sent to the generic show room selection menu which is made up of dark colors as a backdrop for white fonts, car make, and car model. As far as I know, all car makes and models are licensed - not sure about police cars, but if they are, I can think of a lot of places that need to break up the monotony of the Crown Victoria with a GT-500 Police Cruiser.

With a vehicle at the ready, there’s only a load menu to deal with before you’re ready to quench players’ need for speed. The background of the menu is taken from whichever course chosen, but that doesn’t play into things being as though all the information players will need are presented in a similar way as all other information in the game - darkened rectangles containing a white font. Some of the info is more relevant than others: tips, best times, and such. Once ready to race, hit the A button and have at it.
…Before that can happen, you get to watch a short cut-scene of either a police chase or the cars preparing to race. This is somewhat shippable, but there is still a transition that has to be played - can’t just pres the A button and go racing.

Once the car is under your power, you’ve got the standard racing control scheme to deal with, like it or not. That’s how N4SHP is, if you were hoping that I’d talk about options when I finally got to talking about racing, it’s going to be a terrible letdown for you as there are no accessible-relative options to be found anywhere in this game. There isn’t even an option to turn off the subtitles if you wanted to.

The default inclusion of subtitles is something that N4SHP has going for it, and it almost makes it, too; as I started down career mode for the first time I was really hopeful when the cinematic featured letterboxing with a digital-looking white font laid on top of it, and then again when I began my first mission on the law enforcement side of the game when that mission opened up with letterboxed subtitling. Then when the dispatcher began talking in the game, the letterboxes were gone leaving the white subtitles with their black outlines to mingled with whatever road-like surface they found themselves on - it’s not all that bad, the game’s changing weather environments and shadows do an okay job with contrast.
N4SHP does a fair job with hearing impaired accessibility as a whole; the only issue I was able to come up with that didn’t have some kind of visual to go along with it was the honk of an oncoming car while driving in the left lane(s).

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is a great looking game; it’s environments, it’s cars, and even it’s weather. Possibly too good looking. The steam that builds up after a torrential downpour, the thick fog we might associate with pea soup, the frost accumulating on a cold mountain road that hasn’t seen rainfall in recent memory - all weather conditions that may hinder a driver’s performance, they’re all in the game, and they all look amazing.

Looking at all the visual stimulation NFSHP has to offer can’t be done by without using either the left stick, or looking at it through the HUD, and the HUD provides a lot of information. Along with a mini-map in the lower left corner, players will also find a display of weapons available to them during certain events. There is a speedometer in the lower right corner of the screen, and of course at top-center of the screen is the car’s rear-view mirror. Found in the upper right and left corners of the screen are timers that tell the player stuff like your current position in the race and other things that I’m not really aware of.
The RB on your Xbox controller is your go-to button to change the camera’s point of view (first-person, in-car, and third-person). There is almost no difference between the first-person and in-car cameras with the only difference being whether or not the player wants to know at all times what color their car is by way of a sliver of a hood where the dashboard might have been were there a dashboard. The third-person camera could be pulled back a little, too, as with some of the cars, particularly the larger models, block a lot more of the screen than others.

As previously mentioned, there are a few different game modes to choose from, but from either side of the law, events can be broken down into player versus AI opponent(s) or player versus clock; player versus AI matches can include cars being outfitted with weapons to try and take down the opposition or they can be as sportsmanship driven as driving through city streets as fast as possible. Player versus clock events can feel cheap being as though two and three second penalties are handed out for collisions with walls and non-player vehicles, and penalties stack up quick if you’re the type of player who bounces off of anything in the way.
When penalties are handed out, players will be made aware that they received a penalty due to a pretty large red font spanning the whole of the horizontal center of the screen. Other messages are given to players in a similar fashion - distance behind the car in front of the player, players will be informed when they’re within the last mile of an event, and when the player has advanced to another position in the race. These messages are displayed in nearly the same way - difference being, white font as opposed to red.
Winning races, no matter the opponent, is largely dependent on taking alternate routes - not to be confused with shortcuts since they don’t always work out so well. Alternate routes are sometimes easier to find than others while paying attention to the road, this makes paying attention to the min-map important. A better reason to pay attention to the mini-map is that not all alternate routes send you in the direction you want to go.
Some game modes include something of a free-roaming/chase scene element to them. These matches can be dependant on wrecking your opponents vehicle before they get to a certain point on the track. Not just because it will end the race, but because the opposition can go in one of three ways, and the dispatch in charge of telling players where to go isn’t necessarily clear on where to go using road names as opposed to tell you where the person your chasing has gone (left, right, straight).

Finally, once you’ve crossed the finish line, you’ll find out how you did according to the medal you’re awarded. Gold, silver, and bronze are good, but sometimes a player might not be good enough for a bronze and just not be awarded a medal. Sometimes it is easier to not get a medal than it is to get a bronze or gold. Bronze and gold are too close to the same color, and medals aren’t clearly indicated whether they’re for winning, placing, or showing.

At a glance

Hearing:

Subtitles are on and can’t be turned off.
Subtitles appear in cut-scenes with a letterboxed white font.
Subtitles appear in-game with a white font surrounded by a thin black line.
With the exception of car motors and other traffic noises, the game does a good job of visual cues for audio events.

Recommended score of 9.5 out of 10

Visual:

Fonts used in the game are of average size, and can mostly be easily seen.
Only in-game visual interference might come by way of environmental changes like the weather or night.
HUD is easily seen, but this game seems far too mini-map reliant.
Colors may present a problem if telling colors apart is a problem for the player.

Recommended score of 8 out of 10

Mobility:

Default control scheme is the only control scheme.
Due to the sense of speed, this game feels a bit more twitchy than other recent releases within the genre.
Recommended score of 4 out of 10