Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)

 PC
User Score
8.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1314 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,157 out of 1314
  2. Mixed: 102 out of 1314
  3. Negative: 55 out of 1314
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  1. JonathanA.
    Jan 18, 2006
    7
    The game is overall fun, yet you find yourself wanting to pick up the keyboard and hitting against the monitor when those dumb SUV's come head on and bust you eeevverrry frickin' time only to replay the event that took over an hour to accomplish... thanks EA for those SUV's. Good luck if you have a heat rating of 3 or higher... geesh. Also... there must be about a thousand The game is overall fun, yet you find yourself wanting to pick up the keyboard and hitting against the monitor when those dumb SUV's come head on and bust you eeevverrry frickin' time only to replay the event that took over an hour to accomplish... thanks EA for those SUV's. Good luck if you have a heat rating of 3 or higher... geesh. Also... there must be about a thousand or so styles of rims, but there's only 10 nice ones to choose from. I'm only half way through the game and i've gotten frustrated to the point where i don't want to play no more... pretty sad. Oh yeah, and the acting is pretty corny as stated in a previous review. Overall great graphics, a good story, a C+ on the physics.… Expand
  2. dandalis
    Mar 6, 2017
    7
    Definetly a good entry into Need For Speed series, but i can't agree on that its the best one. Car customazation is quite dumbed down compared to Underground games and rubber banded AI is more agressive and overpowered than ever. I like the more cinematic feel the game tries to go with in the game starting chapter, but then suddenly up till the very end theres barely any cinematics, justDefinetly a good entry into Need For Speed series, but i can't agree on that its the best one. Car customazation is quite dumbed down compared to Underground games and rubber banded AI is more agressive and overpowered than ever. I like the more cinematic feel the game tries to go with in the game starting chapter, but then suddenly up till the very end theres barely any cinematics, just audio messages from Blacklist racers dissing you, kind of missed opportunity there. Razor's a true A hole and it somehow works in this game, you really wanna finish off the Blacklist racers to get to him and get back your ride to shut him up, he's a pretty decent antagonist. Story overall is pretty cheesy, but unlike in Need For Speed 2015, in Most Wanted it actually works.

    Driving itself overall feels nice for an arcade racer, when youre speeding near or 300 kmh it really feels like that speed unlike many other racing games, great sense of speed, its just annoying that cars heavily lack traction when youre going off stand still, they slip around too much and this really becomes an issue when youre escaping cops, it'll get you busted easily since theyre very overpowered and cant swarm and lock you in real fast and easy. Another great thing are the car sounds, every car sounds extremely close to their real life counterpart, if not bit too agressive, but i dont mind that, works really well in a game.

    Graphics for 2005 are very well done, probably one of the best looking game of that time and it runs overall fine on modern PC, just lacks wide screen resolution support and theres some stuttering here and there, but nothing game breaking.    … Expand
  3. DeanO.
    Mar 16, 2006
    6
    This is a good game, but has a few flaws. I just bought the game last month (Black Edition of course) driving fast in any car getting chased by the cops in excellent until you get to the high heat level especially 5 or 6, then it's hard to get rid of the cops behind you. I hate the drag racing, I get very fustrated, I get so pissed off with it I stop playing the game. The blurr when This is a good game, but has a few flaws. I just bought the game last month (Black Edition of course) driving fast in any car getting chased by the cops in excellent until you get to the high heat level especially 5 or 6, then it's hard to get rid of the cops behind you. I hate the drag racing, I get very fustrated, I get so pissed off with it I stop playing the game. The blurr when going at 200mph can be a pain in the neck, when there's a vehicle in front of you at that second. The game that I got crashes on me at least 5 to 7 times when playing it. I download the patch for it, doesnt work. The game graphic's are choppy and also freezes on me. It must be this game only, because I also got nfsu2 don't have a problem with that one, only this one. I can't turn the graphic's up on high because the games frame rate will go to a halt(won't work), so I had to keep it at low levels. I do like the big airs that are in the game. Mostly down by the docks, there great. But the overall game I give it a 6.… Expand
  4. NevWave
    Sep 19, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Most overrated game in nfs franchise. But this game it's not the best in nfs series. Maybe story is good, but in latest nfs is also great. Why everyone specialy ignore modern nfs games? It's so much better than this one.… Expand
  5. StefanosS.
    Nov 26, 2005
    6
    NFS most wanted is a taste of the same. Chocolate for breakfast, chocolate for our mid day and it's easy to guess what there is for dinner. My point is, that, if smn has never played Nfs Underground 1 and 2 , then he might enjoy playing Most wanted. But now you'll say - There are no cops in the underground series. Yes, exactly, so what? Big deal, it's not as if it's an NFS most wanted is a taste of the same. Chocolate for breakfast, chocolate for our mid day and it's easy to guess what there is for dinner. My point is, that, if smn has never played Nfs Underground 1 and 2 , then he might enjoy playing Most wanted. But now you'll say - There are no cops in the underground series. Yes, exactly, so what? Big deal, it's not as if it's an innovation. When I first played NFS hot pursuit - My god yes, that was a game, amazing graphics, fantastic though arcade gameplay lots lots of fun. Most wanted is a disgrase. EA's has been using the same ol' damn graphics engine for the three last nfs series. As far as I am concerned, a small free patch could have converted underground 2 to most wanted. But pls forgive my stupidity, in this way EA would not win million of bucks -as it will now. So, this is it, I'll be generous and give it a six. P.S I know that maybe my opnion wont count to anyone, you are still going to buy the game arent you? I know, because you dont have a choice...… Expand
  6. Fresh3gg
    Jul 17, 2011
    6
    Without a full night of sleep and rarely played this game, on the Challenge Series 68/68 driving the green colored Lamborghini I lasted over 1 hour with $12M bounty, so this game is not hard at all. There are loop holes in this game, such as you can beat the police pursuits more easily by speeding past the inside of the sport stadium and the streets nearby. The first 10 minutes reallyWithout a full night of sleep and rarely played this game, on the Challenge Series 68/68 driving the green colored Lamborghini I lasted over 1 hour with $12M bounty, so this game is not hard at all. There are loop holes in this game, such as you can beat the police pursuits more easily by speeding past the inside of the sport stadium and the streets nearby. The first 10 minutes really makes me sleepy evading those white colored police Corvettes, as I needed to stopped still to wait for the cops driving the Corvettes to catch up with me once or twice per "lap". After the cops overshot a sharp turn I crawls in very low speed for another "bull fight", too many time the "bulls" overshot around a sharp turn. Pushing or lure the speedy cops into the opposite-lane traffics are fun and easy. Yes, they're only game makers, they're no the masterful game players, but I bet they'll be inhuman one day!… Expand
  7. christab
    Apr 10, 2012
    7
    A good Need for speed with graphics succeeded well enough to play the new generation. A story mode pretty lazy, but the gameplay is complete.A good Need for speed with graphics succeeded well enough to play the new generation. A story mode pretty lazy, but the gameplay is complete. This is more sophisticated Need for Speed â
  8. SilverSurferNHS
    Oct 30, 2012
    6
    What i have come to find after a day of playing it is that the controls are inconsistent due to the nature of switching between steering regularly and drifting. The controls feel mostly solid until your turning hard and then its like the game thinks your trying to drift. Then when you need to turn the other way for the next turn, its slow as hell to respond.

    The handbreak is frustrating    What i have come to find after a day of playing it is that the controls are inconsistent due to the nature of switching between steering regularly and drifting. The controls feel mostly solid until your turning hard and then its like the game thinks your trying to drift. Then when you need to turn the other way for the next turn, its slow as hell to respond.

    The handbreak is frustrating as well because sometimes it gets you into a great long drift, and other times it feels like it doesn't do a damn thing...

    My next quibble is the unrelenting, magical cops. One second, after finally getting to the cooldown, im trying to keep my distance from the cops behind me, when 3 cops appear in front of me on the map - so what do i do!?!?!? i make the next turn to evade both front and rear pursuers and BAM
    a magical SUV barricade.

    Third - EVERY SINGLE THING you touch makes you wreck. Taps from drivers next to you "push" you into the wall as if they made you steer into the wall?????

    I really wanted to like this game but i feel like it's currently unbalanced.
    I haven't been 100% happy with a NFS game since they started juggling developers. MW1 was great, though it lacked the customization of the previous games.
    I'm not opposed to a challenge. A game that's well balanced AND challenging is fun.
    This feels like "Oh your gonna go this way... HA take 2 ARMORED CARS UP YOU ***"
    It feels like a big **** you when you try to make progress in it.

    The graphics are awesome, but the framerate is choppy no matter what, again, "currently" even with an i7 4GHz 12GB ram GTX 680 4GB Vertex 4 SSD and ALL GFX SET TO LOW OR OFF (except for HD textures). really...? (oh and the on screen prompts/ blinding lens effects regularly disturb your view, which can feel like a cheap trick to make you crash...)

    The variety of vehicles is nicely balanced so that you rarely see more than 2 of the same vehicle in a race (with exceptions from time to time)

    I think after some tweaking, balancing and optimizations it could be a lot of fun, because i did have fun when none of those issues arose. For now i'm going back to Borderlands 2, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Dishonored and Darksiders II.    … Expand
  9. Tk4Bullet
    Jun 19, 2022
    5
    Definitely better than Underground but still... I did not like the grind to get to the top. It gets boring after a while. AI is terrible - whenever i have cops on my back during a race, they always chase me and ignore the other racers which puts me on a disadvantage
  10. sebastianali
    Jun 30, 2019
    5
    Este juego esta muy bien, pero es un port bastante cutre de la version de PS2 con glitches, ralentizaciones, crasheos y sin soporte para pantalla panoramica,buenos efectos y pantalla dividida. Sin contar todo eso, el juego es el mismo.
  11. Australian-Dark
    Nov 14, 2019
    7
    This game is just ok it's not the best game in series in my opinion need for speed carbon is better plus under ground 2 is way better with its car customization the games cars are cool the story is meh it's not as good as everyone says it is I finished it and have been on and of the game for a while but it story is just men it's not that interesting or intriguing and it doesn't have bootThis game is just ok it's not the best game in series in my opinion need for speed carbon is better plus under ground 2 is way better with its car customization the games cars are cool the story is meh it's not as good as everyone says it is I finished it and have been on and of the game for a while but it story is just men it's not that interesting or intriguing and it doesn't have boot customization or even splitter hoods or door customization even the cop chases suck but the game is fun but that's the only good thing about the game in my opinion plus I like the pursuit breakers the really come in handy when your chases by EA they are the poluce… Expand
  12. KykaPb
    Apr 3, 2020
    6
    this game is so long and monotonous that half the game I lost interest in it. Really, it puts pressure on the brain. And the car fleet is very poor
  13. yeezymane
    Apr 1, 2021
    5
    Графика - 6/10
    Игровой процесс - 4/10
    Сюжет - 5/10
    Музыка - 5/10
  14. vova22379
    Nov 13, 2021
    6
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
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  15. defenz
    Aug 10, 2021
    7
    ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
  16. Harthik69
    Jul 9, 2023
    7
    Good Game. Can give it a second try in future, I might like the gameplay and visuals

Awards & Rankings

33
#33 Best PC Game of 2005
6
#6 Most Discussed PC Game of 2005
2
#2 Most Shared PC Game of 2005

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
  1. IGN
    85
    The stylistic presentation and graphic sensibilities are impressive, and they're complemented by excellent engine sound effects and smart cop chatter.
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  2. 1UP
    85
    The nod back to the cop chase mechanics of the Hot Pursuit games is certainly welcome, plus it's interesting to see that the vaunted "open" gameplay of the last two games has been dialed down by a more forcibly linear structure to keep things interesting.
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  3. Stuff
    90
    Making a name for youself by climbing the game's Black List, aka series of bad-ass mo-fos you must beat, is good fun.
    Read full review
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