Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit – Career Preview
There’s been a fair amount of confusion over the progression system used in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit’s Career in recent months. Is it fully open world? Is it menu based? Well, as it turns out, it’s a mixture of the two.
When you first head in to Hot Pursuit’s Career, you’re greeted with an overview of Seacrest County and two events to pick from: a Cop event, Chase 1010, and a Racer event, Roadsters Reborn.
This screen is where you’ll pick events throughout your career as a Cop or Racer, with more events and locations unlocking on the map as you progress. You’ll return here after the end of each event.
Progress is measured through bounty, with bounty awarded for (but not limited to) your final position, racing skills (like slipstreaming and driving on the wrong side of the road), and placing high on the Autolog speedwall. As you hit bounty levels, of which there are 20 for each side of the law, you’ll unlock new cars, equipment and events.
If you take part in Cop events, you’ll unlock Copy bounty and unlock further Cop events, and vice-versa if you choose Racer events. The two bounty levels are kept separated, so you’ll have to level up in each to unlock further events, though you can switch back and forth between the two at any time. Bounty can also be earned while playing multiplayer games, and is transferable into your Career..
Rather than simple races and chases, there are multiple types of race events to take part in too, including Hot Pursuits, Races and Time Trials for the Racers, and Hot Pursuits, Interceptors and Rapid Responses for the Cops, each of which we’ll go into much greater detail in in a later post. Your final position will also earn you a bronze, silver or gold medal, with the better medals offering more bounty.
So what about the open world? Well you can choose to dive straight into Freedrive at any point while on the event screen, though you won’t be able to earn bounty, damage your car or be engaged in pursuits while in this mode. Ultimately, it’s only useful for taking Dreamshots, beauty photos that can be shared with friends on the Autolog wall, or for taking a break from the intense chases.
And that’s a brief overview of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit’s campaign mode. Check back for more in-depth previews of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit in the weeks to come, including a look at Autolog, race types, vehicles and a closer look at the bounty system.
Does NFS:HPLE support FFB wheels and manual driving?
Man.. I really hope it has manual trans.
If it doesn’t, I’ll be bummed..
I can’t get confirmation anywhere about it either.
hope in the final version you can damage your car in freedrive because thats stupid, also, it would be cool if you could freedrive online with your friends like midnight club l.a., and it should have mauaul-clutch from prostreet and continue the in cockpit view from shift, cuz after playing shift for so long I can no longer drive well in any other view, but I have faith in Criterion! i’m playing burnout paradise right now!