- For the PSP version see Need for Speed Most Wanted 5-1-0.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is an arcade driving computer and video game released by Electronic Arts on November 15, 2005. It is essentially a racing game with the addition of police pursuits integrated into gameplay.
Gameplay
Most Wanted, like other Need for Speed games, is essentially a driving and racing game, where the player selects one car to reach a destination or race. Police chases have once again been integrated into certain racing sessions, in which the police employ vehicles and tactics to either slow down or halt the player's car. Clearly, as players take control of faster cars and increasingly rely on nitrous oxide speed boosts, driving sequences become fast-pace and intense, like the Burnout series.
As in the preceding Underground installments, the performance and physical appearance of the player's car could be extensively modified, but options for exterior modifications have been simplified to only the essentials, and are primarily used as methods of decreasing the car's wanted level (see pursuit system), as opposed to increasing a car's "reputation rating" in the Underground games. Additionally, players are allowed to assume a sleeper appearance for cars without penalty in Most Wanted.
Most Wanted features police pursuits in the game for the first time since Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (2002). In Career mode, police pursuits may occur during a race or during free roaming through the city, depending on the frequency of the police units in the area and the offenses players have committed. Other modes may simply initiate a pursuit immediately in play. Traffic offenses committed by the player are known in game as "Infractions".