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Need
for Speed 5: Porsche Unleashed
[PC] Review
Review by: Ratch
Developer/Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre Type: Simulation
Overall
Rating: 9.5/10
Allright, so you see the title 'Need
for Speed' and gotta have that box. Well, anyway, that's what happened to me.
I've been a Need for Speed fan since the beginning and thus, when another sequel
appeared in the shops, I was one of the first people to have it. Rushed home,
flipped my PC on and inserted the CD. 'General failure reading CD-ROM drive'...neeh,
just kidding. Installed the game and my Microsoft Force Feedback steering wheel
and started the game.
Of course, since it was a new
game, I didn't interrupt the intro sequence and watched it all the way.
Electronic Arts got together another great intro movie. The only thing that was
a bit disappointing was that, just like the movies in any other Need for Speed
game, the quality wasn't that good. Although it's a great intro, that's a thing
that EA should really work on.
Okay, the intro is done and I'm
supposed to enter a name and choose a picture. That's a great thing, you can
choose an image and a person with that face will race the cars. It's just like
High Stakes, the fact that you can actually see the person in the cars, but
better.
Then you're supposed to start the
'Evolution Mode'; it's the carreer from High Stakes mode with a great variety of
tracks, tourneys and opponents. The big difference with previous Need for Speed
versions is that now all cars are sorted on period in which they made their
first appearance to the public. The tournaments are sorted likewise, so that you
start with the older Porsches and work your way up to the absolute top in speed
and streamlined designs. That way you can gradually get the feeling of every
porsche, because you can't skip a period, and so have to finish every tournament.
Every tournament has its own restrictions and tracks, and you'll have to choose
your car accordingly.
 Then
you start racing. You continue, continue and drive on until you're getting a
little dizzy. You look at the clock and notice that 6 hours have passed since
you started the game. Yes, it really is that good. Although, for some people,
it's a pity that you can only race Porsches and no Ferrari's (FF50 was my
personal favorite in High Stakes), the variety of Porsches makes up for it just
great. As said before, it's like the carreer mode and thus you have to win money
to buy new cars. A thing that made a big impression on me is that you can even
buy used cars, repair them, and race 'till you drop. The picture here shows the
screen which appears when you decide to buy a used car. As you can see, there
are a few bumps in this Boxter and the yellow staves indicate which parts of the
car are damaged and how bad. Next to that, the costs in case of repair are shown
and above the car the price of the car as-is. Now only is it much nicer to look
at, but you avoid the risk of selecting that car without seeing it (yes, that's
possible) and press the RACE button. You can't possibly win a race with a car
which wheels are almost falling off, and if you decide to quit the race because
it's hopeless, you'll have to pay the entry fee again. Another thing is that if
you repair the car, it's value increases and you might just be able to sell it
for more than you bought it for  plus
the repair costs. Yes, you can sell cars and this is a very good way to make
money fast. Just buy a car, repair it, and sell it again. The picutre on the
left here happens to be the GT1, one of the fastest cars in the game. The
picture shows the 'garage'-screen, in which you can open the hoods, doors and
take a look inside to admire the interrior. From this screen you can also enter
the 'Parts' screen and buy new part for you currenty selected car like a better
engine, better ventilation, or stronger doors, hoods etc. New parts can
drastically alter the way the car handles (for the positive of course). Another
possibility is to change the color of the car, which isn't new, and the trims,
which is. With these options you can make the car look just the way you want it
to look. A car which carries your approval could make you race better...really!
When you've seen all options and
possibilities, at least you think you have, there always are some more options
which you haven't discovered yet. Fine tune your cars just the way you want them
and finish the carreer mode if you can. Then, when you think you're ready,
there's one more mode in which you can race: Factory Driver. In this mode you
enter the Porsche Test Team and have to prove yourself to be a worthy Porsche
driver. You meet the members of the team and get assignments which you must
complete. There assignments vary from beating a time on a slalom course to
having to bring a car to the end of a track within a designated amount of time
without scratching it. It can be very frustrating to race your car through a
track intact and at the end crash into another car, which will damage yours and
so you'll have to race the entire track again.
Another great thing is the
intelligence of the police cars. They can of course be a pain in the ass if you
have to speed up and they keep banging you from side to side trying to stop you.
If you approach then from the left, they'll steer left to intercept and similar
to the right. So when I finished the Evolution mode and Factory Driver I was
looking forward to playing a little Hot Persuit as a cop, which I enjoyed very
much in Need for Speed: Hot Persuit. But wherever I looked, there was no Hot
Persuit button to be found. And to this day, I haven't been able to find it.
Although there are patches and modifies cars available to get hold of the police
cars, it doesn't seem to be a standard gaming mode, which I think is a pity.
Another option within the game is
the Porsche Chronicle in which you can take a look at all Porsche models
competing in the game. You can glare are the images and be amazed by their
beauty, as well as look at some more specific images telling you what kind of
parts are in the cars. Although those photos are pretty good, there also are
some computer-generated images available for the real fans, which you can put up
your desktop like the one on the right here.
Overall the game is just the
leader in the racing genre today. The graphics are superior, the gameplay rules
and the sound and music are great. When you start playing, especially with a
steering wheel, you'll notice that a lot of time will pass without you noticing
it, just because the game has you in its grasp.
And now the Final Grade to give
to this game: On a scale from 1 to 10, it's a big 9.5
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