NFS Carbon: My own opinion

I've just completed playing NFS: Carbon last night. Well, if you consider getting 100% in Career Mode, Challenge Series and Quick races as having total completion, then I'm proud to say so :)
I didn't participate in any online modes of the game (i.e. Pursuit Tag and Pursuit Knockout) because of lack of Internet connection (I'm blogging from a different place).

Career Mode

Immediately after installing the game, I fired up Career Mode. I have a huge expectation from this mode, as I experienced a great gaming session from NFS: Most Wanted last year; I mean I really do want to see how the latest installment live up to the expectation. What drove me in NFSMW Career Mode was the storyline, and I want the same this time around. Internet reviews mentioned about more FMV sequences, the return of Cross and of course, M3 GTR.

Upon starting the Career Mode, I found myself as the same racer/player from NFSMW, so this was kinda warming up the mood a little bit. The story unfolded as the player found some 'ol racing buddies, and prolly his ex as well.

Let me talk about the race part in this mode. It's too damn short! In just 4 hours, I accomplished 40% completion in one shot and I remember, NFSMW was wayy harder and longer than this. However, I soon realized where this short of playing time went to, and I'll indicate below.

I started my career using exotics line, starting with Alfa Romeo Brera. However, a player can switch to other types: tuners and muscle cars as the career goes on. EA did a good job to give different driving feel to each categories: tuners really stick to the ground, excellent handling. Muscle cars have hilarious acceleration, but you might have to break your fingers tapping the keyboard just to handle those mutha. Exotics are better than tuners possibly in top speeds.

The boss races are relatively easier , except for the final boss which was a tad difficult (still fall under the 'easy' category!). In fact, on second thought, I think one of the first 3 bosses, (can't remember the name) the guy in Murcielago was the hardest of all.

The use of crew can be beneficial, or complete useless. If you're familiar with NFSMW, I don't think you need any crew at all. The one that I used most was the blocker. A word of warning: Don't let the blocker be in front of you, or you'll bump into him, slowing you down, and this crap happened many times in the race. However, as long as he's behind you, the blocker is great at blocking your opponent. I don't know about the rest, but through the initial demonstration by Nikki (the game babe), I realized that I don't need any drafters and scouts at all.

On to the storyline. Now, this is where I can't judge much about it. First question, is there any difference in terms of the no. of FMVs for the story, between the Collectors Edition and Normal NFS Carbon? Because the fact is, I didn't feel much of it. I didn't get the cutscene where Cross captured me leading to the introduction of the gangs, Darius and Nikki. Or is there any in game settings that can affect the presentation of the storyline? Dude, this is important, because in the end, I rate the Career Mode as average, as it failed to top Most Wanted Career Mode. My reason is simple: Storyline is the main ingredient in the Career mode. Call me unfair, but if that's so, then why the heck is Emmanuelle Vaugier in this scene for?

Drift Race Returns

I welcome the return of the drift race, and it does feel different than before. With more emphasis on speed drifting, IMO Carbon gave almost equal challenges in comparison with the drift race back in Underground 2. While some might say that the drift was a bit ridiculous in U2 (I'm one of them!), the only gripe I have this time is that there is no parking lot drifting, like in Tokyo Drift movie. On the flip side, oh yeah, I must say it's two thumbs up for the canyon drifting.
One thing to notice here is that I didn't have to use the handbrake for drifting like I did in Underground, U2 and MW; a sudden turn should already get your car drifting sideways. I was merely having to control the acceleration and the braking all the time.

Challenge Mode, Quick Race, Reward Cards

Here's where the extra playing time has gone to. Challenge mode provides about 45 challenges for player to complete, covering all aspects of driving skills and involvement with police in high-speed car chase. The challenges are, in my opinion, the better attraction in this game, mainly due to the police involvement. However, between Carbon and MW Challenge mode, I find it harder to resist the latter.

Quick Race is easier, and as the name suggest, I accomplished all quick races in short time for the sake of getting 100% game completion.


In all modes, you might get what is called a Reward Card for having completed a certain tasks, or criterias to be more accurate. Each Reward Card consists of four tasks, e.g. ramming 20 police cars in a chase, exceeding 20,000 cost to state, filling garage with only tuners in Career Mode, and winning 10 challenges in Free Roam. There are many Reward Cards to be collected, and for me, this is the main attraction of the game. Why? It's because Reward Cards unlock most of the hard-to-get items in the game e.g., unique vinyls, autosculptable parts, dump truck, police cars and most importantly, M3 GTR and the rest of the unique cars from all 3 categories. IMO, a player will spend most of the time trying to collect the Reward cards by winning all their tasks.

AutoSculpt

One of EA's main point in Carbon is the AutoSculpt, where you are able to custom your car according to your liking. I mean, the appearance of your car which means bodykits, spoilers, rims, hoods etc. The feature is very much welcomed, however its first implementation is quite restricted in terms of varieties and responsiveness. You have about 3 to 10 points on (depends on which part you want to custom) a bodypart which you can stretch, pull and push, and lengthen. See anything more? No, because they're all single directional customization. I would expect that the next implementation would allow player to do multidirectional customizations e.g. twisting, turning, curving and so on. All in all, AutoSculpt is the most unique feature around, and I hope it stays included in the future NFS installments.

Final Verdict

I have a hard time summing up my experience in Carbon but here it goes. I have to say that judging from the game alone, and by that I mean without comparing it with Most Wanted, Carbon is a solid game, bringing solid new features to the table. The selection of cars are near perfect, covering 3 types of cars which I personally think is brilliant. Driving realism has improved although I can't say much since NFS isn't a driving sim game, but EA made it just right. All in all, Carbon isn't that great, but it isn't bad either; it is good and solid as overall. Do not get turn off by this, fellas. You should play this game!

On my personal POV, I can't run away from comparing it to Most Wanted for one obvious reason: the storyline continues here in Carbon. I just can't find the same adrenaline rush that I had in MW and to tell the truth, I was kinda lost in the Career Mode. What I did was just enter the race and race and race, and suddenly the story was over. EA needs to improve this department of the game if they decided to include a storyline mode next time.

To wrap up, here are the cars that I used to complete the Career Mode. To speed freaks and fuel junkies out there, go get Carbonized this time!