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Like 5-1-0 before it, Own the City is a similar though not identical take on the console versions of Need for Speed Carbon. EA was able to capitalize on the street racing craze with Need for Speed Underground and its sequel and intelligently reintroduced some classic Need for Speed elements in Most Wanted. Carbon is the sequel to last year’s game but it is closer to the Underground games with more emphasis on night races, drifting, and team racing.
Own the City’s story is completely different than that of Carbon (console versions). The game has you playing as a character that lost his brother in a race gone badly. You later learn that it may not have been an accident since a third car was involved. With the help of your friend Carter and his ex-girlfriend Sara, you go out to try to figure out what happened to your brother. Again, having a story on a racing game seems a bit off but the story works quite well here.
Own the City even has its own city. While Carbon takes place in Palmont City, Own the City takes place in Coast City. You’re trading canyons for a city more similar to Most Wanted’s Rockport with many different districts from the industrial district to a residential district and even a college campus. The game still tasks you with taking control of the city. You do this by completing events, which will eventually lead to a boss battle, and allow you to take on additional zones. In this way the game’s structure is similar to Most Wanted 5-1-0 but there are still more events than you have to complete so you have some choice in what events you take on.
The game has many types of races. Aside from the expected stuff like lap races, point-to-point races, and checkpoint races, you’ll find speedtrap races (where speed markers note your speed at specific places in the race and then these markers are added up, the higher the score the better), delivery events (where you’ll try to outrace others to a certain location), escape (where you have to get out of a certain area in a given amount of time), and takedown (where you have to bump into a certain amount of cars in a given amount of time). Carbon has plenty of cars divided into three main groups: exotics, muscles and tuners. The exotics include cars like Lamborghini, Porsche, and Mercedes, the muscles include cars like the Chevy Camaro and the tuners include cars like the Toyota Supra and Nissan Skyline. As before, you’ll win cars from the crew leaders or you can purchase them. You can also purchase performance and cosmetic upgrades.
The game does introduce some new gameplay mechanics. One of the most notable is the ability to have a wingman with you in your races. They can be drafters (give you speed boosts at times), assassins (slow down cars for some time by laying spikes), and brawlers (which block other cars from overtaking you). The mechanic works pretty well and there are times when you rely on your wingman to win a race. Other times they are less useful but never become a problem for you.
Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City on lets you play multiplayer both offline and online. Sprint and circuit modes are available on either. Local multiplayer works extremely well but there was some lag when playing online. Nothing that detracts from the game though.
The game’s graphics are among the best since it uses a modified version of the engine that ran Most Wanted. Like the Underground games, Carbon is plays entirely at night which hides some of the fancier texture work and such but the city nonetheless looks great. The car models are very detailed for a PSP game. The audio is also good. The game includes both licensed and original music. The licensed music includes hip-hop and rock as expected. The sound effects sound a lot like last year’s game which is okay since it sounds great.
Need for Speed Carbon: Own The City is similar in spirit to the Carbon that hits consoles but modifies the formula enough to work splendidly on the handheld. You’re playing a new story, in a new city, and with new modes in the game. It’s one of the rare times where you should purchase both the console versions and the PSP version since both offer different yet extremely compelling racing.
-- Jose Liz & -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Nov 16, 2006
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