For those among you who have played need for speed most wanted will know the story, but for those who haven't here is a quick overview of the ending:
Most wanted ended with you recovering your stolen car from sgt. Cross and bailing out of the city, while sgt. Cross is hot on your tail.
Now, carbon picks up where most wanted finished off. You are making your way to Palmont city when Cross (now a bounty hunter) finally catches up with you and totals your car, but just before he collects his bounty for catching you, your old friend Darius catches up with you and pays Cross off. Now you have to try and take over turf in Palmont, but it seems you have a history in the town… (I won't ruin the plot for you now, as it would ruin your gaming experience).
Wile most wanted had you racing the most notorious racers in Rockport to climb up the blacklist, Carbon is all about taking over turf. Palmont city is divided into 4 main territories each controlled by a crew. Each territory is then divided into zones, which has starting points for races in them. Winning at least two of the racing events puts you in control of that territory. Once you take over all zones in one territory you will then be able to take on the head of the crew. While you try and take over other territories, you will also be forced to race to keep your territory from other rival crews (or you could simply not race and give up your zones, but that means even more racing… so I wouldn't recommend it).
Each time you face-off with a crew boss, you will be in the canyons, which can be a little frustrating. Once you have taken over enough zones you can challenge the "boss" to a standard street event, and once you have won, the canyon course. The canyon course is a two part race which involves you following you opponent as close as possible to gain points, and then your opponent trying to do the same to you (you loose points this time, the closer the boss gets). The pros of canyon racing are:
• If you get ahead of your opponent for longer than 10s you automaticly win the race.
• You get a good fun challenge.
The cons of canyon racing are:
• If your opponent is ahead of you for more than 10s you automatically loose.
• The race is riddled with cliffs and canyons, and a wrong turn can send you flying of them
A new feature in Carbon is the ability to bring along wingmen into many of the races. The three types of computer-controlled "friends" at your command are:
• Blockers
• Drafters
• Scouts
Blockers are (as you have probably already guessed) there to block you racing oppenents and push them out of your way. Drafters get in front of you to create a vacuum (an area of no air) behind them allowing you to slipstream behind them (meaning you can go faster, as there is no air resistance) and finally they get out of your way so you can slingshot past them, giving you a good boost. Scouts find alternate routs and shortcuts in the track allowing you to shoot past you enemy. They have neon traces behind them so you can follow them. Scouts are the worst wingman in the game, as near the end when your cars are so fast you can't even see the neon tracers behind them allowing you to follow them as they are just too fast, becoming useless. Drafters are also hard to use probably as there aren't many long straight roads to take full advantage of them. The blockers are useful, but only when the enemy is behind you, otherwise they just get in your way. While these wingman seen like a great new feature, you can end up getting boxed in by them or, they just become useless.
In most wanted the police chasing part of the game was excellent, and also necessary, while in carbon it is completely useless getting into a police chase. In Carbon there is a heat factor at each zone, and the more you race in the zone, the higher the heat level, which is a bad thing, as getting chased is no benefit to you and can become tedious.
As I mentioned in the pros at the top, Carbon's core driving is really solid. There is a fantastic selection of cars (well over 50) which come into three groups:
• Turners, which are mainly souped-up Japanese cars that are good at sliding around corners.
• Muscle, which have great acceleration and top speed, but aren't too good at cornering
• Exotics, which just demand a higher level of skill to use.
In conclusion to everything that has been said, Carbon is a great game, but doesn't make the best use of some of the strengths of most wanted. Most of the changes seem to be for a change instead of a better experience, but provides a solid driving action.