NomanFun: Need for Speed 4 High Stakes

Thursday 11 September 2014

Need for Speed 4 High Stakes

It plays very much like Need for Speed 4, but with some extra play modes and one big added feature. I reviewed Need for Speed 4 more than a few months ago and loved the game. It had a few shortcomings, but they were minor and insignificant compared with the outstanding gameplay and graphics. When I first played Need for Speed 4, I thought it was vastly superior to Need for Speed II. Now that I’ve played the next Need for Speed game, High Stakes, I have to ask myself: Does it surpass the third installment as easily as the third surpassed the second? Not exactly. That doesn’t mean the game is bad or even worse than Need for Speed 4. It just isn’t a huge leap in terms of graphics and gameplay. Those who buy this game should realize that it plays very much like Need for Speed 4, but with some extra play modes and one big added feature. The biggest feature added to the game is car damage, which we’ve all been crying for since the inception of this fine arcade racing series. I’m happy to say that on this count, the game benefits greatly from damage modeling. All cars have ratings for body, engine, suspension, and handling. Too many bumps, scrapes, and crashes will bring those ratings down. At first, the damage is subtle, but once you start racking up the collisions, you’ll see the car’s body start to warp, the windshield and windows break, and the engine start to smoke. Tires will be off kilter, and you’ll notice the performance of your car suffering commensurately. There is no way to fix your car during a race, so you are in a bind should the damage be extensive. There is a status window on the top right corner of your screen, though, so you can monitor your damage and respond accordingly. You might want to be less reckless if you see the red damage-indicator bar overtaking the blue status bar. For Need for Speed purists who don’t want to play with damage, this option can be toggled off.