Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is the next-generation thrill ride for arcade-style racing excitement! See if you can be victorious and in 60 different and become the Champion Road Racer!

You've got a garage full of the world's fastest cars, to conquer the wildest racing events -- the ones you don't see on TV!

Hop into your Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and hit the tracks

Stay alive and cruise into first, if you can dodge traffic, police and natural elements in high speed and high style

The more you earn, the more you win -- cars, tracks and high performance upgrades are yours for the taking

Open-world environments and realistic graphics and weather effects as you race past cops at 160MPH

Average Customer Review: ( 165 customer reviews )
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It has the best graphics in the world!
The cops are very dangerous and drive as badly as you do! They send helicopters that drop bombs on you, fire missiles at you, and drop mini spike strips in front of you! The cops also set up roadblocks and spike strips to keep you from breaking the law.
The damage is realistic, but your car doesn't get all bashed up if you run into a tree at 221 miles per hour!
There is a lot of traffic, so you'd better watch out!
I have beaten the game a long time ago, so I know the cars are:
The McLaren F1, F1 LM, Ferrari F50, 550 Barchetta Pininfarina, 360 Spider, Lamborghini Murcielago, Diablo, the new 911 Turbo, the concept Carrera Gt, Mercedes-Benz Clk-Gtr, Cl 55 Amg, Ford TS50, Mustang, Lotus Elise, Opel Speedster, Vauxhall VX220, BMW M5, Z8, Holden HSV Gts, Jaguar XKR, Aston Martin Vanquish, Chevrolet Corvette, and the Dodge Viper!
Need for Speed addition cars have special colors and improve performance:
NFS Vanquish, NFS Elise, NFS Cl 55, NFS Clk-Gtr, NFS Speedster, NFS VX220, NFS HSV, NFS XKR, Challenge NFS Ferrari 360 Modena, NFS F50, NFS 550, NFS Mustang, NFS TS50, NFS Viper, NFS Corvette, NFS Diablo, NFS Murcielago, NFS 911, NFS Carrera, NFS F1, and The NFS F1 LM!
These are the cars the police will have:
Pursuit Ford Crown Victoria, Pursuit Mustang, Pursuit M5, Pursuit Corvette, and a Pursuit Murcielago!
The ways you could win these are to win an event or get enough points!
To get points is to get air, run a roadblock, lead a lap, drive a clean lap (don't run into anything), accelerate to top speed, or beat the cops!
The fastest you could go is 240 M.P.H. with any one of the McLarens!
You must buy this game!

11 of 12 found the following review helpful:

This is what arcade racing is all aboutNov 03, 2002
By Jack
Groove your way around the s curve, avoid that truck in the left lane, cut off that BMW Z8, ram that cop in a corvette into a palm tree, use that incline to jump over the road block, dodge that missle the helicopter just fired off at you, take the shortcut through the abandoned mine, and start your second of 5 laps. Of course words cannot begin to express the intensity of this game, but once you play it, your hands will be shaking, and you'll realize how appropriatley titled this game is.

This is one pretty game to look at. The framerate rarely drops, the relfections are impressive, and the locations look great. Not to mention the drop dead gorgeous models of the cars. It's one of those games you'll want to show off to your friends.

The gameplay is instantly likeable, and the deeper you go into it, the better it gets. The game has 60 events, each taking any where between 5 to 30 minutes, and ranging from piece of cake to hard as heck. In other words, it will keep you busy. The physics are fun, despite the lack of realism. But seriously, looking at the cover of this game, do you expect realism? I sure didn't, and I was pleasently suprised how much effort they put into the handling, speed, and overall performance of each car. They don't act like they would in real life, but you won't care.

The sound of the game is a mixed bag. The sound effects, terrain noises, and engine roars all sound fantastic. However EA's choice of music could have been a lot better. My only other real problem is that it can get frusterating, however it can also be extremely rewarding.

This is what an arcade racer is supposed to be, it has very memorable moments, nifty gimmecks and effects, and creates a racer vs track vs clock vs cop environment that gives you the ultimate rush. In a holiday season of Vice City, I really hope people don't over look this title for their..well..need for speed.

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:

So good, it cured my Burnout addiction!Dec 31, 2002
By flaviolius
Let me get one thing out in the open: I am a huge fan of Acclaim's Burnout series. The intense racing, blazing sense of speed, nerve-wracking crashes, and traffic-weaving are all amazing, and (I thought) unmatched among arcade racers.

Enter Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2.

EA's cop chaser came out about the time of Burnout 2: Point of Impact, which meant I was having such a blast with Burnout that I completely ignored NFS. But I kept hearing about how cool NFS was, so I gave it a rent, after exhausting Burnout, and was shocked out of my socks by the result: I think NFS: HP2 is a superior game, all things considered.

I will admit that Burnout 2 looks better, runs faster, and has a certain European style that I find highly appealing - not to mention the immortal Crash Mode. Hot Pursuit 2 might not have the technical advantages of Burnout, but what it lacks in style, it more than makes up for with substance.

First off, having licensed cars DOES make a difference. Blasting round a curve in a Ferrari is miles more sexy than speeding through the streets in a Sports Car. And what licenses: Porsche, Lambroghini, Aston Martin, Jaguar, BMW, Corvette! All modeled accurately, and gorgeously - there are over forty cars in all.

NFS's gameplay has more depth as well. While Burnout can seem at times like a tech demo for its superlative crash physics, NFS concentrates strictly on the racing. The well-rendered courses are long, with single laps lasting three minutes, and riddled with shortcuts that can make or break the race. Should I risk taking the narrow back road through the canyon and possibly nab first place, or play it safe and hope the other guys screw up? EA deserves a big hand for producing some of the most devious clever track designs you're likely to see.

You have a wealth of options to customize the races as well. All the cars have two different settings for handling: Classic (i.e. safe) or Extreme (for the powerslide freaks). You can race with commuter traffic on or off, car damage on or off, lap number, controller configuration, AI difficulty, weather conditions, camera views, HUD, car color.....I hope you're getting the picture. You can even adjust the licensed in-game soundtrack to play instrumentals only. Not since the Dreamcast's beloved Metropolis Street Racer has an arcade racer had so many options.

There are several race modes as well, which break down roughly into two categories: Hot Pursuit (i.e. the cops are lurking) and World Racing (no cops). Each mode has a 30+ race bracket with individual challenges, which get progressively tougher. The races also range from timed runs to GPs to some where you drive as the police themselves, chasing down reckless speeders under a strict time limit. Whereas Burnout can be beaten within a rental period, it'll take quite a while to unlock everything in HP2. And the variety, constant unlocked items, and non-linear branching gameplay ensures that it never gets repetitive.

While World Racing is noteworthy in its own right, Hot Pursuit is where the gloves come off. As you & your opponents (or a friend) barrel along the twisting roads, the police are waiting. You've got a radar detector that lets you know when you're targeted, as well as a scanner that contains some brilliant cop commentary: "27 to Central, I'm tracking a green Lotus Elisse that's doing 100+ and driving on the shoulder. Let's test his air bags." Ha ha - just try it. Elude the black & whites for a while, and they might call for a roadblock. Or a spike strip. Or a bomb-dropping helicopter. Yeah, it's all over-the-top, but oh man, what a rush: four cops on your tail, weaving around commuter traffic, dodging bombs from above, all while hanging onto first place by the skin of your teeth. Even the most traffic-choked Burnout streets didn't get this insane. Then you hear that police cruiser smash into a wall, and your scanner says: "27 to Dispatch - my cruiser is out of commission. Am unable to continue pursuit. Over." Awwww yeah!

Did I mention you can play as the cop and chase down your friends......even calling in the chopper and roadblocks to stop them? And that you can unlock Corvette and Murcielago versions of a police cruiser? Let the trash-talking begin.

My intent is not to bash Burnout 2 at all - it's a definite keeper based on the amazing graphics and Crash Mode - but as far as pure pulse-pounding intense arcade racing action, I've never played anything as fun and insane as Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. Toss sim racing out the window and smash down the accelerator - this game'll give you whiplash!

16 of 20 found the following review helpful:

Fun, but numbingly frustratingOct 11, 2002
By Matthieu P. Raillard
For the first few hours this game is a BLAST. The concept here is a good old fashioned car chase, with you controlling cops or speeders. The game physics are very forgiving, making this an easy game for beginners to enjoy. This, however, is where the game also fails. Because it forgives so much (no need to steer, guardrails will bounce you back on track; no need to worry, you will magically catch up if you fall too far behind, you never flip, you accelerate about the same whether you are on sand or road, etc), it also never rewards you for driving well. You can race flawlessly for x number of laps, only to have some cheesy accident/cop/tree/competitor come out of nowhere to steal your victory in complete CPU cheeseball fashion. This game offers a wealth of cool licensed cars (Ferrari, Porsche, Lambo, etc), but since the driving/physics model is so unrealistic, they all pretty much drive the same (ie: brakes stink, cars oversteer like nobody's business) and make the game's career mode ultimately unrewarding.

The graphics are good, and the sense of speed is nice. The sounds are great and lead to the ambience, the control is arcadey (a plus or minus, depending on your POV) and the replay value is decent. It's a fun game, but don't look for too much depth or realism here (get GT3 instead).

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Superb arcade racingNov 17, 2004
By orakle
This is, to date, my favorite racing game for the PS2. Others are more realistic, a couple may even be faster, but for sheer fun this is the one I always come back to. The track design is superb, the shortcuts are numerous and appropriately tricky, the car selection is diverse and exotic, the control is tight superb, and the racing and police interaction cannot be matched. It's challenging without being frustrating, and even the most veteran racer will have some trouble beating the later challenges. There's plenty to unlock, and I find myself coming back to challenge and multiplayer mode over and over again. It's unfortunate that more recent NFS titles have lacked the track design (and shortcuts), the police element, and the remarkable cars that make this game such a good time. Here's hoping that, eventually, the franchise will come back to its roots and give us a Hot Pursuit 3.

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