Need for Speed: Firewall

Need for Speed: Firewall is a multiplatform racing video game and the 11th installment in the Need for Speed series. It was developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. It is the largest open-world racing video games ever made, as the game starts where the previous title, Need for Speed: Carbon ends with player's domination over the fictional city of Palmont City.

This is the first game in the series to have both night and day time, realistic amount of traffics depends on what time the player initiate the free roam or the races.

Need for Speed: Firewall's plot is a continuation of the events of Need for Speed: Carbon and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Some gameplay mechanics are taken from those games as well.

Plot
The game starts with a real-life action movie of the previous game, where the Player use a BMW M3 GTR to jumps across the broken bridge in Rockport city, and then the scene where the BMW is totaled after being chased by Cross in the Carbon Canyon, and the Canyon Duel between the Player and Darius. The scene then moves to Palmont City Highway, where an Audi Le Mans Quattro and a Ford GT drives on the empty highway toward the Downtown.

After having a short conversation, the ex-crew Bosses, Angie, Kenji and Wolf, in their previous Tier 3 Cars, drives toward them and slams the back of the Player's Audi and Nikki's Ford GT. They were forced to split up as Nikki leaves the Highway, followed by Angie in her Dodge Challenger, leaving the Player on the highway with Kenji and Wolf on his tail. Unfortunately, a nearby Police Patrol cars drives from the opposite direction in the highway. The Police turns around and calls for back up to chase the 3 Racers on the highway.

After a hot pursuit throughout the Downtown (It's impossible to evade the Police, Kenji and Wolf in this point of the game), Nikki calls the Player that she's heading toward the Plaza, and that means the Player must head there too. Guided by the GPS, the Player arrives at the Plaza, reuniting with Nikki. But suddenly, a Stacked Deck Jaguar XK slams into Nikki's side, resulting her car to rolls over, crashing the Tower in the proccess. Kenji and Wolf wipes the police out from their way as the Player's Audi lose control and hit some traffic in the proccess.

The Jaguar stopped in front of the Player's Audi, and the driver steps out from the car, revealing Darius and his driver. Darius then walks over to Nikki's wrecked Ford GT as he watches the Ford GT explode in front of his eyes. He laughed and pulls the Player out from the Audi (In this point, the scene will be from First Person Perspective). Darius beats the Player while Kenji, Angie, Wolf and the other crew watching them with no words. Darius then tell the Player that his crew is back, the Blacklist members from Rockport has been freed from the prison, and ready to take out the Player's crew. He take out a Desert Eagle and shot the player in the head, as the screen blacks out with the sound of the gunshot.

The scene then shows Silverton, with the Tier 3 Tuners, Muscles, and Exotic Stacked Deck cars driving on the street, with the Minor Crews cars are seen fleeing from Silverton. The same things happen at the Downtown, where the Tier 3 Tuner Bushido Cars drives on full speed on the streets, chasing down several Scorpios crew cars. And then at the Kempton, where the Tier 3 Muscles 21st Street Crew cars roaming around Kempton's street, resulting the other crews flee from the district. The last one is Fortuna, where the Tier 3 Exotic TFK cars took over the area from the Player's crews influence.

Next scene shows Yumi, Colin, Neville, Sal, Samson and the new main character, 'Hunter', is preparing to leave from Palmont before Darius' crews can find them. After having a short conversation, a Police car crashed through the Safehouse's wall, followed by 3 other police patrol cars and SUV. The crews got in their cars and drives away from the safehouse. They decide to split in pairs, Yumi with Hunter, Colin with Neville, and Sal with Samson.

The gameplay starts again with the player (Hunter), driving a yellow Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. IX with Yumi driving a green Nissan Fairlady 350Z, in the Palmont Main Highway, toward the mountains and straight into the Canyon (In this point, Yumi will act as a Scout, like in regular races, but with a few scripted conversation). They drives past the canyon and lose the pursuing Stacked Deck and police by destroying a gas station, resulting a chain explosion of the trucks parked near there and also blocking the road by the flying debris.

They eventually arrives at Rockport in the middle of the afternoon, Hunter told Yumi that he have an old safehouse in the city, but before they could reach the safehouse, the Blacklist members drives from the opposite direction and block Hunter and Yumi's route. Razor comes out from his Ford Mustang and walk toward Yumi's Fairlady Z. Razor flirts with Yumi that she should come with them and have 'fun', but Hunter whisper from the walkie talkie and told Yumi to not come with them. Seconds later, Yumi steps on the gas and drives away in full speed, followed by Hunter and break through the Blacklist's barricade on the street.

After having another hot pursuit, Yumi and Hunter leaves Rockport and drives toward the city of Bayside, a small city near a large beach on the East Coast. They accidently meet up with the local crews, The Royal Dragon, and initiates a short race, resulting Hunter's rear side of his car get hit by a train when they're passing a railway, while Yumi's engine blows and make her car crash into a nearby local shop. Hunter and Yumi pick up anything that they could carry and runs away to an old house in the city limit.

Samson with Sal then contact Hunter that Palmont City has gone crazy. The local crews have gone aggresively and take out every cop they find, resulting the Heat of every zone raises into Level 5. The cops start using Exotic, Tuners, and Muscles cars, same as the racers to maintain the balance and to finish their job more easily. Sal with Samson are currently hiding in one of the villa in Carbon Canyon. They commented Hunter and Yumi's action over the gas station during their escape.

Neville and Colin, on the other hand contact Yumi that the canyons, with the exception of Carbon Canyon have been swarmed by the local crews and the police, and that means no safe heaven in Palmont. They're currently taking refugees at Rockport City, hiding from the cops in an abandoned parking lot. Colin then says that if they want to take Palmont City back to their influence, first, they need more crew members.

Hunter and Yumi head to the car lot to buy some new cars. Yumi ends up driving a Mazda RX-8, while Hunter will drives a car depending on the player's choice (Tier 1 Exotics, Muscles, or Tuners). Together, they challenge The Royal Dragon crews and earn more rep. Takashi, the leader of the Royal Dragon, challenge Hunter in his Chevrolet Camaro SS. After he is defeated, Hunter can choose 3 out of 5 new crew members from the Royal Dragon.

Defeating more local crews and earn more rep, at the same time recruiting crew members to his cause, Shadow of Bayside crew, the most powerful crews in Bayside, challenge Hunter and Yumi in an all out race. Defeated by Hunter and Yumi, Shadow of Bayside leaves the town, with a threat that someday, they will return.

Hunter, Yumi and their new members drives toward Rockport city to get more crew members, and also to get Neville and Colin out from hiding. When Hunter and Yumi finds out about the Blacklist, they agreed to convince them to join their crews, but ultimately failed. This triggered a large scale of race war between Hunter's crew with the Rockport racers. Hunter and Yumi finally defeats and kills most of the Blacklist racers in a Circuit War around Rockport. The remnants of the city's racers decides to join Hunter's crew, while some of them dissapears without a trace.

Finally, the crew, which is led by Hunter and Yumi, drives back to Palmont City, in which Sal and Samson joins them when the group drives past the Carbon Canyon. Equipped with Tier 2 and 3 cars, the crew enter the city limit and spread up throughout Palmont city, which is a whole new level of battleground now. Fighting Bushido, TFK, 21st Street Crew and the Stacked Deck at the same time, while also evading the all new Palmont Police Department, they finally regain control of Palmont City one by one. Kenji, Angie, Wolf and Darius challenge Hunter to race in the streets, and the Canyon. Yumi, knowing that this will be a 'ride or die' race, tell Hunter that she loves him from the first time Hunter join the crew. Hunter finally leaves to race with a promise to Yumi that he will return back to her, alive.

After desperately battling the leaders on the street, Hunter finally becomes the winner after Hunter hit a gas station with Angie on his tail, turning Angie's Dodge Challenger into pieces after the gas station explodes. The second round takes place in the "Eternity Pass" of Carbon Canyon. Wolf falls into the cliff in the second sharp turn in the beginning of the race, while Kenji rolls over in the road and ends up falling off the cliff after Hunter slam the back of Kenji's Evo. Darius, in his Audi Le Mans Quattro, lead the rest of the race until Hunter and Darius are near the finish line. Darius try to knock Hunter out from the race, but Hunter successfully dodge it. The Audi lose control and hit the rocks on the sides of the road, completely wrecking his Audi. Hunter gets out from the car and throw Darius off the cliff cold blooded. He return to his car and drive back to the Palmont City.

During the way back, a BMW M3 GTR drives toward Hunter's car on full speed, and this triggered the final chase. The BMW, is in fact the one that the Player use in Rockport, which is totaled while escaping from Cross. There are 2 possible ending in this game, depending Hunter's choice on the final chase. In the bad ending, Hunter will drives through the construction sites, knocking the pillars down and eventually, destroying the BMW and Hunter's car. The next scene shows that the racers flee from Palmont City from the death of Hunter, while Yumi stays in Palmont City for a while to mourn Hunter's death. In the good ending, if Hunter drives past the construction site without destroying it, a scene will play that shows Hunter takes a sharp turn at the end of the road, while the BMW drives straight forward on full speed, hitting the barrier and knocking the driver out from the car, throwing him to the cliff, which is revealed to be Cross. Hunter drives back to Palmont city and celebrates the victory in retaking Palmont, and also to conquer Rockport and Bayside.

Gameplay
The gameplay, especially the free roam have been greatly changed so that the player can feel the real world atmosphere of the game. Weather and time changes are possible in the game, as EA have included some new cool feature, like when it's in the middle of the day, there will be a large amount of traffics in the streets, while at nights, the street will become nearly empty, perfect for street racing.

Another new feature is that when the player is in Free Roam, they can see a few racers are preparing to race at random points of the map (No markers). And if the player drives closer to the crowd, there will be a yes or no message on the screen. If the player choose yes, then they can place bets and start the race within the few seconds. The differences is that in this type of race, the Player will only guided by GPS, with no closed roads, and also random finish point throughout the city.

The player can also sees a racer being chased by a cop. They can choose to help the racer, or let them on their own. Helping racers on pursuit can greatly help to increase the Rep. Once they help the racer, the police will start chasing them, with the racer will act as a blocker, scout or drafter during the pursuit.

The crew system is still the same, even though it's been modified. After eliminating a crew boss, the Player can choose 3 out of 5 crews from the enemy's crew to Player's side. And these crews can be sent out to defend territories, except for the main member (Neville, Sal, Samson, Colin). They can only be used for attacking another territories from the enemy's hand. (Note: Yumi will be the player's permanent wingman, but the player is free to switch Yumi's skill before a race starts). Main member can also be used to attack territory with the regular crew members. Keep in mind that the regular crew members, as well as the main members, cannot be used as a Wingman.

The polices in each cities are different. Bayside Police Department will use the regular patrol cars and SUV, while the Rockport Police Department will start using Tier 2 Tuners and Exotic cars, Palmont Police Department use Tier 3 Tuners, Muscles and Exotic cars. The standart heat level for Bayside territory is Level 1-2, the heat level in Rockport are level 2-4, while the heat level of all Palmont city are Level 5. Pursuit Breakers are still the main keys in NfS: Firewall, but with larger variety of the Pursuit Breakers.

The cities are connected by tunnels, highways, dirt roads, railways, and airports. San Juan and the Canyons, which is unaccessable in the previous title, now they can be accessable via Highways.

Car customization is also the main keys in NfS: Firewall. The Autosclupt features is accessable right from the beginning of the game. The Aftermarket, Visuals and Performance Tuning returns to the game, giving a large flexibility toward the Player to create their own Custom Tuners, Muscles, and Exotic cars.

Game Modes

 * Circuit - Players compete with rivals in closed circuits with a set number of laps.
 * Sprint - Point A to Point B races. Sprint races in the city can be played by up to 8 players. Sprint races along a canyon route can be played by up to 4 players.
 * Checkpoint Races - Players have to pass a series of checkpoints before time runs out.
 * Circuit Drift - Players have to drift along closed tracks to rack up points. Points are awarded based on the speed, angle and distance of the car during a drift. Drift multiplyiers are awarded for connecting drifts through turns and making 'perfect entries'.
 * City Drift - This type of race can only be triggered on Daylight. It is the most difficult mode in the game, but have a nice rewards if the player can accomplish this. The player have to perform a chain and smooth drift without attracting the cops and without hitting any of the traffics and the walls.
 * Race War - This is a special type of events that can be only trigerred once in the Career Mode, on the Rockport City. The event will start automatically upon completing 2 races in the Rockport city. The city is an ultimate battleground between the racers, and there will be a special damage bar on the screen. If the bar gets fulled, the player's car is wrecked, and must be repaired. If all of the Player's cars are wrecked, and they have no money to repair it, they have to restart from the beginning of the Race War. In this mode, it's just the same like free roam. The circuit, sprint and the checkpoints races will test the player's skills in surviving massive attacks of the AI Opponets. This mode will be done after the Player complete all of the races in Rockport, while also having at least 1 car that is not wrecked.
 * Circuit Rage/War - The player will have to take out the racers one by one using any equipments that the Player obtained in the race. The last racer to be in the track wins. This is the last event in the Rockport City, before the crews move out to Palmont City
 * Canyon Duels - Canyon Duels feature two stages; The first stage has the player chasing an opponent and the second stage has the player being chased by the opponent. The player wins if they perform better than the opponent.