Need for Speed: Carbon - Retrospective

so let us say hypothetically that you watched my last video about Need For Speed Most Wanted you would then have a lot of questions like was the sequel any good is waterboarding an effective form of interrogation and how much p is stored in the balls due to my inquisitive nature and generous disposition I decided that I would find the answers to those questions this is Need for Speed carbon [Music] thank you [Music] let's start at the beginning of the game we get some nice Canyon shots outside of palmont city and well [ __ ] okay this is the BMW from the previous game we'll have to start a little further back in Need for Speed Most Wanted you start the game with this BMW only to lose it at the end of the First Act the BMW then becomes a McGuffin that you spend the rest of the game trying to get back which you ultimately do back to carbon and oh my God we're doing live action cutscenes again why are we doing this literally no one wants this basically a few drivers are preparing to race we get no further context and the race begins now in the most wanted video I said that Ronnie was driving an Aston Martin DB9 and a few of you said it was actually a Toyota Supra so to all of you I say yeah well you know that's just like uh your opinion man anyway you're now driving this DB9 which is not to be confused with this DB9 or either of these db9s you get out to a small lead at which point the other three cars are disabled by an electric shock police collapse on the disabled cars arresting their drivers the woman from the very beginning throws a red bag in your car and you take off then an audio flashback plays you know it's a flashback because there's an echo filter between the Heat and the crews you need to walk away and take my car go get out of here it turns out that whole thing was a flashback now we're in present-day Carbon Canyon back in the BMW and wait what's this we're being chased by a Z06 I used to know a guy who drove one of those but that's probably just a coincidence [Applause] guess who's back oh my God it wasn't a coincidence it wasn't a coincidence at all Sergeant cross chases the player character through the canyon leading into the point where the player assumes control like with Most Wanted the game gives you a little taste of driving the BMW in the prologue just to get a feel for the game unlike with Most Wanted the vanilla graphics for this PC Port are actually passable so I didn't bother with mods if you're wondering whether or not I plan to spend the entire video comparing the game to Most Wanted the answer is yes absolutely carbon is basically a glorified reskin of Most Wanted so talking about carbon in a vacuum leaves out a lot of the picture anyway the player character speeds into a construction site before crashing into a semi knocking loose its load of pipes which fall onto the BMW then cross approaches the car sit down how you been it's time to sell a little score from Rockport you think [Applause] [Music] I don't remember asking for your help Croc what makes you think you can bounty hunt in Silverton without my approval if this guy's from out of town in a long time kid what's his bounty 150k David take care of this guy so that's what you've been up to okay it should be interesting [Music] how dare you show your face here control yourself [Music] this is a long cut scene I thought you might like an intermission please use this intermission to think about that one really embarrassing thing that you did six years ago that you can't forget I bet that everyone that was there still thinks about it regularly that's really embarrassing I'll give you five seconds alone with that [Music] I still don't know what happened that night you took off but I do know you're into me now for some serious cash things have been getting a little too close for comfort around here with all these Crews battling for new territory I think I could use someone with your skills to help me out the way I see things I bailed you out of a serious Jam twice now time for you to return the favor Nikki what do you say you show your old friend the ropes you gotta be joking right you got a better idea and let's get him started right away [Music] don't disappoint not again foreign who's the third wheel doesn't matter Darius made all these cars available to you pick one whichever one you want hey if uh if there's three do I get one I mean I don't care which one although I am partially the one with the sweet rims why don't you just make sure the tanks are filled that's great I'm the monkey pick one let's get this over with okay so like in the last game there are three cars to choose from at the start your decision here affects how the game progresses but not really I'll talk more about that later for now your choices are the Mazda RX-8 which is a tuner the Chevrolet Camaro SS a muscle car and the Alfa Romeo brera an exotic you make your choice and then compete in a short race after which you can confirm your choice or make a new one then we get another cut scene nothing important is actually said during this cut scene but I do want to talk about it it's easy to forget now that we are in an era of photorealistic Graphics but there was a brief period where video games would use low resolution photographs to texture low poly 3D models and we all thought that it looked awesome anyway the next race serves as a tutorial for the main mechanic that this game introduces your crew in most races you're accompanied by a crew member who you can use to your advantage there are three kinds of crew members blockers drafters and Scouts blockers can be used to take out other Racers drafters provide a speed boost when you follow them and Scouts alert you to shortcuts blockers and drafters both have a meter that depletes and recharges much like NOS but scouts are active at all times after the tutorial is a shortcut scene introducing the police followed by The Game's first police chase these are largely identical to the police chases from Most Wanted Don't let the police stop you or you'll be arrested hit them hard enough you disable their car put enough distance between you and them and you'll end the pursuit following the pursuit Neville asks you to meet him at the safe house when you meet characters throughout the game they get these cheesy little introduction segments if it isn't clear yet Neville is comic relief inside of the safe house we learn a little bit more about crew members each crew member has a certain style a certain skill in their own car and has unique bonuses race bonuses happen after every race for which that crew member is your active wingman and career bonuses apply as long as the crew member is in your crew from the crew member screen you can select your active wingman customize your cruise cards and fire and hire crew members up next is selecting a logo for your crew and giving it a name the logo selection is pretty weak honestly Madden has better created team logos and those are terrible I did manage to find a logo that I was okay with deciding on a crew name was a little bit harder what's the coolest possible thing I can think of [ __ ] nailed it next you get an explanation of how progression Works in this game in summary the city is divided into districts Each of which have five to seven sections each section has two or three races available and in order to claim a section you'll have to win two of those races after conquering every section in a district you'll have the opportunity to claim the entire District by racing the boss of the crew that currently claims that district there are three crews to worry about right now kenji's Bushido Wolf's TFK and Angie's 21st Street there is a fourth crew in the city but they won't become a factor until the other three crews are taken care of there are also a few minor Crews but they're not particularly noteworthy I decided that now was the time to customize my car most wanted was a real letdown with the car customization so carbon's more fleshed out system is a pleasant surprise the vinyl editor is huge letting you layer and transform basic shapes to create your own designs there is also part customization in this game but I don't have it unlocked yet so I'll talk more about it later with my car all dolled up it's time to race the race is available to you at this stage are defined by which car you selected to start in short your car selection determines which part of the city you'll conquer first so having selected the RX8 I'll be taking on kenji's Bushido who also Drive tuners right now only one section is unlocked meaning I have three races available to me a Sprint a circuit and a speed trap Sprints and circuits are familiar to all racing fans so I won't explain them but speed traps are unique because I am extraordinarily lazy I'm going to defer to myself from my last video for an explanation speed trap races aren't won by the first racer across the line but by the racer with the highest score at the end of the race points are earned by passing through designated speed trap locations at a high speed the first driver across the Finish Line will have their score set and then the rest will have their score slowly decremented until they also cross the finish line the winner is the racer with the highest score after the final card finishes after completing any one of the three races Kenji and his crew roll up on you and Neville I heard you were back in town now I want to hear you're gone [Applause] I'm pretty sure a text message would have been a more effective use of everyone's time here complete one more race and you'll conquer this section unlocking two more sections to race in one of which includes a new race type the drift race drift races were a notable exclusion from Most Wanted and it's kind of incomprehensible that they chose not to include them in that game you will group points by drifting with bonuses delivered based on your speed and proximity to the wall chaining drifts together increments your multiplier so back to back high speed drifts near the wall are worth the most I do however have to be careful because if you crash into a wall your drift ends this game is significantly better off for having drift races in it even if they are way too easy Kenji and his boys showed up to flirt with me again after I declared myself drift King I don't know it's more pathetic your crew or your car [Music] [Applause] new mechanic alert it's time for a defense rashford defense wrecked from time to time your territory can be challenged by minor Crews you have to complete the designated race to defend your Turf declining to defend grants that race to the attacking gang if you lose control of two races in a section you lose control of that section I like this mechanic but it's used way too often it gets annoying when you feel like you have to follow every race with a defense race I think that the developers realized that most wanted was way too long of a game so they tried to scale this one back but over corrected and made it way too short and then they tried to pad the game out a little bit by cranking the defense race frequency way too high ironically this would mean that the devs tried to fix the tedium by shortening the game and then fix the length by introducing tedium after winning five races another cutscene will play Sarah has asked me to come by and see how you were doing Neville why don't you go get me something to drink sure uh what like a soda or something how about some options it's like you clean the place up a bit I've been generating quite a bit of buzz you know but you're not fooling me I'm trying to figure out is why you haven't skipped town yet may I introduce Sam lostella hi um Nikki said that you might be looking for a new wingman you don't know me but uh well I know you I'm a I'm a big fan I've seen all your races and on that note I'll be out of here things ain't been the same since you've gone you know there's a lot of a lot of Publishers no respect I know all the back streets I grew up in these alleys I can customize anything I've practically built all the kits you see around this place so okay so I got soda and water where'd she go I'll let him put up with this guy okay buddy this guy this one right here is gonna try to pull a power move on my boy Neville [ __ ] bro you can join the crew but know your place at the bottom of the pyramid Sal is the second crew member that you get access to and notably his skill is fabricator remember when I said that I'd talk about customizable parts later guess what time it is having a fabricator in your crew grants access to Part auto sculpting Auto sculpting lets you set the size of various components using sliders between Auto sculpting and the vinyl editor carbon's customization experience blows most wanteds out of the water after claiming your second section you'll gain access to the remaining sections in the district the next race that I chose to do was my first race in the canyon you get a brief cinematic to establish the setting and then the downhill Blitz begins this game does a lot of things well even relative to Most Wanted but the canyon is Far and Away the coolest part of the game the narrow two-lane road and frequent hairpin turns create intense and unforgiving races punctuated by the Drumline score just listen [Music] so yeah the canyon kicks ass but it's not just sprint races that take place there the downhill drift races are even more insane in Canyon drift events some of the concrete barriers are replaced with destructible fences meaning too much speed will send you plummeting the narrow roads and tight turns that I mentioned before are even more of a factor during drift races forcing precise execution after conquering all of the first district I got my shot at Kenji boss challenges are two-legged events with the first leg being a City race kenji's first leg was a circuit and it didn't give me any trouble during the BOSS races headshot views of the boss sometimes appear in the corner to gloat when you crash or whatever you just want to punch them in their stupid faces after the City race comes a canyon duel I said before that the canyon is Far and Away the best part of this game but I think it's also worth mentioning that the canyon duels are Far and Away the best part of the canyon a canyon duel is a two-stage event in the first run you chase the defending boss the closer you manage to follow them the more points you'll score once you reach the Finish Line you'll both run the same route again but this time you will lose points based on how close the boss manages to tail you if you reach the Finish Line the second time with a positive score you win the duel if the leader in either stage is passed for more than 10 seconds they lose if the follower Falls too far behind for more than 10 seconds they lose if either car falls off the cliff they lose it may seem like the meta involves doing everything possible to pass and to an extent that's true but if you collide with the leader you lose 5 000 points which is a nice balancing Factor conversely if the boss collides with you while you're leading you gain 5 000 points which you can use to your advantage if you're willing to risk being passed duels are crazy intense and usually come down to the wire during the second stage much like Most Wanted defeating a boss allows you to select two markers you can select unique Aesthetics or mystery markers one possible mystery marker is the pink slip to the boss's car so I like most people only select mystery markers fortunately I got kenji's RX7 which is a tier 2 car each car in this game has a tier with the third tier being the highest your car's tier will Define the tier of cars that you race against as well as the tier of your wingman's car obviously higher tier cars or higher performance cars defeating each boss also unlocks a new crew member basically after you demonstrate your dominance one of the boss's disgruntled crew members defects to your crew after defeating Kenji you unlock Yumi I have a secret that you'd like to know I was there that night you left I was at the fire escape you can see pretty good up there you can hear things too then the cops step out and hit every car but the blue one yours I didn't make any sense of that somebody interfered in a big way and now you need a good crew to pick up the pieces conquering an area socially obligates you to host a large race that spans all of your new territory these are called um race Wars yeah so these race Wars are long and unfun on PC the number of entrants is 12 whereas on PS3 and Xbox 360 the maximum size is actually 20. so race Wars probably are more fun on Console than on PC and like yeah I've been a console gamer now I'm a PC Gamer I've seen both sides here it doesn't surprise me at all that race war is a more popular idea for console players I don't do race Wars my next move was the infiltrate 21st Street territory after completing a race Angie arrives to welcome you to the neighborhood [Music] yeah I heard you were in town go back where you came from [Music] Angie's crew all drive muscle cars they look really cool but they're useless in almost every racing game in existence I know [ __ ] all about Real Racing so I don't know if that's realistic but it is a pity after conquering my first section of Angie's territory Darius tracked me down you got a kid I always said you did now the others are starting to believe too don't give up now you're close man Darius is a great guy I'm glad he's on my side there is absolutely no way that that statement could age poorly before my next race I get another Darius cutscene sure about that I don't know I'll see you later Darius what are you doing a few more races and he's gonna have more territory than you well hey good for him he should be cleaning up his rep and he's taking care of my business for me he owes us both of us you're using him I'm not using him I'm the only one who knows what he's capable of let's go into you I know races are one on the track [Music] a couple more races and Angie is back [Applause] you think you're making a name for yourself keep racing through my territory and I'll waste you and your reputation then Nikki meets up with you for a quick chat Drive [Applause] [Music] foreign I was standing right over there so close I knew you were gonna win things like crazy knocks me over I I tried to get up but he held me down I thought he was protecting me I couldn't make it so I gave you the bag if what you're saying is true and the bag was switched then I don't know how it could have happened why didn't you ever tell me about the missing money the bag was switched then that's where it happened foreign okay so this is probably some of the lamest Exposition I have ever seen she is essentially repeating to you the player what you the player character have previously told her I don't need award-winning writing in my racing games but please give me something better than this with no segue whatsoever I'm going to talk about the game's setting for a little bit if you like the setting of The Underground games but didn't care for the setting and Most Wanted then carbon is probably back in your wheelhouse it's one of the cities of lights that have become synonymous with the street racing aesthetic Belmont is an opulent gaudy City analogous in many ways to Las Vegas it is beautiful to drive through but other than the Canyons there aren't many locations that are particularly memorable Most Wanted had obvious aesthetic differences between areas with downtown Rockport being distinct from Waterfront Rockport being distinct from industrial Rockport and so on Belmont City's partitions each have their own visual style but the differences are a lot more subtle it also lacks any hyper memorable locations like most wanted's golf course or the highway tunnel overall the setting is good not great a few more races and I challenge Angie I don't really have anything to say about Angie's City race like with Genji I cleaned this one up pretty handily I don't have a ton to say about her Canyon duel either except that she drove off the cliff in the first stage so I won by default moral of the story muscle cars are literal garbage in racing games with Angie probably dead I was contacted by one of her former crew members well wow nice of you to show listen I know you're looking to clear your rep and uh you're gonna need some help in order to do that it's just the race the night you took off there was something seriously out of whack I was there too I showed up with a line just to check things out everyone was talking about you a 5-0 we're everywhere then I see the alleys clear ly shuts it up [Applause] and they got driving he's got a badge on his belt bottom line is the heat had an agenda and you took the fall that's all there is to it thing is I can see him coming a mile away not only will I block him in but I can mix it up with them too so Samson joins your crew next up for me was taking on Wolf's TFK like with Angie and Kenji winning a race in Wolf's territory prompts a brief rendezvous with the head honcho himself so how long did it take you to spend all that money you took from me wolf is by far the cringiest of the crew bosses on account of his stupid coat and the fact that he's a grown man calling himself wolf win a few more races and you two meet up again I think you're mistaken this area is for serious drivers thieves and cowards finish conquering TFK territory for your chance at Wolf there's nothing really to say about either of Wolf's races except that he didn't drive off the cliff like with the other two bosses defeating wolf unlocks a new crew member look I just want to race that's all I ever wanted if you're still looking to make good on the past I might be able to help you with that too it was a big night you left pretty crazy I was playing it cool then I see Nikki Knocked Down Chris sworn that the guy who knocked it down same bag I can help you guys out I'm one of the best drivers in this city and you know it actually Colin I know [ __ ] all about you but welcome to the crew Darius wants to meet up for a quick chat too everything out you just couldn't leave good enough alone could you we were making bundles of cash you were clearing your name what more could you want well things have progressed a little further now than I thought possible and I'm going to have to cash you out Mr crawl [Music] come on I didn't let you take my money the first time what makes you think this is any different you actually thought that I would front you the cash to save you from this loser then sit around while you were encroaching on my territory Green's always been your problem you've got a lot to learn about the big times little man this city is mine and it's time for you to disappear again it's cross [Music] I think he's right to my place show's over thanks glad you changed your mind I'm just a bounty hunter and I always get paid just make sure I do look I hate it when people say I told you so so here goes it seems that some of your team was there the night that you left you tell a different story than the one I've been hearing from Darius stories seem to add up somebody tipped off the cops somebody lets you escape and somebody switched the bag now I know who that somebody was Jerry's likes to pull the strings now here's something he doesn't know about part of the deal with cross is that I race with you think you can handle that you're not the only one with the score to settle get out of here we got a lot of ground to catch up now Nikki has joined your crew she's the last recruit meaning at this point your crew is finalized you may be asking wait but earlier you said that the three bosses were Kenji Angie and wolf how do we take on Darius if we already conquered all of the areas to which I would respond that that's kind of a stupid question because there were four districts on the map one of which has been inaccessible to this point so it should have been obvious that we're now going to race in that last District I don't want to discourage you from asking questions by any means but please put more thought into your queries in the future so final quarter-ish of the game we're aiming to take down Darius and his crew stacked deck the races here are a lot longer than most of the races so far and they're a lot more challenging really I would say that this is the only part of the game that is challenging there were a number of races from this point forward that I had to run a couple of times in order to win before the first race of the district there's another cutscene yeah what Nikki did that [Music] fine I'm gonna need a crew that's motivated [Music] Darius hired Kenji somehow not dead Angie and wolf to his crew I'm not totally sure that I understand the rationale here considering I've already objectively demonstrated that I can outrace them but whatever those three will be among the other drivers in some of the remaining races winning the first race it's now darius's turn for an impromptu harassment session from here on out it's just the same formula as the rest of the game so far win races to conquer sections conquer all of the sections to control the district in order to challenge Darius you have to defeat the other three bosses in both a downhill Sprint and a City Sprint this might have been the hardest part of the game for me but that's partially because the Lamborghini I was rocking had dog [ __ ] handling I've created this handy chart to help you know when to use a Lamborghini in racing games after once again establishing your dominance over the Three Musketeers you get your shot at Darius 15 seconds ago I said that the race is against the boss Trio might have been the hardest part of the game for me but that was a lie I lied to you because I don't respect you it was actually the Darius races I had to replay them both several times each again the Lamborghini is dog [ __ ] and I am the most gifted player of all time in any game so this is not my fault fortunately the races are hard enough to be rewarding but not so hard that you end up frustrated Bravo to the team for nailing the finale the canyon duel in particular was just perfect with darius's defeat we get the final cut scene the keys are in the car enjoy it while lasts there's always someone out there who's a little faster than you are sooner or later they're going to catch up [Music] while I do get shayden Freud from darius's expression I have to admit that compared to most wanted's ending this one is a little disappointing Most Wanted ends with razer's arrest but Darius gets to just drive off into the night it would have been much better if they executed him it's time to complain the game crashed and froze constantly I had to install a third party fix and that only partially solved the problem it would be disingenuous of me to hide the fact that I flew the Jolly Roger to play this game and maybe that caused some of the issues but I didn't have a choice the game isn't available for digital download otherwise so my only other option was to buy a PS3 an Xbox 360 or an optical drive and then get the game on disc which I'm not going to do I have a job five days a week I exchange eight hours of my time for money I would like to trade my money and by proxy my time for access to this game but there is no means through which such a transaction can be conducted let me buy your [ __ ] game EA at the beginning of the video I referenced the fact that this game is basically just a reskin of Most Wanted and I wasn't joking the mechanics are so obviously the same that I would call it a carbon copy but I wouldn't want anyone thinking that I was attempting wordplay I have too much self-respect for that I do think there's word play afoot but I'm not the perpetrator carbon has absolutely nothing to do with this game outside of the carbon fiber parts you could replace every instance of the word carbon in this game with any other word and it wouldn't make any difference Most Wanted is named as such because you are trying to become the most Wanted racer that makes sense but carbon is literally just a word here I think it's a giant middle finger to the fans and slash or a tongue-in-cheek way of referencing the fact that this game is just a palette Swap and if you're thinking that this sounds ridiculous because there's no way the devs would use a name that is this painfully on the nose remember that Darius the guy who set you up to screw you over runs a crew called stacked deck so [ __ ] you in my opinion the fact that this is a reskin is made most obvious by the police chases really it's the fact that this game has police chases at all unlike with Most Wanted police chases are entirely irrelevant to the game itself outside of the first chase at the end of act 1 there are zero required chases if you get lucky with RNG you can finish the entire game without being involved in a single other Pursuit and I know this for a fact because I did exactly that I think it's very likely that while this game was being developed someone consciously decided that even though the police chases weren't going to be used for anything they were going to be in the game anyways because they weren't worth the time to remove that is it would have been more work to not have police chases in this game because Most Wanted already had police chases and this game is Just Most Wanted by Any Other Name here's an extremely minor gripe that I need to express the minimap no longer displays your race route here's the minimap during a race and most wanted here it is during a racing carbon why the territory and crew mechanics are cool ideas but the execution on both is really Half Baked for the territory thing it is somewhat understandable even though it's a racing game it does require a framework through which progression can be understood for Most Wanted that framework was The Blacklist and for carbon it's the territory mechanic I guess I'm just disappointed because I think that a lot could have been done with this I'm very into management and simulation games so when you give me a map and divide it up for conquering my imagination starts to run wild the execution of the cruise is a lot less reasonable to me it seems like the territory mechanic was decided on first and then this crew mechanic was sort of a necessary byproduct of that decision and that they didn't flesh out the crew mechanic any further than was absolutely necessary imagine you were one of the game's designers and your boss told you that progression will involve acquiring territory and now you have to finish that idea before the weekend and it's currently 4 45 on a Friday okay well obviously territory is held by Crews not individuals so you start with that if you have a crew you naturally should be able to race alongside your crew members so better throw that in there it wouldn't make sense to have all of the crew members be identical so let's include three types of crew members none of which will have any meaningful impact on the game that's it that's the whole idea there is nothing here beyond the bare minimum necessary to make the territory mechanic make sense again I love management games so this hurt my soul despite the handful of letdowns I love this game in my most wanted video I said that carbon is probably a better game and now that I've replayed it I think I'd safely say that it is there are no revolutionary changes here it just does everything a little bit better and that makes up for the limited police presence it's like five hours tops so I'd be pretty bummed if I spent 60 dollars on it in 2006 but spending zero dollars on it in 2022 is much more palatable if you plan to acquire the game use a VPN this isn't mad or anything I just got a DMC notice when I downloaded it anyways thanks for watching

Channel: Mitchell Diedrich

Views: 536,019

Keywords: need for speed, need for speed carbon, nfs, need for speed 2022, need for speed carbon review, need for speed carbon retrospective, need for speed carbon retro, need for speed carbon gameplay, carbon, nfs carbon, nfs carbon review, nfs carbon retrospective, nfs carbon retro, nfs carbon critique, nfs carbon gameplay, need for speed carbon critique, need for speed carbon neville, need for speed carbon sal, need for speed carbon darius, need for speed carbon nikki

Id: Fvy_-0qCLBA

Length: 40min 31sec (2431 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 16 2022