Need for Speed: Carbon

About Need for Speed: Carbon

In the game, players take part in illegal street races that focus on different styles of races, utilizing a variety of licensed real-world cars (available at the time of the game's development and release) that can be upgraded and customized with new parts, while contending with the involvement of the police in their efforts to impede the player. Racing Events focus on competitive races with other drivers on circuits or point-to-point routes, checkpoint races, and races involving sprints or drifting (the latter being absent in its predecessor), with players able to use Nitrous Oxide and Speedbreaker whenever needed – either to help win races or get out of tight spots – both of which recharge over time. The game itself features four game modes – Career, Quick Race, Challenge Series, and Multiplayer – with the latter featuring online gameplay available in all console and PC versions of the game, except for the Wii version.

The game operates on the same gameplay mechanics used in previous entries in the series, including its predecessor Most Wanted, though Carbon introduced new elements. A new element exclusive to Carbon is Canyon events – special racing events styled after Japanese Tōge racing, in which players compete in competitive racing on canyon roads outside the game's main setting. These events consist of sprints, drifting and duel events, in which the latter two feature a majority of destructible guardrails that the player must avoid crashing through or risk losing these respective events as a result. Duel events on these circuits operate differently to events involving major rival racers in Need for Speed games, as these are conducted across two stages on a canyon circuit – in each stage, one driver acts as the chaser and pursues the other at close proximity, with the first stage seeing the player as the chaser and scoring points the closer they can tail their opponent, while in the second stage their opponent becomes the chaser and the player must keep as much distance as possible to avoid losing too many points before the stage is completed. At the end of both stages, the car who took the lead wins if their score is positive, otherwise, their opponent wins if they turned it negative. Apart from scores, an instant win is possible depending on which mode the Duel is conducted in – in Career mode, the player can win instantly if they can stay ahead of their opponent for ten seconds, but lose if they fall behind for too long; in Online Multiplayer, a player wins if their opponent crashes through a guardrail.

Police pursuits, a staple of the series, function similar to Most Wanted in that police can turn up at any time during a race and attempt to impede the player during the event, except in Canyon Race events and checkpoint races; in Career mode, the police can also turn up during Free Roam, but will not act against the player unless they have a warrant (for evading a previous pursuit) or committed an offence in their sight, whereupon they focus on blocking in and arresting the player unless they can lose them and find a safe spot to hide until they lose their heat. As the player is pursued, they can either attempt to evade the cops or knock them out of action by ramming their cars or using destructible props called Pursuit Breakers to impede their pursuit, though extensive pursuits will cause the player's heat level to rise, leading to stronger pursuit tactics including spike strips, roadblocks, and the involvement of state/federal authorities. Carbon modified the pursuit function by making police less dominant in arrest tactics at higher heat levels, and reducing the chance a Pursuit Breaker blocks/destroys a pursuing vehicle.

Carbon takes place within the fictional city of Palmont, which encompasses four boroughs linked by a highway system; Kempton, which houses the city's industrial complexes; Downtown, which houses the city's metropolitan and financial buildings; Fortuna, which houses the city's residential area; and Silverton, which houses the city's casino & resort facilities. The city is also surrounded by three canyons known as East, West, and Carbon, which feature their own layout of the route, but which are not connected to Palmont. There is also a city called San Juan, a fictional town based on Santa Fe, New Mexico. The city differs from others in that it is isolated from Palmont and has no connection to it. In Career Mode, it is used as a tutorial before the player goes to Palmont; In the game's story, which takes place during a fixed period at night, the player is not able to access Silverton until they have made progress in career mode and only can access the canyon routes during events.

Several years prior to the events of Most Wanted, a street racer (whose role is assumed by the player) took part in a major street race around Palmont for a large cash prize. The three other racers were each the leader of a street racing crew: Bushido's Kenji (Ken Kirby), 21st Street's Angie (Danielle Kremeniuk), and T.F.K. (The Fortuna Kings)'s Wolf (Shaw Madson). However, the racers were ambushed by the Palmont Police Department (PPD), who had SWAT immobilize the player's opponents with an EMP and began arresting everyone involved. The player escaped with the help of Darius (Tahmoh Penikett), the leader for the Stacked Deck, and his then-girlfriend Nikki (Emmanuelle Vaugier); before leaving she handed over the bag containing the race's prize money, but it turned out to contain paper. Under Darius' advice, the player quickly fled Palmont after being accused of sabotaging the race.

Following his narrow escape from Rockport, the player returns to Palmont but is pursued along a canyon route by former police sergeant Jonathan Cross, who after previously appearing as a police officer in Most Wanted, now works as a bounty hunter and seeks revenge against him. After a long and heated canyon chase, the player's BMW M3 GTR gets totaled, and Cross attempts to arrest them for the 150-thousand-dollar bounty on their head but is paid off by Darius. Offering to help the player, Darius asks Nikki, who now dates him, assist him despite her belief that the player betrayed everyone for the prize money. With Nikki's help, the player receives two crew members – Neville (Chris Gauthier) and Sal (Elias Toufexis) – to help in races and a safehouse to operate from. On Darius' advice, the player begins taking part in street races for control over territories controlled by rival crews across three of the city's main boroughs. In the process, he also engages against Kenji, Angie and Wolf, defeating them and securing a member of their crew to aid them, each of whom confides in the player that they suspect someone else set up both them and each crew member's former bosses as Yumi (Melody), Colin (Steve Lawlor), and Samson (Noah Danby) were all at the race between the player, Angie, Wolf, and Kenji, and each of them saw a vital piece of evidence to confirm the race had been rigged and doomed to an ambush by the PPD all along.