Fact: Criterion Games knows how to deliver a sense of speed. There's no debate to be had; anyone who's played a Burnout game knows this. Time and time again, these guys harness the raw energy of high-speed racing and turn it into their own special interactive thrill rides. So it's only natural that Criterion is the developer chosen to reboot the older Electronic Arts racing crown jewel, Need For Speed. Better yet, they've chosen to revisit the Hot Pursuit sub-franchise. As far as this series is concerned, it's in great hands; Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit delivers instantly gratifying action on nearly every front.

Fact #2: Criterion Games develops some amazing-looking titles. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit does nothing to break this proud tradition, as it stands right up there alongside Burnout Paradise. Indeed, Seacrest County is every bit as deserving of the moniker "Paradise City." It contains just about every setting you could possibly wish to race in. You can zip through the forests, scream past beachfront property, or drift along elevated mountain passes. In the midst of all this awesomeness, only one Criterion tradition is broken, and it's a welcome departure: the cars are licensed, and they look exquisite. If you ever wanted to know what a Dodge Viper would look like decked out in police livery, you'll get your chance. Not that the cars don't already look awesome to begin with. Criterion also has a thing for smooth and fancy user interfaces -- all their time supporting Burnout Paradise pays off here. The Autolog is easy to parse and navigate, which is integral to a slick online component. And, as always, the game is constantly finding excuses to get in your face, whether it's a wreck viewed from an oncoming angle or stylish camera shots of the vehicles pulling crazy stunts. That kind of stuff is usually welcome in a game like this... but not always. I'll explain why in the Difficulty section.

Fact #3: Criterion Games knows sound design and never fails to get it right on the technical side of things. However, Burnout 3: Takedown and Burnout Paradise featured some completely unnecessary (and let's face it: repulsive) voice acting in DJs Stryker and Atomika. Seacrest County has no need for any of that nonsense, and Hot Pursuit is a better game for it. Instead, you're treated to relevant and accurate police chatter that helps immerse you in each intense moment. I won't get into the soundtrack; I find myself looking at 95% of the modern music scene with pure disdain. Yeah, I know -- I'm turning into a grouchy old man. The licensed stuff in Hot Pursuit doesn't really do it for me, but the original instrumental stuff really gets the blood flowing. If you've ever watched those police shows that overdramatize vehicular chases, this undeniably cheesy stuff will put a smile on your face. It almost goes without saying that the cars also sound spectacular; each one's a different beast.

The state of modern American pop culture is undoubtedly a contributor to my distaste of the name of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit's setting. Seacrest County is a haven for road-based thrill-seekers. As mentioned before, it's a beautiful place that happens to sport roads that look like they were built expressly for racers. This is where drivers take their expensive cars and live on the edge. Only half of the thrill actually has to do with the driving, though. The other half comes from the challenges presented by the Seacrest County Police Department. They are an organized and efficient force, equipped with technology specifically designed to stop speeders who are dead set against playing nice. That's it in a nutshell: can you imagine the possibilities?

You can probably guess by the title of this game alone, but if you played Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit or Hot Pursuit II, you already know that nearly all the action in this game revolves around the cat-and-mouse dynamics of the good old-fashioned police chase. There are a number of event types that mix things up a bit. Hot Pursuit is the standard. Cops have one objective, racers have two. The cops are to stop the race by any means necessary. The racers must do whatever is in their power to remain mobile and cross the finish line before the other racers do. Races cut the SCPD completely out of the picture. Time Trials are different (and self-explanatory), but they feel too much like filler material in a game like this. Gauntlet Events pit solo racers against a legion of police officers. Survival is the goal. Cop Events usually play out as Racer Events with the crucial role reversal, but only one of them really distinguishes itself from the pack: Interceptor. This mode doesn't force you or your quarry to take a set route, leaving everything up to the racer. It's unpredictability keeps it fresh. And of course, if you want to remove the stakes, you can simply drive around at your leisure. All of this can be accessed in Hot Pursuit's Career Mode, but don't think for a second that's the main course of this meal.

Multiplayer is most definitely Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit's bread and butter. You can participate in all the main events that accommodate for multiplayer, and the transition is practically seamless. The Bounty (read: experience) system serves as the framework for a steady stream of unlockable vehicles and equipment. Cars take much more damage in multiplayer, but that's justified by the satisfying length of most pursuits. Some of the races are longer than ten miles; these feel like they last too long, especially when you consider how cops are balanced against racers. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

The developers at Criterion have been fine-tuning their approach to difficulty balancing for a long time; anyone who's been with them since Burnout 3 should know this from experience. With a game as fast as Burnout, rubber-band artificial intelligence is a necessary evil. However, if it's mishandled, that rubber band can snap back and hit someone in the face. (If you need an example, look to Split/Second, which left more than its share of welts.)

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is more prudent with its rubber-banding, which makes each nuance feel much more organic. For example, cops are naturally faster than racers, and they earn nitrous more quickly when they're far behind. These design decisions keep each race fresh without making them seem too unfair. In short, Hot Pursuit is not a blue-shell racer.

I've got one sizable gripe with this game: it's just plain overzealous when it comes to its presentation. Sometimes the game wrests control from you to show you a potential emergent event. When your spike strip successfully hits an opponent, the camera might show you the resulting accident -- while you're still blazing down the road in slow-motion. This is a risky juggling act on the part of the game. Sometimes it knows where to put you, but it occasionally drops everything in its attempts to look awesome. If I'm trying to thread through a roadblock, I don't care what the results of my EMP attack look like. I just want to make it through without crashing.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is designed around Criterion's next step in the evolution of competitive gaming interfaces: Autolog. It's a hub of sorts, but it's much more than that. It contains the entirety of the experience and ensures that you remain connected with what your friends are doing, regardless of if they're online or not. If a friend tackles a Career event, Autolog will remember how well they did and suggest that you try and topple his/her record. If you manage to beat your friends, you can brag about it on your wall and challenge them to take their records back. The Speedwall is where all those records are kept; you're matched up against your friends with regards to nearly everything you do in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. It's an innovative system that encourages you to keep checking back.

I can't believe I've gotten this far without getting into the specifics of the actual racing. Quite a feat, if you ask me. It's here that I finally admit that Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit has much more in common with Criterion's flagship franchise than it does with any other installment in this series. That's not a problem with me; though I've spent more than my share of time with Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, tuner culture isn't really my thing. Burnout is an adrenaline junkie's wet dream in video game form, and well, I am an adrenaline junkie. There are hints of Burnout all over Hot Pursuit. Chiefly among those "hints" is the fact that driving dangerously (slipstreaming, drifting, and driving in oncoming traffic) earns everyone nitrous. Things really start to change once the special equipment becomes involved.

Racers and cops each have their own ways of staying on top. Both racers and cops have access to deployable spike strips. It's a joy to line up a perfect hit with your rear-view mirror, but it's also frustrating when you're assigned to a four-man police squad with that one asshat who thinks it's funny to attack his teammates. Racers and cops alike can also fire electromagnetic pulses at vehicles, provided they can maintain an active lock-on. Racers are equipped with jamming devices and high-speed turbo kits (sorry, one per race); cops can call for roadblocks and air support. There's a lot of strategy involved. For example, causing terminal damage isn't the only way to score a bust as a cop; if you manage to stop a racer, stopping the car in close proximity will automatically shut the racer down. Racers would also do well to keep their eyes open for shortcuts; roadblocks rarely account for them, and they are a surefire way to refill the nitrous bar.

I'm not sure I can offer a wholesale recommendation for Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit on the merits of its Career Mode alone. It's good, to be sure, but it's not where you'll get your money's complete worth. Take this game online, and you'll see that the developer has unleashed a total monster in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. If Criterion's previous efforts are any indication, this monster will keep growing and growing.