NFS Most Wanted 2005 vs 2012 – A Street Racer‘s Perspective
As a long-time Need for Speed fan who has put countless hours into every release, no two games represent the best and worst of the series quite like Most Wanted 2005 and 2012. When looking at these two iconic titles, there are some drastic differences that completely changed what "Most Wanted" meant for racing fans.
Most Wanted 2005 delivers an authentic illegal street racing experience centered around customization, cop pursuits and beating the BLACKLIST. In contrast, Most Wanted 2012 strips away customization and goes all-in on over-the-top racing encouraged by friends and Autolog recommendations.
Let‘s examine the key elements in detail to understand the monumental shift that happened between these releases.
Gameplay and Setting
Most Wanted 2005 throws you right onto the streets of gritty Rockport City with the goal of taking down the top 15 BLACKLIST drivers to become the Most Wanted. It captured the illegal street racing scene perfectly with low riders, tuner culture and hideouts.
In contrast, Most Wanted 2012 opts for a fictional and polished backdrop of Fairhaven City. The roads feel wider, the setting more sterile. You‘re not scavenging for parts or avoiding cops to build a ride – just aimlessly driving from event to event.
Verdict: Most Wanted 2005 authentically captures the street racing fantasy.
Story and Progression
Most Wanted 2005 has a strong narrative pushing you to beat the BLACKLIST kingpins one by one. You start with nothing and slowly build your reputation on the streets. Unlocking new safehouses and cutscenes makes it feel like you‘re films like Fast and Furious.
However, Most Wanted 2012 features a barebones plot merely to enable police pursuits. No need to beat drivers or prove anything. Just smash billboards of yourself. It doesn’t quite capture the same magic.
Verdict: The original Most Wanted tells an inspirational underdog story.
Customization
For many racing fans, modifying and tweaking your rides is an essential part of the fun. Most Wanted 2005 delivers this in spades with deep visual and performance customization options. Spoilers, body kits, neon, custom paint, performance upgrades and much more. You can spend hours fine-tuning your ride.
Yet in 2012, tuning options are stripped down to basic paint colors. No body kits, spoilers or performance parts to speak of. A hugely disappointing omission that angered fans.
Verdict: Most Wanted 2005 clearly wins when it comes to personalization.
Police Chases
Evading capture from the law is arguably the core theme shared between both Most Wanteds. The classic 2005 keeps cop pursuits tense and gritty, with tactics escalating as your heat level rises. By Heat 5 they’ll be deploying Corvettes, roadblocks and tactics to take you down hard.
The 2012 version goes all-in on the Hollywood blockbuster style chase sequences. Cops have seemingly endless numbers of cruisers, tyre spikes, helicopters with EMPs and anything to make the action over-the-top. Exhilarating yes, but less grounded than the 2005 original with its menacing pursuits.
Verdict: Most Wanted 2005 offers a realistic cop chase fantasy fulfilled.
Multiplayer
Given its 2005 release, the original Most Wanted unsurprisingly lacks any online multiplayer capabilities. It’s very much tuned for single player, something fans still appreciate almost two decades later.
In contrast, Autolog recommendations and seamless multiplayer integration is a highlight of 2012. Constant notifications and updates on friend’s times and records help motivate you improve your game. This social competition dynamic extends longevity and engagement.
Verdict: Most Wanted 2012 has excellent asynchronous multiplayer, but the single player experience suffers as a result of the shift.
|| Most Wanted 2005 | Most Wanted 2012 |
|–|–|–|
| Setting | Gritty realistic city, run-down safehouses | Fictional stylized city, no safehouses |
|Story and Progression | Taking on the BLACKLIST from the bottom | Less focus on story or character progression |
| Customization| Extensive customization of visual mods and performance upgrades to cars | Just paint color changes |
| Cop Chases | Gritty, realistic with aggressive tactics escalating based on heat level | Over-the-top Hollywood style pursuits with unlimited cruisers and toys |
| Multiplayer | None | Integrated via Autolog with asynchronous challenges |
Why Most Wanted 2005 Was Lightning In A Bottle
Most Wanted 2005 represented a perfect blend of elements that resonated strongly with racing fans and critics alike. It told an underdog redemption story leveraging illegal street racing culture and tuner customization to create an experience that felt distinctly "Need for Speed".
Giving players visual and performance customization options meant your vehicles felt truly personal. The BLACKLIST boss battles were magnificent high points punctuating your ascent. And the cop pursuits were perfectly balanced offering real peril without being unfair. Everything just clicked.
Upon release it became the highest rated and most critically-acclaimed NFS title dropping jaws with its graphics and cinematic qualities. It went onto become the best-selling racing game in the US across all platforms that year.
To this day fans and critics alike considers Most Wanted 2005 to be the best entry in the entire Need for Speed franchise thus far highlighting just how special the original release was. The bar was set extremely high.
Why Most Wanted 2012 Alienated Fans
With boots that big to fill, shifting developers from EA Black Box to Criterion Games was a risky move. And one that ultimately backfired.
The creative minds behind the Burnout series, Criterion Games had a distinctive style focusing on speed and stunts. And when reimagining Most Wanted, they stayed rigidly true to their formula sans any attempt to retain core elements like story or customization that defined the original.
As a result, rather than building on the strengths of the iconic and much-beloved 2005 release, Most Wanted 2012 ended up alienating fans by stripping away almost everything that made its namesake special.
No customization, no BLACKLIST storyline, no gritty city. Just joyless bland environments to tear through, free from consequence thanks to magically disappearing cops who barely hassle you. It felt more Burnout: Paradise than Most Wanted.
Despite boasting improved graphics and a robust multiplayer framework, fans craved the illegal street racing fantasy they knew and loved. Not some stunt-driven cop smashing simulator without soul. Most Wanted should feel personal, dangerous and emotional. The 2012 missed the mark completely in capturing the magic.
Reviews praised its gameplay yet criticized the lack of depth and sterile experience. Across forums and communities some branded it the worst NFS title ever made. Harsh, but it highlights the resentment burning amongst die-hard fans to this day.
The Most Wanted name seems irreparably damaged. What should have built upon the much-beloved original ended up driving away core fans significantly. A textbook example of what NOT to do when reinventing a franchise.
The Verdict: Most Wanted 2005 Stands The Test Of Time
While I enjoyed my time in Fairhaven City, the Most Wanted of 2012 lacks the vital street culture DNA that defined its iconic namesake. All style and no substance. It fails to fulfill the illegal street racing fantasy so beautifully encapsulated by the gritty and customization-focused 2005 original.
With its strong themes of camaraderie, consequences and redemption against the odds, Most Wanted 2005 was ahead of its time borrowing elements that only found mainstream appeal years later. It honours tuner culture through expansive modifications options. Something painfully absent from modern NFS titles.
For capturing lightning in a bottle back in 2005, I can forgive the odd clunky gameplay element or dated graphics. Because at its core lays an experience so lovingly crafted that I still happily revisit today. It set a high benchmark EA are still struggling to reach almost 20 years later across dozens of iterative sequels.
So while I enjoyed Most Wanted 2012 for what it was, nothing encapsulates the illegal street racing fantasy quite like the original 2005 release. It’s an iconic experience every racing fan should enjoy at least once. Just be sure to crank the volume first to fully appreciate those thunderous roars from your tuned BMW M3 GTR. This race isn’t over yet!
