Gimme a Break

Borrowing a page from equally high-stakes outing Burnout Revenge™, underground street racer Need for Speed™ Most Wanted finds a welcome addition with a show-stopping "speedbreaker" features.

As in the aforementioned game, such functions have a marked effect on play, turning once willy-nilly sprints through twisting city streets into much more strategic affairs. Putting more control in your hands, the option—which slows time so you're provided with a greater chance to react to any given situation—renders it possible to face the many challenges which await wannabe wheelmen.

Let others fight for command of their cars
—you'll be riding in style.

Cheaters Always Prosper
Think of it as an essential everyday tool as you go about pursuing your newfound life of crime. After all, working one's way up the blacklist—and recovering from spinouts caused by intelligent rivals shoving you towards tollbooths or medians—is impossible without playing dirty.

The speedbreaker does allow you to cheat, in a sense, by letting you gain the momentum necessary to smash through roadblocks or by buying you enough time to screech around hairpin curves without kissing concrete.

White lines, running through my mind …

In other words, without it, you'd be roadkill … or, at the very least, spending an inordinate amount of time behind bars. But let's focus on the positive, shall we? Specifically, the three chief benefits you gain by bringing the speedbreaker to bear.

For starters, consider the perks associated with the time-warping effect. Now you can skid through openings in police driving formations just before they box you in. Slip between oncoming vehicles in a shower of sparks as pursuing cops slam bumper first into unavoidable collisions.

Swing out into massive powerslides, all but driving sideways, screeching around sharp curves without missing a beat while rivals flounder. Swerve towards shortcuts at the last possible second, shaving precious seconds off your lap time.

Riding High

While a speedbreaker is active, your vehicle's maneuverability also increases as well. Suddenly, that Aston Martin DB9, Corvette C6, or Porsche 911 Turbo S won't seem so hard to control. That's because your tires' grip improves, too, making it less likely you go veering off-course.

Albeit not as much of a factor on straight-aways, think about how big of an advantage this is when you floor it around curving sections of track. Let others fight for command of their own cars; you'll be riding in style. It's an especially useful bonus when attempting to knock structures down onto opponents, tag pursuit breaker icons, dodge lethal spike strips, quickly settle into hiding spots, or otherwise evade capture.

That's why they call it tunnel vision.

Last, but not least, you'll also find that during speedbreaker sequences, the mass of your vehicle increases exponentially. Because of this, you pack much more of a wallop on impact and—in many cases—you're able to bust through roadblocks like a rampaging elephant.

Speed through traffic jams, shoving Sunday drivers out of the way like they were Matchbox toys. While brute force won't always get you far (try aiming for the back end of cars blocking the course, not the front), the more of a punch you pack upon colliding with obstacles, the better. For you, that is, not your victims' soon-to-be shattered sides and windshields.

Burnin' Rubber

Of course, the better you become at using the speedbreaker, the more likely you are to piss off the police and increase your bounty level. While useful for impressing rival drivers, it's a guaranteed way to make sure ever tougher government-sponsored adversaries from sedans to SUVs to helicopters are sent in pursuit. Of course, it assures that you need to rely on this feature with growing frequency—not necessarily a good thing, as speedbreakers only last a few seconds at a time.

And away he goes!

Always keep an eye on your reserves (the orange bar with the stopwatch icon near it, located above the speedometer on the right-hand side of the screen). Once depleted, speedbreaker abilities are slowly regained by maintaining high speeds for a prolonged period of time.

Refill the meter faster by drifting—the longer and wider the drift you pull off, the quicker it fills up. It's never wise to squander your stocks unnecessarily; you never know when a quick burst of power will be the difference between freedom and singing the jailhouse blues.

Good luck and Godspeed; although, in truth and as explained above, one tap on the controller's enough to reveal you've already got all the help you need when it comes to ruling the road.

Article by Steve Richter