The career path is simple to understand and presented well. In order to advance and challenge the next person on the ‘blacklist’, the player must get a certain amount of bounty and win a particular number of challenges. These challenges include races such as drag, circuit, tollbooth (get from one to the next in a certain amount of time), patrol cameras (race past them going a certain MPH), and sprint races. Challenges are particularly easy, as there is no limit on the number of times the player can complete a certain race. Bounty is a whole different story…
Raising the value of your head is the most fun part of the entire game. Basically, there are a whole bunch of cops alerted to your presence, and you are thrown right into the middle of it. From there, the goal of the mission is to outrun the cops while causing as many traffic infractions as possible, and then find a place to hide until they lose sight of the car.
This sounds much easier than it actually is. Cops are constantly calling for back-up and establishing road blocks that must be crashed through at rather high speeds. After several minutes of high speed chase, the ‘po po’ will change from the traditional Crown Vicky Fords to Pontiac GTOs, which are much MUCH harder to outrun. Cops can be thwarted by hitting big orange signs along the road called “police breakers”. These tend to be rotted buildings that will fall on the cop cars, slowing them down or perhaps completely smashing their cars.
Lastly, racking up bounty in this mode also includes piling up the number of traffic infractions that the cops were unable to serve. Infractions include hit and runs, pile-driving police cars, speeding, reckless driving, driving off or heading the wrong direction on a road, or destroying state property.
Besides running from the cops to raise your bounty, your car must also demolish as much public and state property as possible in “Cost to State” mode. This includes anything and everything from police cars to telephone poles and toll booths. The longer the pursuit and the most stuff your car hits are combined together to raise your bounty.
Don’t think your Lambo is invincible though; if the cops catch it by surrounding the car due to a crash or failure to break through a roadblock, there is a hefty fine and the car gets impounded. Not fun.
