Equipment in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is a series of items available to players to act as abilities that either help you or hinder your opponents, much like they do in other racing games.
The selection of equipment available differs with whether or not you’re playing as a racer or as a cop, as priority for each is different: racers are more focused on escaping the cops as well as disabling other cars, whereas the cops are focused on stopping the race at all costs. This means that some equipment is only usable by cops and the same goes for racers.
Using equipment has a recharge time and a limited number of uses so the idea is to optimize how you use them to get the best effect possible. Your limits on what you can use and how many times you use it depend on the car, whether or not you’re a racer, and the route you’re racing on.
As you use your equipment, though, they become more effective, as continued use contributes towards milestones and these can be used to upgrade equipment so it is essential that you use them wisely.
Helicopter
Helicopter is an equipment that is only useable by the cops and performs a couple of different functions:
Maintains pursuit contact with an additional engagement range
Drops spike strips ahead of the racing pack
Upgrading the Helicopter equipment increases its fuel capacity for additional deployment time, increases the length of spike strips deployed by it, and allows it to maintain contact with racers through tunnels.
Road Block
Roadblocks are blockades made up of SCPD vehicles and are used to either divert or stop racers entirely. They can be called in only by cops, placed ahead of racers, and can be upgraded through repeated use.
Upgraded roadblocks increase the effectiveness and size of said blocks.
Jammer
Jammer is a communication and equipment disruption ability available for racers. Activating the jammer disrupts the ability of cops to use their equipment and has the ability to sometimes deactivate already deployed equipment.
They can be activated by racers and can be upgraded the more it’s used. Upgrading jammers increases its duration and expands the effective radius.
Turbo
Turbo is a boost available for racers that cannot be deactivated once activated. It will only disengage once it has been depleted or if it is shut off through vehicle contact.
Activating a turbo will take a second to warm up before a power surge starts. During the surge, the car will speed up to or beyond its top speed.
This equipment can be activated by races and can be upgraded the more it’s used. Upgrading it increases duration and acceleration up to and beyond the car’s top speed.
EMP
EMP (or electromagnetic pulse) is equipment available for cops that are designed to disrupt the electronics of a targeted vehicle.
Activating an EMP will start off by choosing a target vehicle which, after a successful lock-on, fires an EMP pulse. For cops, it will target the closest racer; for racers, it will target the closest opponent, including cops.
Once an EMP pulse has been fired off at a targeted vehicle, the vehicle will be temporarily disabled, forcing the car to slide out and damage it. Vehicles that have taken a lot of damage may be taken down by an EMP pulse.
An EMP can be upgraded by using it repeatedly and upgrading it will decrease its lock-on time, increase the damage it deals, and increase its range.
Spike Strip
Spike Strips are pretty self-explanatory: they’re strips that are laid out on the road and have spikes pointing out, meant to damage a car’s tires to the point of making a car unable to proceed.
Activating a spike strip in-game will deploy the strip on the road behind you and will expand behind you to a certain length depending on how far you’ve upgraded the equipment.
When a car drives over a spike strip, they will spin out while taking on a bit of damage. While the car’s tires aren’t actually punctured like they would be in real life, the spinning out that’s caused by this as well as the actual vehicle damage that’s dealt may cause a crash so be on the lookout for these strips.
These can be used by cops or racers and can be upgraded through repeated use. Upgrading spike strips will increase their length and the amount that drops when deployed.
I haven’t always found a lot of use for all of these as I’m a fan of the Spike Strips more than any others but I think every Equipment has its place in Hot Pursuit Remastered.
Be sure to check out our review of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered!
Published: Nov 9, 2020 01:08 pm