Need for Speed: Carbon

Overview

Need for Speed: Carbon is a 2006 racing game and the tenth entry in the series. EA Black Box led development and Electronic Arts published it. It takes place in the made-up city of Palmont, which is divided into four boroughs connected by highways.

Gameplay centres on illegal street races in several formats, including circuit races, sprints, checkpoint runs and drifting. Players drive licensed cars sorted into tiers and into Exotic, Tuner and Muscle classes, and can upgrade and customize them. Police pursuits return from Most Wanted, with rising heat bringing harsher tactics. Canyon events, inspired by Japanese touge racing, add duels with destructible guardrails. In Career mode the player builds a crew, recruits wingmen and takes over territories, and the Challenge Series has 12 categories with three difficulty levels each.

The story begins years before Most Wanted, when the player's character is set up during a race that ends in a police ambush. Darius and Nikki help the player escape, but the prize money turns out to be paper. The bounty hunter Jonathan Cross later chases the player through a canyon, and the player rebuilds a crew and fights rival gangs for the city. Nikki reveals that Darius engineered the setup, joins the player against him, and the player wins his Audi Le Mans quattro.

The game was first shown at E3 2006 and was a magazine cover story in July 2006. It reused some cars from Underground 2 and Most Wanted and added new ones, including the Audi Le Mans quattro, Chrysler 300C SRT 8, Chevrolet Chevelle SS and Alfa Romeo Brera. Trevor Morris composed the score. It was the first game in the series to use facial motion capture for characters in cutscenes on Windows and seventh-generation consoles, which includes the Xbox 360.

Carbon launched in North America on 31 October 2006, with later releases in Europe and Australia. The Collector's Edition added extra cars, races and vinyls. The Xbox 360 version holds 77 out of 100 on Metacritic. Critics praised the customization, story and gameplay but criticized the underused police chases and frustrating boss battles. It sold 3.2 million copies in the United States.

Gameplay

Need For Speed Carbon - HD quality - Gameplay 2, Darío Casanovas. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Racing

Developer

EA Black Box

Publisher

Electronic Arts

Series

Need for Speed (tenth main entry; follows Most Wanted)

Composers

Trevor Morris

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

split-screen in Quick Race

Online multiplayer

Yes

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Achievements

Achievements50 (1,000G)

Total

50

Gamerscore

1000

• Complete Career Complete Career Mode 50G 57.05% of players
• Conqueror Complete Career Mode and own every race 70G 42.59% of players
• Crusher Ram 100 police vehicles in a single pursuit while in Career Freeroam 25G 4.41% of players
• 12 Minute Exit Escape after a 12 minute police pursuit in Career Freeroam 5G 45.59% of players
• Perfect Canyon Duel Win a Canyon Duel with no collisions 5G 27% of players
• Drift King Score 500,000 points in a Drift event 10G 20.36% of players
• Career Mogul Earn 1,000,000 cash in Career Mode 10G 10.74% of players
• Bronze Challenge Series Champ Beat all Bronze Challenge Series Events 10G 30.24% of players
• Silver Challenge Series Champ Beat all Silver Challenge Series Events 20G 18.2% of players
• Gold Challenge Series Champ Beat all Gold Challenge Series Events 30G 11.54% of players
• Fast Wheels Cause 200,000 Cost to State in a single pursuit while in Career Freeroam 20G 36.88% of players
• Need for Speed Hit 230 Mph in a Speedtrap 20G 11.23% of players
• Public Enemy No. 1 Disable 50 police vehicles while in Career Freeroam 10G 11.52% of players
• Wheels of Steel Avoid 5 spike strips in a police pursuit while in Career Freeroam 5G 28.38% of players
• Big Game Hunter Immobilize a police Rhino while in Career Freeroam 10G 39.81% of players
• Urban Battle Win 50 Free Roam Challenges in Career Mode 10G 1.34% of players
• Car Collector Unlock 36 Cars 15G 35.44% of players
• Muscle Head Fill your Career Garage with only Muscle Cars 25G 19.82% of players
• Tuner Addict Fill your Career Garage with only Tuner Cars 25G 21.29% of players
• Exotic Aficionado Fill your Career Garage with only Exotic Cars 25G 19.82% of players
• Reward Card Hustler Complete every offline and online Reward Cards 100G 1.87% of players
• Head Start Win a Online race at York Road after giving your opponents a 10 second head start 25G Needs online 9.96% of players
• Race Week Finish an Online race during a Race Week 15G Needs online 29.76% of players
• Online Lieutenant Play 50 games Online 15G Needs online 8.72% of players
• Online General Play 100 games Online 25G Needs online 6.27% of players
• Lucky Break Get a 3 game winning streak in Ranked Online games 10G Needs online 13.84% of players
• Rock Solid Get a 5 game winning streak in Ranked Online games 20G Needs online 10.63% of players
• Online Challenge Contender Beat 5 Challenge Series Events Online 5G Needs online 9.91% of players
• Online Challenge Champ Beat 15 Challenge Series Events Online 10G Needs online 6.42% of players
• Showboat Cross the finish line in reverse to win a ranked Sprint race 25G Needs online 11.79% of players
• Hot Streak Get a 4 game winning streak in Ranked Online games 10G Needs online 11.77% of players
• Iron Man Get a 6 game winning streak in Ranked Online games 30G Needs online 9.85% of players
• First Steps Finish an Online Ranked race or Online Challenge Series race 5G Needs online 37.02% of players
• Moderator Challenge Beat an EA Moderator in an Online game 30G Needs online 3.57% of players
• Knockout Fever Catch Knockout Fever by playing an Online Pursuit Knockout race with an infected player 10G Needs online 18.28% of players
• Canyon Craze Catch Canyon Craze by playing an Online Canyon Duel with an infected player 10G Needs online 14.42% of players
• Pursuit Pandemic Catch the Pursuit Pandemic by playing an Online Pursuit Tag game with an infected player 10G Needs online 19.8% of players
• The Carbon Plague Catch the Carbon Plague by catching all 3 other viruses 20G Needs online 10.61% of players
• Online XP Level 1 Reach Online XP Level 1 5G Needs online 34.88% of players
• Online XP Level 2 Reach Online XP Level 2 5G Needs online 26.45% of players
• Online XP Level 4 Reach Online XP Level 4 5G Needs online 18.37% of players
• Online XP Level 6 Reach Online XP Level 6 10G Needs online 14.18% of players
• Online XP Level 9 Reach Online XP Level 9 10G Needs online 10.28% of players
• Online XP Level 13 Reach Online XP Level 13 10G Needs online 7.34% of players
• Online XP Level 18 Reach Online XP Level 18 15G Needs online 5.34% of players
• Online XP Level 23 Reach Online XP Level 23 15G Needs online 4.22% of players
• Online XP Level 29 Reach Online XP Level 29 20G Needs online 3.55% of players
• Online XP Level 35 Reach Online XP Level 35 30G Needs online 3.14% of players
• Online XP Level 42 Reach Online XP Level 42 40G Needs online 2.86% of players
• Online XP Level 50 Reach Online XP Level 50 60G Needs online 2.7% of players

Playable today

Online

Online play for Need for Speed: Carbon has been shut down, and download versions are no longer sold in any online store. Only the Career campaign and local Quick Race can be played, and the online achievements can no longer be earned.

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	Xbox 360	77	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
GameSpot	7.6	10

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Composer	Trevor Morris

Cast

Character	Actor
Nikki	Emmanuelle Vaugier
Darius	Tahmoh Penikett
Neville	Chris Gauthier
Sal	Elias Toufexis
Kenji	Ken Kirby
Angie	Danielle Kremeniuk
Wolf	Shaw Madson
Yumi	Melody
Colin	Steve Lawlor
Samson	Noah Danby

Notes for collectors

• The Collector's Edition adds four exclusive cars, ten pre-tuned cars and a bonus DVD.
• Canyon duels are inspired by Japanese touge racing and have destructible guardrails.
• 29 of the 50 achievements need online play, so a full 1,000 gamerscore is no longer possible.
• Reward Card Hustler (all offline and online Reward Cards) is the rarest of the big ones, earned by under 2 percent of tracked players.
• It sold 3.2 million copies in the United States.

Credits

Region

US

Time to beat

about 11.5 hours