Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is a 2002 racing video game, serving as the debut Need for Speed title from EA Black Box, and the first Need for Speed game for the sixth generation of consoles. It is the sixth installment in the Need for Speed series and is the sequel to the 1998 racing game Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. It is also the last Need for Speed game of the series' first era, as the following game would reboot the series to focus on the tuner culture. In 2002, the game was awarded "Console Racing Game of the Year" at the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. Like Porsche Unleashed before it, Hot Pursuit 2 was not released in Japan.
As with the original, the player also has the option to play as a police officer trying to arrest speeders. To do so the player rams the speeding vehicle multiple times to disable it. The player must turn on their lights and sirens while in pursuit, and they automatically turn off after arresting the suspect. Police can call for a barricade, additional units, "Unit 9" in broadcasting assistance (PS2 Only), spike strips, and request help from a helicopter to assist in chasing the target vehicle. At the end, the player is awarded for the cars busted. In the PlayStation 2 version this mode is called You're the Cop mode while in the PC, GameCube, and Xbox versions it's Be the Cop mode.
NFS Edition cars are also in this game, the cars are the same as you see above, the cars are just slightly modified. However, in the PS2 version, the BMW cars didn't get their corresponding NFS Edition remakes. This was because of a licensing policy by BMW that restricted unauthorized vehicular modifications. Also in the PS2 version, The Ferrari 360 Spider didn't get its corresponding NFS Edition remake as well due to the Ferrari 360 Modena Challenge as an alternative and that car is a PS2 exclusive whereas it was not available on the other versions, instead, they had the NFS edition 360 Spider.
Races take place in four environments which differ in atmosphere, with a handful of courses per environment. The different courses in an environment are formed by different roads being connected or separated by road blocks. A fictional tropical island, reminiscent of Hawaii, is the most varied environment; the track traverses a city, volcano, waterfall, beach, forest, and two villages. The coastal forest environment, reminiscent of the Washington coast because of its forest and nature, sometimes has foggy weather, but this does not effectively limit visibility during races. The Mediterranean coast which resembles Greece because of the stadium and a building which resembles Parthenon and so-called Alpine environments that resemble Alaska are more homogeneous, with little variation except the occasional short cut. The PS2 version also contains a Desert environment that bares resemblance to Thunder Mesa that sometimes has thunder storms. Compared to the original Hot Pursuit, which features weather and day/night variation independent of track, and widely varying environments from snowy mountains over cities to desert, Hot Pursuit 2 courses have significantly less variation.
Hot Pursuit 2 is also the first in the series to lack an in-car view that was available in preceding Need for Speed titles. There is only a "driver's perspective" view available, without a visible dashboard. Although the PlayStation 2 version does have a cockpit view during the final stages of the game's Championship and Ultimate Racer modes.
Maxim gave the PS2 version a perfect ten and stated that it "not only gives you the keys to more than 20 exotic cars, it also gives you the unsurpassed joy of leaving traffic cops in the dust." Entertainment Weekly gave the game a B+ and stated, "Killer aerial shots, intense chases, and a rock-infused soundtrack make for a heart-pounding ride." BBC Sport gave the GameCube version a score of 80% and stated that "With plenty of racing challenges it should have a decent amount of longevity but their repetitive nature might grate for some." AllGame also gave the PS2 version a score of four stars out of five and said that it "offers a[n] impressive amount of arcade-style fun bolstered by the number and variety of courses, challenging Hot Pursuit mode, and excellent lineup of vehicles."
The Xbox, Gamecube & PC ports were highly given lower scores for being "made from scratch", and ending up inferior to the PS2 version. With slower car pacing, lack of major features and dumber A.I. receiving criticism in particular. However, they did praise some of the graphical improvements.
At EA's conference for E3 2010, it was announced and shown that a new Need for Speed, aptly called Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, was unveiled. It was developed by Criterion Games, the developers who created the award-winning Burnout franchise. The game was released on November 16, 2010 in North America, and on November 19, 2010 in Europe.

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