Need For Speed: A racing title that is familiar with many gamers and even beyond. While the franchise is associated with arcade racing, there have been numerous ventures taken in the past decade to give it a revamped identity. After appealing to the mainstream market with the Underground Series right up to the Carbon era, the series pursued a few unorthodox themes including legalised street racing (ProStreet), cops vs racers (Hot Pursuit & Rivals) and even attempted to crack the sim racing market (Shift). However, none of these ventures managed to capture the same market leading to Ghost Games rebooting the series to follow the theme of the mid-00's Need For Speed games. What we've ended up with is a game set at night in a fictional city featuring customisable cars and a story line with live-action cutscenes, just like the most popular games in the Need For Speed series.
Need For Speed is about increasing your rep by mastering the "Five Ways To Play". Positioned an an anonymous racer, the first-person story mode features "Icons" the player must acquire the attention of to become the master of the following aspects:
- Build: Tuning your car to reach its maximum potential
- Crew: Co-operating with other racers and driving as one
- Style: Driving with speed and style as you jump and drift your way around Ventura Bay
- Speed: Racing to destinations as quickly as possible
- Outlaw: Causing havoc and escaping from the police
After a couple of weeks of playing the full game, I can report my impressions of the full game. The beginning is largely the same as my Open Beta review so have a look there for my initial experience. However, I started with the BRZ instead of the Civic which proved to be a much better choice! The rest of the review will answer my thoughts on some of the most vital aspect of the game.
We have seen previews showing this game is eye candy. How does it look in reality?
Need For Speed is powered by EA's Frostbite graphics engine. The Run was the first game to utilise this asset and that was an impressive looking game, and that was for last-gen consoles. Fast Forward to today and players can see the graphics engine flex its muscles on current gen hardware. If you thought the previews were touched up to make this game look better than it plays, I can assure you that is not the case. Need For Speed looks sublime in motion - The scenery appears to be always wet but I when the game is set at night with lights all around, the water reflections help brightening things up a bit.
Yours eyes are not the only sense getting a treat - the sounds are on point too. An article on Speedhunters shows the extent the development team goes to provide accurate sounds. The result is a more immersive experience as you get to witness all the sounds a car makes at high speeds.
So this game knows how to present itself . How about the physics?
I'm not gonna lie, they take a while to get used to. Unlike most arcade racing games, you feel like there is a learning curve and once you do master it, it feels rewarding. Getting hold of the physics can be aided by tuning the handling of your car towards grip or drift. It is advisable to have a setting which favours the latter option because there are is a significant number of events which require drifting, not to mention how quickly you can build rep from kicking the tail out. Overall, the physics bode well for a fast-paced action racing game.
So far, so good! What about the cars?
Out of the box, Need For Speed comes with 50 cars. Slightly disappointing considering you can get rivalling games with many more, but the cars manage to cater to most tastes. You get classic lightweights, Japanese tuners, American Muscle, European exotics and they've even thrown in a track-ready Lotus Exige S for extra variety. The ace Ghost Games have up their sleeve is deep customisation. There is a wrap editor which provide a wide array of decals you can place on your car and a colour palette which you can fine tune to find the right shade and finish for you. Performance customisation also provides enough options to take some of the slowest cars in the game to fully built racers capable of surpassing the 200mph mark.
Visual customisation is a mixed bag. Starting with the Subaru BRZ presented me with a plethora of body panels to change and really make my car my own. However, when moving to a Focus RS (pictured above), there were hardly any options. To be fair, the RS just came out and there are virtually no licensed parts for it, but it the the same story for a number of cars in the game. The number of customisation options greatly varies between cars and cars like the Ferrari 458 can only be equipped with one bodykit. But we all know how stingy Ferrari is when it comes to having their cars represented in video games. So in this aspect, Need For Speed is under-performing as things stand.
Oh... sounds like things are going downhill. What else is wrong?
It's no use complaining about the car count when there is a bigger issue at stake - You can only have 5 cars in your garage. Yes, a car limit is nothing new in Need For Speed but at least you had a free play mode when you could store up to 20 cars, pick and mix customisation items for free and race whenever you like. With Need For Speed 2015, every part of gameplay is seamlessly blended together so there is no alternative mode for casual races.
Oh, and I haven't even got that far into the "joys" of always-on online. For starters, no internet connection = obsolete software. There is no pause button so if you are in the middle of a heat 5 police chase and urgently need to leave your game, you have to pay the hefty fine you have racked up. For some reason, someone at Ghost Games thought it would be a good idea to have other AI and players in your world which aren't racing you be present during an event. I can't count the number of times I've been taking out by a non-competitor driving the wrong way down a single carriageway.
Sounds disappointing. Is it still worth picking up then?
Bearing in mind the Need For Speed started on the wrong foot this decade, the effort Ghost Games is going through to rescue this title has to be appreciated. I say going through because Ghost Games have promised free content updates for the months ahead, ensuring there is always something new to do in Need For Speed. I actually think Ghost Games have done a superb job with Need For Speed despite some of the issues I've picked up on. It is reminiscent of the Underground era and throws in some modern touches too - I'm interested in seeing where this game is heading in the future and if you are into arcade racing games, you should be too!
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