| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| Plug-and-Play | 7.20 |
| Overall | 7.20 |
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Need for Speed Rivals can be classified as an open world racer but I believe racer is not the proper term for this kind of game. It is almost an open world car combat game where the main goal is to either capture or avoid capture with the use of all sorts of cool gadgets. I don't believe there has been a racing game quite like this before and it took me many hours before I even knew if I enjoyed it or not. There are two campaigns to Rivals, one as a racer and the other as a cop. As a racer your goal is to get out into the world and compete in races, time trials and other similar events to gain points which can be used to buy better cars and upgrades. When you exit your garage (your main menu) you can jump out into any event or base point on the map. The second you are out on the world you begin to build a multiplier that increases as you perform events or pull off skill moves like drifting. The higher the multiplier goes the more points you earn but the hotter your heat meter gets which is how much attention your car gets from the cops. Eventually an entire squad of cops and choppers will be chasing you all over the map even in the middle of a race. If you are captured you lose all the points you earned, to save those points you must bank them into your base. The trick is to play enough to gain a high multiplier and many points but not to overstay your welcome as you can lose it all instantly. The game structure makes it feel like a gigantic game of cat and mouse which can lead to some very exciting moments. At the start you won't attempt to perform many events before banking scores since you are a weakling with little defenses. As you go deeper into the story your car will become an almost Knight Rider like badass with emp defense, super turbo, electricity field, mines, and a shockwave. The cops have their own powers mainly stuff to take you down like road blocks, helicopter support, and emp lock on missiles. When you are on the road for over 20 minutes with a 10x multiplier and every cop in the game after you it is an absolute thrill as you try to reach your nearest base. There is a story and I use that term as loosely as possible cause a bunch of randomly cut pictures with a voice over speaking the most generic drivel like "the cops are our rival, we must show them we cant be controlled" is not really a story. To progress in the game the player chooses a certain type of goal, one of three in each tier, each have their own goals. For instance it could be gold two hot pursuit races, gain 30000 points in one run and perform a jump of 150 feet. When you accomplish those goals you unlock the next tier with more goals to complete. At the end of each goal you gain a level which allows access to more cars and powers. So that is how the game is structured; but is it fun? Yes it is but at the same time this structure takes away from what should be the main purpose of a racer, which is racing. Racing is an afterthought, personally I found them to be generally easy and it was only when the cops interfered when any race became interesting. What is worse is that the game world is extremely bland and uneventful. It feels like a mash of generic game locations, minus a volcano (but if there was a volcano I wouldn't be surprised. This is a game where you drive from a desert right into a snow filled mountain). There are no land marks and there does not seem to be any grand design to the roads making every race a boring ride through varied scenery. The online component to Rivals is a poorly executed good idea. Up to six other players can populate the same world, they can be racers or cops. This would be great if the world wasn't so big meaning you would hardly ever meet these people unless you totally go out of your way to reach them but by then you are in danger of being caught, plus they are doing their own thing meaning they don't want to play with you. There is zero incentive to actually race with one another or aid each other in any way. The only time online play actually works is when a cop chases a racer, I found this to be thrilling when I was a cop but even this is a pain in the ass as they run into a base quickly ending your chase at any moment. If the online portion was well designed I could see huge potential, as it is now it simply feels like playing offline. While I believe this is a poorly designed game I couldn't help becoming addicting to it. The controls are great and the car combat generally feels fantastic, you can feel the Burnout DNA following through the action. I greatly enjoyed playing as a cop as the focus is on knocking out racers which is a blast. The constant leveling up and the way there are events around every corner gives the game an addictive quality. Graphically the car models are not the most impressive nor is the game world all that detailed. On the PS4 the most impressive graphical feat is how smooth it all runs. There is a licensed soundtrack that hardly plays because the in game score kicks in any time you begin a chase, which is almost all the time. Both the licensed music and original score is exactly what one would expect from a game like this. Need for Speed Rivals is a good game that could have been great with a better game world, better online and more emphasis on the actual racing. The core gameplay provides plenty of thrills and makes this game worth playing. It may not be at the levels of the Burnout games but still enjoyable, those looking for games on the PS4 should give this game a try if the concept sounds intriguing. |
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Posted by Dvader Sat, 28 Dec 2013 05:34:31
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Dvader (2s)
I spent hundreds of hours playing co-op couch with Rush 2049's combat mode.
The brand is confused.