[rwp-review id=”0″]
One thing needs to be stated before I go any further with this review – I have little to no faith in the success of reboots. This reservation stems from the almost consistent pattern of reboots being complete misinterpretations of the source material. Prime examples that come to mind are Duke Nukem, Thief, and DmC: Devil May Cry. This isn’t to say that reboots can’t be successful; Tomb Raider is a recent example of how a franchise can be revitalized with components that cater to the new wave of gamers while maintaining traces of the original series that give it an air of nostalgia. However, reboots can also be the equivalent of a man foaming at the mouth from avarice, bludgeoning a race horse with a crowbar and then expecting that battered race horse to win first place; aimless and self-defeating. Need For Speed falls smack in the middle of this spectrum.
NFS runs off the Frostbite engine, and it really shows! The engine renders a certain immaculate beauty to the gritty roads, landscapes, and cars of Ventura Bay; a gorgeous mix of neon with gloss that is lightly dabbed across everything in this game. Thus, as your car roars through the desolate streets and highways; as the light from the street lamps reflect off the body as the rain skids off the trembling hood; as the screen blurs as you pull off drift with the fender inches from the railing – all these come together to create a truly jaw-dropping cinematic-esque experience. Half my playthrough was comprised of me cruising (at 200 km/h, of course) and exploring nooks and crannies, trying to unravel the hidden beauty of the city. Yet, on that journey to find more depth to Ventura Bay, my discoveries were less than phenomenal – the city is held together by vapid beauty with very little richness or diversity to the locations that stitch Ventura Bay together. Genuinely, all I can remember from my playthrough and exploration is the mountain highways, city streets and a couple of bridges; the game offers very little in terms of locales within the set locations of the game. At some point, speeding through Ventura Bay feels like you’re driving in circles around the same five blocks. Also, the game has a gimmick in which the gameplay only takes place at night with momentary instances of the light of dawn breaking faintly across the sky and then somehow the city being blanketed into darkness again – the reasoning for this being that, logically, illegal street races should only take place under the cover of night when there are fewer police and civilian vehicles on the road. All this is makes sense but it detracts from the experience because after a while Ventura Bay feels devoid of any vibrancy, and it doesn’t help that the only two climate changes are rain and no-rain. The epicness of speeding through highways as raindrops splatter across your screen loses its visual awe after the first 60 times that it takes place in a span of 3-4 hours.
Now, what about the gameplay itself? Does the game redeem itself there? Yes – for the most part. The visual customization is heavily detailed this time around – be it from the color variations that can be applied, to the decals that can be placed figuratively anywhere, to the stance of the car – the game really emphasizes ‘vehicle personalization’. In terms of performance customization, there are a lot of options! When it comes to what’s under the hood – there is an abundance of options to purchase in order to bring out the most in your car. Coupled with this the ability to fine tune your cars handling – be it a drift car, a speedster or somewhere in between. For this feature you’re given 16 slider options that let you tweak various aspects of your car –from steer response to downforce – and these tunings can be felt when you finally take your car on the road. Both the exhaustive visual and performance customization helps immerse the player into the game world by making them believe that ride is actually their own.
Ventura Bay is littered with multiple events that range from drift events to time trials; and the game is setup in such a way that players can go through five different disciplines – Speed, Style, Crew, Build, and Outlaw. Players can partake in events specialized to each of the aforementioned aspects and in turn earn points that go towards your rep which consequently helps unlock upgrades and vehicles. For newcomers to the racing franchise, there is a bit of a learning curve as it takes a while to get a handle on drifting and speed control but at the end of the day it is rewarding. Also due to the eclectic range of vehicles, there’s always a bit of learning that comes with a new car and having a grasp of its handling. When it comes down to the driving portion of NFS, there is never a dull moment.
For a reboot, Ghost Studios has breathed new life into the NFS franchise with strong driving gameplay and customization but, at the same time, they have managed to pollute its veins with features that are redundant to say the least. The always-online aspect of the game is more of a hurdle than anything else, mainly due to the fact that you can never pause at any point in the game. I felt the burden of this feature when I was in the middle of a police chase and I had racked up a high fine, when all of a sudden my cat decided to maul my leg. So I had two options – either pause the game to shoo my cat away or continue playing. Let’s just say that I found out that medical bills for stitches are not cheap. The reason for ‘always online’ is that your world is supposed to become dynamic with other players roaming about in the city to whom you can send challenge requests as well as requests to help in certain events, The problem with this concept is that the servers only allow a scarce amount of players at one go, thus, I infrequently came across other players in my locale. However, when I did – I was busy going to my next race event and I couldn’t be bothered to engage them. Even the customization feels a bit blemished because the features extensiveness doesn’t reach to all cars in the game especially most of those in the exotic range. Combined with this is the letdown that your garage can only house five cars at a time; this is going to cause a lot of decisive conundrums for ‘collector’ gamer. I would also state how abysmal the storyline is but then again the NFS franchise has been infamous for having narratives and characters that seem to be penned by a bunch of inebriated, snapback-wearing, collar-popping frat boys who all happened to be named Chad.
Given the fact that this reboot is only the second game that Ghost Studios has developed, it’s quite a remarkable game and definitely a stepping stone in the right direction of maybe creating another ‘NFS: Underground’. Need For Speed did justice to the franchise by having solid gameplay mechanics and being visually stunning, it is something that I would highly recommend to someone who only cares about the core features of a driving game – the drive itself. But to those that want more from the racing genre, NFS isn’t recommendable because all the extras the game has to offer end up feeling trivial especially the concept of being always being online. NFS is a game that can grip your attention for days but once you keep driving around in that rain for long enough, you just might see the paint drip off and trust me – what’s underneath isn’t really that pretty.
