The first NFS game in ages that is even worth trying out, but only if you like to drive cars on time trial runs.
I played this game with a gamepad and the pressure sensitive buttons and analog control change the whole experience from completely frustrating to tolerable. It seems they forgot to test the vibration feedback however since 50% of the time it only works with half the intensity and pretty often it is completely dead.
This game has some really random flaws that the developers and producers could have easily improved, but they didnt.
a) For example the driver level cap is only 20. Why? Did they think right from the start that noone would waste more than 10 hours on this game, because thats about the time it takes to reach max lvl. You will not be given any bonus money after reaching lvl 20, so you will either have to grind for money, or just sell some of the cars you have.
b) Also you can only obtain some of the cars in game by winning certain races, but you can only win them once, so after you purchase the works kit for that car, the stock version is lost to you forever. Why could they not just make those cars available in the car lot aswell? Such limitations are completely unnecessary, completely useless and serve only to annoy the player. So why include them?
c) The cut detection is sometimes completely off the wall, it detects most times when you go off track as cutting, even if you simply made a mistake and wasnt able to return onto the track quick enough, and in some gamemodes you will even receive an instant disqualify.
d) Why is there no time trial game mode under the quick race options, is it so unspeakable to allow the player to simply make it convenient to drive ALONE, from a just for achieving a good laptime. Instead we have this„time attack".... whatever that is supposed to be, that gives you random disqualifys.
Also, they seem to have pointed this game at a younger audience with countless unskippable cutscenes with some random faces trying way too hard to look cool.
2 HUGE gripes I have with this game are: collision physics and night racing.
1) collision physics – I mean, what in the world were they thinking with this? The only difficulty in the races is avoiding the other cars successfully. Its not hard to drive faster than the AI, once you in the lead, its just smooth sailing, but hell did they make it frustrating to get to the lead. If you even so much as touch an AI driver you will spin out, hit a wall or roll over. This makes the racing part of the game a ZERO for me. I will honestly never play a race again after Im done with the career mode. It is a completely wasted mode, there is absolutely zero fun in spinning and flying hopelessly after a long race where in the end you accidentally SLIGHTLY touched a rival car. Its frustrating to think they are marketing this game as a racing game, while the reality is that you cannot truly race in this game. All you can do is restart the race until you gain the lead after the first corner and then just sail the remaning laps.
2) night racing – now I understand that some people will probably like night races, but I personally dont find any fun in my eyesight being taken away. Would have been humane if they included an option in the career mode whether I want to drive at night or day but I guess thats too much to ask. Whenever there is a night race in career mode I just switch on the best line and get it done with because I really dont care.
Graphics: 7/10
The cars look very nice, tracks look decent on driver level, some nice weather effects, however tracks are not so good when shown from afar.
Sound: 7/10
First thing that I changed in the options was to turn off that horrible, annoying voice. Most cars sound good and powerful, but others are just ridiculously high in the mix even to the point of clipping.
Gameplay: 5/10
The handling physics are good enough, its generally fun to drive but ONLY if you are driving alone. As soon as you have to compete with the AI you will be cursing this game to hell because of the utterly awkward and random collision physics.
Replay value: 8/10
I rated this high because while I dont really care for the racing, the thing I like most about this game is that there are plenty of nice tracks and cars to do time trial runs. Imrpoving nordschleife times with various cars, is something I will probably be doing a long time since now.
In conclusion, I would say it is the first NFS game in ages that is even worth trying out, but only if you like to drive cars on time trial runs. The racing part is completely lost on this one, you only have to suffer through the career mode to earn enough money to buy the cars you want.
Overall: 5,5/10