let me first start off by saying ive rewrote this review 3 times already. at first the game just ticked me off, then i had no clue what i was doing, then i was mad that they changed the concept from hot pursuit. then after i got all that anger away and played it for a few days and knew what was going on ive been playing it nonstop. my negative review was bugging me so i decided to change it yet again
first off like i said the game is really confusing at first if you played hot pursuit on ps3. If you cant figure out how to play the game i made a "how to" video for beginners at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee2uca7XF7E&feature=youtu.be
first lets start if your familiar with need for speed hot pursuit. the way that game was setup was perfect. you had single player and then multiplayer. rivals is setup differently. instead it mashes both together into one mode its a combo of single player and multiplayer in a open world environment. you have to go into the game knowing that the layout is not going to be the same as hot pursuit. the way it is now is fun, but i still prefer the otherway better. once you accept its different then you can go full forward into the game and enjoy it the way it is
you can play as a cop or racer. the basics of the game are the same with either almost. both cars can unlock weapons like roadblocks and shockwaves for xp points. the cop cars you cant edit much, but the racers you can buy decals and paint etc and upgrade performance.
before you enter the open world map you can pick from 3 tasks whichever one you like the most. when you complete that task you get another car unlocked. depending on the task you can either get the undercover car or enforcer etc. i dont like undercover cars because they dont have sirens and your own teammates try busting you. all 3 cars are the same kind of car just look a bit different. undercover etc.
you can either choose to free roam doing misc things in the open environment or you can do your tasks. when your done with the list of tasks you go to the home icon scattered around the map and bank your cash. or you can just keep driving around
there are repair shops all around that fill your cars health back up to 100% and it also refills your weapons like shockwaves and etc.
also if you use the dpad you can find where the nearest home location is, repair shops, or certain races. scattered around the map is icons of different events that you can pick from like intercepter or hot pursuit.
you can also just choose to do a head to head race with randoms driving around you
the AI is smart in this game and most times they seem like real people. theres 6 real people in the open world and the rest is AI. you can tell who is real people because itll have there avatar and real name above there car.
its alot harder using the racer then it is cop. reason being is you cant really stop or youll get busted so you need to use your dpad to set destinations while driving. if your a cop then you can actually stop and look at your full map if you want. bein a racer your car wrecks alot easier and its to easy to lose all your points and you need alot of points to buy upgrades with the racer. this is the only negative thing about this game is the amount of time you spend earning the points and then you lose them all really fast
you also get heat levels the longer you play a flame will be displayed above your car, the more the heat the more points you get but also the faster you will get busted.
rating and downfalls
overall the game is about a 8, i cant say 10 because they should have more people in the lobby and less ai's. also the map gets a bit boring after a while it could of been bigger or more then one map perhaps. also theres not many trophys only like 24 i think. also losing all your points so quickly over one wrong move really can make you mad and shut the game off. if your a fan of hot pursuit chases and crashes youll like this. there is no single player offline campaign and if your not online then the game wont play. (the first day network issues just kept saying connecting to ea and wouldnt let me start)