Good races, short races. Good graphics, broken story. On one side, an enjoyable game. On the other, a total letdown.
Welcome to a review, by a NFS fan since the PSX times.
-- STORY --
That's right, this game actually has a story mode, but it's so broken you won't even care about it. You start the game in a junkyard, trapped inside a car which is about to be smashed up with you inside. After escaping it in a context sensitive event (Quick-Time Event), you escape the mobs (apparently you're in debt with them, but the game don't tell you how...) and them you meet a girl (that somehow already knows about the main character, again, the game doesn't explain how, if she's he's wife/girlfriend or close/business friend) that explains about that hyper-long sprint race from San Francisco to New York. If you win, your name's cleaned up and you still get some spare money to enjoy. If you're anything but first, it's game over. Simple as that.
Then you get to choose a cool car (damn...a BMW for the beginning!) to start off and then it's game on.
Everything else that happens isn't explained. How she knows about the race and you don't, why he's so debted he must win that race at all costs, how he own so much money (was it drugs? women? lost too many races?)...all you got to do is race. Nothing more, nothing less.
....Oh, and sometimes press some buttons to exit annoying sequences that could easily be replaced with NORMAL cutscenes.
-- GAMEPLAY --
Gameplay, as incredible as it may sound, is the dumbest in all racing games. You just accelerate, brake and steer. Nothing else.
Nitrous is activated automatically by releasing and pressing again the acceleration button, don't ask me why. You can change the view of your vehicle to first-person and semi-first-person, but you'll mainly stick with 3rd-person since it's easier to see surroundings and shortcuts. Of course, for the hardcores, you can use manual transmission and shift up and down as you see fit, but automatic's the better choice to avoid headaches
-- PROS AND CONS --
Ok, I'll start with the good aspects.
The visuals the same as in Battlefield 3, using Frostbite 2 engine, so visuals are pretty slick and smooth. You have a decent range of cars to choose from and the races you get in (both single and multiplayer, but mostly single) is well varied in locations, which makes things original during the entire game, shifting from cities to mountains, lakesides, snowy valleys, parks, industrial sites and (yeah, finally!) night city. In addition, single player races, though not always, have some kind of innovative obstacle for you to avoid like snow and sandstorms, police (not so innovative, but at least it's still there) and even trains to avoid.
Bad aspects: Anything else you can imagine.
The Run mode is short, lasting anywhere from 3 to 4 hours (INCLUDING cutscenes, loading times and retries, all that in normal difficulty). Cutscenes can't be skipped. Loading times are horrendously long and frequent. Quick Time Events are few, but isn't a relax from the original races since it's still linear and previsible. No "restart from last checkpoint" option, which means if your opponent overtake you in the last second of the race and he cross the finishing line before you, you'll have to restart the entire race AND wait that horrendously long time (I mean it, it's about 20~30 seconds between races...). Challenge mode isn't something you'll keep playing since you just unlock new cars and gain XP, which is worthless except for new BG profiles, cars (rarely) and other features. Multiplayer will tire you quickly, even if you try to complete certain "missions". No spiketrips and SUVs to hunt you down during police races, only normal police and roadblocks. You can't counter the police like in Hot Pursuit 2010. Police is just a troublesome addition to the game since you'll have to just slip pass them. No free-roam mode. No customization mode. No police milestones to complete like in Most Wanted....I think that's enough bad aspects for a game.
All in all, a game that DOESN'T MAKE UP TO YOUR MONEY. The best value NFS game I've ever played in this generation was Most Wanted, and by saying they tried to make this game like MW...I don't need to say how stunt I was. Now, all was in vain, and unfortunately, I lost all hopes I had left on NFS franchise now.
Nothing agains last year's NFS, but all the fans (and me) were dying for a game just like that, but with local multiplayer, open world and customization options. Who, and I repeat, WHO needs realistic crash sequences and car damage in a game that ISN'T A SIMULATION RACING GAME??? We want good old NFS back, with circuit races, sprint, drags and drift (and maybe some special races, like the 1 vs 1 races in The Run...unique races, may I say, like the blacklist in Most Wanted, but with something special and original in those races), dozens of customization options, puting/creating vinyls...who cares if the game contains 120 cars if you can do only a handful of customization possibilities?
A dissappointing game indeed...the 6.0 score could be way lower, but to be fair and at least a little opinion-neutral, and the fact I'm a NFS fan, it's what I think that fits with this game....
Farewell, Need for Speed. We'll miss you...a lot.