izigame.me

"Anyone can buy a fast car. The real stars build one from scratch."

NOTE: I have played every Need for Speed title up to this one, with the exceptions of the very first game and Most Wanted (2012), without touching any of the newer ones post-reboot. As such, I feel my opinion is valid without comparing it to newer iterations. Also, RIP Ken Block <3

This particular Need for Speed represents a reboot of the franchise. The focus here is similar to (most of) the recent titles preceding it: car customisation, tuning/upgrading and pursuits (without the over the top nature of Hot Pursuit). You begin as a nameless, faceless and voiceless entity in the game world, trying with your group of friends to get the attention of a handful of icons with whom they identify most strongly. This introduces some distinct styles/disciplines into the game, ranging from purely speed focused, to style (e.g. gymkhana) to all-out pursuits. To lend credibility to the premise, all of the icons in the game are real life figures, including Ken Block to whom this game will always stand as a tribute.

Often positioned as "Underground 3", that comparison is valid in many areas. It shares many of the characteristics of Underground 2: a (mostly) open world you can roam at your leisure, a list of cult cars you can customise and tune more or less to your liking (although perhaps not quite as extensively), a wide variety of race/event types etc. There are some notable differences however. As mentioned above, this game has police pursuits in it and cops can be encountered during races as well as while cruising the open world (although they will only pursue you if you are in violation of the law, e.g. speeding). The car roster, while similarly broad, includes exotics as well as the more traditional tuner cars - Ferrari/Lamborghini/Porsche all make an appearance here, amongst others. It is important to note however that the customisation does not extend to all cars: for example, there is very little you can to do the Ferrari F40. While it is understandable in some aspects, in others it is baffling if not outright irritating. This game is also far more structured in terms of having an actual end goal: being recognised by the icons and becoming an icon in your own right (Underground 2 does have a goal, but it is far more vague than it is here).

Need for Speed marks the return of FMV and all interactions with your friends (obviously real life actors) take place from a POV camera. Some of the acting is quite good, but some of it is comically overdone and a lot of it is cringe worthy; there is also an obscene amount of fist bumps for no apparent reason as well as gratuitous Monster placements in game. That being said, the FMV sequences do their job of telling the story and connecting you to the world. Even though the game takes place at night and it seems to be perpetually raining (or at least wet), the graphics still hold up really well and this is certainly one of the better looking entries in the series. Sound design, particularly the engines, is also a strong point of this game and is far better done than expected, which lends a hand towards immersion. This is either helped or hindered (depending on your perspective) by the garage space: you can only have 10 cars at a time, anything else and you will have to sell in order to make space. While some will feel that this creates an attachment to your cars rather than having a "get them all" attitude, the artificial limitation can be frustrating at the same time.

With all of this being said however, there are some glaring (major?) issues with this game:

ONLINE ONLY. A largely single player game is online only. You cannot pause the game at all, and once the servers go down the game will be unplayable. You have the option to switch to a solo session without other human players, but you still require the initial online connection.
Tying into the above - servers are constantly going down for maintenance. It is frustrating to be playing and seeing constant messages which require you to quit back to the menu and begin a new game.
Phone calls are your method of interaction with the other characters outside of the FMV sequences. By and large it works - but it is really annoying when there is a call every five minutes, doubly so when you cannot pause.
The physics are really janky - problematically so when there is a fairly large focus on drifting. The two available "presets" are grip and drift - grip should really be called understeer since that is all it does. This can be remedied to a degree with mods (more on that below).
Crash cam is entertaining for the first hour or so - but beyond that it becomes very tedious. This is made worse by the physics and the fact that you can apparently have a massive accident from the most innocuous of collisions.
The fact that the clock does not stop as soon as you hit the finish line is incredibly irritating - not a massive issue for a normal playthrough, but it becomes a big problem in Prestige Mode (more on that below).

Prestige Mode deserves its own paragraph: this is unlocked after you have finished the main storyline and is seemingly intended to function as end-game content. The premise is simple: run the campaign/storyline missions again, only this time with heightened requirements for medals. As others have noted, it seems they took the top 0.1% of players, recorded their times, rounded to the nearest second and set those as the gold medal benchmarks. I applaud and appreciate the idea as it gives you something to chase and is in a way a validation of skill level, but it is incredibly frustrating when you are not chasing seconds, but tenths or hundredths to meet medal requirements. This is compounded by the timer not stopping when you cross the line: there were numerous occasions (mostly on the sprints) where I was just meeting the time, but due to the timer still running, I fell short by hundredths; this is incredibly frustrating for already difficult objectives. Prestige Mode also promotes a meta in essentially needing two cars: the Porsche RSR for races/sprints, and the Lamborghini Huracan for drifts. It is unlikely you will succeed with other vehicles.

For mods, there are two I would recommend (this is what I used):

Need for Speed Remastered
Unite NFS15

Contrary to appearances, these two mods can be used in conjunction and compliment each other quite well - my suggestion is to use the handling model from Remastered as well as the various available graphical presets and include the other options from Unite. This will dramatically improve the game's handling model and help to resolve some of the gripes with the physics.

This is a tough one. When the game gets things right, it feels pretty good - but in so many ways, it is mediocre and you are constantly left wanting with a feeling that it is almost, but not quite, there. If you enjoy more casual racing games with a focus on customisation/tuning or are a fan of the franchise, Need for Speed is probably worth picking up - just don't expect to be blown away by what is on offer.

Played on Windows 11 x64. I had plenty crashes during my time with this game, but it is possible that the problems were caused or exacerbated by the mods in use.

P.S. Spike deserves to be hit in the face.