Game Review: New Need For Speed

The Need For Speed franchise has been on the video game scene on various platforms and computers for more than two decades – since 1994 – but this the first game to simply be called Need For Speed.

The latest instalment is an attempt to reboot a series that had perhaps lost its way a little. Having said that, we really liked the last iteration released in 2013, Need For Speed: Rivals, particularly the combination of taking on real-world friends as virtual-world rivals while going up against the well-equipped cops.

However, much of that thrill goes by the wayside here. To begin with you really need to be a fan of FMV (Full Motion Video) in your games to enjoy the new Need For Speed.

Your character is introduced to a number of pretty young overly-hyped things looking for the next speed rush, but the so-called intertwined stories are confusing, over-acted and light in delivery.

There is only a very slightly implied dark side here despite all the cop-baiting talk and aimlessness of a culture devoted to illegal street racing. You may find yourself skipping through the cut scenes because the sequence these scenes play out is determined by which events you choose in the open world. This just adds to the confusion of the so-called story being delivered.

All of that is peripheral to the car management and racing itself. Tinkering with your garaged cars is a step up from the previous game and performed via a simple to use interface with large graphics for parts purchase and sliders for the tuning options.

And here's a hint: this game more than many in the past rewards drifting, so make sure you get in and move that drift slider (and therefore the underlying car set-up) as soon as you purchase your next dream vehicle.

Once out on the slick rain-strewn streets of night time Ventura Bay it is time to satisfy that need for speed.

Graphically the game is saturated with an orange hue as if the street lamps are sodium-vapour. All game play is at night which is a shame if you are trying to show off the wicked vinyls and metallic fleck paint design you created.

Also there's not really a camera view we were completely comfortable with. Until you get one of the expensive low-riding supercars, the default view just does not have the elevation to allow you to comfortably see over your car to the oncoming road.

At the speeds travelled, neither the bumper nor bonnet cams provide enough line-of-sight vision for any normal human to be able to react in time. And there is no cockpit view.

The fictional Ventura Bay map is not huge by today's gaming standards, but it has enough variety to accommodate the five racing approaches championed by the game. 'Speed' is maximised on the long straights of the overhead freeways, while 'Style' can be adopted when drifting through the hairpin curves of the mountainous area.

Increase your 'Crew' rating by driving in a group (either AI or your own friends as a crew) or you can build your 'Outlaw' rating through antisocial driving, crashing and bashing through tight urban streets or running foul of the law (more on this shortly).

Finally, 'Build' skills are exploited across the entire game, showing how well you tweaked your car set-up.

Everything adds to the player's 'Reputation', unlocking new, more powerful parts to purchase for your ride.

But if there has been one thing pretty consistent in Need For Speed games of the past it’s the cops, and in this game they are pretty lame.

Sure, bumping into them or speeding past them will rile them and start a chase, but for the majority of the game cops are ludicrously easy to evade. Unlike in NFS Rivals, where spike strips, road-blocks and helicopters escalate the chase, it takes a great deal of time and baiting for the Bears here to be poked into anger.

Playing online, which is the default, means other players join your version of the Ventura Bay area, but really they are going about their own business for the most part.

Challenges can be issued and racing can be had, but for the most part Need For Speed is a solo experience from one mission race to the next. Annoyingly, the only 'fast travel' option is back to the garage.

There is a great deal that harks back to the original game, and the drifting and gymkhana events are actually a good deal of fun, but there are better racing games out there today.

Indeed, Need For Speed is a somewhat disappointing reboot of the series, and definitely a disappointing follow-up to NFS Rivals.