When gamers were told that Criterion would be coming in to develop the next few titles in the Need For Speed franchise, it was welcomed by some with open-arms and by others with a slight sense of reservation. While some felt that it would act as a nice change of pace for the franchise, many others feared that they’d take the series in a direction that was less Need For Speed and more Burnout.
When we saw the release of Hot Pursuit and then later Most Wanted, there was no doubt that Criterion had developed both titles with that Burnout-esque style of gameplay in-mind. They both proved to be decent games, and reviews from both gamers and the media confirmed this.
Now with Ghost Games at the helm, the question again asked is can the new team develop a game that not only plays well, but which acts as a nice fit within the franchise? Well, after having spent a couple hours with Need For Speed: Rivals a fortnight ago, I can answer that question with a reassuring ‘yes’.
The first thing you’ll notice about Rivals is that it plays a lot like Hot Pursuit, and as it was aptly described to me, comes across like it’s ‘spiritual successor’. In this game you’ll be able to play as either a racer or a cop, with a full-fledged campaign mode for each. Oh, and yes, you read that right – Rivals introduces a campaign mode back into the franchise (thank goodness). One of the biggest problems I had with Most Wanted was how the game seemingly lacked purpose, where there was really no point to keep racing. Fortunately, it seems that Rivals doesn’t fall victim to this trap.
Much like Hot Pursuit, your progression in the game is represented by a series of ranks. To progress through the game (and the story), you pick from one of three ‘Speedlists’, each which contain a different objectives to each other. For example, some might require you to finish a race on gold difficulty, total five police units, and reach a maximum speed, while another might require you to finish a race on silver difficulty, get six seconds of airtime, and escape a pursuit. Once you complete all of the objectives you’re able to earn experience, move up to the next rank, and select the next Speedlist – with each subsequent list and level requiring you to complete more tasks with a higher degree of difficulty.
Similar to Most Wanted, all of your action and progress is rewarded in Rivals through speedpoints. Unlike Most Wanted, these aren’t merely an arbitrary thing, and instead, you’ll use them to purchase new vehicles, performance and pursuit upgrades, and customisation options for your vehicles. When playing as a racer, you’ll need to purchase your cars, and you’ll also have customisation and performance/pursuit upgrades available to you. Alternatively, as a cop, all your vehicles are free (that you’ve unlocked), but you’ll need to spend speedpoints for the various pursuit technology you want to use. There are no performance upgrades and customisation is minimal/non-existent.
Keeping with customisation however, a big feature which was toted for Rivals was personalisation, and while it isn’t exactly ground-breaking or even that varied, it makes sense. Most of the cars in this game are high-end supercars, and as a result, the customisation options are limited to paint jobs, vinyl/decal options, and custom numberplates (there’s something cool about the different number plates in this game too, but I’ll leave that for my fellow NFS fans to discover when the game’s released). Now while I’m sure players would have liked to see something along the lines of Underground 2’s level of personalisation, with the car list that Rivals features, spoilers and bodykits on a Ferrari or Lamborghini would just seem… stupid.
Running on the PlayStation 4, it also needs to be said – Need For Speed: Rivals looks amazing. The franchise has been going from strength to strength in the last few titles as far as visuals are concerned, but I’m genuinely impressed with the attention to detail that Ghost Games have delivered with this title. The world of Redview County looks gorgeous, the vehicles themselves look fantastic, and the damage in Rivals is, as expected from this franchise, just brilliant. During the preview I had damaged the rear bumper of my Aston Martin Vantage undercover police car, and not only had the bumper been fractured, but you could see the fiberglass from where it had cracked. Other seemingly insignificant details like how rain gathers and dissipates on the car looks fantastic too. The benefits of the new Frostbite 3.0 engine are certainly obvious here.
As far as physics are concerned, players of both Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted will feel at home here, however the most noticeable difference is how much more weight the racers cars seem to now have. There’s still a strong emphasis on long-drifts along many of the world’s sweeping highway corners, but it’s not as simple as just turning in hard and watching the rear slide out. Perhaps it’s just me, but I did notice it took some getting used to drifting by turning first then applying the brakes, rather than tapping the brakes and then turning like it was in earlier games. I should note that this isn’t a problem with the police units however, which seem to drift a lot easier, feel a lot lighter, and which can go noticeably faster too.
In addition, there’s a noticeable difference in how the game feels when playing as either a racer or a cop too. During the presentation, we were told by the lead designer from Ghost that they wanted to create this atmosphere that being a racer always felt tense, this idea that you’re always on the run, and there’s always that threat of being busted. On the flip-side, they wanted to make being a cop feel more relaxed, and they really succeeded in this respect. As a racer you’re almost always in a pursuit, both in and out of races, the music is fast and so is the action, but the moment I switched to being a cop, it was the complete opposite. The music is a lot different, and there’s a lot less pressure on you when playing as well. It’s important to mention also that the car lists for racers and cops are unique – unlike Hot Pursuit, there isn’t a cop version of every racer car, and visa-versa.
Moving on, the one thing which really surprised me about playing this game was how fun it was to be a cop. As some might know, I’ve always been a fan of playing as racer over a cop – it was the side I played more as in Hot Pursuit and it was the campaign side I jumped into first during the preview. All that said though, there’s something strangely satisfying about being a cop, driving through Redview, seeing a racer and just giving chase. Pursuing street racers around the map and then taking them out with your pursuit tech and that one solid hit … oh, I could do it for hours on end!
Rivals also makes multiplayer gaming a lot more enjoyable too – and that says something when it comes from me! A great thing about Rivals is that it does away with the traditional online modes we see in most racing games, where you need to look for matches and then wait in a lobby while someone decides which race to complete. Instead, the moment you start the game you can either elect to either play alone or have friends/random gamers drop into your world. If you pick the latter, each player can decide to either join you in pursuits or races, or simply do their own thing, and what makes Rivals so awesome is that this can change at any time. There were moments when I was cruising around the world in a cop car, then I noticed another player was completing a race nearby, so I set my GPS to their location, found them, and then started a pursuit with mid-race. At this point it was no longer just about them finishing their race, but about escaping my pursuit too.
What truly makes Rivals great, is that you’re in total control of whatever you’re doing. If you’re in a race but you want to quit out and focus on escaping the police, you can. If you’re in a pursuit and you’ve decided you want to take a break, simply head over to the closest safehouse. Ghost Games have put player choice at the heart of the game and that’s great to see.
I might have only had a few hours with the game, and I was only able to scratch the surface, but I’m really excited for what Need For Speed: Rivals has in store. With racing now having a purpose again, a career mode for both racers and cops, and where the action is quite literally non-stop, I’m confident that Ghost Games is behind something special here.
Need For Speed: Rivals launches on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on 21 November, and Xbox One and PS4 on 28 November.
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