Need For Speed Rivals

Again, I should apologize for this review. It has taken forever for me to get it up. As I explained in my Assassins Creed IV review, the holidays were a crazy time and getting a new PS4 left me with too much to do in the world of gaming! Certainly not a bad problem to have at all, but again I apologize!

Need for Speed Rivals is the newest entry in what is a yearly installment franchise. Talk about a series that has changed a lot...Need for Speed is still very similar to its predecessors, but at the same time, nothing alike.

The series hit its highpoint back on the PS2 with Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 (probably one of my all time most-played games if we were to look at hours logged) and Need for Speed Underground 1 and 2. Since then, it seems like the series has had a hard time finding its niche. A couple years back when they released Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (a reboot of sorts) I fell in love all over again. It was, and still is, one of my favorite games ever. It introduced a new level of intensity to the racing genre that was untouched. The next year, the Most Wanted reboot was released and I enjoyed it...but it was nowhere near the quality of Hot Pursuit. I mostly ignored Rivals this year until I got a PS4 and needed an additional game to join Killzone and AC IV in order for me to get a particular deal on Amazon.

What a great decision it was.

Ferraris make their triumphant return to the NFS series. Sorely missed
and welcomed back with very open arms!

"No officer...that wasn't MY lime green
Lamborghini that you saw speeding. It was
someone else's. I swear!"

Need for Speed is a very unrealistic racer. You have to know that going in, especially if you are a motor head, or else you will be taken by surprise and probably angered. If you are a super fan of Gran Turismo and Forza then rest assured, Rivals is most likely not for you. Cars reach incredible speeds at insane rates, drift around bends like the roads were made of ice, and slam into opponents while staying in tact. Personally, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the arcade style of racing...drifting around a snowy mountain pass at over 150mph or launching off a ramp created by a dilapidated airplane wing are incredibly awesome and they are what Rivals thrives on. The controls are tight and sooner rather than later you will be pumping the gas and the brakes in the perfect combinations to race past your opponents, dodge police weapons, and cut through turns like butter. Every button is mapped appropriately and for the most part the cars control well, although it takes time to get used to each car (which I see as a good thing).

Classic case of racers vs. cops. Who will win?

From a presentation standpoint the game takes the best of both worlds of Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted. The map is open world and there are several things you can participate in by just driving around freely. Much like Hot Pursuit, you can be either a cop or a racer, each of which have their home bases scattered across the map where you can choose cars, customize them slightly, choose your weapon loadout, and then scroll over the map to be dropped at any event. Seeing as how I was never a fan of Most Wanted's open map (or any open map in any racing game for that matter), the option to scroll through the map and choose my respawn point is very appreciated. The game makes it fairly easy to navigate the side menu as you drive and point you in the direction of gas stations (where you repair), bases, or other events. You are always connected online, which is kind of annoying at times, but what makes it obnoxious is that unless you travel to a base, you can't pause the game. It's an awful gameplay mechanic decision...what happens if I have to answer the phone? Or go to the bathroom? Or get the door? You're telling me I cant pause a race that I'm in with a bunch of NPCs? That's just flat out stupid. In addition, the map seems super unorganized at first as you look across it and it took a while for me to find where all the menu items that I needed were located. It all looks good, but it could have been organized better.

Interestingly enough, there is a story attached to Rivals, an intertwining one between police and racers. It's completely overdramatic and at first I was rolling my eyes. But eventually it became cheesily enjoyable how ridiculous the stakes were in this city overtaken with violence by both cops and racers. Since most racing games make no attempts to have a story at all, I suppose I appreciate the try more than not and it does lead to some funny one-liners that are delivered so intensely that you wonder if they had a gun held to the voice-actor's head at the time of recording.

Chasing down some Justin Bieber drag racing...

Now, I play a lot of videogames. Not by an hourly measurement but more so by a "number of videogames per year" measurement. I often make it through 13-15 games in any given year in other words. I know what excites me, what moves me, what pisses me off, and what bores me. A few years back when Hot Pursuit released I was blown away by how intense the game was. Rivals is no different. When you are next to no health, in second place with the first place racer in sight, and you have cops on every side of you with a helicopter overhead there is literally no game that can touch Rivals. It's escapism at its purist form...racing really fast, expensive cars and trying to win. Whether you are a cop or racer, the core mechanics of the game make it so that its almost always fun, and borderline psychotically intense at its peak moments. At the end of some of my more intense races I was sweating profusely from my armpits and was fist pumping/shouting/dancing around like I just won the Super Bowl. It's a high that is unmatched in gaming, at least for me. That's not to say that every second of Rivals is thrilling but more to explain that, man oh man are its highs HIGH! But on the flip side, it's lows are frustratingly low, even more so than Hot Pursuit's were. Unfortunately this is due to probably the stupidest gameplay mechanic that I have ever seen introduced in a game. Allow me to set it up. While playing the game, you receive speed points for everything (drifting, jumping, takedowns, etc.). When you are a cop, these speed points rack up and you cant lose them. Since you are a cop, you never have to actually buy the cars, you are rewarded them for completing a series of challenges. So speed points go to weapons like EMPs, roadblocks, etc. similarly as a racer, you must complete challenges to unlock cars and THEN buy them with speed points...at values that often require you to save up for a decent amount of time. But that's not even the worst part. When you are a racer, you bank up speed points like a cop. But if you are busted or taken down you lose all of them that you had in that session. Not 10%, not 50%, not 75%...you lose 100% of the points that you might have just spent 20+ minutes racking up to buy that new Ferrari. It blows my mind how an idiotic mechanic like this made it into the final game and to be honest there are times where it completely ruins the experience. A few times I was "cheap shot" by the police several times in a race and...whoops! Sorry, there goes 130,000 worth of speed points! F**k you Need for Speed. I've not been that angry at a videogame in a long time and it's happened more than once. It makes being a racer highly unattractive when it should be the mainstay of the game.


Insert "I Believe I Can Fly" joke here...

With my rant now over, I'll get to the final part of my review and where a decent portion of the judgment for any racing game lays: the cars and the environment. This is where Rivals absolutely kills it. The game is achingly pretty on the PS4 with debris whistling past you every step of the way. Cars gleam in the sunlight perfectly, dust particles are in the thousands, snow falls and darkens the skies...it just all looks so gorgeous. I'll be VERY interested to see what they can do with a non-ported version next year. The terrain itself varies from forest, desert, mountains, and everything in between. It escapes the confining urban sprawl of Most Wanted and it was a smart decision. There is nothing more satisfying that seeing an open stretch of road while in a Bugatti and knowing that you have a boost tool in your current bag-o-tricks. I found that both police and racers had equally impressive selections this time around with Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, McLarens, Corvettes, and some of the more exotic cars out on the market. I was impressed by some of the cars that made it into the game because of how new they were and that is always a good thing. Unfortunately, the cop cars feel significantly slower than the racer counterparts unless you choose the "patrol" challenge branch every chapter which makes busting racers in a timespan extremely difficult. I loved the plethora of weapons this time around, even if many of them were similar to others, and they still have some of the best sound effects in all of gaming. Speaking of sound...oh boy does this game sound good. Aside from the obnoxious bass explosions that start each race (seriously they are completely unnecessary and often louder than what I had my actual sound system volume at) the game sounds gorgeous. Crashes sound painful, car engines are extremely sexy to the ears, and the chatter of the police lets you know what is going on. The soundtrack to the game is largely forgettable, but never really bad either.

Why hello Mr. Enzo...it's been a while.

I'm a big fan of the Need for Speed series when it gets it right. Rivals certainly gets it right and offers up some of the most intense moments I've had on my PS4 thus far and some that will stick with me for quite some time. So it's truly sad then when some terrible, terrible decisions were made regarding the mechanics of the game. As I played on and logged more hours into the game it disappointed me that the issues had a lot larger impact on the final product than I would have liked to initially believe.

So if you are looking for a fun, gorgeous, exciting, and white knuckle experience on your gaming console look no further than Need for Speed Rivals. Just know going in that with all the joy and intensity it brings, it also brings a fair amount of anger and frustration that cannot be avoided.

CONS:

• The ridiculous bass "boom" at the beginning of every event goes louder than what you have your speaker volume at, much like car commercials on TV
• Takes some getting used to the map navigation both in and out of car. Some confusing menus that hide things you might want to see/use
• The "always online" can be turned off, but even still, the world is active. This is a double edged sword. While it may be awesome to race an NPC or online opponent by seeing them on the map, it sucks when another player's hot pursuit runs straight through the middle of your race in the opposite direction and crashes into you
• Some balance issues with the cop cars. Splitting them up into "enforcer" "undercover" and "patrol" was unnecessary
• Why cant I pause my game?
• There are so many cop NPCs in the world that every event eventually becomes a pursuit. This becomes really annoying when you are trying to complete time trials
• The speed point prices for the later, more exotic cars, are steep. They require a bit of "grinding" to be affordable
• Speaking of speed points...whoever's decision it was to make you lose ALL your speed points when you get busted/lose all your health should be put in front of a firing squad. Maybe a little much, but I have never been so angry based on a obviously poor mechanic game decision before. Speaking honestly, it flat out ruins the game for periods of time. Every time that I would lose a significant amount of speed points, I wouldn't touch the game for days. Wondering what the game would have gotten had this been different (as in you lose 25% or 50% of your speed points)? A 9.5/10. I am taking off an entire point and a half due to the decision, that's how much it affects the game

PROS:

• Rivals offers an unmatched high in gaming. Some of the scenarios that are naturally created within the races are so intense that you completely forget where you are or what you are doing. All you want is one thing: to win
• The car roster is sexy as all hell. Some truly mesmerizing and entrancing beauties within
• The weapon system is more robust than Hot Pursuit and the choices are welcomed
• Even though its only color, the minor amount of customization is appreciated
• A great map with varied terrain. One minute you'll be ripping across the desert and the next you'll be curving around a mountain in a snow storm
• Absolutely gorgeous. Not everything gets the same level of detail, but the complete package is jaw-dropping. Simply put: I love the new generation of consoles
• Awesome arcade style and control. It's easy enough to pick up and do well at but complex enough to where you'll know a great player when you see one
• The combination of open world and event choosing is awesome and how open worlds SHOULD be done. If I don't want to drive halfway across a map to start a race I should be able to spawn there from a menu
• Amazing sound and engine noise. The weapons have some fantastic audio effects
• Ferraris making a comeback! They have been one of my biggest complaints in the series and I was giddy as a school girl to hop into an Enzo
• Just tons and tons of insane fun at blistering speeds. Rivals, more so than many games, lets me escape real life with an immense smile across my face

Rath's Review Score: 8/10

Click HERE for a 5 minute clip of MY gameplay straight from my PS4! And HERE is an additional 6 minute clip of my gameplay! Super intense!