The Need for Speed series, are probably my favourite racing games. I will always opt for arcade style racing over simulation. And while the likes of Forza will always get my admiration for how pretty it is, and it's attention to detail. For pure fun with a controller, you can't beat holding the gas pedal down, boosting with a touch of nitrous and drifting round bends with a tap on the brakes and a pull of the handbrake. Need for Speed Rivals brings back the cat and mouse racing that comes with combining police with street racers. And the online world provides a great playground for seamless interaction with other racers around the world. It's hard to not be exhilarated chasing or being chased in a vehicle travelling upwards of 140mph.
NFS Rivals has been created by series newcomers Ghost Games, but feels like a natural progression from the fine work done on the previous instalments from Criterion (though quite a lot of staff moved from the latter to the former). The open world provides plenty of variety when you are driving around and finding events to keep you distracted if you decide to stray from the path of the story driven objectives. The same is true on both sides of the law.
The game is based in the fictional Redview County, which along with its varied environments features a dynamic weather system along with a day/night cycle. It makes for some breathtaking visuals at times. And despite the frantic fast paced action, it doesn't skip a beat, running smoothly throughout. The cars look fantastic (even if there isn't a huge amount of cars available) as you swing around bends narrowly missing the barriers and shooting off with a flash of nitrous. Even hammering into walls, trees and other parts of the environment is accompanied by a little crash cutscene which shows the wreckage of your car - not that this damage effects driving at all, just lowers your 'health'.
There are two separate career options - Cop and Racer, and you are able to switch between them both as you wish. I personally found the Cop side of things more enjoyable. Hunting down and shunting racers to bust them suited my bumper cars style approach to racing games. And to help me along was the pursuit tech - technology that assists in stopping racers quicker. These can be purchased with your accumulated SP (speed points), which you collect by completing events and how you complete event and how you drive in free roaming. This tech ranges from helicopter support, to spike strips and road blocks. Of course it wouldn't be fair if just the cops had this tech, so there are also some for racers aswell - EMP's, stun mine's and more. Each of these pursuit techs’s can be upgraded to deal more damage, cover a larger area and to have more of them available at any one time. They can be restocked by going through one of the many garages in the world - this also repairs any damage your car has taken. Racers also have the ability to upgrade the performance of their car by using SP. While this is nice to have, cars get unlocked so quickly in the game that it's difficult to see the merits of spending your entire SP on one vehicle when a better car might be two or three missions away. General appearance customisation is also available (hints of NFS: Underground), but it's not as deep as it could be, and feels somewhat of an afterthought.
As previously mentioned both Cop and Racer have their own sets of events to take part in. Cops can do Hot Pursuit (stopping multiple racers involved in a high speed race), Interceptor (stopping one racer before time runs out) and Rapid Response (getting from one point of the map to the other). Racers on the other hand can take part in normal Races, Head to Heads (two racers fight it out to cross the finish line first) and Rival Challenge (challenging other racers in free roam). Both sides of the law then take part in the Pursuits. Cops can activate a pursuit with the push of LB if they are close enough to the racer, or by hitting the racers car with their own. When you are playing with others online (this is the default setting if you are connected to the internet) these pursuits can get hectic. Cops can work together to take down racers and vice versa. Not to mentioned the AI cars getting involved in the action aswell. It is great fun. I feel that being the racer can at times be a bit unfairly hard, you'll have all but lost the cops and one will spot you, or speed behind from nowhere to great frustration. This is what led me to focus more on the Cop career. Plus, if you get busted by a cop, you lost all your accumulated SP. The longer you are out on the road the higher your multiplier gets, but so does the risk of losing everything. Getting back to a hideout when you reach a high number is sensible before getting involved in another pursuit.
The blurry line between online and single player is both a positive and a negative. It's great to know you can carry on with your career while others get on with there, and you are free to cross paths and challenge each other to races. But because there is no option to choose whether you are in a public, private or single player game before you actually get into a game, it can sometimes take an age to find a server for you to play in, before you can change your settings. This is really not ideal. And at times there are some horrible graphical glitches while playing online, it's like the whole surrounding of the road are made up of flashing panels when the game is trying, and failing, to load the textures to display it all. The amount of time this has happened is very minimal, but it is there, and may well rear its ugly head again. But you are speeding so quickly at times, you may not even notice it. There is also not much difference between how cars feel, which may be a gripe for some racing enthusiasts. You'll need to upgrade/change your car as the game progresses purely because of the acceleration and top speed factor, but controlling a Lamborghini felt almost the same as a BMW and all the other cars in the game.
Need for Speed Rivals is, in all, a resounding success. Look beyond the minor issues and once you get involved in the game and take it for what it is - an arcade racer, you'll have a great time. And it's a beautiful game to show off the capabilities of your new console too.
