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Need For Speed Rivals Review


unr3al

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With the STEAM and Origin Holiday Sales comes a tide of high profile games at budget title prices. This allows for us folks with day jobs to get their hands on some games they had to pass up due to our month to month expenses, and I'm no exception. I bought a few titles, some of which I may be writing reviews for later, but that's another story. This story is about a game called Need For Speed Rivals.
 
Believe it or not, this is the 23rd Need For Speed game. You heard right. This is undoubtedly one of the longest video game franchises ever, and much of it has been based around street racing with exotic cars against cops with similar muscle. No matter how unrealistic that scenario may seem to you, there's no denying that is has a huge audience, and anybody who enjoys racing or disobeying the law in video games won't get tired of games like this.
 
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You can't wait to climb inside.
 
But there is a flip side to the cops & robbers coin. In addition to being a law breaking racer, this game (among a few others in the series) also allows you to be a cop yourself, working with equally powerful cars attempting to stop your rival racers by any means necessary. You could argue, logically, that the police in this sort of scenario might be just as bad, if not worse than the racers, and that is a brief, but valid point that you'll even find in the game's story line.
 
But enough of the descriptions, let's get down to the game.
 
Story:
 
Unfortunately there isn't much of one. You are not given any information as to who your character actually is, other than his pseudonym 'Zephyr'. You don't learn how he got into racing, why he started disobeying the law, and if/when he actually steals cars himself. There is brief mention that the racers don't pay for their cars, but there is no info as to whether they steal them on their own, or have someone else do it for them, or how they conceal the source of their cars, or how after banging up a 1.3 million dollar super car they can get it fixed without anybody noticing. Anyway, moving on...
 
Zephyr describes his being at odds with the cops a rivalry, hence the game's title. Which at the end of the day, is true. He races, they race against him in retaliation, he smashes up other cars, the cops smash up his car in retaliation, etc. The game has cut scenes with generic stock CGI of some in-game cars racing with a dull narrative voice-over that describes the "plot". At the end of the day, the story he tells doesn't really matter, since the objective is always the same: Win races, piss off the cops, don't get caught.
 
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Nothing to see here folks, just another useless cut scene wasting 2 minutes of your life.
 
The cop story line is equally dull, if not worse, since a police officer doesn't really need a background story as to why he chases cars down. It's his job. So you're not even really curious about his origins in the first place.
 
All told, I think I can honestly say that the developers (Ghost Games) probably made a good move by not bothering to put emphasis on a story, because every Need For Speed story line has been awfully executed. You don't get attached to any characters, you want the cut scenes to be over with, you just want to get back on the road. NFS Rivals is no different. I think if they hired a writer with some talent and took an extra 6 months to a year to develop the game, you could indeed make a good story out of the subject matter. Hell, there will have been over a half dozen Fast & The Furious movies by the time the newest one drops in 2014.
 
Score: 4/10
 
Graphics:
 
Absolutely stunning. I've found every Need For Speed game I've ever played to be a technical marvel when it comes to car detail. The sun gives the cars paint jobs a wonderful glow, rain beads off of them, they get caked with layers of dust or dirt if you drive off road, and even when clean, the cars seem to be dripping with "sweat", as IGN.com so eloquently put it.
 
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An Ferrari so exotically hot that it produces sweat. This is the Ferrari 458, an automotive masterpiece
 
Ambient effects are very good, but some are hard to notice because some of the cars can travel upwards of 200mph, making the scenery a blur. Trees and grasses could be better if you look at them while not moving, but any extra detail they could put in would likely slow the frame rate to a crawl, making the game unplayable.
 
On the subject of frame rate, I do want to point out that this game is capped at 30fps. I haven't found out a specific reason as to why that is, but many players are outraged. I in particular, don't care, because the gameplay is consistently smooth at max details. The last Need For Speed game I played, Most Wanted (the reboot by Criterion) wasn't playable with all details maxed out. I had to reduce draw distance, some car detail and FSAA/FSAF to make everything smooth. It didn't make a huge impact on visual impressiveness, but I was let down. NFS Rivals can deliver great details at steady frame rates.
 
There is a work around for the FPS cap, if you absolutely must have more than 30fps. In the NFS directory, there is supposedly some kind of an editable .ini file where you can modify a value that changes the FPS cap from 30 to 60. However, there is a major glitch with this. If your PC cannot constantly produce 60fps or more, and the 60fps value is set, the game speed itself will actually double. This side effect will only fail to show up if you can constantly keep that frame rate matching or better. I don't have enough faith in my computer, or any, really, that I'll always have 60fps in this or any game. There are scenarios where a video card can bog down, like with high intensity lighting or smoke effects for only a few seconds, but if your car doubles its speed from 200mph to 400mph and you ram into a guard rail, your racing is over and you lose all of your points, which I will talk about shortly.
 
Score 9/10
 
Sound:
 
The music is a hefty dose of modern electronic music that compliments fast action. I don't dislike it, but it's not my preferred genre. More importantly, I want to be able to hear the important things in the game. Things like the police scanner, if a pursuit gadget has been activated, and your engine revs. These are all audio cues that can help you win a race, so my music is completely disabled. As for sound effects, engine noises are spot on, but lack the theatrical punch you'd find in a movie or if you put the microphone right next to the transmission. They're good and more authentic than other games with casual driving like Grand Theft Auto, APB or Saints Row. I don't think they're on par with Forza Motorsport or Grand Turismo, but they're good enough for me.
 
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That engine roar is the only soundtrack I need.
 
Police radio chatter you hear on both sides of the law gets repetitive pretty quickly, and I can only remember hearing 'One Lincoln Six' as a unit name. I thought I'd hear a half dozen or so. Nope; only one that I can recall. Again though, with the high speeds you'll be traveling at, you won't really have time to concentrate on that because you'll need to constantly tend to your car, the other racers, and what traps lie ahead that have been set up by your rivals.
 
Score: 7/10
 
Gameplay & Lasting Appeal
 
As I said earlier in the review, the Need For Speed series has had a very simple, and very consistent formula through its lifespan. But it works, and like the Call of Duty, Counter Strike or Battlefield games of today, they are following the method of 'Keep doing it until it stops working'. They're going to keep up this game play style until people stop buying their games. And for me, that's not a bad thing. Running from the police at higher "heat" levels is genuinely adrenaline pumping because you'll constantly have near misses with oncoming traffic, come inches away from hitting spike strips or road blocks, or desperately attempt to get yourself to a repair shop before your car can't continue being beaten up anymore. The racers themselves eventually start getting violent with you and losing by a matter of feet or inches can get you genuinely frustrated. A game that invokes emotion through playing it is a success in my book and Need For Speed Rivals delivers that in spades.
 
Beyond the generic single player story line and AI racers, Rivals offers an immersive online method of playing, where you can join in 1 on 1 or group races at the drop of a hat with real players if you're an outlaw, or give you an opportunity to cruise the streets or lie in wait for a speeder as a cop. And because there will be several members of each faction, this gives players the opportunity to help or hurt each other during the games events which is something unique to this racing series. This helps lasting appeal quite a bit, but it of course will taper off after a while, especially when the next game in the series comes out. Lag is present here and there which is noticeable compared to single player, and a tad more annoying than lag you'd find in shooters (since inaccuracy at high speeds will spell disaster), but is much more manageable than it was years ago in previous NFS games.
 
The game has a certain level of customization to satisfy people who like to mod their cars, but even so, the cars remain pretty true to the way they're sold. No giant body kids, or ridiculous rims with bling all over them, no custom exhausts or massive tires. I for one like this. Games like Need for Speed Underground had their appeal, but Need For Speed Rivals gets back to the roots of NFS by giving you the keys to European exotics and home grown American sports cars. And I like that. Cars are fairly easy to earn, all you need to do is complete a list of challenges and you unlock the next one. Cops get them for free, racers need to spend "speed points" on the cars and upgrades which are earned by driving recklessly, pissing off the police and winning races. The cars go up in performance and rarity as your levels fly by. You start off with easy to get domestic muscle or "drivers" cars, such as the Mustang GT which is unrealistically easy to drive and move up to genuine sports cars such as BMW's and Mercedes coupes, after which you advance to genuine super cars such as the Ferrari F12, the Mercedes SLS, the Koenigsegg Agera and the Bugatti Veyron.
 
"Pursuit tech" are little gadgets used to help you and/or hurt the cops and racers alike so you can win your races under difficult circumstances. Nearly all of it is unrealistic but there are a couple of things that do/will exist in real life pursuit scenarios such as automatically deploying spike strips and EMP area bursts to disrupt a cars electronics. You again use your points to purchase these. Higher levels of this "pursuit tech" can make them more potent and faster to recharge.
 
Performance upgrades can be an alternative to buying new cars. I tried to buy up as many cars as I could, but as a repercussion, if I wanted to blow through my levels and get to the end of the game fast, I had to choose only a couple to upgrade to the point where I can comfortably take on a swarm of cops or a bunch of racers in my way to the finish line. I can't remember all the cars I bought as a racer, but I started with the Mustang GT, moved up to an Aston Martin, then to a Corvette Stingray, then to a Ferrari 458, and eventually I ended up playing most of the rest of the game with a Ferrari 599 GTO that I upgraded as much as possible. But I ended the game with the coveted Pagani Huayra. The last assignment you get is extremely challenging, forcing you to put all your cat like reflexes to work and constantly deploy your pursuit tech to keep the cops off of your back while you race at over 200mph on a consistent basis.
 
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The coveted Pagani Huayra
 
Bottom line, while it won't last forever, I'm addicted.
 
Score: 9/10
 
Overall: 7.25
 
In my heart I feel this game deserves more than a 7.25, but to be fair to other games I review, I need to give the story portion of the game a low rating. Just because I feel it's not important doesn't mean that other people think so too, but I'm convinced that the way this game is designed, story takes a back seat to everything else so you can get back to the action faster. I'm a big NFS fan, and this is one of the best games in the entire series.
 
The Good:
 
-Great graphics with smooth frame rate.
-Exciting racing action and thrilling police escapes.
-Funny and/or entertaining crashes.
-Great car selection.
-Inspired online element.
 
The Bad:
 
-Story is awful/non-existent.
-Much lower selection of cars on the 'Racer' faction.
-The game is short, even if you do all the races available.
-AI can be downright unfair during pursuits.
-The large map feels small due to the constant 200+mph driving.
 
**All screenshots shown were taken by myself.**
Edited by unr3al

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ehhh... should i buy need for speed rivals or battlefield 4?

Depends on if you like shooting or racing more. I chose Battlefield 4 for a reason when I was only able to pick up one game at full price, and it was because the multiplayer for Battlefield 4 is going to hold my interest for much longer and there will be constant expansion pack releases for it. NFS Rivals might get a few more car updates and that's about it. I love both games, and I'm completely satisfied with my purchase of Rivals, but in another month, I'll likely have my focus on other games and maybe boot up Rivals if I want to do a quick car race.

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Depends on if you like shooting or racing more. I chose Battlefield 4 for a reason when I was only able to pick up one game at full price, and it was because the multiplayer for Battlefield 4 is going to hold my interest for much longer and there will be constant expansion pack releases for it. NFS Rivals might get a few more car updates and that's about it. I love both games, and I'm completely satisfied with my purchase of Rivals, but in another month, I'll likely have my focus on other games and maybe boot up Rivals if I want to do a quick car race.

thanks but need for speed rivals is mingle player right?(single and multiplayer together)

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thanks but need for speed rivals is mingle player right?(single and multiplayer together)

You can play it entirely in single player with AI only, if you want. That's what I did for the racer campaign so I could get my feet wet and have a fully upgraded car before I go out and try to compete.

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You can play it entirely in single player with AI only, if you want. That's what I did for the racer campaign so I could get my feet wet and have a fully upgraded car before I go out and try to compete.

umm....what about''THE CREW''? can you also breakdown the line between single and multiplayer?

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umm....what about''THE CREW''? can you also breakdown the line between single and multiplayer?

"The crew"? You mean the cops? Yes, the entire game can be played without ever logging into a multiplayer server.

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