7 Reasons Why the Need for Speed Reviews Were Harsh

The latest installment of Need For Speed came out on November 3rd, 2015, and received OK reviews at best. This didn’t stop me from buying it, though, because I was a big fan of the previous installment, Need For Speed: Rivals, so I had to get this game. Having finished the campaign last week, I was surprised by these OK reviews, including IGN’s 6.3/10 and Metacritic’s 3.5/5. I enjoyed the game, and I would give it a good score of 8.5/10. Here are 7 reasons why.

I start the list off with the competition. What does Need for Speed have in common with Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, Driveclub, and Project Cars? They are all racing games, and that’s where the similarities end. Gran Turismo and the rest focus on delivering a real-life driving simulator, with realistic driving mechanics and real tracks around the world. Need for Speed doesn’t aim to be a real-life driving simulator and shouldn’t be compared to the ones that do.

Need for Speed: Underground is arguably the biggest game in the Need for Speed series. So when fans of the series urged the developers to return to the good old Underground days, did they listen? Yes. Need For Speed: Underground came out in 2003, carrying a Fast and Furious feel with its nightlife scene and street racing. So, 12 years later, the developers revisited the Underground days, removed the disappointing ‘be a cop’ mode from the previous installment, and focused again on a nightlife scene and street racing, which I think delivered.

Whether you enjoyed the story or not, at least it had one. It’s always nice when developers do more than what’s expected. We obviously expected the racing, but seeing a story in a racing game is unheard of these days. Also, when playing, I felt like I was playing an old PS2 game, due to the cutscenes being recorded, and not CGI, which we see in almost every game now. It had an old school feel to it, which again helped with the going back to its roots. The story also helped show why everybody was street racing.

The characters in Need for Speed are very, very cheesy, and that’s a good thing. Similar to the Sharknado films, it was so bad that it was good. The dialogue in Need For Speed was bad, but the acting, in my opinion, was quite good. I can still remember all the characters because of the cheesiness and good acting. I remember Amy being a tomboy who loves tuning cars, Spike being a high-speed junkie hell-bent on being the fastest, Robyn always smiling and loving her drifting, Travis being a thrill-seeker who enjoys cop chases, and Manu being spiritual and the leader of the group. The actors did the best of a bad situation and helped make the Need For Speed campaign better.

The gameplay is simple but fun, and that’s what I like in a racing game. Racing games should be something that you can pick up and play without the need for tutorials. Need for Speed is a great escape game for me, similar to Fifa and first-person shooters. Whether I’m exploring the wastelands of Fallout 4 or the streets of GTA, it’s nice to have a break every now and then and play a simple game with easy, addictive gameplay.

In my opinion, Need For Speed games don’t get enough praise for their open-world maps. They require no loading screens, no menus, and because of open-world maps in racing games, different routes can be taken in a race, leading to different outcomes every time. Need For Speed is perhaps the only recent racing game with an open-world map (any more out there, let me know). So instead of comparing it to games such as Gran Turismo, I compare it to the driving in games such as GTA, Far Cry, and Just Cause, with Need For Speed coming out on top every time.

Earning trophies on the PlayStation is something I enjoy very much. They serve as a level-up system for your profile, which leads to bragging rights over your friends. Also, they add a lot of replay value to games, without the need for countless, repetitive side missions. But most trophies in games are ridiculous, frustrating, and time-consuming. For example, Class Warfare and Exo Survival Veteran trophies on Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare only require time and no skill. But unlocking the Platinum trophy on Need For Speed is very doable, although perhaps a bit too easy. With most trophies being unlocked during the campaign, the Need For Speed platinum trophy requires some skill and not just a lot of time, making it way better than most Platinum trophies from other games

And there we go, 7 Reasons why the Need for Speed reviews were harsh. Thanks for reading. Please like, share, and comment with your opinions on Need For Speed. Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter X @rhysbritton.