DEVELOPERS WANTED. REALLY BAD. You're better off buying a Ford Pinto than this game. Any previous NFS game is better...
This game is REALLY bad.
It is no surprise Gamespot hasn't reviewed it yet. Hasn't anyone told them yet the game was launched last week?... or did the reviewers call in sick for the whole week?.
It would not surprise me if we see the review sometime after Christmas (and this would be a sad attempt to have consumers fall victims to this tragedy).
BTW, have you seen the huge advertising banner on this website?... Yeap, you've guessed it.
It is tough enough to have independent journalism these days... the gaming world isn't any different.
Frankly, I'm REALLY sad EA failed to do a proper smell test on the NFS franchise once again.
The result: a true stinker.
But why is this game such a clunker?
The reasons:
- Game Plot/Story: Pointless. Better yet, look up the word emetic. The story is the worst so FAR and by FAR. The actors from Most Wanted, Underground, Carbon and the Undercover installments deserve an Oscar for acting and best script compared to this rip-off. Lets put it this way: If you're 10 years old or above you will find it insulting. If you're less than 10, you will probably cry.
- Computer AI: PATHETIC. No matter what you drive, you can always catch-up. Try crashing into something while chasing a car... 15 seconds later you're right behind it. No need to upgrade your car. None of the AI cars respect their true specs (example: a 1980's VW golf can keep up with a 2011 GTR). EA, seriously??? I take it developers took the bus to work because the don't have a driver's license (and never came close to driving a car).
- Handling and sense of speed: DISASTER. If you played "NFS 1" (EA 1994), "Outrun" (Sega 1986), or even "Pole Position" in the arcades (Atari 1982) you can get a better feel for speed than all the cars in this game. Example: You're doing 90mph on the freeway, you floor the gas, hit the nitrous... and you might as well get down and push (with ALL cars). With the exception of the challenge of the level with the avalanche or the one everything blows up, there's really no sense of speed. And you can kiss drifting goodbye! (something which was cool in Hot Pursuit). The slingshot maneuver is a complete joke (why isn't there any true drafting?!?!?).
Who the heck designed these features?... Does someone truly believe you need 15 seconds behind another car to start drafting???... Do any of the developers own a car?... Guys, I dig the fact that the ozone layer is being destroyed, the greenhouse effect is real and climate change is serious, but come'on!!!... in the virtual world we should still be able to burn rubber, drift sideways filling the screen with smoke and burn gas at 1 MPG fuel economy!...
Bottom line: don't expect any of the cars to respond as they should (example: driving a Pagani Huayra is pretty much the same as driving a VW Golf) And good luck with trying to reach top speed with any car!
- The controls/gauges: Barely 10 keys or less. Forget being able to see the dashboard or interior of any of these awesome cars. The HUD is the same no matter what you drive. You don't get lights, no horn, no hazard flashers... nothing. Truly PATHETIC.
- Customization: Kinda reminds you of what Henry Ford said about the Ford T. You could pick any color, as long as it was black. Well... here you get 3 pairs of colors and 3 pairs of body packages, that's it.
- Driving sensation: No matter how talented you are... you will always finish each race at the predetermined position. Even if you finish 1 minute earlier than your worse timing, you will still need to do the "time recovery" races. What's the point???... There's no reward for driving better?... no alternative endings?... Guys, this is 2011. Can't we be a bit more competitive?...
- Changings cars: The most ridiculous way so far. You need to drive into a branded gas station (but why bother? all cars respond the same way). Sometimes you're even forced to drive a certain car brand (the game has SOLD OUT written all over it)
- Sense of achievement: NONE. There truly isn't. For example, in the final race... don't drive your car over 4th gear... you'll be fine. The computer's rubber-band AI is so bad, the boss doesn't get away.
- Music/Audio: Awful. Remember how great Underground 1 and 2 were?... You could listen to Oakenfold and the likes... Carbon and Undercover also held their ground. In "The Run" they are truly low cost... not only you can hear it, but you can almost smell it (if you know what I mean). With the exception of the time recovery final tempos (in the last 5 seconds of each checkpoint) the rest is BAD. Vanilla Ice would've been just as bad. How about being able to hear the engine roars?... all 12 of a Lambos trombones?... Is noise pollution also a problem?
- Minigames: Yeah, really smart (and I wish this wasn't sarcasm, but it is). EA must have thought "hey, let's pretend this is God of War or something". Except for one thing, God of War is a great game... and this is a true clunker. PATHETIC. No dashboards, no drifting, no throttle response, bad music, no story... but yeah, lets put some mini-games to make up for the lack of a true racing experience.
- Free-roam: Nope. Removed. I guess they probably asked themselves "Why should we bother leaving something that works ?". This idea was as smart as retiring a concord jet so we can all go back to flying propellers. What's next?... a black and white game with no sound??? (Chaplin style)
- Load Times: Lack of free roam means you can finish the game in roughly 2 hours... with almost 20% of the time spent in loading screens (probably less, but it won't seem that short).
- Replayability: None. You can't pick the races you've done without starting the whole section from scratch. A complete waste of time. Pointless.
- Resets: Sometimes they reminded me of Pro-Street (and I wonder who the "dark squares" behind that game was). Sometimes you drive barely off the road and get a full reset. Try hitting the APEX too much on a hairpin... and you get restarted. I really don't get it, you can trash the car all you want and keep driving... but you can't drive 3 feet off-road for 5 seconds. Why???
- The shooting: Yeah, your car gets shot left and right (right out of hollywood). You might even end up having to ram helicopters to save yourself. But what is the point in putting guns in a game if the main character doesn't even get a water pistol??? Are you trying to tell me that good ol' Yuri has 3 hyper cars in his garage, but he can't lend you a rusty AK47 ???
In all honesty, the ONLY great thing about the game is the graphics and sceneries. They are truly amazing... I'm not joking.
I never thought a game with such great graphics could be such a miserable failure... but here's the proof.
Just to avoid being pesimistic, another OK thing is the police and the rolling roadblocks, but that's pretty much it.
Bottom Line: Don't buy it... rent it. Finish it in 3 hours or less... return it. Trust me, this game is not meant to be replayed.
Message to EA: you're destroying the franchise.
I suggest you go back to the drawing board and get your act together. In a world where Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo have made a brand name redefining the genre, EA/BlackBox has managed to push the NFS franchise a step closer to the border of a cliff. It will take just one more miserable failure for the franchise to become a joke.
One word of advice: Bring back Underground (1 & 2), Carbon, Most Wanted, Undercover and Hot Pursuit... bring 'em all back in a single game... you'll get your loyal customer fanbase back in a heartbeat (and I'll take back and eat every single word of this review with a smile on my face).