Drive for your life 'Need For Speed: The Run' review

Game: Need For Speed: The Run

Platform: PS3, XBox 360, 

 

In this latest outing from the Need For Speed franchise, the player assumes the role of Jack Rourke, a guy who gets on the bad side of a criminal organization and is forced to participate in an underground race across the USA from San Francisco to New York City. While racing for your life, you have to beat aggressive contenders, outrun scores of police cars, and dodge police roadblocks and falling boulders. It's the NFS equivalent of a big budget summer movie.

 

The game gives the player the chance to drive exotic supercars around real-life locations all accross the United States. The rendering of the tracks and the cars are glossy, impressive, and hyper real. The handling of the cars is a cross between hardcore arcade racing games like NFS: Hot Pursuit and racing simulators like NFS: Shift. This makes the driving experience feel exciting and new but not necessarily enjoyable.

 

Except for the cut scenes (that are unskippable) and the out-of-car minigames that the player is forced to endure to advance the "story", it's the same old NFS game that you've played before. It's not even the best NFS game in recent memory. 

 

The loading times take too long and restarting a race is so clunky that the player ends up going through menus and waiting most of the time instead of actually racing. The single player campaign can be completed in around 3-4 hours, depending on the skill of the player. The multiplayer mode is a snoozer because of the really, really long loading times (around 3-5 minutes, depending on your Internet connection). 

NFS: The Run gives you the chance to drive new supercars like the Porsche 911 Carrera S and the Pagani Huayra, but beyond that the game really doesn't offer anything new. And in the realm of gaming, innovation is the key to success. Especially for an established franchise like the NFS (this is their 18th outing). And although they tried to infuse some semblance of story in the game, in the end it's not compelling enough to make me go all the way to spend for it. Hindi siya sulit.

 

Sorry, EA and Black Box. Better luck next time. — TJD, GMA News