Reviews: Need For Speed: Rivals

Rivals is a collection of ideas and achievements of the previous series with cars that are better detailed, sparks that are brighter, and in some strange way it affects the overall feeling - it's still a beautiful game. Racing is probably stronger than any other genre but it very much depends on the development of technology.




The best we can say about Rivals is that all of its various elements are seamlessly joined; this creates a permanent growing tension. Keeping up with the leader in a windy part of the track was hard; it was harder to do it being surrounded by fanatical cops. The story consists of two campaigns: racers and cops. The racers chase each other in their shiny cars and get away from the guardians of law and order, and that is all. As a cop you have to chase violating traffic rules racers.

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You’ve got Gadgets in one or two slots. These items can create shock waves that generate electromagnetic interference or cause helicopters dropping road spikes. These gadgets need to be recharged, so can’t use them too often. Almost every action in the game gives you Speed Points. If you get arrested you lose all of your points.

Generally everything happens in an open world where you can go through the whole career, just doing the job being randomly encountered by other drivers. This is perhaps the most important point that Need for Speed has achieved over the last years: the players are no longer limited to scenarios, so there is no more need to follow from exactly point A to point B. You can completely ignore any tips that game AI tries to give you. Just get behind the wheel and go look for ways to earn Speed Points and perform insane tricks.

Another important advantage of the Need for Speed: Rivals is the AllDrive system, which offers a seamless transition between single and multiplayer game. Launching Rivals, you automatically get to the online server. Certainly, no one forbids you to play with the AI only, but the multiplayer could become quite a unique experience – so try it!

Rivals is an excellent example of the game which deliberately blurs the distinction between a single game and the one that gets you deeply involved in the virtual community. Nothing can be compared to the delight of victory over the real enemy or getting a friend out of difficult situation.

So it looks like the best in NFS saga still confidently awaits us in the future, and it’s nowhere near the end of it.

RFR score
4/5

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