Even though they have failed to impress me in recent years, Need For Speed still makes some of the most desirable titles – at least in my opinion. Their 2012 installment, Most Wanted, got some very good reviews, but it was nothing special to me, too simple and straightforward. NFS Rivals, on the other hand, is something else.
When I watched the NFS Rivals trailer, I wasn’t quite taken aback. It’s got racers and it’s got cops, surprise surprise; playing the game, however, was a completely different experience, and to put it simply, it was brilliant.
You get to choose between being a cop or racer. It was a tough decision, but I eventually picked racer, only because the cars were better. In racer mode, you have “Speedlists”, which are basically targets you need accomplish in order to progress in the game. Once you finish a Speedlist, new performance parts, exterior modifications, cars, etc… will be unlocked.
I still haven’t played much of the game, but I managed to unlock several cars, including the Chevy Corvette Stingray, Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series and Porsche 911 GT3. There are plenty of Ferraris in the game; the Italian supercars last appeared in Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2, 11 years ago.
Unlike Most Wanted, the cars are a thrill to drive and easy to maneuver around corners, but no matter how fast you go, the cops will remain on your tail, and thanks to “Pursuit Tech”, you’ll find yourself busted pretty frequently, nevertheless, you can still defend yourself with your own Pursuit Tech weapons. One thing I truly enjoyed, other than the weaponry, are the awesome scenic roads.
I can’t really discuss the game’s graphics because I’m running it on PC, so it all goes down to the system; mine runs the game on high graphics with no problems at all (GTX 680 4Gb). Console gamers shouldn’t have to worry about the game running or not, but it should be considerably better on newer platforms (PS4 and Xbox One).
All in all, the game is super fun and easy to understand, the cars are great and the physics are even better, which is why Need For Speed Rivals earns a solid 9/10 in my view.