Need for Speed's menus are a mess, and upgrading a car requires going through every single area and every single upgrade to find the one that's available. Right now, there's not even a satisfactory way to pull everyone together for a race - another of many odd oversights here. In practice, though, that rarely happens, with players occupying far-flung corners of the map while engaged in their own busywork, ticking off the sizeable list of events that pocks Need for Speed's city of Ventura Bay. You share the open world with seven other players, and are able to call upon them to help you with events, just as they can call on you.
Indeed, Ghost Games seems at a loss as to how to make the most of that always online connection, and makes only half-hearted attempts to justify it. For a game that's all about connectivity - and that demands an internet connection to work - that's plain strange. Likewise, there's no way to share car designs with other players, and no way to browse the best work of others. If you're hoping, as I was, to replicate tuning company Liberty Walk's stunning remix of the Ferrari 458, forget it with many of the high-end cars, there are next to no customisation options. There are limits, though, and considering how customisation is at the heart of this new Need for Speed, it can be excessively prohibitive.
You're encouraged to covet each car - there are only five garage slots available at any time - and it's perfectly possible to push an MX5 or a Civic far enough that it can go toe to toe with the McLarens and Lamborghinis that sit at the further reaches of Need for Speed's car list. There's a thrill in taking a modest sportscar and turning it into something savage, slamming it to the floor and bolting on bulging wheel arches before applying a gaudy chrome wrap. More importantly, they're mostly skippable. Yes, the cinematics will make you cringe - but they are well produced and well acted, if not particularly well written. The partnership between Need for Speed and car culture website Speedhunters - a site owned by EA that, since being set up in 2008, has flourished into the premier destination for those who want to ogle cars that have been sculpted to within an inch of their life - has never been better exploited.
The result, sadly, is a Need for Speed that's flat, awkward and a sizeable step back for the series after its recent purple patch.Ī shame, as once you've got past the awkward mugging of the cinematics that frame this Need for Speed - thankfully, they're largely skippable - there's much to enjoy here.
The problem is, it also chooses to fold in some of the worst excesses seen in the likes of The Run and Undercover - and struggles to competently handle any of its components.
Folding in the customisation of 2003's Underground, the open world of 2005's Most Wanted and some of the muscular physics of Criterion's excellent run, this Need for Speed apparently intends to be something of a greatest hits compendium. Ghost Games' latest take, its second after 2013's enjoyable Rivals, certainly has a keener eye on the series' past than more recent efforts.
Need for Speed's recent purple patch ends in the mixed influences of this flat and awkward reboot.Ģ1 years on from the series' debut on Panasonic's 3DO, billing this latest Need for Speed as a reboot feels somewhat gratuitous.