With Driveclub delayed from launch, the PS4 lost a racer from its launch line-up. That meant the hopes of racing fans lay with Need for Speed Rivals and new studio Ghost Games, as this would be the only place for petrol heads to see the next generation of racing on PS4.
As a cross-generation title, it meant a greater developmental pressure was heaped upon the new team, in addition to being compared to the previous Need for Speed title, Most Wanted, which released just a year before from Criterion.
It was generally successful, although I didn’t find it to have a lot of staying power. I played several races in single player and found it enjoyable, with autolog now being fully integrated into the gameplay as you constantly one-up your friends as you play, but beyond that, I didn’t play it very much.
I did find that it was best in multiplayer, however, with the game essentially being always online for up to eight players with AllDrive. It wasn’t the smartest integration, but it did prove a lot of fun as you roamed and raced to your pleasing.
We didn’t review the game, but Stefan played it long enough for an extensive preview, in which he said:
I can’t quite put my finger on why, but Rivals already has that feeling of a “Best of” compilation, revisiting the divided paths of Cops and Racers from Hot Pursuit, crafting another grand open world and taking so much of the infrastructure that Criterion pioneered to the next logical step. It’s with AllDrive that this game is really pushing the franchise to new heights, and along with much of the gaming industry, it’s helping to make this ever-connected future actually sound quite appealing.
It’s true – it really did manage to feel like a compilation, or mash-up, of all the previous Need for Speed games. AllDrive, as mentioned, proved very successful too, and hinted towards an interesting future which has yet to be fully realised.
Probably not quite Driveclub – if it had been finished – but close enough, we say. Though, all that really matters here is what you think: did you get on with Ghost Games’ debut racer well enough, and was it a truly next generation affair?
As per usual, let us know in the comments below. Leave a paragraph or two at most, with your general thoughts on the game. Then don’t forget to add a rating on the end to sum up your overall thoughts – you can choose from either Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It or Avoid It.
Severn2j
I picked this up with my PS4 as Driveclub was delayed and while I really enjoyed Most Wanted, I just couldn’t get on with this one. I found the always on aspect quite annoying as it played like a single player game, but with the random disconnects of a multiplayer. Fortunately, there’s an option to make it SP only. As others have said, it plays like a ‘not-as-good’ Hot Pursuit, It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why, but it didn’t gel with me and I gave up after about level 7 in racer mode (level 4 cop mode).
One good thing about it, was that I managed to trade it for MGS:GZ and only had to pay a couple of quid on top. That probably says more about MGS than Rivals tho. :)
Rent it.
hol
As a big fan of NFS:Hot Pursuit, I was looking forward to this one, sadly it was nigh on impossible to race with friends which is what gaming is about. Everytime we got ready to start a race, the police appeared from nowhere & wrecked us all.
Graphically it’s looks great & the gameplay & handling is good, as we expect from NFS titles but the little things spoil the game.
Rent it or at most bargain bin it.
Kennykazey
It’s perhaps the most generic NFS yet, it’s decent but doesn’t do anything new and noteworthy. The progression system is maybe the worst yet and the separation of different types of the same car is as weird as Gran Turismo calling a reverse track “new and separate”.
Apart from the cringeworthy intro, it’s not a bad game… Just not interesting.
[b]Bargain Bin[b] it.
Kennykazey
Damn, that’s a [bold]fail[bold].
Kennykazey
I give up, I’ve forgotten how it’s done…..
marvzilla
Intensely frustrating, as others have said the game itself is very pretty and the driving is fun but the always online is a pain. Having other players in the game is great but being unable to get them into one event is so frustrating. The joy of online in most wanted and hot pursuit was always from getting a group of players into an event. In rivals you’re lucky if you get one other player into an event and the other folk just get in the way. A wasted opportunity I feel as the base elements for a great game are there. Bargain bin it
freezebug2
I’m playing through it at the moment level 60 racer which I completed first and around level 48 cop. It’s not a bad game but towards the mid point of going for rank 60 of the cop career the list of tasks required for rank upgrade get a little repetitive.
They should probably have included a challenge after each 10 rank ups where you have to race or challenge and beat a RIVAL!! to progress. Why on earth it’s called Rivals I’ll never know.
The lack of a Pause feature (press the start button and the map comes up but your car rolls on in the background lol)was a strange omission even in SP offline! Also it has too few driving camera views, there are only 2 of them of which I never usually use either in racers!
It’s quite cheap to buy these days at around 16 quid bargain bucket money so I’ll go with BUY IT
freezebug2
PS3 version btw!
spurs78
I bought this day one with ps4 and really enjoyed it. Still working my way through cop and racer events and agree it has its frustrating moments but on the whole if you like the previous versions and liked burnout paradise it’s worth your time and money.
Buy it!
Tomhlord
BUY IT.
Beautiful visuals are a plus, the main joy comes from the cars handling. Easy enough to have a quick first play, but enough depth is there for you to refine your skills and driving ability along the way. It is very satisfying to nail a perfect drift whilst also fending off several cop cars. This balance of accessibility, challenge and reward are what make any video game a good video game.
On the downside, I encountered a great deal of AI bugs and errors that still exist, especially when doing the Police career. This is especially apparent the further you get and the more time you spend in the Need for Speed world. When it leads to you having to restart a whole event, there is little incentive to persevere.
Still, overall, this enough to keep PS4 owning driving fans happy. Just.
Tuffcub
Boring, bug ridden, dull. Avoid.
shields_t
So, I bought this after discovering that Drive Club wouldn’t launch alongside the PS4 to fulfil my driving game fix. First impressions left me a little disappointed, the game gave me my first experience of the crash reporting system – before I’d even completed the tutorial.
Things picked up a little once if put a few hours into the game but the game did still have a bad habit of bombing out right towards the end of a tough race I was leading or when I had one takedown left to complete an even with a gold medal.
While the visuals are indeed impressive, it never felt like a big leap from NFS Most Wanted which I’d played on the PS3 the previous year. It also just wasn’t as much fun as Most Wanted, which has such a well integrated multiplayer system that it almost reaches the dizzy heights of Burnout Paradise’s fantastic system from a few years before. Sadly, despite having a number of people on my friends list playing the game on PS4, I was never matched with them in a session – or if I was, I never came across them. Indeed when I needed to complete the multiplayer trophies for the platinum, I had to reach out to Internet forums.
Personally I wish I’d rented it, so that’s my suggestion.