Spielrezensionen

The premise grabbed my attention right away. I'm not talking about the story itself, but rather the game's main hook. Before I go any further, I should mention that the last NFS game I truly played was Most Wanted, so if some of these mechanics were already done in previous entries, I wasn't aware of them.

The game takes place in a large open world Palm City, which is basically Miami, and its surrounding areas. Gameplay is split between Day and Night, but there's no actual day or night cycle. Instead, when you leave your garage, you choose whether to head out during the day or night. During the day, you can participate in legal races to earn bank for buying new cars or performance parts. At night, it's time for high speed illegal races that might attract the attention of the cops. Rather than earning cash, night races earn you "Rep", which is experience points that level up your character and unlock more powerful parts and cars. Of course, if the cops catch you, you lose whatever "Rep" you earned that night, plus a good chunk of cash as a fine.

Beyond the main racing, the game offers a ton of side activities. Even the races themselves have variety, including off road events, though you'll need to tune your car specifically for those if you want to stand a chance. There are also drift races, drift zones, speed traps, long jumps, and a whole bunch of collectibles scattered around the map.

The online mode shares the same world as solo play, you just pick whichever mode you want. The main difference is the presence of other players, who you can challenge to events. If you jump into a story mission, it'll play out as if you're in solo mode. You can also form "Crews", groups of up to 32 people that provide bonuses as the group's level increases.

Now, onto the story. As you'd expect from a street racing game, it's about a crew that's torn apart after the cops bust one of its members. You arrive in Palm City as a newcomer trying to make a name for yourself, and you get caught up with this crew while uncovering the corruption lurking within the police department. It's a pretty decent story overall, and as a fan of Most Wanted, the final mission gave me a nice surprise.

Visually, the game is superb. The graphics are detailed, and the cars look fantastic, which brings me to something I forgot to mention,the cars. There's a huge roster, including classics from older NFS games. My personal favourite, the Lamborghini Diablo SV, is in the game, along with plenty of other familiar rides. And when it comes to customisation, there's a lot, not just performance upgrades, but visual customisation for your cars and even your avatar, with dozens upon dozens of options.