Need For Speed: The Run ... a
meaty engine is sometimes not
enough to make a game great
For years, Need For Speed was
the games industry's equivalent
of Justin Bieber – insanely
popular despite lacking any
discernible merit beyond an
obscenely huge marketing
budget.
Then Electronic Arts finally
entrusted the franchise to its
best in-house arcade racing
game developer, the legendary,
Guildford-based Criterion, of
Burnout fame. The result was last
year's NFS: Hot Pursuit, perhaps
the best arcade-racer ever.
This year, the responsibility for
creating EA's four wheel-based
cash-cow has reverted to
Canadian developer Black Box,
creator of several old (and
mediocre) NFS games. This time
around, though, it has an
unprecedented arsenal with
which to elevate its efforts.
For starters, the game has been
built on the mighty Frostbite 2
engine, which powers Battlefield
3. And Black Box has been able to
avail itself of Criterion's brilliant
Autolog, which lets you race
against your friends offline and
constantly generates new
challenges.
The first thing you notice is the
effect of Frostbite 2. Need For
Speed: The Run looks absolutely
stupendous – graphically, it's
possibly the best-looking racing
game ever, with incredibly lifelike
landscapes stretching into the
distance and gloriously crisp cars
and cut-scenes.
Encouragingly, Black Box has also
sorted a problem that afflicted its
earlier NFS games. The cars in
The Run handle like they should –
that is, fast, responsive and tail-
happy, ever-keen to drift around
corners.
The single-player game's premise
is good, too. You play Jack
Rourke, a monosyllabic cipher
entered into a Cannonball Run-
style race from San Francisco to
New York, with a $25m prize
awaiting the winner.
Jack's odyssey is split into nine
legs, each itself split into stages.
You're allowed five "resets" on
each stage, which are triggered
when you crash out or are
busted by the police – or you can
trigger them yourself, essentially
committing suicide if you feel
you're not going to be able to
meet that stage's objective
without rewinding to the last
checkpoint.
It's never good having to reset
yourself in a game, and Need For
Speed: The Run soon adds a
whole host of instances of poor
game design.
You can, for example, change
cars (which is essential if the
road surface changes, as it does)
by driving into petrol stations by
the side of the road. But you're
penalised so heavily for doing so
– to the extent that it can make
the difference between hitting or
missing your objective – that you
swiftly become reluctant to do
so. And rather than remembering
what car you'd rather be driving,
it resets you to your rejected
motor if you miss your objective.
What is the point of having all
manner of exotic machinery in
the game if you're discouraged
from using it? And whenever you
find yourself in a particularly
unsuitable car, there's never a
petrol station to be seen.
The checkpointing system can
work against you – if you scrape
through the first one on a stage,
then wipe out, you can put
yourself in a position from which
recovery is nigh-impossible.
There's a certain amount of
variation in the gameplay: you
might have to make up a certain
amount of places in the race by
overtaking a specified number of
cars, battle other cars and stay
ahead of them at certain points
in time or simply race the clock
when you've been delayed. But
compared to Hot Pursuit, it feels
linear and lacking in imagination.
As you progress, you unlock a
load of Challenges, allowing you
to revisit the amazing settings in
the game (the Colorado Rockies
are particularly impressive). But
Challenge restricts itself to the
types of races found in the story
mode, so you feel it has missed a
trick.
Attempts to spice up
proceedings with things like on-
foot sections in the story mode
when you're caught by the cops
are impressive to behold but
humdrum to play.
All of which is a shame since,
technically, Need For Speed: The
Run is vastly impressive. It's not a
bad game – those who bought
into the franchise years ago will
find it perfectly satisfying. But it's
just nowhere near as good as
Hot Pursuit – which you can now
pick up for next to nothing.
You can throw all the technology
you like at a game, but that will
never be enough to gloss over
fundamental design flaws.
4:45 AM
admin
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