Need For Speed: Rivals review

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit’s greatest contribution to seamless play was Autolog; for follow-up Most Wanted, it was EasyDrive. Rivals’ intended equivalent is AllDrive, a system that transplants players into other drivers’ games in service of Ghost Games’ goal of “destroying the boundary between single- and multiplayer”. It might have worked, too, if the challenges of developing a next- and cross-gen game hadn’t so sorely hobbled Rivals’ potential.

The payoff is that Rivals is beautiful on PS4, Xbox One and PC – all three versions were tested for this review – taking full advantage of DICE’s Frostbite 3 tech. Redview County combines elements of California and Europe, resulting in a diverse environment that even occasionally recalls OutRun. Expansive dust-blown desert tracks, tightly wound snow-covered tarmac and bucolic vineyards all sit within a few miles of each other, but somehow cohere into a naturalistic world. Cars shimmer with surface moisture as the space around them fills with leaves, snow, rain or whichever other particle effect is being shown off. And the day/night cycle and dynamic weather system transform the world to such an extent that you’ll trek back to some places just to see them under new conditions.

Ghost Games’ debut feels like an amalgamation of Criterion’s previous two Need For Speeds – and no wonder, given that 80 per cent of Criterion joined Ghost earlier this year – though Hot Pursuit’s influence is more keenly felt. Rivals has brought Most Wanted’s open-world design and EasyDrive into the mix, but its urban sprawl has been abandoned in favour of Hot Pursuit’s sinuous country roads and weighty handling model. You can choose between Cop and Racer careers, too, switching allegiances whenever you want, your progress dictated by the completion of Speedlists, a selection of tasks themed around three driving styles.