Need for Speed: Rivals Reviews
The online experiences may be underwhelming or downright frustrating for some, but that's not enough to overshadow the strong precedent Ghost Games has set for the next generation of online racers.
Fast, furious, and fun. NFS: Rivals blends Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted to great effect.
Ghost Games will likely get there, though, and what they've conjured up in their debut effort is a remarkable achievement. Before downsizing, Criterion created some of the last generation's very best arcade racers in Hot Pursuit and Burnout Paradise. Ghost Games has carried on that torch and crafted a racer that any of its competitors would do well to match in the new generation.
Need for Speed: Rivals is a wholly enjoyable open-world racer. The driving is solid, its streets are a joy to explore, and its racing assignments--though a bit repetitive at times--are incentive enough to keep you coming back for more.
Retains many of the staples from the Need for Speed series, but paves its own path with its dynamic shared worlds
Need for Speed: Rivals smartly builds on the strong foundation of its predecessors to deliver an aggressive arcade racer that bristles with energy.
It's not the most stable racer, but Need for Speed Rivals puts spectacular ideas to great use
There's a fantastic game hiding inside of Need for Speed Rivals, but there aren't enough systems in place to draw that greatness out where it belongs.
Need For Speed: Rivals puts you in a gaiant , connected web of high-speed car chases where you can join in on (or spoil) other people's fun.
While Shadow Fall may be best representation of the PS4's visuals, Need for Speed Rivals is the best representation of its power. It's blisteringly fast, not batting an eye at speeds over two-hundred miles per hour for a sustained period of time. Cars look realistic, environments are highly-detailed and the dynamic HUDs and interface are the best the series has seen. It's raw, visceral, intense and boasts a ton of replay value thanks to over one hundred events and seamless online multiplayer. Need for Speed Rivals proves how impressive a PS4 racing game can be by offering a fully realized product that blows past conceptions of what a launch title can offer.
'Need for Speed: Rivals' offers more visceral fun than ever in the series' next-gen debut.
Need For Speed: Rivals' main theme is about blurring the stringent lines between two things we consider to be opposites. Challenging the traditional definitions of two opposing ideals and showing that they are not just more similar than you think — but require each other to exist. It's all very yin-and-yang, and the theme is implemented in every aspect with varying degrees of success. The mixing of single-player and multiplayer gameplay is the most obvious and calculated element to take on the theme, and is the one thing that really excited me throughout my time with Rivals. It is a fantastic idea that company spokespersons on convention stages have been promising would change the way we game in this next generation.
Need For Speed: Rivals is a must have for fans of racing games with a friends list full of similar gamers; everyone else should weigh up their options. There's plenty to do, but be prepared for some mild annoyance.
Excellent driving mechanics and visuals are sadly hindered by too many major issues.
If you're looking for a challenging game of cat and mouse with exotic supercars and a gorgeous back drop, Need for Speed: Rivals is what you're looking for in spades. Think fast, drive faster. Going slow is for chumps and old people.
Need for Speed: Rivals is one of the more fun installments in the series, and certainly a great PS4 launch title. But it needs deeper customization and tweaks to racing SP loss in order to more fully realize its potential, and a more involved attempt at a story would inject some life into a relatively stale campaign mode. Fortunately gameplay is so intense and fun you forget about most of the game's other issues, and it can certainly be enjoyed despite its lingering issues and relative lack of depth.
Despite some rough edges and aggravations, Need for Speed Rivals is still a fun and exciting ride. Hunting down your prey as the police or getting to your hideout in the nick of time is exhilarating, and constantly sharing a social sphere with other players feels like a natural step forward for a series intent on putting players on opposing side of the law.
If you like to bring grief to other players, this may be the racing game you've been waiting for.
Dozens of hours of gameplay, the only racing game on PS4 at launch, a fantastic showpiece for your next-gen hardware of choice, and a hyper-connected experience—Rivals is one of the best games to own on PlayStation 4. Rev your engines, folks, this will be on hell of a ride.
Low on innovation but high on spectacle, as the cumulation of the last several years of Need For Speed games the first entry on the next gen is already one of the best.