Need for Speed: Rivals Reviews
Need for Speed Rivals is a fun, addictive racing title with seamless multiplayer integration, but stiff controls and occasional technical hiccups hold it back.
Fast, furious, and fun. NFS: Rivals blends Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted to great effect.
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.
Need for Speed: Rivals smartly builds on the strong foundation of its predecessors to deliver an aggressive arcade racer that bristles with energy.
Just be sure to take breaks when playing the racer campaign, as the grind, and the suicidal cops can wear on you.
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.
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.
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' offers more visceral fun than ever in the series' next-gen debut.
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.
Need for Speed: Rivals is one of the most impressive launch games for PS4. It is very pretty visually, and it has enough content to keep players busy for quite some time. There are some drawbacks to its design, but nothing that will derail the fun. For those looking for that next-gen racing experience…well this is really your only option on PS4. But I am glad it is an option, because it is incredibly impressive and fun.
Need for Speed: Rivals delivers a satisfying foray into a new generation for the racing genre with impressive, integrated multiplayer and sleek graphics.
[A]s an alternative to the likes of Forza Motorsport 5, Need for Speed Rivals offers a deep, extensive and enjoyable racing experience that seamlessly flits between single and multiplayer.
Need for Speed: Rivals is a massive playground that sports many races and chases, The game has a few flaws, but overall it's a thrilling next-gen arcade-style racer.
Rivals serves as a refinement of ideas and principles established over the last three iterations of Need for Speed. This can lead to a feeling of sameness bleeding over Rival's rough edges while also serving as a condensed interpretation of the series' better ideas. In this regard Rivals acts as a natural step forward, lessons learned and amended properly. For an annual franchise to arrive harder, better faster and stronger than the previous version is no easy feat, but for Need for Speed it's increasingly becoming part of the game.
For a game that touts speed in its name, Need for Speed: Rivals delivers on every front. It's gorgeous, fast and definitely furious.
Ferraris. That's where we came in. We said that's all you really needed to know about the game and that you should just go and play it. Having now shared various other thoughts, that recommendation still holds. It is wonderful to be able to race Ferraris around the gorgeous game map - as well as many other cars - and you're doing so within a structured, enjoyable game with fantastic handling, a super sense of speed (but not quite on a par with the very best) and the very on-the-edge mechanics which underpin this twitch racer. Unfortunately what keeps this title from hitting the heady heights it had the potential to reach are significant factors, like the forced end of racer sessions or impossible free roam type approach to the game. It also doesn't feel like the fastest thing ever. So a very good racing game, rather than a great one. Nevertheless it does make you long for Ghost Games' next attempt at Need for Speed.
In general, Need For Speed: Rivals is a great addition to the genre for fans of racing games. The merging of single and multiplayer experience seems to be a strong feature of next-gen gaming, and something we can expect a lot more of over the next few years, and the game is visually pretty stunning even if you do play it on current gen consoles instead of the slicker PC and next-gen options. But this "next-gen" feel is far from perfect for the moment. The issues with always-online and the relative sparsity of human players on the map is something that would need to be improved to make this game exceptional, rather than just solid.
Need for Speed: Rivals is a terrific entry in the series, taking the strongest elements of its predecessors to build something familiar but with its sights clearly on the future with regards to online integration. The lighting and weather effects look fantastic thanks to the next generation hardware and the sense of speed is as exhilarating as ever. The six player restriction is a tad disappointing, and minor issues such as the uninspired narrative and the frequent disorientation after resetting from a crash eat away at the experience slightly, but otherwise Rivals is a top notch racer you really shouldn't let pass you by.
Overall, Need for Speed Rivals is a great game, but one held back by some disappointing, avoidable flaws.