Need for Speed: Rivals Reviews
Need for Speed: Rivals will wow you initially, but there are too many missteps for it to keep you engaged for a sizeable length of time. The nonsensical story, surprising lack of features and an online component that may as well not be there overshadow the fantastic driving mechanics and lead to a rather monotonous game.
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 is decently fun, but marred by underwhelming presentation, an insanely stupid story, unfair AI, and repetition.
Need For Speed: Rivals is an exhilarating thrill ride that's very nearly brilliant. The foundations for fun are present and correct, but last-gen compromises transform AllDrive from a game changer into a nigh-on dealbreaker.
While All Drive is a fluid and impressive system, Rivals has a player limit of only 6 people and a game space that is best described by words like giant, colossal, immense, mammoth, gargantuan, and also stunningly beautiful.
While the driving is superb and the visuals are stunning, the inherent limitations of Rivals' AllDrive concept begin to hamper the experience near the end. The result is a game that's three-quarters great fun, one-quarter miserable, frustrating slog.
This is agonisingly close to being at the front of the pack, and is the best arcade racer on the PS4 by default, but its missteps mean that it's a millisecond away from a podium place.
Excellent driving mechanics and visuals are sadly hindered by too many major issues.
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.
A good arcade racer that is fun to pick up and play, but after awhile the lack of depth will leave you wanting more.
A fun, engaging arcade racer with thrills, spills, explosions and crashes aplenty, Need for Speed: Rivals is let down by the largely pointless AllDrive and a lack of race types. A mixed bag.
It's most certainly a launch title racer and it's not doing much to rectify that. I'm reminded of the limited scope of Motorstorm as a launch racer for PS3. Like Motorstorm, however, the core Gameplay is solid enough to earn a recommendation to NFS fans
If you like to bring grief to other players, this may be the racing game you've been waiting for.
There is no doubt that the driving mechanics of Rivals are fantastic, and most of the game's systems are a success. However, it's a multiplayer-oriented game that fails to bring players together, and the content elsewhere is merely good.
Rivals brings a solid, core competency while introducing interesting new online features. Unfortunately, these features never quite gel to their full potential.
Overall, Need for Speed Rivals is a great game, but one held back by some disappointing, avoidable flaws.
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.
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.
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.
For a game that touts speed in its name, Need for Speed: Rivals delivers on every front. It's gorgeous, fast and definitely furious.