Need for Speed: Rivals Reviews
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.
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.
[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 delivers a satisfying foray into a new generation for the racing genre with impressive, integrated multiplayer and sleek graphics.
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.
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' 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.
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.
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 smartly builds on the strong foundation of its predecessors to deliver an aggressive arcade racer that bristles with energy.
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.
Fast, furious, and fun. NFS: Rivals blends Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted to great effect.
Need for Speed Rivals is a fun, addictive racing title with seamless multiplayer integration, but stiff controls and occasional technical hiccups hold it back.
Need for Speed Rivals is a competent arcade racer that is sure to get the heart rate up with some real 'edge of your seat' cops vs racers action.
Overall, Need for Speed: Rivals delivers the most solid racer to come from EA in a long time. The ability to play as both Cops and Racers is a welcome gameplay diversity that gives you the power to choose how to play the game. Back that up with a seamless multiplayer, a solid audio foundation, and killer visuals, and what you get is one of the best racing games to come out in recent years. Whether you choose to be a Cop or a Racer, either way you're going to have a lot of fun, which is what gaming is all about.
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.
A welcome alteration from the series' previous all-too-familiar line of games. Rivals blends the open-world driving enjoyment with high-adrenaline, high-speed racing with challenging mission sets and battles for supremacy.
Need for Speed: Rivals is an exceedingly high-powered racer with all sorts of flash and panache. It insists that you pay attention; it demands that you continually seek out the next adrenaline rush, and it pushes you to take bigger and bigger risks. When there's a little too much overlap between the open-world action and the single events, I get irritated, but it's a worthy sacrifice.