Need for Speed Payback Reviews

Need for Speed Payback is ranked in the 17th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
53 / 100
Nov 16, 2017

Enjoyable arcade handling packaged within a game that gets monotonous long before it rewards your time investment.

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No Recommendation / Blank
Nov 8, 2017

Need for Speed returns in this, a grossly unremarkable open world racer that marks another step back for the series.

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IGN
Top Critic
5.9 / 10.0
Nov 7, 2017

Need for Speed Payback is a big, competent, and confident arcade racer but it's really let down by its linear cop chases, its overwrought and insidious upgrade system, its dreadful dialogue, and its superficial action sequences. It feels fine and it looks flashy, but Payback really went all-in on its direct-to-DVD revenge tale and it was a bust for me.

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Dec 8, 2017
Need for Speed Payback - Easy Allies Review video thumbnail
Metro GameCentral
GameCentral
Top Critic
3 / 10
Nov 10, 2017

The worst Need For Speed game of the modern era, that leaves no stone unturned in its attempts to make itself as boring, repetitive, and exploitative as possible.

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Nov 7, 2017

Need for Speed Payback successfully returns to its Fast and Furious roots with aplomb, but a focus on the grind and a beautiful but empty world means it ultimately falls short of greatness.

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6 / 10.0
Nov 14, 2017

This open world has plenty of racing content, but bad progression, technical problems, and throwaway storytelling make it hard to get invested

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Polygon
Top Critic
6.5 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2017

Need For Speed Payback doesn't do many favors for itself. It's a fun racing game whose flashy story would be fine if I felt like I was building a blinged-out career worthy of it. Instead, I felt driven toward pure stats upgrades, heedless of what the car was or what it looked like.

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5 / 10
Nov 6, 2017

Dull and uninspired, with a relentless emphasis on grinding, Need for Speed Payback is neither fast nor furious.

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Nov 7, 2017

Need for Speed returns with another flawed entry. There's the core of a great racing game here and when you're just driving around the open world, it's wonderful. The progression system encourages grinding and the basic story is delivered with B-movie seriousness, taking away from the racing pleasure. There's a better game inside of Payback, but you have to go through everything else to get to it.

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3 / 10.0
Nov 14, 2017

Once the servers for this game inevitably go offline, with no way to obtain loot boxes, earn speed cards or trade tokens, I can't help but wonder if the casual consumer would genuinely ever have the patience to fully complete this game. Need for Speed Payback is another result of EA meddling in the concept of "games as a service" and taking an otherwise mediocre entry in the series and completely butchering it in the process to achieve this goal.

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6 / 10
Nov 15, 2017

Despite it's flaws, I still found Need for Speed: Payback quite a likeable arcade racer. Just having a narrative sets it apart from the other, more serious offerings this year, even if it's not delivered with much panache. Sadly it's attractive visuals, and alternate take on the genre, can't disguise a gamut of poor design decisions, some of which serve to make the enjoyable racing less than enjoyable.

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9 / 10.0
Nov 7, 2017

Need for Speed comes back stronger than ever with an open-world game that has a great story mode and gameplay mechanics adapted to every player.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

80 / 100
Nov 7, 2017

Need for Speed Payback is an epic racing game thanks to his cinematographic style. Fans of the franchise will be very satisfied with all the content that awaits in the game.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

Forbes
Top Critic
6.5 / 10.0
Nov 8, 2017

Predominantly a game that is trying to do too many things at once. Unfortunately, it fails to stand out in any one area.

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6 / 10
Nov 10, 2017

In an effort to adopt the stylings of other popular, open-world racers, Need For Speed: Payback presents some fun ideas with poor execution.

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VG247
Top Critic
Unscored
Nov 8, 2017

Somewhere, Need for Speed Payback makes absolute sense to someone.

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6.5 / 10.0
Nov 7, 2017

Need for Speed ​​does not take advantage of the two-year break to present a game that involves a clear step forward in the series, staying as a simple driving arcade that does more things wrong than good.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

6.8 / 10.0
Nov 7, 2017

A step back that betrays the good gameplay of the series and the excellent achievements of the 2015 reboot.

Review in Italian | Read full review

Nov 13, 2017

Need for Speed Payback is another miss for the franchise.  The racing feels good, the presentation is great, but everything surrounding it is absolutely abhorrent.

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