Need for Speed Payback Reviews
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.
Need For Speed Payback is really very terrible indeed
With some excellent improvements to car control, customization, and cinematic moments, Need for Speed Payback delivers on the promise of a better racing game. That said, it occasionally has a few engine knocks with chunky dialogue and invisible walls barring your path in the vast open world they've created. It's a good step for the series, and it should provide a good foundation for Ghost's next time behind the wheel.
A famous name in need of fresh ideas
Like the so-called reboot from 2015, Need for Speed Payback is better and more fun than it really should be. In fact, Ghost Games latest creation is the most entertaining Need for Speed game for many years, making it an extra pity that the final polish is missing.
Review in Swedish | Read full review
Need for Speed Payback is a well-designed sandbox that's at its most entertaining when you ignore what's supposed to be the core of the game. The story is dud, and the game's Ultimate Team-inspired upgrade system is an attempt to force a square peg into a round hole, but there's no denying tearing down desert roads at 180 mph in a souped-up 1965 Mustang is a blast. Need for Speed Payback is a fun joyride, but it doesn't quite hold up over the long haul.
The new Need for Speed has some serious problems that need to be addressed: mainly, the over-use of loot boxes (and microtransactions) and a broken progression system that relies too much on randomness and grinding. The story is cringeworthy, full of bidimensional characters and annoying catch-phrases. All that being said, the arcade driving model is accessible and extremely fun as always, and the open world is pretty big and full of activities that can keep the player engaged for a long time. Oh, and you're gonna spend a lot of time in the garage pimping your ride.
Review in Italian | Read full review
There's a perfectly fine racing game somewhere in this mess of half-baked ideas. A fun arcade racer has been drowned in enough ‘one more thing' additions to fill the entire run of Columbo, and the result is a rather unpleasant muddle of bland story, stop-start driving, and player control being ripped away just as things get juicy.
Need For Speed : Payback is a game that everyone hoped might put the series back into the limelight of seat-of-the-pants racing. Instead, the game has middle-of-the-pack graphics, weak storyline, emotionless driving and a poor upgrade system. This game is definitely a car in full-throttle reverse instead of speeding off in the right direction.
It can feel like a bit of a drag at times unless you enjoy cruising the open world.
The driving and actual gameplay is still fun and well done. There's actually a very good open world racing game in here, it's just bogged down by level progression and needless grinding that is only there to extend the gameplay time and to get people to spend real money to potentially get upgrades for the cars.
Need for Speed Payback is a real-world example of microtransactions gone wrong. As an open world racer, the game's inoffensively average – but when paired with its bafflingly bad progression system, it's frankly an embarrassment. It's scary to think that publishers are quite literally sabotaging their own games in pursuit of a bonus buck or two these days.
Need For Speed: Payback had all the chances to become a good game, but strange physics, boring competitions, a stupid plot and rough graphics spoiled the final impression. Of course, a good soundtrack is still in place, the desert landscapes look atmospheric, but an endless grind that does not give any pleasure, discourages any desire to play further.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Whilst there are moments when the arcade racing feels like fun, there is an omnipresent sense of Déjà Vu, that you've played this all before.
Ultimately, there's nothing outstanding or innovative enough here: it feels too much like the designers took a bunch of features from other racing games, threw them all into Payback and added a few Hollywood action sequences.
Need for Speed Payback feels like the natural evolution of the series, and that’s a good thing considering the game ends with a great tease for a potential sequel. While I finished the story in around 15 hours, it’s worth noting that there are a ton of side events and collectibles that I failed to collect in that time. I could see myself easily doubling my time within Payback, and do so with a smile on my face the entire time.
Need for Speed: Payback is a fun, great open world with a story campaign that works well. Racing is exciting and all of the car modifications are interesting, besides lacking from its technical side.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Need For Speed: Payback is a solid, lengthy and entertaining racing game, but it's unable to reinvent its genre. The work by Ghost Games is weighted down by its stiff singleplayer structure, which clashes with a progression system that, whilst clever in theory, fails to be as balanced as it should be in practice.
Review in Italian | Read full review
When you're racing, drifting, off-roading or being chased, Payback feels like a fine arcade racer in the classic Need for Speed mould. It doesn't have the glamour or the handling of Forza: Horizon, but it's scores big on variety, speed and thrills.
Need For Speed Payback feels like stepping into the latest Fast and Furious, and it's a great ride.