Need for Speed: The Run

SKU: Xbox 360

Reviewed by: Patrick Garcia

Story

There’s nothing new here you haven’t already seen before.  You play as Jack, a guy who’s wanted by the mob and now has to win this transcontinental race to pay what he owes.  The game starts off with it seeming like the story is going to play a huge part in the campaign (there is a decently-sized cut scene), but immediately becomes something that feels tacked-on.  The races are interspersed with short cut scenes which basically consist of Sam (the woman who is helping you) saying “Come on, Jack, you need to win” and Jack responding with, “Ok, I got it” right before the camera spins around to the rear of the car and the player gains control.  There really isn’t much exposition to be had throughout the game, just that it’s of the utmost importance that Jack wins this race to save his own skin and he will stop at nothing to do so, even if that means beating out this poor guy who selflessly just wants a better life for his family.

Poor Cesar just wants to provide for his family

Gameplay

The missions are not varied at all.  As you play through the story mode, you’ll either be tasked with needing to overtake a certain number of racers or making up for lost time by hitting 5 checkpoints before the timer runs out.  There is a third type of mission, but it is essentially a combination of the first two in which you have to overtake each opponent individually in a set time.

With each mission, you are given 5 restarts that enable you to retry from the last checkpoint.  As someone who doesn’t play racing games too often and is therefore not very good at them, this feature came in handy quite a bit; it definitely relieved some of the stress of not having to redo the whole race if I screw up at some point.  But the reason I would not look forward to having to redo a race is that everything else about the game is frustrating and not fun and I just wanted to get through it as quickly as possible.  The boundaries for the game are so tight that if you go the width of just one car (sometimes less) off the road, you will automatically be restarted to the last checkpoint rather than being able to opt to try and regain control.  This was a HUGE annoyance for me.  There were plenty of times where I was doing well, but I might have gotten sideswiped a bit and forced to redo the last section, which could sometimes be quite a ways back.

When you have completed certain races in the campaign, you will unlock new abilities.  The most bizarre unlockable ability was drafting.  The reason why I say it was bizarre is because to me, this is a basic physics principle that should already be possible from the start.  Prior to unlocking it, I had already been trying to do it but was not noticing any difference and decided to give the game the benefit of the doubt that perhaps I was just doing it wrong.  When I finally unlocked the ability and realized that this was not the case, I thought it was quite ridiculous; I’m actually surprised I didn’t have to unlock the ability to steer!

There are a few moments where, after a scripted event of being run-off of the road, you find yourself having to escape the heat on foot.  These moments are played out with quick-time events that seem far too out of place and feel tedious and unnecessary; I would have preferred if they were instead just cut scenes.  I mean, they weren’t exactly the entertaining, I’m-gonna-smash-your-face-in-with-my-bare-fists-then-gouge-out-your-eyes, God of War-like quick-time events, they were running and jumping, extremely yawn-inspiring quick-time events.

Verdict

You never know exactly what to expect from a Need for Speed game.  Rather than continually expanding on their franchise to keep improving, they will remove features and add new ones with each release, but not in a good way.  I remember thoroughly enjoying NFS: Underground, and after that game, I figured they would start always including customization options with each subsequent release and continue to improve on it…nope!  I can usually appreciate wanting to try new things, but it’s far too erratic with the Need For Speed series that it does not seem to maintain any semblance of an identity and has therefore long ago caused me to lose interest in it entirely.

Unless you’re a die-hard racing fan who likes to play just about any racing game no matter what (similar to the FPS die-hard fans with FPS games), then I recommend that you don’t get this game.  Do what I did and save yourself twenty bucks by buying Mario Kart 7; I promise you will have far more fun.