Need for Speed is a prolific and beloved saga that, in general, has managed to get the most ardent to the arcade driving everything they asked for. With the outstanding Most Wanted of 2012 and that remarkable Rivals (2014) and which premiered the new generation, the promise of returning to the origins with this reboot of the saga seemed a good asset.
At the end of the day, it brought the premise of that darkest culture and beyond the law of driving, with its tuneos and its illegal competitions , that essence that only the original Most Wanted and Underground knew how to transmit to us. What happened then? Why the console version was scored with a remarkable low despite these good intentions?
Need for Speed sins of too many deficiencies that prevent him from making a good name among the titles of the franchise. It has a pristine graphic section, with superb lighting effects and a spectacular finish. The cinematics immerse us fully in the action of this world immersed in the adrenaline of driving, and all this is multiplied to its maximum exponent in the PC version.
With that framerate unlocked and a graphic finish that looks superior to that of the next generation consoles, the virtues of Need for Speed shine more than ever. The effects of rain, dynamic lighting, every braking on the road … and all this, it seems
vague to repeat it but it is not at all, at 60 frames per second. It is that quality bonus that the console version lacked and that EA promised to improve with the delay, and they have fulfilled it.
However, these improvements do not serve much to cover the shortcomings of the original title . Empty streets, kinematics that can not be skipped, absence of the ability to pause. And the list only starts here. There are serious problems with the AI , despite the patches of consoles and that the PC version seems to apply output.
They have solved things, yes, it would be foolish not to admit it, but not enough. We continue to have races in which the rivals are too good (and too understandable, impossible to reach) or too bad (which turns interesting challenges into boring pastimes).
We still have an irregular police intelligence, with patrols that stop us from chasing suddenly or get lost on the map. Many details have been polished during these months, but it seems that there are mechanics that are poorly implemented at the base, and that makes us doubt about the extent to which they can be corrected or not.
We are not facing a ‘port’ of the bunch, and that is important to highlight . EA has not been satisfied with bringing us a one-to-one version for PC and has filed many harsh aspects of the technical section and added details that are appreciated as the features already mentioned. However, the game still maintains its original essence, for good and for bad . The big mistakes are there, and also the virtues, which are not few. Ventura Bay is photorealistic, the design of
the vehicles is very successful and the sound section is more than correct. The musical themes, with some Spanish inclusions, demonstrate a conscientious selection and that pretend to be in total consonance with the underground atmosphere of the title, and both the tune and the personalization are very successful.
But the defects, like their virtues, are maintained . Empty streets, irregular AI, very little personality and let’s not forget that happy permanent connection that not only prevents you from playing offline, but it deprives you of the pause menu and the possibility of restarting the races. Who knows how to forgive these small defects, you will find in this Need for Speed a driving game
100% arcade with a very strong orientation towards the tune and the world of the night that knows how to recover with success the essence of the best times of the saga. On the other hand, the staging is not what it could have been, and both this irregular technical section and the permanent connection prevent the experience from being as satisfactory as it should be.
