Need for Speed-The Run

It’s called The Run. An illicit, high-stakes race across the country. The only way to get your life back is to be the first from San Francisco to New York.

No speed limits. No rules. No allies. All you have are your driving skills and sheer determination as you battle hundreds of the world’s most notorious drivers on the country’s most dangerous roads.

In Need for Speed The Run, you’ll weave through dense urban centers, rocket down icy mountain passes and navigate narrow canyons at breakneck speeds, all the while evading a relentless police force prepared – and willing – to use lethal force to take you down.

“The Run” has been the topic of lots of criticism, but after three demo sessions from EA Black Box, I am maybe not prepared to count this game out before its gotten started – and here are a couple notes about why you should not, either.

Even EA Black Box has admitted in my experience that focusing their teaser footage round the on-foot, Quick Time Event portions for the following Requirement for Speed was most likely not the very best move for his or her E3 keynote.

Regardless, it got people speaking about the overall game, even though most the conversation involved the title being truly an Importance of Speed game enabling you to, well, maybe not drive. But predicated on what I have seen, the “running” part of the gameplay is actually overstated.

When I asked EA to inform me outright just how much of the overall game involved on-foot action segments, they said “less than 10%” and assured me that the large most of the overall game still centered on the racing. If any such thing, the on-foot segments are meant to provide you with a breather from the tracks. And I am perfectly fine with that. So far as the quantity of actual on-foot sections, they are probably telling me the facts, because I have not seen just one QTE bit in virtually any of our in-office demos. At this time, it appears as though “The Run” mostly describes the game’s illegal cross-country race above all else.

Honestly, I have always thought that the Need of Speed: The Run series has already established one of the more consistently good driving engines for quite some time. That hasn’t changed with Need of Speed: The Run, that has in regards to a five-minute learning curve. Obviously, the overall game throws a lot of obstacles at you; however the track design and mechanics still feel very fun.

Importance of Speed: Most Wanted happens to be my personal favorite guilty pleasure, because of over-dramatic actors and entertainingly cliché street racing plots. But with NFS: The Run, I like the way in which that race types are woven to the story. Brief recap — Jack, the primary character, owes a great deal of bad people money, and is racing against 100 other drivers to obtain the $25 million cash prize.

While the story goes from Bay area to NY, you will need to race in various scenarios with respect to the plot. In a single case, I had race one-on-one via an avalanche the Colorado Rocky Mountains to ensure that Jack wouldn’t fall behind a rival racer (who apparently had a death wish). In other cases, the mission types change because a number of plot points Jack needs to abandon his car, climate conditions force him to play survivalist against a pack of other drivers, or police chases turn a period trail in to an obstacle course.

Importance of Speed titles have not been walks through the park since Most Wanted hit consoles, so that as I have learned the hard way, The Run isn’t afraid to show your vehicle right into a smashed-up pancake.

Even the preview crew has trouble getting through races unscathed, as a five-minute course would usually just take us about five do-overs in half-an-hour. Still, Need For Speed: The Run rewind mechanic never feels as though a cop-out, since you will crash in the course of time, and some time you will not even understand it’s coming. Just take the avalanche in the Rockies, for instance.

While I broadly speaking prefer to utilize a hood-level camera, in environment-related action scenes it’s advantageous to utilize a wider viewing angle. And despite how vigilantly I’d be driving, I’d get flattened by an errant boulder more often than once. You need to give consideration throughout the races, and dealing with used to the handling on different cars can occasionally throw you off.
Having Battlefield 3′s Frostbyte 2 Engine underneath the Hood Creates Some Impressive Scenery.

Visually, Need For Speed: The Run has a few of the most impressive environments and tracks I have observed in the series yet, and the Frostbyte 2 graphics are investing in their work. Some things are subtle, such as the impressive horizon and back ground scenery, while other activities such as the frame rate maintain a smooth experience regardless of how crowded a race gets. We’ve more or less hit the ceiling on realism in racing games, but that one keeps things interesting to check out.                     
In stores November 15th, 2011.

NFS-THE RUN (PRE ORDER NOW)