14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts' Need for Speed series has slowly returned to its glory days, as after quite a few lackluster iterations, the franchise is now offering all sorts of experiences, from pure arcade ones, like last year's Hot Pursuit, to simulators like Shift 2 Unleashed, released earlier this year.
Now, the series is going back to its story-based experiences, with the old Black Box studio trying to deliver a clever narrative that supports all the racing from the actual game and makes the actual experience that much more exciting.
So, is Need for Speed: The Run miles ahead of its competition or should it pull over to let other games pass? Let's have a quick look.
While I didn't really feel the need for a story in last year's NFS: Hot Pursuit, Black Box is trying to deliver a pretty decent narrative with The Run, which tells the story of Jack, a pretty regular guy that has some serious debts to the mob. In order to pay them off, he, alongside his oldtime partner Sam, enter a cross-country race called The Run, spanning the U.S. from San Francisco to New York City.
The game starts with Jack waking up in a beautiful Porsche 911, which is thrown into a compactor by some not so clever mob guys. After some quick time events, you manage to escape and steal an Audi A4 and try to run away from the bad guys, all driving some seriously powerful Porsche Cayennes.
After a pretty standard race in which your input doesn't matter all that much, you get treated to some more story, although we don't really get to know all that much about Jack, who comes across as a bit of an arrogant guy.
You then need to chose your first car, from vehicles like the BMW M3 GTS, a Nissan Fairlady 240Z, or a monster of a Ford Shelby GT500 Super Snake, each with their special handling rating. After this, it's a race to the start of The Run and then to the outskirts of San Francisco before the police shuts down the bridge leading out of the city.
In terms of actual gameplay The Run handles pretty well, with cars sticking to the road just as much as they should, while the M3 GTS, with its 'Easy' handling rating living up to its promise even if it's quite a powerful rear-wheel drive sportscar. The response time should have been a bit tighter, however, as I crashed a bit into an oncoming car because my own vehicle didn't turn as much as I believed.
Visuals look top notch, with the Frostbite 2 engine showcasing that it can do more than just recreate a shooter experience, like with Battlefield 3, although The Run is a bit too thrilled with its lens flares, shoving them right into the face of the player.
Overall, The Run is looking pretty good, but you can see for yourself in the video below the first couple of races from the game.
