Redview County is the Need for Speed: Rivals battleground. This racers' heaven has drift-friendly winding roads and straight passages you can use to push your car to its limit. Likewise, small towns and construction sites add a tasty flavor to the county's far reaches.
There are many cars that you can blaze down Redview County's roads. Staples such as Ford, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz all make appearances, but it's high-end performance vehicles from Bugatti, Ferrari, McLaren, and Pagani that are the true gems. Pushing them to the limits of possibility and beyond is what makes this game so much fun. Drifting a corner at 200 miles per hour or pulling a 180-degree turn in a heartbeat is unrealistic, but it reflects Need for Speed's arcade-game nature. And it's fun! Check out the Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport games for more-realistic racing simulations.
The Need for Speedpoints
Racers and cops must best challenges such as finishing first place in a race or busting a certain number of racers to advance through the game, and each successful event, pursuit, or drift generates Speedpoints. If you're a racer, Speedpoints work as a currency you can use to customize your car or purchase the new Pursuit Tech feature (more on that in a bit). If you're a cop, you can only buy Pursuit Tech—there's no pimping out your squad car. Even if you're a racer, you'll find that the customization isn't terribly deep, so you're likely to spend most of your points on Pursuit Tech.
There are ample opportunities to gain Speedpoints, but, for racers at least, they come with a price. Crazy driving earns you points, but it also raises your Heat level, which attracts police. When the cops are on your tail, you have two options: Try evade them (and rack up more Speedpoints), or bank your stash in a hideout. The latter is obviously the safe way to go; the former offers high risk for a higher reward. The risk? Totaling your car or getting busted by police means losing all those hard-earned points.
The same principle goes for the police, except they obviously can't bust themselves. The cops' job is to eliminate racers. The higher a racer's Heat level, the bigger the rewards for busting him. Police lose Speedpoints if their vehicle is destroyed in the chase. It's an interesting game of chicken that challenges you to push further for more points without making a critical mistake and losing it all.
View all Sometimes, speed alone isn't enough to outdistance the competition. Fortunately, both sides have access to Pursuit Tech—EMP charges, shockwaves, spike strips, or an extra turbo boost—that gives an advantage in any situation. Each car is limited to two Pursuit Tech abilities, and each adds extra fun to Need for Speed: Rivals by introducing destructive, chaotic elements.
The Virtual Playground
Like its predecessors, Need for Speed: Rivals excels in multiplayer mayhem. Each online session consists of a bunch of players all sharing the same map. As a racer, you can opponents or aid in a getaway chase. As a police officer, you can take out racer players by yourself or take them on with another cop player.
Playing a long campaign against the game is satisfying, but sometimes you might not want to take it so seriously. That's when it's fun to log on and just race like crazy against some real people in online multiplayer. If you sign in often, you'll want to track the online leaderboards, which display the names of other players who sit atop the scoring Speedwall, giving you a target to beat.
Roadblocks
Need for Speed: Rivals is thrilling, but there are a few bumps in the road. First is EasyDrive, a feature carried over from past titles that places a waypoint on the screen to the nearest event, Hideout, or Repair Shop as you drive. EasyDrive sounds convenient, but it's quite distracting—it's a lot like texting while driving. Using EasyDrive takes your focus off of the road and sets you up to potentially hit another car or accidentally get involved in a pursuit.
The second issue is inconsistent damage representation. Hitting an object at high speed triggers a cinematic crash and shows the resulting damage on your car. However, the damage in the cut scene doesn't really reflect the actual damage done to your car. For example, I drove my pristine Porsche into an oncoming truck. The resulting cut scene showed that the car's windows were broken and its front fender was missing, but once it ended, I noticed that my vehicle had only suffered a slightly crumpled hood. It's a minor complaint, but it makes the game feel a bit inconsistent.
My final gripe involves the game's lack of deep customization. Sure, you can change a car's rims, paint jobs, vinyl patterns, and decals, but the lack of aftermarket parts is a missed opportunity. The nearly decade-old Need for Speed: Most Wanted lets armchair racers replace nearly every part of the vehicle from the hood to the overall body kit—it's a shame not to find that feature in a contemporary Need for Speed title.
The Finish Line
There are many thrilling races and chases in Redview County, and the transitions between them are so fluid that you won't put down the controller except for the occasional drink or restroom break. The conflict between cops and racers—the heart of the Need for Speed series—receives new life with the excellent Pursuit Tech, making Rivals a game that long-time fans and newcomers should check out. Its few flaws aside, Need for Speed: Rivals is a well-crafted, intensely fun racer.
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