Need for Speed: The Run

Need for Speed: The Run feels like a game transported from the early '00s and given a fresh lick of paint. The racing style is very reminiscent of NFS: Underground, while the underlying story—if you can call it that—brings back memories of the 2006 PS2 title Carbon. So essentially this is a familiar Need for Speed game; give a racing fan the controller without telling them the title and I bet the $25 million prize fund they’ll guess the franchise. Unfortunately, this very same familiarity is what takes the franchise back a step. While the previously mentioned titles and recent franchise members (Hot Pursuit and Shift 2) provided a sense of evolution and originality, The Run simply does too much wrong to be counterbalanced by what it does right and provides very little new content for even the casual Need for Speed fan.

The game is based on a high stakes 250+ car race from San Francisco on the U.S. West Coast to New York on the East. The player character is Jack, whose “cocky attitude has gotten him in to debt with the mob” which is about as detailed as the story gets, and considering this game was intended to provide a more story focused experience than previous NFS titles, it’s a shame the background wasn’t fleshed out more. In fact, there is little to connect the player and the protagonist. He’s nothing more than a typical gaming genero-man who receives little character development,nd that’s where The Run takes its first tumble. The concept of taking a more cinematic and action packed approach to a driving game has proven to be successful. Add to that an interesting, or at least engaging, storyline and it’s easy to see why EA BlackBox went forward with The Run. However, at no point does the story provide any interest; it’s merely used as an excuse to send you across a plethora of real world locations. Throughout my time with The Run I had an unavoidable feeling that something was missing, that an opportunity for a great gaming concept had been dropped.

On a more positive side, I briefly mentioned the ‘plethora of real world locations’ which is featured for the first time ever in a Need for Speed game. Understandably, The Run is split up into ten stages as opposed to racing constantly for one and a half thousand miles (although that arguably could have made an interesting game) with around six separate races on each stage. This means that each stage presents a new style and challenge for the driver. One stage sees you speeding across the empty deserts of Nevada, another swerving through the industrial district of Detroit, one stage even takes place in the heart of the Windy City, Chicago. It’s these, and several more, great real life locations that provide the highlight of The Run. Each stage has a slightly different nuance and style; the scenery, obstacles and even the music vary depending on how far along in The Run you are. This is where the concept really works and shows signs of how it could have been so much better in other areas.

The vehicles on offer also provide a treat for petrol heads. From super-tuned Renault Meganne Yetis to exotic Gumpert Apollos, The Run provides a great varied number of wheels. The range includes classic NFS muscle cars, Japanese hot-hatches as well as super-tuned sports cars with a few surprises mixed in for good measure. Not only are the options great, but the cars also look good, particularly when passing under waterfalls or in dark tunnels where the powerful game engine (more on that later) shows through. Damage is somewhat hit and miss but there’s a certain pleasure to looking through the collection of cars; the models do very much compete with the best in the genre. If you play the entire game you’re likely to try out most of the vehicles. Stick with The Run, however, and there’s a lack of vehicle progression that really shouldn’t exist in a modern driving game.

Now to the previously mentioned “other areas.” These are where The Run often disappoints. Firstly to the the handling—the dreadful, dreadful handling. For some strange reason each of the exotic, high performance vehicles on offer handle like some kind of rocket powered milk float. The steering is extremely unresponsive and will leave even the most capable of racers flinging themselves into barriers. Even after playing the game for several hours I couldn’t really work out how to best take a hairpin. What’s more, when you use the handbrake to make a drifting turn the vehicles suddenly become stupidly responsive and grip to the road like a tank, making it very difficult to use drifting effectively. I’m still not sure whether the game goes in to slow-mo when you drift or if it’s just my car crawling to a snail’s pace.

Happily, when you get a bit more used to the sluggish controls the base driving experience is generally fun. It’s difficult to go wrong with a classic heart-in-mouth one-on-one duel during the final stretches of a chaotic race and thankfully The Run often provides this kind of experience. The races themselves aren’t wholly original either. BlackBox has essentially taken the classic NFS race modes—staggered start multi-car, duels, checkpoints—and given them a new outfit that coincides with the whole Run concept. “Pass eight people” to go from 212^th to 204^th, don’t worry they will never overtake you again. “Battle this rival down the mountains,” but battle him later anyway. “Race through these checkpoints to make up time,” but stopping in a TARDIS-like petrol station to change your car is fine. I’m taking jibes but these really are the kind of empty narrative gaps that The Run leaves. It’s poorly thought through and really ruins the level of immersion. As for the game modes, they get boring rather quickly, although distractions such as police, different locations and obstacles provide a bit of variety, there is still a lack of innovative racing modes.

The actual Run itself takes just over two hours of driving time for the average racer, plus what seems like hours of loading screens. For the main feature of the game it’s not too impressive—I can’t help but feel more time should have been put into The Run itself, fleshing out the game modes, creating a bit more variety. Instead, BlackBox spent time creating a series of rather drab challenge events that essentially see you doing the same thing as in The Run just without the underlying story and incentive. It fails to engage the player and relies heavily on the driving mechanics being fun, which, ultimately, they’re not. There are around ten stages ,each based around the different settings, with five challenges in each, with bronze to platinum medals available. If you’re not bored of the game by the time you’ve completed The Run then the challenge mode is a worthy extension, unfortunately it never really feels like a decent driving experience.

Under the bonnet—see what I did there?—Need for Speed: The Run is a good quality game. If you haven’t heard already, the game is powered by the famous Frostbite 2 engine used for the first-person shooter Battlefield 3. This destruction based engine has been semi-successfully transferred to the racing genre—certain sections of the game highlight the destructive capabilities of Frostbite 2 and it’s here, in the avalanching mountains etc., that the game is technically at its best. However, The Run suffers from some of the same issues as Battlefield 3. On the PlayStation 3 version, tested scenery looked good from a distance but failed to impress up close, especially the foliage. Not only this, but the frame rate tended to drop at certain sections, in particular during the Quick Time Events/cut scene sections.

This brings me on to the elephant in the cabin: the rather random Quick Time Events that find their way, not surprisingly for the first time, into this NFS game. When these were first revealed what seems like an age ago now, fans were outraged by the somewhat unusual thought of having QTEs in a driving game. In reality, the QTE sections are rather boring, they add very little to the experience and whilst playing them you’ll just be waiting for the end. Thankfully though, there are very few of these sections and they don’t break up the driving experience any more than the rather long loading screens. I suppose the scenes were placed to develop the whole “driving adventure” concept, but considering this never really takes off anyway, it’s no surprise the QTE sections fall completely flat.

Online The Run has a few tricks up its sleeve, once you get into a game that is. Races are split up into certain events that each focus on different elements of the core game. Muscle car only races, mountain duels and other variations keep things interesting for a bit and the ever present bonus of playing against real opponents is far more interesting than the average AI. It’s perhaps the most accessible and lengthy section of the game. The online multiplayer actually raises the score of this game. Even though it’s not a main feature and is essentially the same game as the single player, the thrill of having real life competition gives it a certain edge over the rest of the game.

Within Need for Speed: The Run there are a few moments of greatness—moments when the whole Run concept, driving mechanics, scenery and action packed racing fall into place. One such moment occurs during a race against a single opponent in a steelworks whilst mafia cars and a helicopter chase you down. It’s exhilarating, engaging and blends driving and action perfectly. It’s a shame these moments are so few as given more time and expansion The Run could have been a brilliant concept. Alas, the game is drowned with annoying controls and silly game designs (I haven’t even mentioned the terrible effects of driving just a little too far off the road) that hold it back from the success of the other recent Need for Speed titles.

Review written by Ryan Davies

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