That last class is for police chases and drawing away the cops.ĭespite Need for Speed: Payback improving the car class system (The Crew felt the need to have both street and track racing), it’s still a system that we’ve seen before.

Cars are now split between racing, off-road, drifting, drag racing and runners. Cars are now part of one of five disciplines, though at least these disciplines are slightly more varied in Need for Speed. Payback also pilfers the class based car system from The Crew. Sure, you don’t actually get the performance parts, but you do get Gear Tokens which can be traded in for performance parts. Need for Speed uses the system to go one step further and shoehorn in a loot box mechanic with real-world money shenanigans – money-grabbing EA have done it again.

It was loathed by many as it turned a normal street racing game into an RPG-esque grind for the best gear. Need for Speed is merely content with parading around using commandeered concepts.įor starters, Need for Speed uses the same kind of part based loot system that The Crew used, which gave you random performance items of varying quality as a reward for missions, stunts and the like. At least The Crew 2 has the sense to expand on its premise by adding planes and boats. The biggest victim of this idea borrowing rampage is Ubisoft’s The Crew, which quite frankly isn’t the best game to poach from as that wasn’t particularly good either. There’s nothing here that hasn’t already been done in other games previously. You would think that a series with such pedigree would be able to flaunt its own unique personality, but Payback is just a mishmash of ideas and mechanics from other places. Unfortunately, after getting a few hours with the game via EA Access, it only serves to highlight Need For Speed’s biggest issue: a lack of identity. This brings us to Payback, which seeks to fuse the street racing we all love with a revenge storyline and cinematic action sequences straight from a blockbuster film. Though it was a better attempt than Rivals, it was obvious that EA were frantically grasping at straws to try and capture that lightning in a bottle once again. God, that game was shite.Ģ015 saw the series return with a focus on returning to what worked in the past: underground street racing at night, sick drifts and being chased by police.

Criterion’s Need for Speed: Most Wanted was one of the best entries in the series, but NFS: Rivals proved that what goes up must indeed come down. In more recent years, the series has enjoyed its fair share of ups and downs. Many gamers will likely recall spending a large portion of their free time taking over the street racing scene in games like NFS: Underground 1 & 2, Carbon and others. The Need for Speed franchise is one with a huge legacy, even if it has waned significantly over the years.

Need for speed payback vs the crew 2