Need for Speed–The Death of a Franchise

Need for Speed has a special place in my heart, it’s one of the few games that I’ve always bought on day one, but it’s also the only game I’ve bought every game released in the franchise.

Over the years i watched the franchise grow and change, with each iteration we got things got better and better. For many people, myself included, Need for Speed Underground 2 was the ultimate version of the game.

We had the racing which was great fun, with excellent drifting, customisation and upgrading. Thing i loved was that the customisation and upgrades directly effected your street rep, meaning magazines and video companies came looking for you.

What was more was that the story we got was really great, and drew you into the world. But for me what was amazing was there was none of the live action stuff we see these days. Rather we got still images in a comic book styled mosaic every now and then with a voice over, and it worked really well. The VA for  the main female character, Brooke Burke, frankly is amazing and i have to admit i had a crush on her for the longest time For me, games without a story are just dull, but it’s better to have no story than a bad story. Luckily Underground 2 is neither of those, it’s a good solid vengeance story.

The game had a number of race choices, Circuit, Drag, Street X and Drift, these were scattered around the game world and you had to drive to them. Also scattered around the game world were hidden races, that gave you a bit more money and rep as reward for finding and finishing them. Finally we have the one on one out run races. there were other racers driving around the world and you could challenge them to an out run race. Winning a certain number of races gave you a special upgrade, as well as letting you get 100% game completion.

Next we have the SVU races, which gave you a break from car racing, and let you drive the tanks called Sports Utility Vehicle. This is where the game was weakest IMO as there were only a few short races for SVU, which is a shame given the customisation you got to do with them. I would have liked to see more done with them.

Finally we have the Underground Races, which are essentially circuit races against a load of cars on either race circuits or airports. Winning them takes you to the next level, gets you a good chunk of cash, and progresses the story.

One of the best mechanics of the game was the difficulty level, which could be freely moved up or down. For a casual racer like me this made the game highly enjoyable and not very stressful. Giving the player the choice to decide which difficulty level they want to play on is a great mechanic, and sadly one that’s dying out.

The next game in the series, Most Wanted is still a good game, and one I’ve enjoyed. However it’s also the start of the death of the franchise.

We still get the really interesting story that gives context to the races and draws you into the world. Gone are the ‘Underground’ elements, there’s no cult following or aim to build the ultimate cool car. Which i have to admit i did find a little disappointing. Instead we get cop chases, and the customisation is used to reduce the heat of your car.

The cop chases are initially pathetic, but that’s the way the games designed. As you go up the heat levels they get harder and more frustrating, not to mention harder to evade. You end up with road blocks, SVU’s ramming you, heli’s chasing you. To get away you can use Speed Breaker, which is essentially a short bullet time letting you plan your manoeuvres and get through tight holes in road blocks. But it’s also a little hard to control since if you turn in Speed Breaker you start to drift, which does add weight to the car making it almost impossible to ram off the road. Pursuit Breakers are things like scaffolding, jumps, billboards, or even a giant donut that you can ram through causing them to fall down onto the road either crushing the car or blocking the road. thus giving you the time to escape.

I did enjoy the game, and while looking at it now it’s clear to see it’s the start of the end, it’s still for many, one of the best NFS games.

Every game after this has changed it focus in ways that frankly haven’t sat well with me, or others. Carbon is essentially a continuation of Most Wanted, slightly better graphics, but that’s about it. Everything else is the same.

Since then they’ve shifted focus from the arcade style gameplay and gone for more realistic handling which is great for people that like that sort of gameplay, but not for people like me who prefer the arcade style of casual racing.

Most Wanted got a remake in 2012, which i have to admit i was greatly looking forward to (See my review of it here). This reboot destroyed what made the original great, and while some blame has to be placed on the developer, a lot of it has to be placed on the heads of EA. They seem to taking a lot of their franchises into annual releases with a slew of DLC. The 2012 version of Most Wanted is a prime example, at the moment the DLC complete pack is more expensive than the game itself. Gone are the story elements that gave context to the game and your races, gone are the customisations, gone are the player controls. EA is pushing their games more and more into a multiplayer orientated gameplay.

This is clearly highlighted by the new NFS game, Rivals, which is, going from the blurb currently available, NFS Most Wanted 2012 given a new coat of paint and adding an open world multiplayer aspect. what this means is that if other players are on your friends list and playing, they’re in your game, driving around and you can race them. Essentially it’s NFS World given a new home.

For me this is the end, a franchise that I’ve supported for some nineteen years has now come crashing to an end. I won’t be buying a NFS game again, unless EA pulls something totally amazing off, such as making a game that’s essentially a combo of NFSU2 and the original MW. Frankly that’s a game that fans have been baying for for years, but EA keep ignoring.