This game... isn't great

[based_gigachad]

So, I've been playing the PS3 version of rivals recently, as I finally got the platinum on hot pursuit last week I thought it would be a good idea to revisit this and clean up some trophies, but it's proving to be quite the chore.

 

Naturally, there isn't too many places to complain about a last-gen version of a 7 year old game, but it's frustrating as there is a good game at the core of Rivals, but it's just - on the PS3 at least (PS4 version may be better) - not good at all.

 

For starters, graphically it's definitely worse than Hot Pursuit despite being 3 years newer, in terms of road surfaces and scenery by the road they don't render either quickly or in high quality. I think it's clear to see the PS3 version struggles to handle this game as frame rate is often poor, even seeing freezes (either for half a second or a full soft lock in some cases) at high speeds when multiple vehicles are on screen, happens relatively often that you can see traffic spawning in right in front of you when travelling along the highways.

 

Car list is also relatively small and the progression system doesn't feel great, yes you unlock a new car after every speedlist but it means there is no reason to stick to a car and apply upgrades to it as it will soon be obsolete so you're essentially waiting until the endgame to maximise any vehicle.

 

I also feel that the balancing between cop and racer is also quite poor, in that it's quite heavily skewed in favour of the police, which means you're asking for trouble every time you try and do more than two events in the same session without returning to garage in slower cars as you will inevitably get swamped by hordes of police cars a lot faster than you if you dare to try and complete everything on the later speedlists in one go.

 

Physics - you could probably go either way on this one and I have gotten more used to them, they are alright but I think you could argue they're not as good as Hot Pursuit, on the other hand though it's definitely not clear cut, just a matter of personal preference.

 

Map - Redview County is literally just a cheap knockoff of Seacrest County from Hot Pursuit, and whilst serviceable ultimately isn't as memorable.

 

Glitchy - Damage taken feels inconsistent, but I'd need to do further research on this. I'm pretty sure you still take damage if someone hits you even in crash cam. Sometimes, when you start an event, it locks you in the start up screen (where you wait for all your opponents to overtake you) for WAY too long, once upwards of ten seconds for me. When travelling at very high speeds and the world struggles to load, you will sometimes hit invisible walls and crash/take damage. I also experienced something today where I completed an event, got gold, went back to garage, and the event didn't have gold on it despite me having the time i just set on the speedwall for that event. Every now and then a glitch did work in my favour, have driven over a few spike strips that didn't pop my tires a couple of times but it's not all too common.

 

I'm still going to try and get this platinum as it is relatively straightforward, and hey, maybe the PS4 version is slightly better. I'll probably pick that up at some point anyway even if it isn't. I felt compelled to make this as I saw a Rivals video on youtube the other day and the comments were mostly positive saying how good this game was, and my immediate reaction was no... it really is not. It has its moments, like most Need for Speed games, unfortunately for Rivals glitches struck or me just when I was starting to have quite a bit of fun and forgive some of its faults and firmly put me back towards not liking the game too much.
 

I can't say I recommend this game to people who don't play and enjoy most Need for Speed titles, and would absolutely recommend Hot Pursuit over this to anyone. To any of you who have played Hot Pursuit and not this, you may still enjoy this and find it a plat worth going for, but don't expect it to be as good or to enjoy it quite as much.

 

[GUDGER666]

PS3 version is garbage, riddled with issues. PS4 version much better. 

[djb5f]

Only played on PS4, but this is my least favorite NFS (that I played), even worse than Hot Pursuit (which was also quite lousy), yes
 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2020 by djb5f

[TheArcadeKid]

I've always felt that, much like Hot Pursuit, Rivals has no soul. NFS Undercover and The Run are among the worst-reviewed games in the series, but at least they have a personality. Rivals is essentially a blank canvas. This wouldn't be so bad, if the gameplay was consistently excellent, ala Burnout Paradise - but it's not, for many of the reasons the OP stated, and many more besides it.

 

I will say, at least, that Rivals has a phenomenal soundtrack - or at least two or three amazing songs which make the price of admission well worth paying.

[Frontzie]

6 minutes ago, TheArcadeKid said:

I've always felt that, much like Hot Pursuit, Rivals has no soul. NFS Undercover and The Run are among the worst-reviewed games in the series, but at least they have a personality. Rivals is essentially a blank canvas. This wouldn't be so bad, if the gameplay was consistently excellent, ala Burnout Paradise - but it's not, for many of the reasons the OP stated, and many more besides it.

Exactly this, in my opinion. Rivals has to be, by far, the worst NFS game I have played. Apart from the car list, I don't have anything good to say about the game at all.

 

I'm currently running through NFS Undercover - apart from texture pop-in (and out), music cutting out randomly, difficulty spikes, NPC vehicles dropping from the sky and those god-awful, cheesy live-action cutscenes; it's rather enjoyable. Miles better than Rivals ever was.

[based_gigachad]

42 minutes ago, GUDGER666 said:

PS3 version is garbage, riddled with issues. PS4 version much better. 

Good to know. I'll likely pick that up at some point but given all the games I've got coming next month, probably next year.

 

21 minutes ago, TheArcadeKid said:

I've always felt that, much like Hot Pursuit, Rivals has no soul. NFS Undercover and The Run are among the worst-reviewed games in the series, but at least they have a personality. Rivals is essentially a blank canvas. This wouldn't be so bad, if the gameplay was consistently excellent, ala Burnout Paradise - but it's not, for many of the reasons the OP stated, and many more besides it.

 

I will say, at least, that Rivals has a phenomenal soundtrack - or at least two or three amazing songs which make the price of admission well worth paying.

Yes, I actually forgot to mention in my original post that I am a fan of the game's soundtrack at least. 

[Property_Damage]

If you think rivals is bad, which on ps4 i didnt mind so much, its kind of forgettable but overall it wasnt horrible to the point where Id have to make a thread about how bad it was..try the one from 2015 i think it is where every cutscene is some full motion movie bullshit, now that game fucking sucks to the point i quit after unlocking the first trophy or two

 

[iXanon]

Admittedly I'm playing the PS4 version, but aside from inconsistencies with the damage, police, and losing any SpeedPoints accumulated, I'm enjoying it more than I did Hot Pursuit..

 

At least (so far), the events have been a lot less frustrating in comparison.

[Mr_Tenno777]

Had not touched the game for over a year, and I won't play it again at all because the game is just not good in my opinion and is one of the worst NFS games in the series. The list of usable cars is nice, the soundtrack is okay, and it can be fun at times. But what broke the camel's back for me is the balancing. Playing as a Cop is just laughably easy and playing as a Racer is just downright frustrating. NFS Network would make it all worse for me as it has debuff crap that makes the experience worse, though NFS Network has long been decommissioned.