AND IT'S FREE!

Need for Speed Payback will soon be adding an online free roam option for all players. This free DLC update will let friends start lobbies and explore the game's world to their heart's content. The mode was announced via the official Need for Speed Tw??itter account with further clarification of its free ?status.

Need for Speed Payback has a lot of problems, but one of the biggest omissions was online free roaming lobbies. This was a feature present in the last iteration of the series, so one has to wonder why EA and Ghost Games thought it necessary to exclude it in Payback. At least that is now being rectified, though the relea??se date is anybody's guess.

Need for Speed [Twitter]

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Maybe it's time for another Burnout instead?

In my review in progress of Need for Speed Payback I said: “I wouldn't dare attempt drinking and driving in the real world for obvious reasons. But, in the seemingly lawless land of Need for Speed Payback, I think it's the only way to play and enjoy this game.” Now, after beating the game and with over 30 hours invested into it, I've come to the conclusion that may?be you?'re just better off simply drinking, instead of playing this game altogether.

The concept and goal for Need for Payback Payback sounds simple enough on paper: Create an open-world arcade racing game with a heavy emphasis on action-packed set pieces, taking cues and inspiration from the Fast & Furious film?s -- specifically the ones with a cer?tain "electrifying" individual. However, due to a mixed bag of awful business decisions, an uninteresting story with some of the worst dialogue I've heard in recent memory, thrown in with a dull open world, we now have a new low point for this 23 year old franchise.

Need for Speed Payback (PC, PS4 [reviewed], Xbox One)
Developer: Ghost Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: November 10, 2017
MSRP: $59.99

For those curious what I mean by “bad busine??ss decisions,&r??dquo; Need for Speed Payback may contain possibly one of the most egregious uses of the loot boxes I've seen yet in the form of the “shipments” and “speed car??????????????????????????ds" which completely jump the ??shark in how they're utilized. For context, Need for Speed as a franchise? is iconic for the heavy amount of tuning and customization options you're given for various vehicles. From adding various tire smoke colors, rims, hood options, splitters, and spoilers -- all of?? this is still present in Payback, it's just all simply cosmetic now.

Instead, progression for the most part is built around?? the newly introduced speed cards, allowing you to upgrade various aspects of your vehicle, from the engine block, exhaust, ECU, and so forth. All of this then adds to your overall “??car level” -- similar to that of “light” in Destiny 2. You earn these speed cards from completing various races throughout the game, buying them at tuning shops in the open world, opening up premium shipments (loot ??boxes), or spen?ding trade-in tokens.

Where this system completely falls apart, however, is in how this progression is handled within the game itself. Races and various events around the open-world will hav??e a “recommended level” that clues you in on how challenging the race will be, or the types of vehicles that might be utilized. During my time with Payback, I generally found myself below the recommended level, roughly by about 20-40 levels or so. Despite this, thanks to the odd free shipment and replaying older races occasionally for more speed cards, I was generally able to progress, not of course without being annoyed by it all. That annoyance though, became a feeling ?of hopelessness once the final act of the game rolled around and I checked the recommended level.

Here is where the game became ??an awful, mind-numbing experience as I then found myself grinding various races repeatedly, simply so I could progress. Mind you, you can still run these various races or events despite being under recommendation, but I found some of them, the drag races in particular, to be almost impossible if you weren't near the recommended level. Even worse y??et, as I began grinding races, I found myself constantly earning speed cards that weren't even as good as the ones I had currently equipped.

As for the racing itself, Payback does offer a nice variety of events around the open world. Everything you've come to expect, from off-roading and hitting huge jumps, drift events, and tons of street and drag racing with a heavy focus on tuner cars. The vehicle selection is also decent?, everything from my personal favorite (and cover star, no less) the Nissan Skyline GT-R, to pricey and glamorous super cars such as the Lamborghini Aventador Coupé. The vehicle selection isn't gonna be as massive as what you'll find in the recent Forza titles, but it's larger than most arcade racing games, with plenty of cosmetic c??ustomization and tuning options, with the vehicle models themselves loo?king solid.

I enjoyed tuning my McLaren 570S into a drag racing monstrosity... once I'd finished grinding for the speed cards I needed. Because, ?for whatever reason, you can't transfer them over from other vehicles -- I guess that would be far too convenient. So, if you're like me and want to experiment with a number of different vehicles, prepare yours?elf for one hell of a grind. As for the multiplayer side of things, Payback features the bare-minimum in the form of casual unranked playlists and ranked playlists. Obviously multiplayer will be different from person to person, but generally it's the typical NFS multiplayer experience I've come to expect over the years.

As for the main campaign and premise of the game, you'll be playing and swapping between three different characters: Tyler, who spe?cializes in street racing and drag-racing, Mac, who specializes in drifting and off road racing, and lastly Jesse, who specializes in the runner missions (out-running cops). Throughout the game you'll be racing and competing against various crews in order to move up the food chain and compete in an event known as “The Outlaw's Rush,” as well as attempting to stop a criminal organization known as “The House” from rigging races across the fictional mock Nevada known as Fortune Valley.

The end of each act culminates into a large scale mission, usually a heist, in which you then swap between various characters at given points through to perform various tasks. This is an interesting concept, similar to that of Grand Theft Auto V, but?? overall, the missions can be summed up as driving through various chec??kpoints, watching a cutscene of a cool stunt or set-piece, and then escaping the cops. It all comes off feeling extremely scripted and lazy.

Much of Payback's story and writing also comes off similar, the character motivations in the overall story are extremely weak, almost comically so. The whole setup for this basic revenge story can be summarized as Tyler and crew attempting to rob a casino owner of his super car, only to be betrayed and have the car they were attempting to steal taken from them in the process -- resulting in this game's supposed namesake. Some of the general dialogue and delivery in this game is just downright awful at times, Tyler alone ended up being one ??of the most unlikable protagonists in a video game I've played in years.

Much of the open? world lo??oks extremely drab, with very little in regards to notable landmarks or locations, as well as being seemingly lawless, as the open world is devoid of any police vehicles outside of story missions or the occasional side-quest you'll stumble on. Worse yet, the police pursuits are now nothing more than a series of linear timed checkpoints which you'll need to drive through to escape. There is pretty much zero strategy in escaping the police in Payback and this, once again, comes off feeling lazy in terms of implantation.

Once the servers for this game inevita?bly go offline, with no way to obtain loot boxes, earn speed cards or trade tokens, I can't help but wonder if the casual consumer would genuinely ever have the patience to fully complete this game. Need for Speed Payback is another result of EA meddling in the concept of “games ??as a service” and taking an otherwise mediocre entry in the series and completely butchering it in the process to achieve this goal.

Here's hoping this trend of free-to-play business strategies in f??ull priced games comes to an end sooner, rather than later.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Burning down The House

We've seen the sprawling open world of Need for Speed Payback. Now it's time to get a feel for its story, which sees a crew of racers -- each with their own specialty --? taking on The House, a major player in Fortune Valley's criminal underworld that exerts control over c??asinos and cops.

"Play a variety of challenges and events as Tyler, Mac, and Jess," reads the summary. "Each driver must take on races, missions, and challenges to earn the respect of the Valley's underground and compete in the ultimate race to finally take d??own The House."

I tend to prefer racing games that place less of an emphasis on having a traditional story arc, if I'm being frank. The genre's stories, for me, are often something I wor??k through as a means to unlock cars, locations, and what have you before I'm left to my own devi?ces and can drive the way I want to drive.

Maybe it's the trailer, but this seems like it'll be fine while you're playing and then quick??ly forgotten.

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That's not necessarily a good thing

The last time I touched on Need for Speed Payback, I said I wasn't sure what to ma?ke of the game. It hasn't left a strong impression -- for better or worse. And while we do have more to go on with this overview trailer highlighting the setting, Fortune Valley, my sentiment hasn't really budged.

This may be "the biggest open world Need for Speed has ever seen," but there's no shortage of great open-world racers these days and I feel like Payback is going to lose out and get lost in the shuffle.

We know what the map looks ??like now, though, if? you're curious about such things.

Payback is sti??ll on for a Novem?ber 10 release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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Compared to the last game

As familiar as Need for Speed Payback looks -- it's been described as "Need for Speed filtered through the lens of a Hollywood blockbuster" -- I might still be up for it. There's nothing inherently wrong with some mindless action now and again. At least, this speaks to me more than 2015's NFS title.

Following that scripted-looking heist scene out of E3,?? Ghost Games is showing off customization.

When you're roaming the world, you'll be able to find "derelicts" that you can turn from rusted-out vintage cars to souped-up monsters. And aside from stat-boosting part upgrades, Payback will also let you go overboard with vanity items like underglow, nitrous flames, and even tire sm?oke.

Need for Speed has become one of those series that I just can't get a consistent read on anymore, which means I'?ll probably be stuck in wait-?and-see mode right up until release on November 10. The single-player campaign is playable offline this time, though, so that's one concern out of the way.

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Been driving all night, my hand's wet on the wheel

If you've ever played Forza Horizon, then Need for Speed Payback will seem very familiar. They're both open-world driving games set in the desert, they both feature a stunt chain system that doles out experience based on how well you do for how long, and both games have derelict old cars hidden around the world that you can fix up. None of those aspects are exclusive to Horizon, but they work in concert to make Payback a recognizable experience.

But the glue that holds Payback together is the game's sense of flair – something Horizon had in spades. Whereas Horizon was set in and around a neon-tinted Coachella-esque music festival, Payback follows thr??ee car-based?? criminals as they take down a group of worse criminals, who also do a lot of car stuff.

So if Forza Horizon is the video game equivalent of this Pepsi commercial, Payback is a full-length Fast and Furious game.

Although everyone and their mothers (and their mothers) has made the Fast and Furious comparison, Payback is actually inspired by films like Bullitt or The French Connection, according to producer Jeremy Chubb. "It's not just a game about racing circuits," Chubb said. "We're doing a Need for Speed? filtered through the lens of a Hollywood b??lockbuster."

Part of that inspiration can be seen in the game's story, which seems boring and not very interesting. Even though that's partially intentional – Chubb told me it was just "an excuse for the action" – a bad story is still bad. But you can also see the Hollywood influence in the game's Burnout-style crash system. The enemy cars you have to take out during campaign missions can wipe out in spectacular fashion as the game slows down and depicts the crash in slow-motion. It's kind of like the execution systems you'd see in games like Shadow of Mordor, righ?t down to the enemy health bars dictating when it's time for you to send these fools to clowntown.

I was concerned about the frequency of the cinematic crashes, but the game apparently has a system behind the scenes that determines whether a crash goes into slow-motion. Payback will ostensibly take multiple factors – the speed of the cars, the time since the last slow-mo crash, and how the car will inter?act with the game's physics – all into account before taking control of the camera for the player. The crashes I saw looked great, but there were way too many of them; hopefully the crash determination system works in the final game.

The cars handle as well as can be expected – Payback is more of an arcade racer than a full-on Gran Turismo style simulation, so there's really only so much you can mess up – so the only real x-factor is the open world. Forza Horizon had a wide variety of sandbox activities, with plenty of collectibles, races, and challenges for players. The exhibition races where players raced against hot air balloons or trains were exciting as hell! If Payback can bring the Hollywood bombast it seeks to emulate to an open world, that could be?? rad. Or the open world could have a handful of c?ollectibles and some races, all completely bereft of flavor like an appetizer platter at Applebee's.

For what it's worth vis a vis flavor, both Chubb and Payback designer Andy Manches seemed excited for Edgar Wright's upcoming film Baby Driver, which is practically dripping with flavor like an appetizer plate at the Outback Steakhouse. Although Chubb and Manches couldn't talk about the game's licensed music lineup (another thing Forza Horizon does so well), eventually we started talking about the Baby Driver soundtrack. Chubb got really excited about the Baby Driver Spotify playlist and Manches wrote down one of my song recommendations – it's good to kno??w that&nbs??p;some of the dev team has good taste.

I will say this about Payback – I tried the preview race again because I was really enjoying myself, so there's absolutely something here. Open world racing can go real bad if the world doesn't support balanced racing, but I had a blast with my street race, thanks to long stretches of road and properly telegraphed turns. The Nos feels immediate and responsive, the AI drivers were just challenging enough to keep my interest, and everything looked gorgeous. So Need for Speed Payback can obviously handle moment-to-moment gameplay, but it's unclear whether the game will have any legs. I hope it does; I wouldn't mind playing it for long st?retches at a time.

Now put "Radar Love" in there and we're golden.

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Fast and Furious

The next in Electronic Arts' long-running Need for Speed series is an "action driving fantasy" no doubt drawing comparisons to the huge Fast and Furious franchise. Need for Speed Payback, developed by Ghost Games, will follo??w three different characters (the "Racer, Showman, and Wh??eelman") who team together to pull off heists and whatnot to get back at a cartel.

Promising an open world environment and customization options, Ghost Games also tells of a neat gambling motif as betting on yourself earns you money for better parts. Pre-ordering Payback will net you the Plat?inum Car ??Pack which includes:

• 1969 Dodge Charger R/T
• 2008 Nissan 350Z
• 2016 Ford F-150 Raptor
• 2016 Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport
• 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS (nice) 

There will also be a First Play Trial for EA Access and Origin subscribers starting November 2nd, in which they'll be able to play up to ten hours. As for everyone else, Need for Speed Payback will release Nove?mber 10 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One,?? and PC. 

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