11th December 2016, 11:33 PM
Xbox 360
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Need for Speed: The Run - I beat this game on Normal today. I picked it up again recently because it really is pretty fun, and decided to finish it because it's a pretty short game and, on Normal at least, is only moderately challenging too. So yeah, some hours later, I beat it! NFS The Run is a good game with a great sense of speed, fun gameplay, okay if skiddy controls, and nice graphics. There is some mission variety, and four QTE sequences scattered around the game as well, controversially. I dislike QTEs, but didn't mind them too much here because there are just so few of them; there really are only four cutscenes with QTEs in them in the whole (again, not too long) game. The game also has a story, though your character is an annoyingly cocky young guy who I don't like much at all and the story is quite basic ('try to win the race' pretty much sums it up), so there's not much to say there. The gameplay is why you'd want to play this game, and it's good, with varied environments as you drive across the country and several race types, including passing other racers in a normal stage race in The Run, 1-on-1 races against a specific opponent, timed races where you have to get through checkpoints without running out of time, timed elimination races against an opponent where you have to pass them and then be ahead of them when time runs out, and more. In some races you have to deal with police or Mafia attacks as well. The game does get predictable, but there's enough variety to keep it interesting beginning to end. The last race is pretty decent too. It's gimmicky, and the ending is a bit weak, but it works. I like the subway section.
However, the game definitely has issues. One important one is that the game has paid DLC. There are some cars you can only unlock by now-impossible ingame requirements -- a bunch of the better cars say 'you need to beat X number of online races in playlist Y to unlock this car for single race mode, even if you were racing with that car in the later stages of the main champoinship', and good luck finding anyone racing online because you wont. But don't worry, you can get around this problem by paying real money to buy that car as DLC! Ugh...
Beyond that, the other major problem this game has is that at times it feels kind of unfinished -- why isn't there a QTE sequence at the end, like there are four the four other major city scenes earlier in the game? Why does the story feel so thin and basic? In this supposedly story-based point-to-point driving game, there's barely any story most of the time and it gets thinner as you go along. Characters are introduced and then never mentioned again after very short cutscenes; rivals have their only character-building info (their background, name, etc.) in text boxes on loading screens, because the game itself never mentions these things; and more. It's very weird, unless the game was rushed for release or something. Why does the game have a moderate-length cutscene introducing your first named opponents, but no more than a couple of seconds of intro, or nothing at all other than that loading screen info, for your other named rivals? And why is the collision detection so weird, whenever I crash or go off the road I have no idea if it's going to reset me onto the track or use up a reset because it seems kind of random. And the short length is worth mentioning, too. Still, when the rest of the game is fun, fast arcade driving action, I don't mind the issues too much. This game isn't one of the more popular NFS games, but I like it for sure, and it was well worth finishing and I did like it.
On another note, I haven't finished the game yet, but playing this also has gotten me to get back into the Wii version of this game, which is an entirely different game -- one version of NFS The Run is on PC, PS3, and 360, while the other is on Wii and 3DS. The Wii version has pretty bad graphics with very low polygon counts, so it clearly was designed for the 3DS first and would not have challenged the Gamecube much never mind the Wii, but it does have a high and smooth framerate, just as good a sense of speed as the 360 game has, and better, tighter controls than that game. I like that these cars stick to the road better than the 360 cars, it's great. This game has a much better story than that version too, with a comic book-style cutscene page before every race stage. Your character in the Wii game is a bit older and much more bearable than the 360 guy, and the rest of the plot is more interesting and fully realized than that version as well -- there are continuing characters including some who travel with you sometimes (the 360 guy is always alone in his car), the game introduces your rivals in cutscenes, there is a continuing plot beyond just "win the race" involving some characters' backstories, and more. It's hardly great writing, but it is a lot more than the 360 version has. The Wii game is shorter than the 360 game for sure, with fewer races in the game as far as I can tell (remember, haven't finished it yet) and fewer total opponents to drive against (150 on Wii, ~210 on 360), but because of the better story and story presentation it feels more complete. There isn't any paid DLC either, or online multiplayer but at this point five years later who's playing anyway? It does have four-player splitscreen, which is nice.
There is one gameplay-related thing I need to mention about the Wii version though. While there are no out-of-the-car QTE sequences in this version, there are in-car QTEs -- sometimes you need to hit buttons on the Wiimote d-pad in a specific order, with a tight time limit, to get past certain points. It's not great. Additionally, there are some gimmicky challenge sections in many races where you can only move left and right and have to avoid obstacles, helicopter fire, or more. These bits can be fun, I don't mind them. If you fail at either of these types of challenges though, you lose a life, and you only get three by default per race before you have to start it over. You have a health bar in this version too, and if it runs out you lose a life that way too. So some replay is required, but I find the game fun anyway, and it's much more consistent than the 360 version where I never know if I'm going to have a reset burned or just be dropped back on the track when I crash... here you know, provided that you didn't run out of health, you'll be reset but lose some health. And those challenge bits can mix things up nicely. So yeah, this game is fun despite a few problems, and I'll probably beat it fairly soon.
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Need for Speed: The Run - I beat this game on Normal today. I picked it up again recently because it really is pretty fun, and decided to finish it because it's a pretty short game and, on Normal at least, is only moderately challenging too. So yeah, some hours later, I beat it! NFS The Run is a good game with a great sense of speed, fun gameplay, okay if skiddy controls, and nice graphics. There is some mission variety, and four QTE sequences scattered around the game as well, controversially. I dislike QTEs, but didn't mind them too much here because there are just so few of them; there really are only four cutscenes with QTEs in them in the whole (again, not too long) game. The game also has a story, though your character is an annoyingly cocky young guy who I don't like much at all and the story is quite basic ('try to win the race' pretty much sums it up), so there's not much to say there. The gameplay is why you'd want to play this game, and it's good, with varied environments as you drive across the country and several race types, including passing other racers in a normal stage race in The Run, 1-on-1 races against a specific opponent, timed races where you have to get through checkpoints without running out of time, timed elimination races against an opponent where you have to pass them and then be ahead of them when time runs out, and more. In some races you have to deal with police or Mafia attacks as well. The game does get predictable, but there's enough variety to keep it interesting beginning to end. The last race is pretty decent too. It's gimmicky, and the ending is a bit weak, but it works. I like the subway section.
However, the game definitely has issues. One important one is that the game has paid DLC. There are some cars you can only unlock by now-impossible ingame requirements -- a bunch of the better cars say 'you need to beat X number of online races in playlist Y to unlock this car for single race mode, even if you were racing with that car in the later stages of the main champoinship', and good luck finding anyone racing online because you wont. But don't worry, you can get around this problem by paying real money to buy that car as DLC! Ugh...
Beyond that, the other major problem this game has is that at times it feels kind of unfinished -- why isn't there a QTE sequence at the end, like there are four the four other major city scenes earlier in the game? Why does the story feel so thin and basic? In this supposedly story-based point-to-point driving game, there's barely any story most of the time and it gets thinner as you go along. Characters are introduced and then never mentioned again after very short cutscenes; rivals have their only character-building info (their background, name, etc.) in text boxes on loading screens, because the game itself never mentions these things; and more. It's very weird, unless the game was rushed for release or something. Why does the game have a moderate-length cutscene introducing your first named opponents, but no more than a couple of seconds of intro, or nothing at all other than that loading screen info, for your other named rivals? And why is the collision detection so weird, whenever I crash or go off the road I have no idea if it's going to reset me onto the track or use up a reset because it seems kind of random. And the short length is worth mentioning, too. Still, when the rest of the game is fun, fast arcade driving action, I don't mind the issues too much. This game isn't one of the more popular NFS games, but I like it for sure, and it was well worth finishing and I did like it.
On another note, I haven't finished the game yet, but playing this also has gotten me to get back into the Wii version of this game, which is an entirely different game -- one version of NFS The Run is on PC, PS3, and 360, while the other is on Wii and 3DS. The Wii version has pretty bad graphics with very low polygon counts, so it clearly was designed for the 3DS first and would not have challenged the Gamecube much never mind the Wii, but it does have a high and smooth framerate, just as good a sense of speed as the 360 game has, and better, tighter controls than that game. I like that these cars stick to the road better than the 360 cars, it's great. This game has a much better story than that version too, with a comic book-style cutscene page before every race stage. Your character in the Wii game is a bit older and much more bearable than the 360 guy, and the rest of the plot is more interesting and fully realized than that version as well -- there are continuing characters including some who travel with you sometimes (the 360 guy is always alone in his car), the game introduces your rivals in cutscenes, there is a continuing plot beyond just "win the race" involving some characters' backstories, and more. It's hardly great writing, but it is a lot more than the 360 version has. The Wii game is shorter than the 360 game for sure, with fewer races in the game as far as I can tell (remember, haven't finished it yet) and fewer total opponents to drive against (150 on Wii, ~210 on 360), but because of the better story and story presentation it feels more complete. There isn't any paid DLC either, or online multiplayer but at this point five years later who's playing anyway? It does have four-player splitscreen, which is nice.
There is one gameplay-related thing I need to mention about the Wii version though. While there are no out-of-the-car QTE sequences in this version, there are in-car QTEs -- sometimes you need to hit buttons on the Wiimote d-pad in a specific order, with a tight time limit, to get past certain points. It's not great. Additionally, there are some gimmicky challenge sections in many races where you can only move left and right and have to avoid obstacles, helicopter fire, or more. These bits can be fun, I don't mind them. If you fail at either of these types of challenges though, you lose a life, and you only get three by default per race before you have to start it over. You have a health bar in this version too, and if it runs out you lose a life that way too. So some replay is required, but I find the game fun anyway, and it's much more consistent than the 360 version where I never know if I'm going to have a reset burned or just be dropped back on the track when I crash... here you know, provided that you didn't run out of health, you'll be reset but lose some health. And those challenge bits can mix things up nicely. So yeah, this game is fun despite a few problems, and I'll probably beat it fairly soon.
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