Need for speed: The Run has a completely different take on the normal need for speed games released by Electronic Arts, Where as in the previous games you get to upgrade and modify your cars to a very high standard to complete in different style of races. The Run is a completely different take on the need for speed title, you will not be able to modify or upgrade your cars at all, only be able to select a few cars at different stages throughout the game. The Run is a high octane race which will take you through the state of America coast to coast. You will have to navigate 3000 miles over varied terrain, ranging from freeways, plains, snow scenes and also explosive scenes, The Run is not a bad game indeed but if you were hoping to modify and upgrade you will be disappointed, but it will offer you a different take on racing.
You play the game as Jack Rourke, beginning of the game is a short story line, you are trapped in a Porsche in a car compacter, Jack has got indebted to the mob and they want him dead, you must escape the compacter by pressing various buttons at a sequence which appear on screen, once done you steal one of the mobs cars and the race begins. Jacks friend Sam persuades you to take on the race through the state of America in a hope of winning $25 million and also getting the mafia off his back for good. You will have the opportunity to race through, Las Vegas, The Rockies and sun blasted plains where the glare from the sun can cause some serious damage, in pretty much high performance cars.
The game will place you in short stints of races having to complete various objectives, some races you will require to battle through to gain places, other races will be make up time, where you have to reach check points in certain time limits, another style of race is with four opponents where you will have to overtake them one by one and leave the countdown timer reach zero to eliminate the player, along with these races you will also have to deal with hr police, who indeed can be a bit harsh at times, setting up road blocks, slamming their brakes on in front of you, some things do make you laugh though, since when do police do road blocks with a huge hole in them for you to get through.
Your main task is to get up places in order to reach various location, each one has a short story line where you are out of the car escaping the law, to complete these you have to do a sequence with the buttons once again, the story line in all is pretty much very dim, you will soon not even notice a story in the game.
One downfall i noticed within the game is repeating drivers, you have raced them previously and beaten them yet they appear once again further in the game. Apart from racing and beating the clock there are also some pretty ridiculous segments such as being chased by a helicopter gunship owned by the mob, and once you press the nitro button to escape, the next corner will more than likely kill you.
What makes this game stand out is the environments you drive through, the lights of the cities, beautiful national parks, the glow from the neon lights from las vegas, each and every stage will have you looking around as the stages are very well detailed, there are a few flaws within this game, the small on foot sequences don’t seem to control very well or add anything interesting to the game, it seems a shame that there are no off road stages just to make the game a bit more interesting at times.
After reaching your destination in first place and winning the title, you will be able to replay the stages, the only problem is that you will have to visit the entire stage having to go through some stages you did not enjoy to get to the ones you did, multiplayer mode is divided into playlists, such as urban street racing and muscle cars battles, these option give you the better option of doing what you want to do and race against human players not just the computer generated ones in the main game.
Overall the game is satisfying with plenty of hrs of game play, the graphics are nice and sharp and in game music is ok ish i reckon, the game will not take the average gamer long to complete but you will certainly come back for more later.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
