Review
Played on: Xbox 360Released: 2011
EA's Need for Speed is one of the largest racing franchises in the gaming industry. Through the years there have been numerous titles under the brand and many styles of racing titles. The most prominent feature being races on open roads, with traffic, through nature landscapes with cops trying to stop you.
I recall, as I'm writing this blog entry, some NFS nostalgia through the years. From the first titles back on PC, to the next-gen Hot Pursuit 2 on PS2 with awesome surround sound and the Underground game that combined NFS with the Fast and the Furious movies on rain soaked city streets at night.
Following this era, NFS went serious again, in one of my most favourites, ProStreet. It kept the styling options from Underground and went for semi-realism on the physics. The last entry before The Run was a return to Hot Pursuit, which although went back to basics in the franchise, it quickly felt repetitive.
Perhaps this fear for repetition, and an impatient, action orientated, gaming audience sparked the idea for The Run. It's a different approach to a racer altogether. With an original and a daring idea, yet it goes back to its NFS roots in a good way.
Perhaps this fear for repetition, and an impatient, action orientated, gaming audience sparked the idea for The Run. It's a different approach to a racer altogether. With an original and a daring idea, yet it goes back to its NFS roots in a good way.
Let's take road trip and check it out!
The game introduces you to Jack, who in all fairness to his cocky attitude and appearance is, well, a complete douche. Yet, something about his smirk and stupid comments, combined with his idiotic behaviour, made me kind of like him. He has come into bad company and must race across the entire United States. An A to B race with a generous prize, offered by his beautiful associate, Sam, to pay off his debts.
Yes, Sam is so obviously played and modelled after the stunning Christina Hendricks from Mad Men fame. Their friendship is a one of radio chatter, with a caring Sam giving Jack heads up about tricky parts and your standings in the coast-to-coast tournament. With Jack, being his usual self, replying in a laid-back and cocky manner.
The scenes, depicting the mains characters, are all in-game and very impressive as such. They contain some easy QTE, which in turn leads to more racing. The idea behind these scenes are great and set The Run apart from so many other racers.
The game introduces you to Jack, who in all fairness to his cocky attitude and appearance is, well, a complete douche. Yet, something about his smirk and stupid comments, combined with his idiotic behaviour, made me kind of like him. He has come into bad company and must race across the entire United States. An A to B race with a generous prize, offered by his beautiful associate, Sam, to pay off his debts.
Yes, Sam is so obviously played and modelled after the stunning Christina Hendricks from Mad Men fame. Their friendship is a one of radio chatter, with a caring Sam giving Jack heads up about tricky parts and your standings in the coast-to-coast tournament. With Jack, being his usual self, replying in a laid-back and cocky manner.
The scenes, depicting the mains characters, are all in-game and very impressive as such. They contain some easy QTE, which in turn leads to more racing. The idea behind these scenes are great and set The Run apart from so many other racers.
In fact, it looks and plays like an action movie. The on-foot segments give a nice break from the racing and give some tension to what Jack is going through, desperately trying to reach the end of the race. Regardless the cost.
The race from one coast to the other, consisting of stages, which in turn contain stretches of road with various goals. Either to gain places in the race, make up lost time, race a rival, elimination type races or simply try to outlive the forces of nature.
The race from one coast to the other, consisting of stages, which in turn contain stretches of road with various goals. Either to gain places in the race, make up lost time, race a rival, elimination type races or simply try to outlive the forces of nature.
With the races races spread across the entire U.S. continent, you never drive the same road over and it gives some serious amount of variation in the environments. Both in roadside detail, colouring and types of road.
I expected the Frostbite 2 engine, used in Battlefield 3, wouldn't fit a racing game. The textures for one, looking a bit muddy close up, for important racing surfaces like, let’s say, the road! But the scale of the cities you arrive at, the huge mountains you pass or a whole, damn, avalanche nearly wiping you off the road, made me realise how great it looks. The Run needs such a diverse engine like Frostbite to run it.
it's a pretty racer, with a ton of diverse scenery. Either it’s detailed cities, highways past grassy hills, traversing dusty canyons, slipping on ice covered roads in the Rockies or sunlight reaching through autumn coloured orange woodlands. It kind of reminds me of well NFS4: High Stakes did it's colour scheme for nature scenery.
There are issues though. The game takes around three hours to complete. A lifespan they easily could have increased be forcing you to do some circuit racing along the way, or making you race all the way back over the continent again!
Even an expert mode, where you actually have to gain all the places in the race, without being forced to re-race races you didn't make it, would've been cool.
I expected the Frostbite 2 engine, used in Battlefield 3, wouldn't fit a racing game. The textures for one, looking a bit muddy close up, for important racing surfaces like, let’s say, the road! But the scale of the cities you arrive at, the huge mountains you pass or a whole, damn, avalanche nearly wiping you off the road, made me realise how great it looks. The Run needs such a diverse engine like Frostbite to run it.
it's a pretty racer, with a ton of diverse scenery. Either it’s detailed cities, highways past grassy hills, traversing dusty canyons, slipping on ice covered roads in the Rockies or sunlight reaching through autumn coloured orange woodlands. It kind of reminds me of well NFS4: High Stakes did it's colour scheme for nature scenery.
There are issues though. The game takes around three hours to complete. A lifespan they easily could have increased be forcing you to do some circuit racing along the way, or making you race all the way back over the continent again!
Even an expert mode, where you actually have to gain all the places in the race, without being forced to re-race races you didn't make it, would've been cool.
The handling is, as usual in an arcade NFS title, floaty. Feeling as if you're just being carried through each subtle corner without much input or control. I found it more real, if you can say that about a NFS title, than the recent Hot Pursuit though.
The Run really appealed to me, I loved the concept, the stupid story and the sheer variation in its locations. The idea of racing through a massive country was amazing.
The Run really appealed to me, I loved the concept, the stupid story and the sheer variation in its locations. The idea of racing through a massive country was amazing.
It could have been such a truly great package with more time spent on the development of its replay value. At best, it's a fantastic and original racer which feels like a movie, at worst it's a bargain bin release giving you a tiny handful of gaming hours.
That said, you won't find anything like it.
