Need for Speed Payback Review

NFS Payback (Need For Speed Payback) is the next entry of the story driven NFS games following 2015 Need For Speed, it is not a sequel and has its own story, in the previous title we found ourselves racing to eventually compete against one of the 6 icons in a true to life recreation of street racing culture.

This time round there have been some changes, the biggest and most immediate change that you will notice is that we are now racing in daytime and have a full weather and day/ night cycle (finally).

Second to that you will notice the gorgeous real life cut scenes are gone, and that is a real shame, now the gameplay graphics and cutscenes are on equal ground in terms of graphics, so if like me you were hoping to see more almost real renderings of a ridiculous vehicle you have slammed down to the ground and made look like a advertisement board for NOS, you can’t.

But it’s not all bad, the graphics themselves are great, they are not on the same level as other racers we have seen recently like forza but they are none the less stunningly clean and still in my opinion a very well suited to the game.

It has a more rugged feel, more loud, colourful and gritty.

Even the sound seems aimed at suiting the game rather than realism, this is not to say that it not good, it’s awesome but tweaks like making the turbo whistle louder than it would be and making nitro have that fast and furious sound, however the expected are still there if you pop on a good set of headphones you will still get that immersive surround sound, you will hear the charger coming up behind you and be able to predict its overtake path.

Now as i have just compared NFS to forza I would like to just mention that this is not a simulation racer like forza,it is a action arcade racer, there is no simulation racing or hyper realistic braking effects, but if you want to have some serious fun taking a nitro charged honda s2000 up to 160 MPH then drifting it up a mountain and jumping off it, all while your car is 5 mm off the floor  with a skyscraper for a spoiler, this is your game.

Being a long term fan of the series i am happy to see the franchise return to its roots, and for the first time in a long time i could not put the controller down, at the time of writing this review i have over a day in game time on NFS and i can assure you i will be going back for more.

There is so much left for me to do, like finding all the pieces to a derelict car and restoring it to its former glory. Making it to the outlaws rush and completing the story, and for me my final aim is to get a car to a performance of at least 175 so that i can play ranked online speedlists.

There are however some bad points i’d like to highlight, there is a grind. Unlike the previous NFS game you no longer jump back to your garage and buy new parts for your car you unlock along the way, it is now in the form of a random drop which is annoying.

I decided to spring for the deluxe upgrade just to waste 30 tokens on pieces that didn’t benefit my car in any way at all, picture games like fifa, overwatch and destiny’s loot drops but with turbos, exhausts and header pipes. on top of all that each part has a brand and boost the brands if you match them will grant you a stat enhancement, and the boosts are great as long as you get the right ones.

My current race car a slammed GTR ( I love that you can slam the cars) has got a full jump stat, not that i want one but nearly every part has dropped with a jump boost.

The story is honestly pretty good. you play as 3 different characters all dependant on what style of vehicle you are driving at the time and so far i am pretty invested in them and am dying to find out what happens next.

(Small spoilers ahead skip to next paragraph if you don’t want to read)

I want to know if tyler ever gets his revenge, i want to see how the outlaws rush unfolds, and i really want to see the house collapse.

Besides the story i cant stop just driving around, it’s a massive open world map with the perfect roads for drifting, blasting nitrus and even jumping your car to ridiculous heights.

Plus there’s no way i’m quitting before seeing how awesome i can make a lamborghini look, yep lamborghinis in a NFS game.

Now the best news NFS is no longer online only, you have a story game mode and a completely separate multiplayer game mode, in which you in short complete races from the story against other online players and it is massively fun, it is one of the best feelings to drift past a player on a tight corner and hear as their car fade into the distance when you hit that nitrous on the pull away, even when you’re battling on a straight to keep that first place and you can hear that damn golf coming up on your right it all feels pretty exhilarating.

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SUMMARY

I think NFS: Payback is a lot of fun, there’s a hell of a lot to do and there’s definitely  a good story to be told here.

If you want to drift around in ridiculously fast cars from your childhood memory of max power magazine this is one hundred percent the game for you, if you’re looking for a serious realistic racer look somewhere else.