Rating: Overall 6.5
Need For Speed, the legendary racing franchise was all set to return after a short hiatus however, Need For Speed Payback isn’t the comeback hit everyone wanted it to be.
The game was set to bring back a story and cinematic focused experience for Need For Speed fans while giving them unparalleled customisation and open world racing. While the early demo at Gamescom 2017 indicated a solid racing experience it seems the final game failed to package it into their narrative. NFS Payback puts you in the shoes of Tyler as he goes up against ‘The House’, an organised crime syndicate that controls everything from street races, to gambling and even the cops. It brings back the classic street racers vs cops scenario and mixes with a massive open world that has racing events scattered all throughout. NFS Payback brings in a lot more variety in terms of race types than ever before, which is a big plus for the franchise but some of the driving mechanics, especially turning and drifting aren’t that great with competitors like Forza Horizon being far superior in how the cars feel both on and off road. Now, the different race types all come with different classes, each with their own set of upgrades. While on their own the racing experiences are fine, it’s their involvement with the story is where the problem starts. Given the focus on story and narrative, the slightly scripted story mission pop up from time to time, however you need to grind a lot to unlock them and have a car that can survive more difficult races. It becomes mind numbing after a while. The lootbox upgrade system doesn’t make your pursuit of completion any easier. What makes it harder is that despite completing across multiple courses and race types you end up having to upgrade your main car the most, so you’ll be grinding the same race several times to be able to upgrade.
The story itself is like a cheap movie you go to watch for cheesy dialogues and action set pieces. If you’re interested in a decent arcade racer and don’t mind a lot of grinding for loot, then NFS Payback isn’t all that bad.
Pros: Enjoyable story. Decent arcade racing experience
Cons: Too much grinding to progress, Drifting mechanics aren’t great
