Recent reviews by Charlie Charlie Kirkalator

Love this so much! 10 bucks, thats like a BigMac or a Starbucks Venti but gives you way more fun, for longer! Multiplayer is very fun as it is, but does need some work. I'd like to see settings for the host to tweak, like duration, map rotation and time of day. Also looks like not all tracks can be played and many have props (like hay bales) that are in the way of lines you'd take while in singleplayer. And I hope to see character/cart customization like Golf with Friends for example. But very recommended nonetheless!

I'm doing my part!

TLDR: Although my time with the game is limited, in my opinion is doesn't really feel like an upgrade over Heat. It feels like with every step forward, it takes one step back in another area. I wouldn't recommend it for people thinking the experience will be drastically different to Heat, especially in the handling department, because its not. However it's still enjoyable and I'm hoping EA does deliver on its promise of actually supporting this game so I can pick it up on sale in the future.

- If you're still unsure after reading reviews/first impressions, I'd advise you to get EA Play for 4 bucks and try the game out yourself, if you like it you'll get a 10% discount. If you don't, you cancel your EA Play subscription and save yourself 60 bucks or so. -

So let me just ramble for a bit and keep in mind the following is my take on things that are important to me:

World
The story although a bit generic and a bit less raw than Heats, is a better story overall. The characters however are likeable, but seeing as you don't really get an introduction/backstory, makes it hard to "connect" with them but that's just NFS I guess. Most of the dialog is had when just driving around and is more often than not, very cringey, especially the news stories which imho could've been left out because they don't really add much. The new map is very nice, feels more real and not as "clustered" as Heats (high density areas with nothing in between). It's very detailed and feels like it was built with street racing in mind. However, not having any racers (AI or player) driving around makes the world feel lifeless, even with the addition of pedestrians. Having other players race by you with a squad of cop cars chasing them is something I really miss seeing.

Seperated progression
Singleplayer (SP) and multiplayer (MP) progression is seperated which is a MASSIVE downgrade in my opinion. There's little to no incentive to progress in MP. You're just doing events to get better cars/upgrades, but seeing as that is the exact same thing you'll be doing in SP, why do it twice? Atleast SP has an actual story. Having the progression and world shared like in Heat at least made me want to do MP races because of the bonus Bank it gave you. I thought they'd expand on what they had in Heat, bring it to the next level. I.e. a more MMO/RPG type of experience, instead of separating offline and online like NFS from the early 2000's. But I was mistaken.

The races/events are also the exact same as SP, except (in my case) starting a playlist/race will most likely result in you racing one maybe two players WITHOUT AI, so comparatively speaking the races feel very empty and underwhelming and on top of that the amount of Bank earned is tied to the amount of players, so... However, this might improve, now the game is in full release. The grind compared to SP has also been made painfully slow, parts/engines are not shared, cars are locked behind trivial tasks and the Bank earn-rate is very low all to unlock the same things you have in the campaign. And no cops and day/night cycle (at launch) and no way to start a single race instead of a playlist? smh

Customization
The new customization options like "Tags" and "Sample" are cool, for a while. The Tags just make me wish I could just have regular tire smoke and seeing as you can't turn them off, I guess they just straight up lied about that, you're stuck with 'em. The Samples got very annoying after a while, they just make it sound like you're driving something from the Jetson's but in the Fast and Furious universe. There's also no relation between the effects and what the car is actually doing, example: my car loses traction for a split of second and my entire screen is filled cell shaded smoke effects. It's not a gradual build up of smoke as you'd expect. Exhaust tuning in Heat had way more gradual adjustments, like 12 positions or so instead of the 4 you have now. The only thing they added was a way to make the induction louder. Speaking of exhausts, some cars have titanium tips, others don't and others a mix of the two Why? They also didn't add more "stance" options like track width, so fitment is still weak on some cars even after lowering, but using different tires helps a little though.

Handling
You can turn off BTD (brake to drift)! And I'm glad that grip driving actually makes some sense in this game and is even rewarded through giving NOS. It's even the fastest way to race it seems. I would however advise to not use NOS while cornering at full lock as it gives you in hyper-grip for some reason and has resulted in me slamming into walls a couple times. And after crossing my fingers the drifting was going to be more like UNITE's or Hayeduce's drift mod I can sadly say: its not. I can't believe they managed to bork drifting again, like in the last 3 games. Any angle you put in the car will make you lose speed and accelerating while drifting isn't really thing either. Linking turns and being smooth is near impossible. You'll probably just be doing an e-brake-manji everywhere, because this keeps the combo up and gives me the highest scores, especially in the early game where you have just one car. Also your best bet is to turn BTD back on, because pulling the e-brake doesn't allow the car to slide like in Forza, it just stops the car. In short, do NOT buy this game for drifting.

Soundtrack
Yeah, nah. Hearing "Mmaso mmaso mmaso mmaso mmaso mmaso mmaso mmaso" or "Azo Toke Azo Toke Azo Toke Azo Toke, Kokoko Kokoko Kokoko WEEEE WEEEE Kokoko Kokoko" makes me want to ALT + F4. Entering a race and having "Deal Wiv It" takes me out of the otherwise dark/underground setting. There's some bangers in there though like: Гори, Sxuthside or Check the Lock

Mods
Will probably improve the game 10x.

Final thoughts: its another one of those NFS games that is enjoyable, but still leaves me disappointed. It leaves out fanbase requested features and beloved features from previous games, like cops and more stance tuning, but adds ways for them to monetize the game in the future like Tags and Samples. It isn't really an improvement over Heat imo. I think players have been complaining about the driving physics for the last 4 (including this one) games and they have only been able to make marginal improvements with some styles of driving which is insane to me. So if your one of those gamers who likes drifting in games to feel rewarding, require skill and actually look good, than this game like the previous 3 titles, is not it. Sure the game is enjoyable, but not for 70 euro's. I think it speaks for itself when I say this game is impossible to "sell" to anyone, especially to my friends who have played Heat.

I support modding, I support OpenIV. So logically, I don't support Take Two and this grindfest so they can sell more Sharkcards.