OK, so a few of the exclusive launch titles for the newly release PlayStation 4 haven't garnered the greatest of reviews, perhaps mixed at best. What about a non-exclusive, like Need for Speed: Rivals for example? As it turns out, it seems the racer from Ghosts Games has been faring significantly better. Take a look for yourself below to see what some of the reviews are saying.
EGM, 7/10 - "Need for Speed: Rivals is subversive. Ignoring the unhappy detour that was The Run, the last few entries of EA’s arcade racing franchise have been staging a quiet revolution against the entrenched tropes of the racing genre. Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit, to varying degrees, both eschewed conventional notions of progression and rigid structure to deliver an experience that was more philosophically in line with their open worlds. In many ways, Rivals, the first title from newly minted EA studio Ghost Games, is the culmination of those two efforts. It’s a rejection of nearly everything we take for granted about racing games... I won’t deny that the majority of Rivals’ running time kept my adrenaline pumping and my lizard brain enthralled. The simple thrill of trading paint and hurling attacks at your competitors as you barrel down the highway doing 120 can do an awful lot to atone for any and all flaws. True to the name of its franchise, Rivals excels at delivering a blistering, addictive sense of speed—even if design hiccups occasionally slow proceedings to a crawl."
PlayStation Lifestyle, 8.5/10 - "The Need for Speed series has always been a fun and exciting franchise for true fans of arcade racing, and this edition doesn’t disappoint on that level. Simulator fans will have to wait for a true next-gen sim racing game like Gran Turismo to come to the PS4, but Need for Speed Rivals should be more than enough to keep them busy driving real virtual cars around Redview County, even if they don’t exactly handle like their real world counterparts. If you are making the jump to next gen, and you enjoy racing games, this would be a perfect addition to your launch day library. Need for Speed Rivals is clearly ready for the next generation of gaming, and so are we."
Gamespot, 8/10 - "Despite being the work of new developer Ghost Games, Need for Speed: Rivals is clearly a game in the mold of Criterion's entries in the Need for Speed series, particularly 2010's excellent Hot Pursuit. In this game, as in that one, you step into the cars of both cops and racers and cruise around a gorgeous open world, completing events that require you to either evade the law or enforce it... There's nothing decidedly next-gen about the look of Rivals, but it's still a gorgeous game. Redview County is lush and inviting, with leaves blowing in the forest winds, waves crashing on the coast, and pleasure seekers hang-gliding in the clear blue skies. At least until the weather changes. At that point, a thunderstorm might lend an ominous atmosphere to a dangerous race along a cliffside. Whatever the forecast, the cars themselves, and the collisions they tend to get into, look spectacular, sending showers of metal and glass in all directions. Need for Speed: Rivals is very much in the tradition of Hot Pursuit, but that great, familiar gameplay has been infused with enough new elements to make it as thrilling here as it's ever been. It sure is good to hit the open road again."
US Gamer, 10/10 - "Blending some of the best features of prior titles with seamless single and multiplayer action, Need for Speed: Rivals hits the next generation head on...It’s not a huge step forward for the series, to be blunt, but more of a rock solid refinement of many of the features seen in prior games. That might sound a little disappointing, but it’s really not – because this strange sort of “greatest bits” flows together very well to create a phenomenally fun, open-world game of cops and racers...if too much of a good thing and occasionally crashing head-on into an obstacle are the only things I’ve got to complain about, I think it’s safe to say that Rivals is in pretty fine shape. And I haven’t even talked about how freakin’ awesome it looks, and how raucously rorty the sound is. The screenshots really don’t do the game justice, as what you can’t see are the subtle lighting and atmospheric effects that lift this game out of the last generation and into the next. Ultimately, Need for Speed: Rivals is top stuff - and is without doubt the PS4's very first 'must have' game."
Need for Speed: Rivals is out now for PS4, and released on PS3, PC, and Xbox 360 today. It will be a launch title for the Xbox One when it releases worldwide, November 22.
Check out the launch trailer below.
