14 DAY TRIAL // 
The Need for Speed franchise has had a troubled past, especially in recent years, going from great success stories, like the new Hot Pursuit, to lackluster ones, like The Run, or semi-successful titles like last year's Most Wanted.
Now, Electronic Arts wants to put the franchise on a concrete track and formed Ghost Games, a new studio made to oversee the series, comprised of core veterans from Criterion Games and other such studios.
The first title from the new group is Need for Speed: Rivals, a fresh experience that once again focuses on the core conflict between cops and racers, while bringing a more hands-off approach to the story, instead letting gameplay speak for itself.
Does the new title manage to set a good new path for the NFS series or should Rivals take its rivalry elsewhere? Let's find out.
Story
Plots in NFS games haven't exactly won any Oscars and the few attempts that tried to tell a meaningful story, like The Run, fell well short of impressing anyone.
NFS: Rivals has a hands-off approach, showing sequences from a bigger overall plot concerning a street racer named Zephyr and the Redview County Police, but it doesn't try to shove anything down the player's throat.
This is probably for the better, as the actual plot isn't that impressive, while the motivations of both the racers and the cops are cheesy, to say the least. Even so, the plot offers some incentive for the different tasks that need to be completed by players and it serves its purpose.
Gameplay
Need for Speed: Rivals is pretty similar in terms of gameplay to Hot Pursuit from 2010, not only through its focus on cops vs. racers, but also in terms of the huge open world, in the fictional Redview County, or its approach to missions, as they take players through a wide array of situations.
At the start of the game's career you can choose to be a cop or a racer, and you can freely switch between these two personas while in the Command Centers or Hideouts. Racers unite under the banner of Zephyr, a so-called rebel who wants to bring freedom to the masses by humiliating the authorities. Cops unite under their local leadership, which decides that stopping racers by any means necessary is the most important goal.
Progression in NFS: Rivals is handled via the special SpeedLists, a set of different goals and tasks that need to be completed in order to progress in the story. These mostly come in three types for each career, meaning you can choose what set of missions you want to do, depending on your preference.
Besides completing goals, both cops and racers earn Speedpoints for their work on the streets. These can be spent on car upgrades or customization options for the racers, or on better pursuit technology for the cops.
Earning Speedpoints, however, is much tougher on the racer side as, in the case of an arrest, all those points are lost. As such, you need to be careful when raising your heat level, thereby getting lots of points but also the attention of more cops.
AI police is quite tough in NFS: Rivals, employing a wide variety of tools in order to stop racers, from the traditional roadblocks or spike strips, to EMP pulses, electrostatic fields, or choppers. You also don't have that many different solutions of getting rid of multiple cars at once, meaning you'll always have to take the fight to them, use all your own pursuit tech weapons, and make sure that your damage level hasn't reached a critical point. This is easier said than done, so you'll surely have a less stressful time in the police career.
The pursuit tech for both cops and racers is quite varied and certainly promotes experimentation, especially since you can apply different gadgets onto each car you unlock as you progress through the story.
While cops can choose between three variants for each vehicle, racers can modify the performance of their rides by purchasing upgrades for multiple aspects, from Acceleration or Top Speed, to Durability or Strength.
Multiplayer
Of course, one of the major new gameplay mechanics employed by Need for Speed: Rivals is the AllDrive system, which allows a certain number of other players to also populate your version of Redview County, provided you're online. If not, only you and the AI allies or foes will be present in the open world.
This seamless experience has the potential for many magic moments, as you can just patrol the streets of the county as a cop and immediately get thrown into a Hot Pursuit encounter when another player, controlling a racer, zips past you.
It can also lead to some stressful moments, especially since you can't actually pause the game once you're on the streets. As such, if you're not paying attention, you can lose your Speedpoints and get busted by a cop even if you were just standing in the middle of a field, for example.
In order to take advantage of this feature on the PS4, a PlayStation Plus membership is required.
Graphics and Sound
NFS: Rivals is powered by the new Frostbite 3 engine and the result, on the PS4 at least, is stunning, to say the least. Even if Ghost Games made the surprising decision to limit the framerate to just 30fps, the title manages to impress in many ways, like its 1080p native resolution.
From the great car models, to the different weather sequences, varied environments, or other visual effects, NFS: Rivals will certainly impress, even if there are a few bugs here and there, especially when it comes to cars being totaled or being dumped on the streets after exiting hideouts or command centers.
In terms of audio, Rivals handles quite well, as the soundtrack has a pretty good song selection. During events or pursuits, the orchestral score takes over and manages to elevate the experience to new heights.
Conclusion
Need for Speed: Rivals delivers an amazing racing experience that looks great, handles well, and signals a good direction for the series. While there are annoyances, like the locked framerate or the fact that you can't pause the game while in the world even when you're playing offline, due to AllDrive, it's still quite fun when you're a cop, and nerve-wracking when you're a racer.
