These machines are a tad slower, and you can really feel the weight creaking on some of them as the car leans and falls into the forces of inertia into the turns. The cop vehicles are much more “hog-ish” in nature compared to the Racer’s lineup, acting more like quick, armored vehicles than something that was built to finesse corners. Playing as a cop is a lot less about out driving other cars and more about harassing any racer you can find. This leaves your car open to being slammed and possibly busted.Īlthough I found the racers to be the more entertaining than the cops, sometimes being a jerk can be fun as well. While it is possible to do both at the same time, starting something like a Race will stop your car dead at the starting line for a few seconds, but not the cops. You can either decide to skip the event and blow by it to evade the cops or start the event during the pursuit. Where this can get a tad annoying, however, is when you’ve decided you want to drive to the starting line of another event and just before you get there, you hear the “whoop whoop!” of a police siren. You’re forced to stay on your toes, and if you’re in one of the few dead spots where you’re not racing or evading, you’re at least formulating an exit plan in your head for when the next Cop chase fires up. It’s great in one way, because you are rarely left cruising the map without purpose. When I would successfully escape one group of cops, after about a 10-second break of zooming at top speed, another cop would spot me, and we were back in the chase. Playing as a racer, you should expect to get lit up by the cops about every quarter mile.
If you’re not a fan of the cops-‘n’-robbers-inspired mode, consider this a warning: You’re going to be doing a lot of Hot Pursuit in this game. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit-based gameplay is obviously a big part as well, and it’s as enjoyable as it has ever been. The risk-and-reward mechanic of Burnout is definitely present: Pulling certain maneuvers or putting yourself in dangerous situations earns you more nitrous for boost and cash to bank later on in the garage. Constant chasing and evadingĭriving is a mix of concepts from both the series’ many prequels as well as some of Criterion’s previous games. I appreciate that when a human player happens to be near me, the only choice that requires my input is if I want to change direction to break off from what I am doing to chase them. Even when the All Drive alert system tells me a player is nearby, it isn’t a jarring event that changes my experience. My single-player experience isn’t interrupted just because someone happened to connect to the session. Rivals isn’t the first game to utilize a free-roaming concept, but it’s the first one I’ve played where single-player and multiplayer are integrated so that they aren’t distinct modes. The only time it pulls you into a menu is when you enter your garage to make upgrades or bank rewards. The pace always flows from one event or objective to the next without interruption. This sort of on-the-road system of starting modes, challenging human players, and completing single-player objectives in one active environment makes Rivals progression feel much more lively. Anything related to starting a driving event takes place on the road among the living, breathing, driving ecosystem, and anyone driving by can join almost every mode that involves multiple vehicles. In Need For Speed: Rivals, single-player and multiplayer modes are no longer options separated by a menu tree they coexist inside the active game. Three top investment pros open up about what it takes to get your video game funded.