Need for Speed: Rivals

 PlayStation 3
User Score
5.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 161 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 161
  2. Mixed: 40 out of 161
  3. Negative: 67 out of 161
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  1. hostaman
    Dec 27, 2013
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Oh dear! Considering how good nfs hot pursuit was, the series has fallen a long way. In summary it's a mess.

    A typical race goes like this:

    Pick a race from the map and you will be teleported to the race start.
    3 (just 3!) other racers will blast past you and the race is on. No count down, or even "go", the race is on
    the actual racing isn't too bad. The cars drift, and handle ok, but they don't have the same weighty feel as nfs hp.
    The direction markers are very subdued and easy to miss, there are no barriers cutting off wrong turns so it's very easy to go the wrong way before you learn the map (which you must do to have any chance at this game).
    This highlights the first bug. If you crash at a junction, the ai will often put you back in the race going the wrong way down the wrong road. Very infuriating.
    ok so you're racing at high speed and you'll attract the cops who are very aggresive. They will try to take you and the other racers out. Unlike nfs hp which contained real races in sp and mp, the cops are always around in nfs r. It makes the game more like gta than a racer, and this is where I started to loose interest.
    Right you've made it to the finish line first. There's no fanfare and often you can't tell if the race has ended or even if you've won! The cars carry on going and now comes the "fun" part. Having won the race you now need to navigate to the nearest safe house, which could be miles away. If you have some heat the cops will still be chasing you, and if you get busted before making it to a safe house you loose all the points from your race win! What idiot thought that was a great feature.

    Now let's talk about multiplayer. Easy. There isn't any!

    The game is always online, but you'll struggle to arrange any races especially if you don't have a Mic or you don't have loads of online friends.

    All this before we get to the glitches. Crashes, constant host migrations (especially fun during a race), and graphical glitches such as cars passing through the scenery.

    Alas nfs has now entered bargain bin status, and this is the last nfs title I will ever buy.

    EA have literally chased the to the bottom of the bargain bin. A real shame.    … Expand
  2. Shared
    Jan 5, 2014
    0
    As per usual EA have released yet another half finished poorly constructed abortion of a game which randomly crashes, loses your progress, freezes and generally frustrates a player. Worst of all if you're a PC gamer who spends his/her hard earned cash on a quality PC rig things are even worse apparently, This game has almost no redeeming features, much like EA really.
  3. Pebo49
    Dec 20, 2013
    1
    No traffic,two views,boring gameplayPrice drop already!!!!!.enough said.obviously fan boys will love it. Please make the original need for speed in HD
  4. Timeless_One
    Jan 5, 2014
    0
    Need for Speed is going downhill, as with most any EA product. But let's get to it. This is my first review. Honestly, this game made me too angry to just sit here.

    First of all, it does look nice. Even though on PS3 it's still only in 720p, it still looks nice. But beyond that, it is lacking. Heavily. For starters, the streamline direction that games are going is nice and    Need for Speed is going downhill, as with most any EA product. But let's get to it. This is my first review. Honestly, this game made me too angry to just sit here.

    First of all, it does look nice. Even though on PS3 it's still only in 720p, it still looks nice. But beyond that, it is lacking. Heavily.

    For starters, the streamline direction that games are going is nice and wonderful; making things nice and organized into quick-access menus is a nice idea. Some people can pull it off (e.g. Bethesda). This one doesn't. The HUD is overloaded. There's too much happening on screen to be able to adequately focus cars that don't turn (even if you are only doing 20 mph). I press one button on the d-pad and I have to press 5 more to do something and hope to God I don't crash. Or get busted. More on that later.

    Next, following the "streamline" theme, the pursuit mechanics are, shall we say... actually I don't even understand them. It will tell me about three different things and then it will say the pursuit has resumed even though there are no cops in sight. Don't understand that. EA has started making less and less sense. They're like an old WWII Vet going senile. Super senile. Like the Old Man from Pawnstars. All I hear from them anymore is "money, money, money!" But I digress. You've streamlined yourself a nice little road straight to hell, EA, there there is a special circle for a good 80% of your games. The other 20% are the ones you merely published before closing down the developers. Like Westwood. Give me back Red Alert.

    Losing all your "speed points" when you "get busted" (which happened to me while I was next to two cops, while still moving--still trying to figure that one out) is probably the most annoying and ridiculous idea that they ever thought up in terms of punishment in a game. Seriously. In pretty much every game before involving hot pursuits in the NFS franchise, nothing is atrocious as this. There are a number of atrocious things, but nothing this atrocious. It's sad, really. Negative reinforcement can be a good thing. It's supposed to make you want to work harder and improve yourself. All this makes me want to do is genocide. That's not good, EA. Not good.

    Speaking of atrocities (apart from pretty much the entire game itself), there's the car performance itself. While it's one thing they literally do not maneuver, it's another thing that when you buy what are supposed to be real cars, they don't perform remotely similar to those real cars until you buy performance upgrades. I know it's not "super realistic" (see, well, the entire game), but still. Are these go-karts? No, wait, those perform better. My Saturn Vue performs better. And it's almost 11 years old.

    The game is not fun. I'm constantly bombarded with police and traffic that simply appears from thin air that it is near impossible to just enjoy driving or racing for that matter. Or hell, even hot pursuits. Granted driving's not the point of this one, but the point of Hot Pursuit was to pummel each other in the most annoying ways possible yet I still was able to enjoy driving there. It's impossible to revel in the fact that there are nice cars driving around when I'm being attacked at all angles by people who literally have no life. Or a computer that cheats more than... okay I lost an analogy for that one. Something to do with New Jersey.

    Granted, my favorite Need for Speed of all time was Need for Speed Most Wanted (the 2005 version on PS2). I feel like the HD NFS games have lost their roots. It's like the Baptists have gone Methodist (no offense to any denomination). They've lost their purpose. They've gone from once fun racing joys to over-produced money-grabbing BS.

    EA, it's stuff like this why you've been rated the worst company in the world 2 years in a row. Okay, fine, just the US, but still. I know you're not phased one bit. You're making billions by turning into Activision. But until you come up with a better Need for Speed, I'll go back to playing Test Drive Unlimited 2. At least Atari didn't lie to us. Or over-produce it. Even if they got people who horribly overacted. And I get to spend time in a replica of Hawaii. I think I'll go visit my cousin.    … Expand
  5. Teardropzz
    Jan 8, 2015
    0
    Do not buy this game if u want to play as a racer, simply do not, just extremely hard and unfair.
    Also, broken physics, stucks outside map, cops overpowered, no pause option (really??!!?, i cant take a @$t??), u cant skip tutorial (very frustrating), i lost my money and made an account here just for this.
    U have been warned..
  6. Red_Back
    Jan 16, 2014
    4
    Great looking game, that leaves you wondering WT* happened to the NFS franchise.

    Ill start with the good. Graphics are awesome. Zooming around Redview County is just an absolute joy. Its like driving to Tahoe, Mojave desert, Santa Cruz, and Sequoia National park all rolled into one. The rain and snow effects are pulled off spectacularly. Watching the lighting change in the middle    Great looking game, that leaves you wondering WT* happened to the NFS franchise.

    Ill start with the good.

    Graphics are awesome. Zooming around Redview County is just an absolute joy. Its like driving to Tahoe, Mojave desert, Santa Cruz, and Sequoia National park all rolled into one. The rain and snow effects are pulled off spectacularly. Watching the lighting change in the middle of a long pursuit gives a sense of depth to the world that is nice.

    The sound is great, but I did not enjoy the soundtrack much and turned it off. The car engines sound awesome. The tires sound cool as the slide across wet, snowy, or dry pavement.

    Thats about it for the good.

    Now the bad.
    To give you a point of reference, I have been playing NFS since the first one came out with Car and Driver as part of the title. Since, I have enjoyed watching the franchise grow and split into different sectors of the driving world, drift, drag, track, race, cannonball run, street racing, outrunning the cops, and being the cop. My favorite games in the franchise were Car and Drivers Need for Speed (PS1), Underground (PS2), Most Wanted (PS2), and Most Wanted (PS3). Up until Underground (PS2) all of the NFS games were really enjoyable. So I have played tons of titles from this franchise, and I love driving games in general, arcade (Ridge Racer's) to sim (GT_).

    The first thing I noticed was the responsiveness of everything. It wasnt. Throttle is either on or off, so modulating throttle is pointless. The throttle through the R2's range of motion is about 15% throttle 50% of the triggers range, then floored. Steering response is a slow and lumbering like your steering a giant box truck around an autocross track.
    At this point you're thinking, "Its an arcade racer, what did you expect?", well yah, but the problem is that the game's physics engine makes you feel like you're playing more of a simulator like Pro Street. Countersteering? We don't need no stinking counter steering. Yup, just turn in, and keep turning in. Don't worry you wont spin out. I think this is the biggest problem I have with this game. I don't care what kind of game you are playing but if you drift, you counter steer. Even Mario Kart his this down. The only time you counter steer is to end the drift, which goes against any and all racing game logic. If Mario Kart can have dynamic controlled drifts, then this game should too. I feel insulted that they gave me the drifting dynamic equivalence of bumper bowling.
    As things speed up fewer cars show up on the roads, and traffic dodging is fairly easy, but there are those blind turns that sneed up on you with a car in your lane. This is not a complaint, in fact its what makes the game a NFS game, and challenging. My complaint is that the lack of consistency. I want to be challenged, and again I am insulted that the traffic is severely decreased as things speed up.

    The game is unfairly weighted towards the police. As a racer it take all of two hits and your busted or wrecked and you lose all your winnings. BORING! This forces me to play in tiny sprints and climb the race ladder, in order to get faster cars that can better outrun the cops.
    Another problem is weapons. How I hate the use of weapons. Play online and get absolutely thrashed by a higher level player is just no fun. Even in racing, its easier and faster to wreck the player than it is to get to the finish line first. Racing combat is great, but if you get pushed into traffic, off a cliff, or get blasted by a weapon, there is no speed boost to help you catch up. Boom, done, race is over. This type of game play mechanics really throws off the feel of the game. This would not be a problem if there was some sort of "clean race" format that allowed the players to see who was the best driver. So if you plan on playing online, I would suggest getting to some of the super cars before heading into the public servers, as you won't be able to do much of anything except be frustrated, if you come across any high level players.

    I have played through the entire racer career and have started working on getting 100% in that. So far I stand at 92% completion for racer mode, and 25% for cop. The racer mode is fun, but once you complete the
    events, there is not much reason to finish the others. More speed lists will get you poorly designed wraps for your racer fleet. The cop mode is, from my 25%, boring. The cop cars are lumbering giants that lack speed and control. So the next 75% will be a grind.

    To conclude this game has great potential. However I feel it was trying to straddle two game play mechanics, arcade and sim, and managed to get their wires crossed. This game is playable and has some level of enjoyment to be had. However the lopsided feel of modes, lack of control, and dirty game playing enabled by use of weapons, leave this game with everything to be desired. Pass this one up, unless you can pay less that $20 for it.    … Expand
  7. AkelResylt
    Dec 1, 2013
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. To anyone thinking of buying Need for Speed Rivals for the PS3: Don't do it quite yet.

    The gameplay is awesome in my opinion and it has great potential, but it seems they had a rush delivery for releasing the game. Game has crashed on me three times today mid-pursuit (meaning I lost all pursuit bounty gained from the pursuit as well as task-lists completion so in other words: 45 minutes of pursuit time wasted)

    They also have impressively hosting at the moment. Players are being migrated to other hosts often, and when this happens it cancels the current event, resets the SP counter for that event and takes you back to your garage.

    There are also a decent amount of graphic bugs. For example, entities being turned into white cubes, occasionally. Falling through the ground and wrecking from time to time, and sometimes driving with the car half-way in the ground.

    Combined, these problems affect me quite frequently (enough for me to drop a 10 star rating down to a 4) From what I have read on other forums, I am not the only one.

    Plus.the ending really sucked. Looked like it was thrown together in about 10 minutes.    … Expand
  8. Liquidlizard
    Nov 30, 2013
    2
    Worth $15 in my opinion for a new release. There are only 20 or so cars? Shift had about 50. And you still cannot customize the body of the cars... Might as well go back to Underground 2 for my Gamecube. Physics are terrible. When GTA-V does better with the cars, you know NFS is failing. The COD of racing. One game per year, and no improvement.
  9. voiders
    Mar 21, 2014
    0
    How can I buy a racing game that dont have 2 players split screen? I have to buy 2 consoles and 2 games to play with my brother?

    Is that it? REALLY? These developers, they've been much better, long time ago.

    Today we live on a very ironic time, you can use 4 joysticks, but even a racing game allows play with 2.

    EA GO HOME, YOU ARE DRUNK.
  10. C0RRUPT3D
    Apr 9, 2014
    4
    The main reason I rated this game low was because of the frame rate locked at 30. I know the ps3 is 8 years old and has outdated hardware but I personally would rather have not as good graphics and have a nice frame rate. I don't normally care about frame rate that much but in a racing game I just find 30 slow. This game is fun with friends but if you just want to play by yourself in aThe main reason I rated this game low was because of the frame rate locked at 30. I know the ps3 is 8 years old and has outdated hardware but I personally would rather have not as good graphics and have a nice frame rate. I don't normally care about frame rate that much but in a racing game I just find 30 slow. This game is fun with friends but if you just want to play by yourself in a public lobby I just don't find it fun. If it wasn't for the graphical issues, I would have rated it higher. However, the gameplay is fun sometimes (especially as a cop for me) but it's not a great game. If you just want to play a racing game with your friends, I think you'll find this game fun.… Expand
  11. captainkirk
    Jan 30, 2014
    3
    Giving Rivals a 3 because of three things:
    1. Frostbite 3 is a beautiful, versatile engine that isn't utilized fully in this game. Its beautiful though.
    2. Ferraris are finally back in NFS and the Ferrari roster is only decent. 3. The entire car roster is only decent. Games full of bugs and glitches. Its a half assed game. All Rivals is, is a mix of Criterions Most Wanted and Hot    Giving Rivals a 3 because of three things:
    1. Frostbite 3 is a beautiful, versatile engine that isn't utilized fully in this game. Its beautiful though.
    2. Ferraris are finally back in NFS and the Ferrari roster is only decent.
    3. The entire car roster is only decent.

    Games full of bugs and glitches. Its a half assed game. All Rivals is, is a mix of Criterions Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit combined together. Its a reality crisis and the game suffers horribly from it. I feel like EA doesnt know how to make a fun racing game for car enthusiasts anymore. Criterion had a good trend but the games started to become less about the cars and more about EA just wanting your money. Don't get this game, if you plan to I'd recommend Hot Pursuit, its all about the cars.    … Expand
  12. zwickl
    Feb 13, 2014
    3
    Having played NFS since the second installment and generiously avoided the last ones, which were more of an embarrassment I kinda looked forward to NFS Rivals. The first 2 hrs are fun: the engine draws beautiful but PS3 known blurry race tracks and the arcade style gameplay enables a fast and easy start. But slowly you start to realize: It's a blender: The AI is ruberband style, 2-3 hitsHaving played NFS since the second installment and generiously avoided the last ones, which were more of an embarrassment I kinda looked forward to NFS Rivals. The first 2 hrs are fun: the engine draws beautiful but PS3 known blurry race tracks and the arcade style gameplay enables a fast and easy start. But slowly you start to realize: It's a blender: The AI is ruberband style, 2-3 hits by the cops and you lose everything you earned (believe me, good driving skill won't work, police cars just appear in front or next to you driving 0-250 mph in 1 sec).
    60 $ for 2 hrs of fun and so much frustration gameplay breaking unfairness is too much.    … Expand
  13. nareshlingutla
    Apr 25, 2014
    2
    Worst NFS game by far, cant change the user controls, as a result you loose all the SP's as there is no auto save, if theresno patch coming in future to fix this this would my last NFS i will ever play.
  14. Mordoes
    Jun 29, 2014
    3
    WARNING DOES NOT SUPPORT WHEEL AND PEDALS.

    Sorry for the caps but for me at least this is a major flaw.

    Actually it does not even support customizing controls on any platform.

    Graphic is good and the idea is great but the lack of peripheral support kills the game.
  15. sanchopanza
    Sep 15, 2015
    4
    The fact that a mediocre game like this that is completely broken and full of bugs can garner an 80% rating from "critics" just shows you how corrupt the video game industry is.
  16. jctcom
    Nov 6, 2014
    1
    What happened to EA? Who designed a racing game that does not allow the use of a wheel and pedals. Or even customization of the controls. Seriously. someone needs to give their head a shake!! I will be returning the POS forthwith. Looks like EA have had their day and now it has passed.
  17. Elite5363
    Jun 5, 2015
    2
    Awful,
    If you are a cop and you are in pursuit of a racer, civilians will NOT PULL OVER or even move out of your way. I really get annoyed if I'm in a pursuit and a civilian hits me. Sir, you see I'm a cop and I'm in pursuit, Back off.
    You will get kicked from online games for no reason. If I bust the host (Host being racer and me cop) I will get kicked because the host is a f**king    Awful,
    If you are a cop and you are in pursuit of a racer, civilians will NOT PULL OVER or even move out of your way. I really get annoyed if I'm in a pursuit and a civilian hits me. Sir, you see I'm a cop and I'm in pursuit, Back off.
    You will get kicked from online games for no reason. If I bust the host (Host being racer and me cop) I will get kicked because the host is a f**king pu$$y and can't accept the fact that he got busted.
    EA really messed the game up. If a cop crashes into you, you will get in pursuit. I don't get it. If a cop hits you, you will hear the cop saying that YOU HIT HIM. I find this so annoying. I can hit by cop so I get arrested for getting hit. GG EA.
    Cops get free cars, Racers have to BUY cars with their SP (Speed Points). Racers also lose ALL of their SP if they get busted/wreaked. Cops keep ALL their SP even if they get wreaked...
    Until EA fixes this AND removes the whole "Host" thing and make it so no one can be host. I would honestly love that. Too bad EA doesn't care about any of these issues, they are probably too busy spending all of that money we keep giving them. Yeah, I think I'm correct about that one.
    The next Need For Speed game should fix all of these issues, also allow us to walk freely around the world. Also allow us to customize cars "better" I don't wan't my national flag on every side of my car. I just want it on the sides, please EA. Halp.    … Expand
  18. LuEnric
    Dec 22, 2020
    1
    Dirigibilidade horrível, gráfico horrível, física horrível, trilha sonora horrível, o jogo te obriga a fazer o tutorial vc não tem escolha, a mulher fica falando por mais de 15 minutos e vc não pode pular, não recomendo nem de graça

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Impulsegamer
    Dec 8, 2013
    72
    Need for Speed Rivals is a fun game, however the open-world racing genre still needs to be refined, especially with the limit of 6-players. Nonetheless, the gameplay is sturdy, graphics detailed but the multiplayer definitely needs some work.
    Read full review
  2. GamingXP
    Dec 5, 2013
    85
    Need for Speed: Rivals may not revolutionize the genre but it is an enthralling racing-experience that shows an interesting new way for the combination of single- and multiplayer-gameplay.
    Read full review
  3. Eurogamer Spain
    Nov 28, 2013
    70
    If you are not making the jump to the next generation yet this is a fun arcade racing game, but if you plan on buying a PS4 or Xbox One that's were you should play it.
    Read full review
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