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. Reverz
    Nov 27, 2013
    7
    If you're getting a next gen console any time soon I suggest you wait. The game has horrible performance issues, massive frame drops & freezes from time to time, reminiscent of what Undercover was like, but not quite as bad luckily. Graphics are fine... music is bad (what's new EA?) but can be overridden by a custom playlist (big plus).

    Handling wise the game leans very closely towards    If you're getting a next gen console any time soon I suggest you wait. The game has horrible performance issues, massive frame drops & freezes from time to time, reminiscent of what Undercover was like, but not quite as bad luckily. Graphics are fine... music is bad (what's new EA?) but can be overridden by a custom playlist (big plus).

    Handling wise the game leans very closely towards the latest Hot Pursuit al tho the cars seem to be slightly more stable. The only issue I have here is, there's only 2 viewpoints: behind the car and in front of it. The problem is that the behind viewpoint is really BEHIND rather then diagonally above which really clutters the screen, especially when you're playing cop side and there's red & blue light all over your screen...

    The part where the game really misses the ball is the multiplayer imo. The speedcams and jumps and all are nice to compare to your friends. But when comes to actually playing online against another human player there's just too much CPU involvement, really annoying.

    The game is definitely worse then it's predecessor (Hot Pursuit), but let's say it's about on par with Most Wanted. Most Wanted however had a pretty good and enjoyable multiplayer AND the trophy's were set up in such a way you it was actually sort of fun to get all the billboards etc... Rivals, I fear is gonna be a massive grind to get all the way up to lvl60 which is a damn shame I just don't see how the Multiplayer is gonna stay interesting for more then an hour or so.    … Expand
  2. RCFProd
    Nov 24, 2013
    7
    Only buy this game if you're going to play it offline. The gameplay is fine and is really enjoyable to play. Im sure there are a good amount of racing fans out there who will enjoy free roaming as a cop and then clearing the road in a car you like. It's really fun.

    Online though, don't even try it. Don't sign in. It feels really empty and It's mainly just AI driving around. A total of 6    Only buy this game if you're going to play it offline. The gameplay is fine and is really enjoyable to play. Im sure there are a good amount of racing fans out there who will enjoy free roaming as a cop and then clearing the road in a car you like. It's really fun.

    Online though, don't even try it. Don't sign in. It feels really empty and It's mainly just AI driving around. A total of 6 racers can group in one server, so 3 racers, 3 cops and so on. The thing is, when you decide to close down 3 online racers your fps will start dropping to 5 or lower. The game will literally run in slowmotion. Did I mention the random 3 seconds freeze moments? It doesn't work. Perfect idea, pathetic outcome.

    In Short: BUY this game and play it offline. Don't bother about It's multiplayer just leave that to NFS: Hot Pursuit 2010.    … Expand
  3. Truth_In_Games
    Nov 23, 2013
    7
    A solid racing game at the core, but a few small issues bug me. The biggest gripe I have with this game thus far is the overabundance of socially connected features that seem to get in the way of my experience. Now don't get me wrong they may be enjoyable to some but to be honest, I really don't care what my friends are doing in game. The community is the biggest downfall of the game In myA solid racing game at the core, but a few small issues bug me. The biggest gripe I have with this game thus far is the overabundance of socially connected features that seem to get in the way of my experience. Now don't get me wrong they may be enjoyable to some but to be honest, I really don't care what my friends are doing in game. The community is the biggest downfall of the game In my opinion, as I seem to get paired with only players whose sole intention is to cause as much havoc as possible in my experience. Playing offline is recommended for an optimal solo experience. The core game play is solid with a few minor hiccups in terms of frame rates but I attribute that to the PS3's aging hardware. There are visual customization options albeit limited to decals, wraps and paint jobs. There are also your basic performance and durability upgrades as well. I also enjoy being able to play both sides of the law in depth. All in all its a fun experience for racing fans and I would recommend this game to my friends, but inside I really wish for a Need For Speed: Underground 3 with no socially connected garbage and deep customization we have all been longing for.… Expand
  4. siim944
    Dec 27, 2013
    6
    Graphics looks good, driving too, but too much disconnecting, i can drive in walls and i fall over the map, players lagging is not OK.

    Maybe is it next generation graphic game, but not just realistic game.
  5. MenaMAKS
    Jan 23, 2014
    6
    The game is great. Big map, great cars and excellent graphics. But the game suffers a lot when there are few cars in the scene or when driving into the woods or other places in the map that are graphics intense. You notice the drop in smoothness of the game right away. I think the game need to be better optimized for the PS3.

    AllDrive is a very nice way to get players together but at    The game is great. Big map, great cars and excellent graphics. But the game suffers a lot when there are few cars in the scene or when driving into the woods or other places in the map that are graphics intense. You notice the drop in smoothness of the game right away. I think the game need to be better optimized for the PS3.

    AllDrive is a very nice way to get players together but at the same time due to the huge size of the map it is difficult to get in touch with other players. You can always go inside the hideout and out again near rivals but it takes significant time to load, I hope there is an easier way to call other human cop players into pursuit or call for other racers in too.

    Chasing a racer is full of fun until a racer decides to stick by a gas station for continuous repair/attack rounds. I think there should be a cool down timer after every repair to make this a little bit more difficult :)

    I just bought my PS3 and I've bought Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted and Rivals. I play Rivals more but I just hope it was as smooth as Hot pursuit. I would rather have the graphics of Hot Pursuit and have a steady frame rate than having Rivals graphics with the major drop in frame rate and stuttering.    … Expand
  6. onewarmslime
    Aug 16, 2014
    5
    This game is a tragedy and a huge dissapointment to all of us who spent 50 bucks to get it. I've spent 10+ hours on this game and I can honestly say I'll have no more.

    Let's start off with the gameplay, you earn speedpoints as you race and cops pursue you, which you can use to buy cars and upgrades. Thing is, when you're busted, all the SPs you accumulate in a single session are gone.    This game is a tragedy and a huge dissapointment to all of us who spent 50 bucks to get it. I've spent 10+ hours on this game and I can honestly say I'll have no more.

    Let's start off with the gameplay, you earn speedpoints as you race and cops pursue you, which you can use to buy cars and upgrades. Thing is, when you're busted, all the SPs you accumulate in a single session are gone. This makes for some extremely infuriating moments, sure it's very satisfying to enter a hideout at the last second before being busted and thus saving your score but most of them time you'll want to throw the controller at the screen for being smashed by the (much faster, at least up until mid-game) cops. In fact, getting busted is actually way too easy and happens way too often (a big issue is that most high-level cars don't have high durability at all, so if you want to have any chance of survival you must stick to slower ones). Spike strips have a minor effect on the game since they barely reduce handling even if they hit all of your wheels (and the tyres reinflate on their own anyway after a while). The races feel odd. If you drop back a little, the cars in the front appear to artificially slow down just enough to give you the ability to catch up, but that aside, the competition is always faster than you. Winning depends more in luck and circumstance than skill, and generally playing Rivals feels more like an effort to get to the finish line in one piece rather than racing. The Cop career is more boring still. Trying to wreck cars feels like a chore and the very low angle of the camera means the siren lights block your view to half of the screen (btw, there are only two cameras to choose from, which is frustrating).

    Burnout Paradise has proved that 100% open-world racing is a recipee for disaster (others disagree but that's my opinion). Rivals is open world and it *is* a disaster (while there's a GPS that tells you where to go, the map is way too small so you're probably have to sit 10 inches from the screen to distinguish its tiny icons).

    Now let's talk about graphics. Clearly Criterion was very ambitious about this game, in fact so ambitious it shouldn't have released it on the PS3 at all: the visuals feel over-cluttered with detail. Sure, it looks beatiful (loosely speaking) but when driving at 300 km/h the graphics look like pixels mashed together into a blurry world, whose features are hard to distinguish. Also, HUD is overloaded with information. Like I said, the map is tiny and hard to use.

    Sound is problematic too.The volume drops below acceptable levels for a few seconds at times, for no apparent reason. This is very noticeable, very sudden and happens too often.

    As far as multiplayer is concerned, I didn't touch that aspect of the game at all. Honestly if single player is that horrible I can only imagine what multiplayer will be like.

    So yeah, stay the hell away from this train wreck of a game.    … Expand
  7. frood501
    Nov 1, 2014
    5
    NFS Rivals is a really disappointing game. Basically, its NFS hot pursuit from 2010, a great game, but with some garbage always online multiplayer mode instead of separate singleplayer and multiplayer. Other step backs include a the small amount of included cars and graphics that look worse than hot pursuit. Dont buy this game.
  8. RelationReviewz
    Feb 22, 2015
    7
    Yes, the game is fun. Although the game freezes sometimes, or crashes, when you get into it, it is hard to put down the controller.
    I like to play as a cop, and bust the racers. Though, it is fun to race and take down the cops occasionally. I do prefer this game over Most Wanted because of the ability to choose to play as the law, or the rivals of the law.
    In short, the game is fun to    Yes, the game is fun. Although the game freezes sometimes, or crashes, when you get into it, it is hard to put down the controller.
    I like to play as a cop, and bust the racers. Though, it is fun to race and take down the cops occasionally. I do prefer this game over Most Wanted because of the ability to choose to play as the law, or the rivals of the law.

    In short, the game is fun to play. Despite it's performance issues (crashes, freezing) it is still a fun game, I do recommend it.

    If you want an alternative to this game, Most Wanted is a good choice. Although you can't play as the law, it still provides a reasonable alternative.

    Luke S,
    RelationReviewz    … Expand
  9. RacN
    Oct 19, 2015
    7
    I'm going to be honest, this isn't a bad game. But the game just doesn't have that goodness that other Need for Speed titles have. The servers are very bad, there is no solo mode and ranking up can be challenging depending on the type of challenge and the troll cops and players!
  10. Alex_Evan
    Jan 30, 2017
    5
    Bem abaixo de um bom jogo de corrida...jogabilidade medíocre e o jogo em si bem sem graça...realmente need for speed vem perdendo em qualidade durante anos...franquia em estado de decadência.
  11. skhg
    Sep 6, 2018
    6
    wonderful graphic for ps3 ,but too many bugs terribly and has only a few tuning parts.
    career is repeating same mission and driving patrol car is worse than racer.
  12. Ardho
    Aug 28, 2021
    7
    Quite fun and challenging, but if compared to other NFS games a little disappointing, the idea of ​​​​advanced equipment in the car is annoying, and the police are very unbalanced

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.
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  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.
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  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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