When EA announced the latest Need for Speed game it turned a few heads. The ability to play levels outside of the confines of a car’s cockpit didn’t go down well with most fans. The Run changes things up with the classic Need for Speed formula then but have these changes enhanced or killed off this game?

Things start off with you, Jackson “Jack” Rourke, escaping from a car crusher and a group of mobsters. After fleeing the scene you end up meeting love interest Sam Harper who offers to put you up  in ‘The Run’, a special racing tournament across America where the winner receives $25,000,000. With this money Jack can pay off his debt and still live a good life. With nothing to lose our hero drives off in search of his fortune.

Now during this action packed sequence you get your first taste of the sections outside of a car. These all are pretty much cinematic QTEs. As your car’s being crushed you frantically smash various buttons to escape with on-screen prompts telling you what to push and when. It all is a bit boring and after playing the first section I felt like these were out of place. This is a racing game, why is there such a focus on story and these QTE segments? Thankfully there are very few of these instances and even though the story pops in every now and then it really isn’t that important to the game or how much you will enjoy it.

The racing is where Need for Speed: The Run comes to life. High speed chases, police interceptions and rivals are all in your way of reaching that $25,000,000 goal.  You’ll speed along motorways across America in everything from a Lamborghini Murcielago through to BMW Roadster. The cars look great and sound nice but it seems like a lot of the vehicles have been taken straight from Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. In fact most of the game does.

As aforementioned most races take place along motorways or some other long straight road. Here you will either make take up an elimination mode where you must reach a checkpoint ahead of a rival, a standard race where you must finish first or a time trial.  As you race pulling of risky or smart manoeuvres fills up your nitrous bar which helps to launch you to the front of the pack, greatly boosting your speed. There’s nothing that new or interesting here then.

Quite often you will find that police will chase you down too. Where as in Hot Pursuit you could take down enemy cars with a variety of different tools you are left with nothing but driving skill here. This isn’t a bad thing, but when most of the race is along a straight path with long bends to drift around, it never gets the chance to get your adrenalin pumping. It feels almost like a step back if anything.

The cars and everything handle fine with good enemy AI that can be both calm and aggressive depending on who you are racing. There’s even a decent amount of different cars and other bits to unlock. The problem is that most races just aren’t exciting enough. When you’ve busted through three identical road blocks in a row things start to drag a little. The game does have the odd occasion where it impresses. The end race in particular I really enjoyed because it mixed up the game. Instead of racing on a Motorway with the odd shortcut on a dirt track, I was now racing inside a tunnel, boosting up walls to avoid oncoming trains.

Another problem I had with Need for Speed: The Run is that it just doesn’t have enough under its bonnet. The single player campaign lasted me a meagre 3 hours. There are several challenges that you unlock that help to buffer this blow but it really isn’t enough to warrant a £40 purchase. The online mode would help with this but as I said, this game feel like Hot Pursuit without the gadgets, so online it feels stale and boring.

Need for Speed: The Run is a weird game from Criterion. It almost seems to have taken a step back from the previous release and only half enters into the new story and QTE moments we were promised. For a game that was meant to be one long cinematic race, the omission of big blockbuster moments is very odd one. Need for Speed: The Run isn’t horrible by any means and I did enjoy the game. It just felt a little bland. If you liked Hot Pursuit without all the gadgets then you may like this. I just felt it could have been so much more.
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