Thanksgiving At Its Finest

Gameplay - 8/10

Storyline - 8/10

Graphics - 10/10

Game Score : 26/30

Welcome to another video game review here on Zalgo Cometh. Today we will be looking at the much hyped and newly released Need for Speed - The Run (NFS: The Run) available on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, and Apple Macintosh. Personally as a fan of this series, I look forward to each NFS game yearly with as much hope and anticipation as any COD fan looks forward to each yearly installment. I definitely know what i'm going to be giving thanks for at Thanksgiving this year. The game is described as "An illicit, high-stakes race across the country. The only way to get your life back is to be the first from San Francisco to New York. No speed limits. No rules. No allies. All you have are your driving skills and sheer determination". NFS: The Run marks the 18th installment in its long illustrious gaming franchise; it was released in North America on November 15, 2011 and will be released on November 18, 2011 in Europe.

Tell me that wasn't some heart pumping, fast paced, non stop action; this could no doubt easily pass for a multi-million dollar box office movie trailer. In The Run, players will participate in a race from San Francisco to New York, with stops through Las Vegas, Denver, Detroit, and many other locations, making it the first title in the series to use real locations. There are over 300 km of track, making it the biggest Need For Speed game in history. The Run is powered by DICE's Frostbite 2 engine, making the game the first non-shooter and one of the first console titles to use the engine which provides amazing visuals and car physics. Additionally, the Autolog feature from Shift 2: Unleashed; is also back as it will continue to track career progression and compare game stats between players. Lets take a look at the modes we got this time around...

The Run is your single player campaign mode that takes through the story of Jack Rourke. After an incident leaves him in bad standing with a mysterious crime organization, Jack becomes a marked man and must flee for his survival. Along the way the player will experience varying race types that will facilitate their victory path to the number one spot and that grand prize of twenty five million dollars.

Challenge Series is mostly self explanatory as you are "challenged" to complete a set of races using varying cars in the aim to unlock more cars to choose from in the game. Most the challenges are locked but can be unlocked by beating the stages of the single player campaign. These cars can then be used in the campaign as well to give the player a better chance.

Multi-player is also self explanatory, you take your skills online in head to head competition against other players the world over. Up to 16 players can participate in a single online match. Players will be able to party with friends, pick a playlist of their favorite challenges and compete for supremacy across every stage of game.

Ok, lets get down to the nitty gritty; firstly congratulations to Electronic Arts and Blackbox for their outstanding work on this game. NFS: The Run goes a long way in restoring faith in the franchise as the number one street racing game and a franchise worth following. This is without a doubt the best iteration of the series since Need For Speed Most Wanted in 2005. I would go as far as saying this is the path that the NFS franchise should have gotten on and stayed on, instead of giving us more simulation closed circuit racing as was the like in Shift and Shift 2. This game rectifies many of the mistakes and grievances that fans of the series had; namely the whole theme of illegal racing and the no holds barred nature of the street racing scene. That being said, Electronic Arts still has to go back to the drawing board and do some more fine tuning along the way to return the series to its former glory. 


The main focus of this game should have been the excellent story with its memorable protagonist but instead the single player campaign feels cheated as more effort was clearly made to push the integration of Autolog and the NFS Online community as a whole. While I understand the reasoning behind this, I am still an advocate for single player campaigns as not everyone tends to experience and enjoy the online experience of most games. As such, I think it is fundamental that every game boast a solid and rewarding single player experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the story mode and will most definitely be playing it again. I have to finish going through the challenge series and unlock everything first though. However I definitely am upset that the story mode is short enough to be beaten in 3-6 hours depending on the game difficulty setting and the player's skill level. Blackbox could have done a lot more with the story-line in terms of depth but its definitely a damn good step in the right direction because I was hooked and had to pry myself away from playing the game to get some sleep as per orders of my girlfriend. Now with my major gripe out of the way lets look at the game as a whole.

Pro's: Excellent driving physic and engine, realistic graphics and texture, competitively fun multi-player experience with friends, smooth online racing experience, vast array of cars to choose from, numerous tracks to conquer, and quick time events that keep us engaged and immersed in the game.

Con's: Shortness of campaign mode, awkward slow down instances after taking down a police vehicle, lack of semi-automatic transmission, going through race barriers and automatically using up a reset, lack of customization of vehicles, and random wreckage factor of vehicles in game.