Played the game for a few days so I might as well share my thoughts.
To me, this feels like a game that was designed as one thing and then forced to be made into something else. I don't doubt Ghost put effort in to try and make a good game, because it shows. It's just I'm not quite sure they really have spent two years developing it; more likely they
started two years ago, made some steady progress, but then EA pushed them (as per usual) to get it out of the door, hence some of the stranger or rushed design choices.
The customisation options they give you are amazing - so long as you have a car with a lot of parts available. This is part of why I think they had to rush it to make it an arguably complete product. Granted, they heavily imply they're going to add some extra stuff in as time progresses, so hopefully this issue will have gone eventually.
I find the wrap editor very finicky. It's quite hard to match up colours, sizes and decal areas so you're never sure if everything
exactly meets up. The choice of decals and colours are impressive though, so there's definitely potential in later games.
I too dislike the strange 'crabwalk' that you get coming out of a slide. You kind of get it used to it, but its still irritating since it can screw up your race. I initially thought I tuned my car wrong, but even fiddling around with that didn't help. Also, setting your car up for grip is pointless - just understeers and is remarkably slower than drifting around corners instead.
Cops are pretty non-event in this game. I appreciate the more realistic approach of just having Crown Vics and Chargers as regular PCs, and it certainly is a nice break from having near military levels of enforcement and Koenigseggs chucking spike strips at you like in recent NFS efforts. Unfortunately, they aren't very intuitive and you lose them far too easily. This makes Outlaw events a lot more of a chore, something even the designers were aware of since it seems to be the shortest story arc in the game by a mile.
Good stuff now; surprisingly, I've grown to understand why they give you a 5 car garage. This is honestly the first game I've ever played where you get the feeling you've properly built a car to your liking, rather than just having a bunch and picking and choosing them when you need it. I only have three cars, and to be honest I don't see any reason to get any others. It'd be cool to see what else you can build but how often would you use them? My problem with games like Forza and GT is they give you so much choice, you have a lot of cars you rarely use and then they just sit because you have a handful of go-to cars for any of your events. With this, you have to plan how you want to spend your money and what kind of set-up you want to use it for.
I actually like the cutscenes as well. The 'helladudebro' attitude kind of catches you off guard at first, but it does seem to ease up pretty quickly. The characters are actually quite amusing at times, and you do get a sense you're actually out just having fun with them. No dramatic 'I'M THE BEST RACER IN THIS CITY' storyline or any real twists or turns either. It's all pretty laid back. I like how they've still stuck with a silent, nameless, faceless protagonist, just like in every other street racing game ever. How someone could get that far without opening their mouth is ridiculous.
Even one or two of the other characters lampshade it.
All in all, I'd say its a pretty solid effort. Again, a few of the choices which have been mentioned about a million times already are downright stupid, but the majority of that could be patched over. I hope EA doesn't do a bait and switch with developers again, because it definitely shows potential. 👍
![Tak[TEC]](/forum/data/avatars/m/145/145882.jpg?1433492469){kind=avatar}
