Need for Speed Payback

Potential-Monke

There doesn't appear to be a thread on this that I can find (via mobile).

Picked this up yesterday, and I'm not impressed. They took what was good in the 2015 reboot, and completely ignored what gamers want and made a MT based upgrade system, because money.

The story, hah, is terrible as usual. Play a group of millenials being millenials in cars. Nothing fancy and quite boring tbh.

Races are split into 5 categories, race, drift, drag, off-road and runner, which is basically the cop chases with a stronger car, but you don't need a stronger car, a normal one will do.

Raves have levels, So you need to upgrade your car to compete, anything below the recommended level and there's no point in trying. So it's forcing you to use their horrible upgrade system, Speed Cards....

Seriously, you upgrade your car with Speed Cards (which unsurprisingly can be bought with real money via these Shipments). There are 6 different types; gear, ecu, head, block, exhaust and turbo. Each card improves a certain amount of stats, and having 3 of the same brand gives an added bonus (there are 5, which I believe are all made up).

You get a card when you win a race, and it's usually slightly better than what you have. The proper cards are from shipments, which you can buy with real money or earn by completing a set number of events. You can trade in unwanted cards for tokens, and 3 tokens give you a spin at a random card.

The races are all predetermined and so far I haven't come across an 'open race where you're free to choose the path. The cop chases are only in races and not in free roam, and again, stupidly and annoyingly, the cop chases follow a predetermined path also. Stupid.

The cars look amazing and sound lovely, and the handling is typical, like a boat at low speeds and perfect flat out. Drifting is as simple as always, flat out and brake to initiate. Haven't been able to try drag racing yet as I haven't unlocked it yet.

Most annoying though, is the customisation. You need to perform different feats to unlock the ability to modify the look. Each part is locked behind a feat, and there are many different areas; front fenders, front bumper, front canards, front splitter, side skirts, rear bumper, read fenders, rear diffuser, spoiler, roof, Windows, mirrors and 4 different options for the front and back wheels. Each one I've mentioned requires a different feat. So you'll be playing for a good while before being able to modify you car completely, as you need faster cars to unlock certain parts. I preferred the progression system of previous games.

I fear it went the route of Watchdogs 2 and tried to make it cool for hipsters and millenials. But they failed. Like, just give us what we want, a modern remake of Underground 2. No off road bollocks, no stupid me against the man story, just modify cars, good tracks, excellent accessible customisation, and a decent siundtrack.

Also, no Toyota or Ferrari. And only 1 Mitsubishi (Evo IX). So, I reckon I'll be doing well if I still have the game come Friday. Disappointing.

Jerichoholic

Been playing it a few days now, it's fine for a while until you realise that any money you make in races has to be spent on upgrades in order to win the next event. You can't really buy any new cars unless you play the same 4 races over and over and over and over. It's horrible. The drag quests and drifting quests are just garbage.

EA have ruined it with the god damn loot crap.

Potential-Monke

If anything, this makes me hope that Criterion are working on a new Burnout. Burnout was what Need for Speed should have been.

Played a bit more last night, still haven't gotten to a drag race, but i suppose that's because i'm being distracted by shiney pick ups. Have the first Derelict collected, a few billboards destroyed and some chips picked up. It's a shame about the upgrade system, as the driving is solid imo, and i'm enjoying driving around having a look. I'll see how I get on with it for the rest of the week, but me thinks this will be a trade in!

Potential-Monke wrote: »

If anything, this makes me hope that Criterion are working on a new Burnout. Burnout was what Need for Speed should have been.

Played a bit more last night, still haven't gotten to a drag race, but i suppose that's because i'm being distracted by shiney pick ups. Have the first Derelict collected, a few billboards destroyed and some chips picked up. It's a shame about the upgrade system, as the driving is solid imo, and i'm enjoying driving around having a look. I'll see how I get on with it for the rest of the week, but me thinks this will be a trade in!

What's left of Criterion appear to be working on various elements of Battlefront II including the vehicle sections and the X-Wing VR Mission content for the PSVR.

Most of the original staff moved to Ghost Games UK back in 2013 to help work on the newer Need for Speed games.

Zero-Cool

I was mad to get this at launch but it smelled fishy, waited on reviews and glad I did, sounds like they made a right balls of it. graphics and driving sounds/looks excellent but everything else makes it look horrible. Predetermined routes for cop chases??? seriously????

Potential-Monke

Yeah, I haven't had a proper chase yet, just the intro stuff, and it was scripted with a pre-determined route. Silly.

Shame to hear Criterion split, i'm still waiting for the next Burnout. I knew some of them were gone to NFS, but didn't realise they're gone completely.

I'll stick with it for the rest of the week, apparently the 'story' takes about 15 hours, and I haven't tried any MP yet, but i'm not a fan so far. As you stated, the driving/graphics/sound is very good, but let down by a MT based upgrade system.

Can't wait to bring my car in for a service into the Skoda garage and watch the mechanic pull out some lootboxes for my replacement tires :P

Sephiroth_dude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFAG2MLVjAY

Potential-Monke

I couldn't be listening to him for 20 minutes, he's not for me, so I flicked through it (and deafened myself a few times with that screaming biatch), and he's right.

Sephiroth_dude

I was actually thinking of getting it, glad I didn't now.

Potential-Monke

Yeah, steer clear and maybe pick it up when it's a fiver.

Jerichoholic

The soundtrack is hideous too. I can't believe anyone would listen to the dirt they selected for this game.

Zero-Cool

This screams of 'wait a few months, get the game well cheap and it will be updated to fix all the complaints at the moment'

https://twitter.com/NeedforSpeed/status/931575216903479296

EPAndlee

Was going to get this but said I'd said for the reviews and now I'm not even going to bother with it. Ea just need to remaster Underground 2 in HDR and it'll keep fans happy

Potential-Monke

It has until Friday week to get better with me or it's being traded in!

Jerichoholic

Those improvements might do the trick actually.

Potential-Monke

Quick update. They've definitely changed the money side of things. I'm having more money than I need right now. That's not to say that I couldn't blow it in 20 seconds, but I'm no longer stuck between buying an upgrade or not.

However, the upgrade system is still terrible. Speed Cards are still random and usually unwanted. I went to the nearest dealer in the drag car specifically for an exhaust upgrade. 11 items in stock, not one exhaust. Used 9 tokens to try the trade random chance thing, where you can specify the upgrade type and get a random make and bonus. Got 3 spins (takes 3 tokens for a spin, 1 speed card traded = 1 token). All the same level with no benefit. Broken system.

Plus, sprint and time trial races in the drag car... mine doesn't corner well but the AI can drive like a race car. Well above level and struggling, as the drag car is built for straight lines, not sharp cornering at high speed!

Next, the scripted cop chases. They're as bad as they sound. Even if you don't manage to shake them, which you won't thanks to the worst rubber banding I've ever seen, they will drop off from 1 mile to the finish, because it's scripted. Crown Vics keeping up and passing the fastest car in the game. Whoever thought this was a good idea should be immediately fired. Terrible and uninteresting, as you never feel under pressure.

And the 'Burnout style' takedowns, as one reviewer said, are shockingly bad. Little to no physical damage happens even if the car slams into a wall or inexplicably flips on a flat road while driving straight. Completely unrealistic and no where near as good as the second or even first Burnout.

Finally, there are lots of moments of slow texture loading, cars popping, shocking npc AI for traffic if you happen to rub off one. And sometimes if you crash hard but recover, the game respawns you anyway.

A solid arcade racer ruined by micro transactions, a terrible random upgrade system, horrible gameplay decisions, and performance issues. So far it's a complete let down.

Jerichoholic

I did that drag race 'race' about 10 times before I dropped the difficulty down to just get through it. Did the same for the drifting missions, because drifting in any game is NOT ANY FUN.

Potential-Monke

Jerichoholic wrote: »

I did that drag race 'race' about 10 times before I dropped the difficulty down to just get through it. Did the same for the drifting missions, because drifting in any game is NOT ANY FUN.

I axtually find the drifting ok. It's not great, but it's alright. Turn hard, tap brake, keep accelerating. But with the money that's been thrown at you now, it'll be easier to buy a proper drift car. Using the Nissan 240 derelict at the moment.

Potential-Monke

Ok, so i'm going trading this in. Not because of all the issues or MT's, but because it's gone where I knew it was going. I'm at the stage where the supercars are starting to make an appearance. This is not what these games should be about. I don't want to buy and drive a barely customisable supercar that can't really be upgraded and the speed is too much. As I keep referring to Underground when it comes to NFS, the most powerful car in NFSU2 was the R34 GTR (more or less). No supercars. Supercars ruin these types of games imo.

Zero-Cool

That's when I stopped playing NFS 2015. Cars were way too fast and very little customisation. Exactly man, these games are spose to be about buying cheap tuners and pinmping them into skanger mobiles. I see the odd pic of an Evo or Mustang tricked out and makes me really want to play it but I'm gonna hold out for a good sale on a physical copy.

Jerichoholic

I'm a little annoyed that there's no fast travel to events. Gets a bit much driving back and forth.

Potential-Monke

Jerichoholic wrote: »

I'm a little annoyed that there's no fast travel to events. Gets a bit much driving back and forth.

You can fast travel for free to any Garage you've bought, plus you can fast travel to any Location (petrol stations, dealerships) for 500 credits. Badly needed when you need to go between drag events!

And I got the Evo XIII before I traded it in, modded it up a bit and threw on some upgrades, and jesus she sounded lovely and handled perfectly. Shame about the rest of the game.

I don't want them to do Underground again now, as they'll just ruin it at this stage. I think the employees of Ghost should all quit, set up their own company and release what we want. How awesome would it be to be able to throw on after market parts and see the change in the engine bay? Bring it back to affordable cars with lots of customisation. That's all we want. Then use that to tempt people to buy DLC cars or kits. Not necessary but people will want them so they will buy them.

Jerichoholic

I know but it's so tedious even having to do it. I turned it on last night again and spent about 15 minutes trying to find a race then to a tuner, then to install a part, no money left so then drive all the way to the race, a race I had done 5 times already. By the time I got near it I just shut it off. It's such a waste of time all that nonsense, it's literally zero fun, baffling that that crap is in games.

Zero-Cool

Online free roam 'coming soon'. Gonna hold out a bit longer until the 'full' game is released.

https://twitter.com/NeedforSpeed/status/947829788663726080

Potential-Monke

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Online free roam 'coming soon'. Gonna hold out a bit longer until the 'full' game is released.

Hold out until they fix the upgrade system. Which means you should probably never get it.

Zero-Cool

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Hold out until they fix the upgrade system. Which means you should probably never get it.

How's it looking now lads? Currently 25 euro on the psn store for this weekend only, very tempted to get it. Got gran turismo sport but finding it fairly boring so might trade it for psn credit.Not ideal getting it digitally but seems like a good price.

Could also trade 2 games in and get it in cex, at least I'd get a few quid back when I'm done with it.

Trying to decide between this and dirt 4.

Potential-Monke

Don't have it anymore, but as far as I can tell, it's still got the random upgrade system, but new stuff appears every 10 minutes now instead of 30 minutes, and the cash rewards have been increased. But the stupid upgrade system is still there. However, I may pick it up again if it's gone cheap. It was a grand arcade racer, but ruined by the upgrades, maybe with the updates it could be better/less annoying.

IIRC, Dirt 4 is hard a fook!

Jordan 199

I'll wait for it to be added to EA Access before I'll play it.

Jerichoholic

Zero-Cool wrote: »

How's it looking now lads? Currently 25 euro on the psn store for this weekend only, very tempted to get it. Got gran turismo sport but finding it fairly boring so might trade it for psn credit.Not ideal getting it digitally but seems like a good price.

Could also trade 2 games in and get it in cex, at least I'd get a few quid back when I'm done with it.

Trying to decide between this and dirt 4.

Don't go near it, or Dirt 4. Both awful games. Get the Crew if it's cheap, it's miles better than NFS.

Play the online races on GT Sport, they are incredible craic. Just stick with it.

Zero-Cool

Jerichoholic wrote: »

Don't go near it, or Dirt 4. Both awful games. Get the Crew if it's cheap, it's miles better than NFS.

Play the online races on GT Sport, they are incredible craic. Just stick with it.

I played through the crew before, really good but got burnt out towards the end. Watching more vids of Payback and the budget JDM cars make me want to get it but then the vids of the super/hyper cars put me right off. Can you build up a budget car to stay competitive or do you have to move to a super car early on?

I loved dirt rally but wanted more of a campaign which has me leaning to dirt 4 but I'd like to race against other cars on a track.

GT sport looks class but it's a bit by the books..