A new trailer has been released which highlights the game’s car customisation options.
Following up from the 2015 reboot of the series, the new Need for Speed game, subtitled ‘Payback’, is much more narrative-heavy than the series has traditionally been in the past.
The game features three protagonists, Tyler, Mac and Jess, who team up to take on the House, who have taken something from the crew that needs to be returned.
From the outrageously modded vehicles, to the fast-paced, car-based stunts and delightfully corny dialogue the game is taking some pretty serious inspiration from The Fast and the Furious films, which considering the DNA that’s been shared between the games and the films over the years isn’t too surprising.
We’ve had a chance to play the game for ourselves, and have even had a chat with the game’s creative director William Ho, so read on below for everything we know so far about the game.
The game’s most recent trailer highlights is car customisation options. As in other Need for Speed games you’ll be able to customise numerous features of your car including bumpers, spoilers and hoods, and you’ll also be able to upgrade its internals as well. It also outlined how winning races will reward you with parts, which can be used to upgrade your current car, or else to bring disused cars (found at the side of the road) back to life.
You can check out the most recent trailer below.
Prior to this, EA has released two trailers. One revealed the game, while the second focussed more heavily on its gameplay to show off how the new story missions would work.
Need for Speed Payback takes players on an explosive adventure filled with intense heist missions, high stakes car battles and epic cop pursuits. In case that sounds familiar, it seems that this latest game in the series takes heavy inspiration from the Fast and Furious films.
Ghost Games, the developer behind Payback, promises to tell a gripping story of betrayal and revenge against the House organization. Early trailers and some demo time we’ve had with the game shows the story revolves around three protagonists named Tyler, Jess and Mac.
The three protagonists each have their own different personality and style of mission. The game’s creative director, William Ho, explains that Tyler is the « aspiring street racer », Mac is the « extreme guy and the comic relief » and Jess is the « consummate professional driver who’s the action hero. »
Need for Speed: Payback’s missions are split into three main types, racing, drifting and action missions. You can decide to do any type of mission at any time as the game will give you the option of all three from the main menu by choosing between the three main characters.
As Ho explains, « you play the game along what we call ‘individual quest lines’ . If you want to race for a while you switch to Tyler and you play racing, if you want to do a lot of drifting, if you’ re in that mood to drive sideways a lot, then you switch to Mac… [and] Jess has all the action missions. »
This is similar to previous games in the series which have split their missions between ‘Cop’ and ‘Racer’ modes, meaning that if you want to spend time racing you can do so without having to play through some other modes first.
From playing the story-based mission being shown off at E3 it’s clear that the game has the same arcade-like handling that the series is known for. Tapping the brake will immediately put your car into a powerslide, allowing you to drift around corners without ever having to slow down.
Additionally, the game features the same destruction that was introduced by Criterion Games in their Need for Speed entries. In the mission we played, enemy cars had health bars that we could whittle down by smashing into them. When these were eventually reduced to zero, we were treated to a delightfully slow-motion shot of the enemy car careening off the road.
We were less impressed with the numerous cut-scenes that were present throughout the mission, which really interrupted the flow of the mission.
Whereas a game like GTA5 would feature characters jumping from vehicle to vehicle without taking control away from the player, Payback contained these moments in cutscenes, which ended up feeling slightly jarring.
However, the game’s creative director, William Ho, was keen to defend this choice, « We really want people to be attached to these avatars, because they’re representing our player’s desires and motivations, so we definitely want to show off our characters as much as possible. »
Outside of this Highway Heist mission we haven’t had much more information about how the game will play, but EA will no doubt have much more details to share as we move closer to the game’s full release.
Although there’s still a lot for EA to reveal about the game, we do have a few tantalising details on what the game will feature.
In contrast to the previous game’s nighttime-only gameplay, Payback will feature a full 24-hour day/night cycle, a first for the series.
Combined with the game’s map, Ho suggested that this creates the most diverse set of environments seen in a Need for Speed game.
« You’re always seeing something new. I’m driving around an open-world and I’m like ‘I haven’t seen this’, and I work on the game! » Ho jokes.
The previous game in the series, 2015’s Need for Speed reboot, attracted a fair amount of criticism for its always-online nature.
Ho was keen to emphasise that this would not be making a return for Payback, and that players would be able to play the game’s single-player mode offline if they wanted to.
Thankfully, cars earned, built, and tuned in offline mode are still able to be used in multiplayer races online.
In addition to the muscle cars and exotic cars that have featured in the series before, Payback will also introduce ‘derelict’ cars, which are vintage cars that the player restores from scrap.
A more recent trailer added some detail to how this process would work, wherein you restore these cars by winning car parts in races. These parts can then be used to bring the vintage cars back to life.
In keeping with the franchise’s strong emphasis on customizing your vehicles, Payback will allow you to tweak and modify your car to your heart’s content, however EA haven’t yet confirmed what form the customization will take at this point.
« We’ve got some new tricks up our sleeve to add depth and breadth to our customization experience…and I cannot wait to show this to you at a later date, » the game’s creative director teased at E3.
