Need for Speed Payback Xbox One Review
Posted on: 2017-11-15
Our rating:
Need for Speed Payback is a fun arcade racing game with a fun story with corny dialogue, coupled with a great selection of cars. If you’re looking for some over top racing action then I would highly recommend this game.
After a two year hiatus Need for Speed finally comes drifting around the corner in its newest instalment in the form of Payback, 2015’s Need for Speed was a soft reboot of the franchise which had mixed results, the most glaring issue was that you had to be online even if you’re playing by yourself. Does Payback cross the finishing line in first place? Yes for the most part with fun arcade style driving coupled with a clichéd but fun narrative.
Need for Speed Payback takes place in the fictional Fortune Valley which is basically Las Vegas all but name, you play as different characters throughout the campaign but the game mainly focuses on Tyler. You are part of a crew that pull off daring heists until one incident where you steal a prototype sports car and an organisation known as “The House” are involved who then proceed to take your crew apart. Six months pass and Tyler wants to get revenge against The House by disrupting all of their operations throughout the region. The narrative is your standard revenge tale hence why they use Payback in the title, but it doesn’t take itself seriously with some fun but cheesy dialogue throughout, think of it as the video game equivalent of The Fast and the Furious.
Gameplay is once again set in an open world where you can part take in various vehicular activities, from your standard races or my favourite the off road races. They are split up into separate events where you have to use different vehicles, you have sprint races which you use standard sports cars, off road that speaks for itself, drifting where you have to rack up a good score through skillful corning and chases where you have to escape the police. All are uniquely different and offer up some fun challenge as they get the A.I just right in this game where you’re not way out in the lead nor are you trailing behind they are always right behind you to keep the tension high.
You have a wide selection of cars in each category which are nice to handle, this not a racing simulator it goes for an arcade style of handling so you can throw your car around a corner at 200 mph so don’t expect realism when it comes to handling. You can customise each car with “speed cards”; these improve your car’s parts from the engine block to your gearbox, this is crucial to improve your overall level as it will make some races easier. This system is not ideal because there is less flexibility compared to other Need for Speed games where you could go crazy with customisation when it came to performance.
The game looks really good from the blazing hot sunny day in the desert to the neon lit city at night, with raining splashing on the roads as you tear through it over a hundred miles per hour. Cars have exquisite detail with glossy paint shining in the sunshine, but the cars do not have interior details as there is no cockpit view. One aspect I do not like with the presentation are the film grain effects they use in cinematic scenes it is not appealing at all and it gives the game a very muddy look. I also had some performance issues, on the Xbox One version of the game where the game’s frame rate would drop from time to time during police chases and when you crash into walls.
Need for Speed Payback is a fun arcade racing game with a fun story with corny dialogue, coupled with a great selection of cars. If you’re looking for some over top racing action then I would highly recommend this game.
Article by:
Sam has lived in Bristol all his life. A keen cyclist he speeds around the city but video games are his bread and butter. Whether the old Nes and Snes games or the XBox One and Playstation releases he loves them all. Sam runs his own gaming blog called Bristolian Gamer where he had been reviewing indie games, doing retro reviews and venting his anger at the industry when it does wrong since 2010. Sam joined the 365Bristol team in December 2014.
