The last three games in the Need for Speed series were developed by Ghost Games. And unfortunately, none of them (not Need for Speed - the relaunch of the 2015 series, not Need for Speed Payback, and even Need for Speed Heat) were able to overcome the 70 marks on the Metacritic website. While the latest game developed by Criterion Game called Need for Speed: Most Wanted has a whopping 84 points on the same site. This, by the way, is not a small indicator for a racing project.
Moreover, if the publisher does not give a damn about the assessment of the game by the community, then the payback and profitability of the project are extremely important. And with the profit in the last three games, too, not everything is in order.
This is why Criterion Game is returning to the Need for Speed franchise.
In the past few years, Criterion has mainly acted as a support group, working on vehicles and space battles in the DICE series of games such as Battlefield and Battlefront. Now the roles have reversed – Criterion will once again create its own games, and Ghost Games will become EA Gothenburg – the development and support team for the DICE Frostbite Engine.
And here it is rather difficult to assess whether this is for the better. For example, I personally really liked Need for Speed Heat and I still occasionally play it. The day-night concept turned out to be very interesting and convenient. In addition, the game implements, although casual, but extremely pleasant and not annoying drift.
Try Heat. In some places I caught myself thinking: “Here it is, the very Underground that I’ve been waiting for.”
Yes, there is not much tuning in the game and sometimes the gameplay turns into a dull grind of money or reputation for a new car (hello to my Nissan Skyline), but still, the racing process itself is not done very badly.
Unfortunately, the studio did not manage to optimize the game. But are the guys at Ghost Games to blame for this? Not at all. After all, Electronic Arts literally impose its Frostbite Engine on all developers under its control. But it, in turn, is clearly not omnipotent. For Battlefield, yes, it fits perfectly. But clearly not for racing games.
Now to the Criterion Game. I really liked Burnout Paradise, but I didn’t at all like the fact that they transferred many of the features from Burnout to Need for Speed (hello to the annoying, furious, and simply idiotic camera when colliding with oncoming cars, as well as jumping very “canon” for the NFS series into shields and so on).
As a result, of course, it is worth waiting for the new incarnation of Need for Speed performed by the Criterion Game, and only after that draw conclusions. But the experience of their past work based on the popular series, for me personally, is not particularly encouraging.
Source: WccfTech
