Need for Speed: The Run - Demo Review

Need for Speed: The Run shifts you into a underground world of cross country street racing and mobs. I played this particular demo for hour via Playstation +'s program on PSN. The Run was developed by Black Box and published by Electronic Arts for the PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and 3DS. The game released last year November 15, 2011.

The title screen housed the menu tabs of The Run, Challenge Series, Multiplayer, View Cars, Settings, Extras and NFS Store. The controls are from my Dual Shock 3: R2-accelerate, LS-steer, R-look forward/back, R1-change camera, L2-brake, R-look forward/back, R1-change camera, L2-brake, R-look left/right, Square-handbrake, Select-checkpoint, X-nitrous, Triangle-gear up and O-gear down. Controls are vintage Need for Speed. These games all feel and play similarly to a certain extent. The Run is no exception. I would rate the controls good when turning, braking weaving and drifting.

The next action I took was to play some The Run which is the story campaign mode. A long time ago I got the impression that Need for Speed The Run is suppose meld story gamepaly with a driving game. To cut to the chase, no it doesn't. What I got with my hour time was cutscenes featuring Heavy Rain style QTEs when controlling the game's protagonist Jack Rourke. The QTEs weren't bad and reminded me of Heavy Rain (escaping a car being crushed by a car crusher). Yea, that was in Heavy Rain. The story campaign has cutscenes in between missions but lacked substance in the end. Maybe the full game has some captivating cutscenes and QTE gameplay, I do not know.

The early portions of gameplay centers around racing (illegally) against 200 cars from San Francisco to New York. The settings are pretty good in regards to th single player. It did appear like I was racing in a illegal cross country race out of San Francisco to Yesimetee National Park on my way to Vegas. Completing missions earns you XP which can unlock new gameodes, cars, profile images and other stuff that can transfer to competitive multiplayer. Missions range from passing other drivers in a certain amount of time to achieving a specific car position.

I also played some Multiplayer which had Quick Match and a Playlist which features races such as Muscle Car Battles, The Underground, Super Car Challenge, Exotic Sprint Racing and more. The race I played had like 4 other players and took place on a night map called Blue Ridge which was a extremely short race. Understanding menus and selecting cars weren't an issue with multiplayer since everything was presented really well. The multiplayer from the looks of it isn't deep for a driving game. It appears really compact in scope and content compared to other driving games. Just like single player you earn XP and unlocks by performing well in multiplayer. I also played a Challenge Series which centers around earning medals.

Like any Need for Speed game the presentation is going to be good. The music, visuals and production values are all solid. Its an EA game so you know it has the funding backing it. The visuals I did like along with the game's action set-piece moments while racing. The Run really tries to bring a action movie vibe to its gameplay. The music was pretty good and fitted the American setting this game takes place in. Pressing Select brings up a replay checkpoint system much like Forza Motorsport implements. I'm an old school gamer, if you mess up you should pay the price.

Need for Speed The Run seems like another decent Need for Speed game. With that said nothing special stands out. It just seems like another Need for Speed game except this one has some Heavy Rain cutscene gameplay intertwined into its single player campaign. Spec Ops The Line Demo Review