Any car can carry two, and they always end up determining races. This won’t always help when you face “Pursuit Tech,” weapons that both sides can purchase and upgrade. The controls are built to make the impossible easy, which is very much for the best. They lean toward arcade-style play rather than simulation, so it’s easy to pull off ridiculous drifts and hit corners at 90 mph, giving realistic physics the bird as you fly by. Regardless of the side you are on, the race mechanics are smooth and easy to use.

The missions grow old fairly quickly, leaving you with little to do but to wander the county and mess with people Racers have fewer cars to choose from than cops: 22 for the racers and 69 for the cops. As a racer you have to then purchase the unlocked car to gain access to it, while as a cop you can just jump in – the tradeoff is that racers can improve any car by purchasing performance upgrades, while cops are stuck with the default stats of whatever car they choose. So choosing a cop “enforcer” set, for example, gives you a slower, but more durable car, while “undercover” is faster and has better weapons. Completing them also gives you a bit of backstory about how racers are taking over the county and cops are becoming more militaristic to stop them.Ĭompleting these mission sets also unlocks new cars, and each set unlocks a particular type of car based on the style. Each set varies and the objectives increase in difficulty as you progress, but once you jump into the world you have as long as you like to complete them. These are usually straightforward goals like earn a certain number of points, complete a particular mission, and hit a few enemies with a specific weapon. Once you choose a side, you are given a choice of three objective sets to complete in order to rank up. You can – and should – swap back and forth often, but the experience you earn in the form of credits does not carry over, neither does the rank you earn. You select which side you want to play from your garage. If you see a real or AI racer, you can bump in to them to start a pursuit, which ends when they escape or you destroy them. “Hot Pursuit” for cops is the opposite of the racer version and puts you in the middle of a four car race with the goal of destroying everyone before they cross the finish line the cop version of “Interceptor” puts you in the roll of cat to the racer’s mouse.Īs a cop you can also patrol Redview County, seeking to right wrongs and help the populace by being an upstanding civil servant. You are given a goal to head for as quickly as possible, ideally without destroying everyone and everything unfortunate enough to be in the way. “Rapid Response” is the Cops’ version of a speed trial.

On the flipside, you have a different set of missions to pursue when you play as Johnny Law, and you are encouraged to slam into suspects until their fragile shell of a car is a mangled nightmare. And if they don’t accept, you can always just wreck them and ruin their day for the hell of it. You can also roam around the game’s open world in search of other racers – AI and real players – that you can challenge to a head-to-head race.

The fourth is “Hot Pursuit,” which is a race, but with multiple cops chasing you throughout. The third game mode is “Interceptor,” in which you try to lose a pursuing cop as quickly as you can. The second mission type for Racers is “Time Trial,” a pure speed test that would later lead to one of the most frustrating moments in my long gaming career. Rubbing is racing, and cheating is strategy. As you progress in the game and earn credits, you can purchase more durable and tougher whips but you also unlock weapons you can use, like a targeted EMP or a stun mine you drop behind you. The first is “Race.” You have five racers, including yourself, all merrily slamming into each other on the way to the finish line. The controls are built to make the impossible easy.

Need for speed rivals ps4 reviews