Instead of simply purchasing upgrades from your garage like in the previous title, you'll need to use speed cards, which represent each component of your vehicle. Perhaps Payback's biggest offence, though, is the inclusion of speed cards. These certainly encouraged a competitive element and will surely provide replayability for those who are destined to be the best.
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There are also Autologs, which present you with cash bonuses for beating a score or time set by somebody within the community. We particularly liked how these tied in with the identity of Fortune Valley and they worked to make the early portion of the game more interesting, where we usually ended in first. These can vary from remaining in first place for a set amount of time to destroying a number of objects, and your reward will depend on the probability of your success. Tying in with the Vegas-esque setting are side bets, which allow you to place a wager and earn additional cash for completing specific objectives. All in all, these activities do provide an extra dose of fun, if not for being a little too familiar. Bait crates also provide a fun distraction, as they require you to race through checkpointed police chases for big cash rewards. These feel largely like the barn finds in Forza Horizon and see you partaking in a huge scavenger hunt to get your hands on rare new rides. Perhaps the most striking similarity is with regards to derelicts, which require you to find parts of rundown cars across the map. Outside of story missions, however, things feel a little too similar to Forza Horizon, as there are speed traps, jumps, drifting challenges, and thematic collectibles, which are all good for an extra bit of cash. That being said, they do provide a welcome break from the events we've come to expect from Need for Speed titles and work to propel the story forward. The main problem with them, however, is that most of the action seems to take place in cutscenes and not during the actual gameplay, and chases and the like do slowly become repetitive. These sequences are the highlight of the story, especially when watching all three protagonists work side-by-side and having the option to control them at different predetermined intervals.
#NEED SPEED PAYBACK REVIEW SERIES#
New to the series are heist missions which pack in many intricate set piece moments and see you steal expensive sports cars and take on police helicopters. There are five main event types (Drift, Drag, Off-road, Race, and Runner) that form questlines that you'll undertake between each of the three characters.
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Gone are the FMV sequences seen in 2015's Need for Speed in favour of much more natural in-engine cutscenes, putting to rest one of our largest gripes with the previous game's story. Each of these characters all have their own dynamic and you'll find yourself flitting between them during missions in the campaign. The three tag-team protagonists are speed freak Tyler Morgan, Mac, an off-road racer from the streets of London, and Jess, a flippant and hot-headed getaway driver.
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Payback's action-racing storyline sees you take control of three characters and seek vengeance after being double-crossed by The House, a shady gang that rules the streets of the Vegas-like world of Fortune Valley.
#NEED SPEED PAYBACK REVIEW UPGRADE#
A Hollywood-inspired setting, story-driven action, and an all-new upgrade system are among headlining features this time, but is Payback the return to form that many fans have been desperately clamouring for? The series' 23rd entry (!), Payback, arrives off the back of 2015's self-titled reboot, which had developer Ghost Games take a step back to rethink future instalments. Flashforward to 2017, though, and the series appears to be cast in a shadow of its former glory, with more than a few flawed entries among its vast repertoire. Once a true force to be reckoned with on the arcade racing front, the Need for Speed franchise sped its way into the hearts of many whilst enjoying its heyday in the mid-2000s.