

If you are part of the police squad that takes down a criminal, you'll all get the points the driver had rather than having to divvy them up as if you were in a lottery syndicate. It's like an always-on multiplayer, even if you're intent on going about your solo business.Ĭops get the added bonus of working as a team in a chase, and just like Battlefield that rewards you for being part of a squad that follows orders. The idea is that you can dip in and out of races whenever you fancy racing against the community or spend hours just driving around staying out of trouble. Rather than having a dedicated single-player and multiplayer-element the game is focused around something called "AllDrive". That tech includes simple things like spikes to more pie-in-the-sky tech like an EMP gun that cuts the fugitive's engine so you can ram them.

Do so and you'll get more cars, and more takedown tech. To do so you are given a bevy of Pursuit Tech which you can buy after earning experience credits by driving fast, dangerously, or by taking out racers - you effectively steal their experience points. The cop strain of the game is all about keeping the peace by taking down racers and knocking them off the road. Crashes, you'll have plenty of them, are epic, although it's disappointing from a realism point of view that your car doesn't end up a complete wreck when you get back on track. READ: Need For Speed: Rivals executive producer talks online multiplayer, PS4 vs Xbox One and Frostbiteĭamage your car and at times the handling reacts accordingly, including driving on burst tyres. Dynamic lighting, rain, nightfall, sunsets, lens flare, dust, snow, and falling leaves all help breathe life into the gameplay, giving you a greater sense of realism than ever before. Ghost, the game's developer, has used the Frostbite 3 engine - the same as adapted for Battlefield 4 - and it's a definite hit. Not a PS4 player? You can also get Rivals on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Xbone One. We've been playing Need For Speed: Rivals on the PlayStation 4 and graphics are stunning, complete with huge vistas and close-up detail that gives you plenty to look at as you drive around.

Gameplay wise Rivals feels like a mixture of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted and Burnout: Paradise if we had to pick comparative titles. The range of terrain certainly delivers in terms of different racing and driving opportunities - not that you'll have much time to see what's going on as you hurtle break-neck speed through it with the vistas whizzing by in a blur. There are deserts, farming land, some Beverly-Hills-esque housing, and snow capped mountains too. For the most part it feels like racing at the foot of Lake Tahoe, with some coastal stuff thrown in for good measure.
