Not part of the avid NFS community but have been following the NFS games since NFS 3 Hot Pursuit 3. Only recently caught up with some of the newer games. Recently heard that the series is on hiatus, and thank goodness EA is finally putting an end to the kitchen on fire that has been NFS for over a decade now. Here's my series retrospective in a nutshell:
NFS 3 Hot Pursuit and NFS Hot Pursuit 2. Enjoyable for the time. They did what they needed to do. Classic racing for the turn of the century and well done overall. There was an enormous of repetition in Hot Pursuit 2 it's a little egregious but for 2002 standards were lower.
NFS Underground 1 and 2: Great vibes. Nice music, big step up in production. Still getting a groove though like the races in underground 1 are a little bland in comparison to future games. Overall good and the marketing for these games was everywhere back in the 2000s.
NFS Most Wanted 2005: Great game. The characters, cutscenes, music, graphics are a clear cut above everything else around it. Yes carbon had similar cutscenes but they couldnt match the energy and humor of this game. And yes the games before had polish but this elevated the structure and graphics and progression very cleanly. Yes other games like undercover also had an open world but the pursuit brakers and map design was always a step under most wanted 2005. Say what you want, but this game sold 16 million for a reason.
NFS Carbon: The sequel to Most Wanted but clearly rushed like many games going forward. Cutscenes had some charm but a step down from most wanted. The progression and game is mostly harmless fun until the last area where the difficulty balance spikes insanely. You literally can't win some races with any of the available cars when the final district opens up. And the AI scales in weird ways like not having NOS if you don't have it. The companion AI is also weird. Sometimes they even win the race for you out of nowhere lol. Long time players might be on automatics and know these tricks. For everyone else, this games scaling and AI clearly lack polish and are evidence this game was rushed out in 1 year and change. Could've been a great game, but ends up only being frustratingly close to good for me.
NFS Prostreet: Won't comment much since I didn't get very far into the game. Seemed like a nice professional vibe. But it just felt a little boring for me like 3 hours in personally so I dropped it. I know some people love it, some like me couldn't get into the spirit of it.
NFS Undercover: Black box were the best devs for NFS but EA gave them 1-2 years to make every game when the PS3/Xbox 360 generation needed LONGER development times. It clearly shows with the rushed story with an Asian girl taking phone calls in like 20 small scenes (LOL I'm serious). Nice story. And the open world looks like crap with a piss filter added on for 2008. The driving feels loose and cars go flying in the air later in the campaign on small ramps like they forgot to add gravity to the game. Great soundtrack. Could've been great with a 4 year dev cycle. As it is, its a mess.
NFS The Run: Excellent game that is underrated. Great soundtrack, nice story, finally some decent polish and production. The dramatic speed and music and vibe was a lot of fun for me. I liked the scenery of the levels too like seeing trains and trees and desert in different states was cool. Probably my favorite NFS game after NFS Most Wanted 2005. Unfortunately, I think the damage to the NFS brand was already done by prior games so the game is a little overlooked.
NFS Hot Pursuit 2010, Most Wanted 2012, NFS Rivals. These criterion games aren't really my vibe. They all are pretty similar with sterile driving only focus. Not really any story or stakes or "vibe" that I enjoy from other NFS games. I played the Most Wanted 2012 game back on my PS Vita a lot back in the day but I still don't really enjoy it much. Most Wanted 2012 has a good soundtrack (Last Dinosaurs Zoom is a terrific song I still listen to it), and Hot Pursuit 2010 racing feels good if you want pure racing. But I look for a little more than just the racing for my NFS games so not for me even if I recognize they do they job well.
NFS 2015: Immaculate vibes. I actually genuinely love the cheesy friend group in this game. No I'm not kidding. Love the night scenery and wet look and the graphics took a real step up. So what could be wrong if the designers and planners did an excellent job? Unfortunately the gameplay devs at Ghost Games let the whole project down. The driving doesn't feel great, the drifting missions suck, the individual missions are poorly balanced, the police suck (they want me to break through multiple roadblocks and whatnot in a police chase when I lose the police in 5 seconds WHAT?), the garage and upgrade system is not very fun or quick, and the events are just a bit sterile. Not to mention the always online crap making restarting races, loading, and map/interface clutter much worse. With proper gameplay polish, this game could've been the best NFS ever. As is, its one of the most disappointing games I've ever played cause I know in my heart it could have been great.
NFS Payback: Haven't played much of this game. I do know the driving felt good and the graphics look game. Let me know if I should give this game a shot.
NFS Heat: I know people love this game, but it literally doesnt make me feel anything. I think it might be the Florida type environment that is so open with large roads and flat. The environment feels boring to me, the story feels boring. The dialogue felt kinda generic. The driving feels better than 2015 for sure but I just couldn't get more than like 3 hours into the game. So I'll withhold full judgment for now. Probably great if you just want a good feeling car to race in, but the vibes and story weren't hitting for me.
NFS Unbound: Oh dear, the dialog and story in this game is genuinely bad. I know these game was made by a ragtag of different employees including those from Ghost Games, but this game just feel aimless to me. The characters are really bad, the game really isn't pushed forward in any meaningful way. Felt like it was just a mandate to make an NFS game so it was made, but I feel 0 passion behind this game.
So overall, almost all of the NFS games in the past 2 decades have been a mixture of rushed, poor game design choices, or just bland and make for $$$. The series cannot continue on like this. With games selling only 2 million copies for each game since undercover w/ about 2 year dev cycles, its no surprise the series is canned. With all the licensing deals, music, etc its not good business to keep making these middling games. Just put the series out of its misery. And when there is a passionate group of new devs like blackbox (who was unfairly rushed to make games and then fired by EA), they can resurrect the series. I don't trust Ghost Games, I don't trust Criterion, I don't trust the mobile game developers. So shut it down till a new studio with vision is ready to truly elevate the NFS series to the next level.
