Need for Speed Retrospective #15
World was clearly ahead of its time. And by that I mean it was as grindy and obnoxious as most live service games wouldn't become until a good decade later. Since servers were shut down in 2015, the only way to experience World today is on community servers. And even with all the currencies and microtransactions removed, my few hours with this game were one extremely repetitive and grindy affair.
Driving and customization were actually pretty cool here, and the world, while lacking a lot of the soul from Most Wanted and Carbon, was fun to explore. Usable items were a nice addition to the formula, though I find it kind of tragic that they were introduced here and not six months earlier in fun racer spin-off Nitro, where they would have been a much better fit.
World was clearly ahead of its time. And by that I mean it was as grindy and obnoxious as most live service games wouldn't become until a good decade later. Since servers were shut down in 2015, the only way to experience World today is on community servers. And even with all the currencies and microtransactions removed, my few hours with this game were one extremely repetitive and grindy affair.
Driving and customization were actually pretty cool here, and the world, while lacking a lot of the soul from Most Wanted and Carbon, was fun to explore. Usable items were a nice addition to the formula, though I find it kind of tragic that they were introduced here and not six months earlier in fun racer spin-off Nitro, where they would have been a much better fit.