NEED FOR SPEED: THE RUN CAMPAIGN REVIEW

NFS: THE RUN

The game is about a guy named Jack Rourke who is a great driver. This is the character we control. The game includes overtaking a number of opponents in the race, defeating rivals in the given time period, reach the checkpoint in very narrow time and evading police as well as gang members who want to take him out of the race.

Need for Speed: The Run casts real-life locations which include cities of New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, and San Francisco and this game also features real-life exotic cars to race in. In story mode, the player has to complete a very long race from San Francisco to New York.

NEED FOR SPEED: THE RUN STORYLINE

JACK ROURKE LOOKING AT  NIKKI AND MILA.

We control a character named Jack Rourke. He is an experienced street racer. The game starts with a scene in which a car is lifted by a magnetic crane and that crane is dumping the car in a crushing machine. In the car was Jack Rourke with his hand-tied to the steering wheel with duct tape. He was going to be crushed by the car. This was done by the gangsters called The Mob. There were 2 guys of the mob standing there and supervising the event. Jack regains his conscience and we have to press some buttons and tap some keys fast to escape the car. When jack gets out of the car, he steals the car of the people of the Mob to escape. The men of the Mob notices him escaping and they start to pursue him. This event takes place in a scrapyard in Oakland. The Mob was trying to kill him because he was unable to pay his debts, he owed to them. We have to evade the mob and avoid gunfire to survive. We have to cross a railway tack fast enough to avoid getting hit by the incoming train.

Jack heads to San Francisco and there he meets his friend Sam Harper who tells him about a long race with a huge cash prize. The race was illegal. Sam tells Jack that she will give him 10% of the cash prize. Jack disagrees at first but when Sam tells him that the prize pot is $25 Million, he gets ready instantly. Then we see a mysterious race organizer who gives them a tablet device for the race.

JACK EVADING THE POLICE.

Jack then selects a car from his personal garage and we have to reach the starting point of the race in the given time. The race was from San Francisco to New York City. Jack learns that he has to be in the top 150 before reaching Las Vegas. In the race, jack defeats multiple rivals who were seeking to win the prize. We get a brief intro of them on the loading screen. We get to know about a rival named Marcus Blackwell who was a family member of The Mob and he wants to kill Jack before the race ends. Jack manages to defeat the rivals but gets caught by the police due to the police barricade. Jack escapes the police arrest and gets a new car with the help of Sam to move ahead in the race. To escape the police, we have to press specific buttons and tap keys fast to run. There are three stages in this level of the game i.e. from San Francisco to Las Vegas.

SOME FACTS AND INFOS ABOUT JACK’S RIVALS.

NIKKI AND MILA  AT THE GAS STATION.

Jack races against rivals named Nikki Blake and Mila Belova. When Jack first sees them, he gets distracted and the girls were attractive. He first saw them in a gas station where he was refueling. Both of the girls drive Nissan 370Z. After the death of her mother, Nikki spent most of her time in the garage, where her father worked as a mechanic for Mila’s wealthy Family. She and Mila became inseparable. Nikki and Mila were racing just to have fun, not to win. (Personal opinion no one asked for: Mila was hotter than Nikki). Jack defeats the girls in the race although Mila again appears in the race after some time. Mila was a socialite’s daughter from the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She had a close relationship with the daughter of the family’s mechanic. She was rebellious in nature which is why she enters the world of “fast cars and no rules “. She doesn’t need the money she just wants some good time.

Another rival Jack encounter is named Cesar Deleon.  Jack encounters Cesar Deleon and his brothers in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and again in New Jersey. Cesar drives Chevrolet El Camino SS. Cesar made some bad choices growing up on the streets of L.A. The love of a good woman and the impending arrival of their first newborn has made Cesar changed his ways. He is in The Run with his two brothers to win the cash prize and give his family a better life.

Calvin Garret is another one of Jack’s Rivals. Calvin arrives in the stormy plains of Minnesota and again in the East Coast on the way to New York. He drives a modified Mercedes – Benz SLS AMG. Calvin is a retired boxer from Atlantic City. He loves the rush of risking it all and has given his last $250,000 into The Run and he hopes to win the jackpot. He refuses to accept anything less than total victory.

Another rival of Jack is Eddie Cooke. Eddie is a legitimate motorsport racing driver. Jack encounters Eddie in the State Park near New York. He drives Ford Mustang Boss 302. His lack of sponsorship prevented him from seeing big money therefore he entered The Run.

STORYLINE CONTINUED …

 JACK DRIVING POLICE CRUISER AND ESCAPING THE MOB.

The next level is Las Vegas to Chicago. There are four stages in this level. Jack has to reach the top 50 before completing this stage. The Mob soon enters the race to stop Jack. The Mob catches him with the help of a roadblock and Jack tries to evade them in a police cruiser. The Mob shoots his vehicle and they also bring in a heavily armed chopper to take him out. We have to avoid gunfire to survive, if we stay in the line of fire for a long time then our vehicle gets wrecked. Jack somehow evades the Mob and takes down the helicopter. He asks Sam to help him get another car as he could not complete the race in a police cruiser and also the vehicle was heavily damaged (also there were no nitro’s in the car). Sam tells him to visit a man named URI. Jack visits URI who gives him a new car to proceed with the race.

Jack finally overcome his rivals and defeats Blackwell in New York and wins The Run. After the race, Jack meets Sam in a street-side diner. Sam tells him that his trouble with the mob is dealt with. She gives him the key to a safety deposit box with his cut of the prize. She tells him to relax for some time but Jack questioned this statement of her which meant he wanted more racing. Then she offers him an opportunity to double his money stating she got a call to another high-stake race.

NEED FOR SPEED: THE RUN GAMEPLAY

Need for Speed: The Run has the largest map in among all the games of Need for Speed. The map measures over 300 kilometers which is also three times more than Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Map. As I already mentioned, this game includes overtaking opponents to win the race. There are time attack events in which the player has to reach the checkpoints before the time runs out. There are also survival events in which the player has to evade police and gang members and avoid gunfire to prevent the destruction of their vehicle. This game does not allow you to change cars before every race, but you can change your car in the game by going to a gas station beside the race track. When you reach the Gas Station the race pauses and resumes after you select your car. You can also change the color of your car and select from different attachments for your car. There are not much variety of colors and also there are only 4 to 5 customizing option. Customizing your car only changes the look of the car, it does not affect the performance of the car. Even if it changes the performance of the car, we cannot know it as there is no bar indicating the hike in the performance of the car. This feature of the game is totally meaningless and moreover, it's irritating when you don’t get to enhance the performance of your car. The car list shows the top speed, torque, and RPM, horsepower, driving difficulty, and price of the car. You have to choose wisely suitable cars for different types of roads. The Gas Station can only be found in some races and it's very rare, once you miss a Gas station you have to wait for a very long time to get to another Gas Station or you can just restart the mission. I have also noticed that going to a gas station slows you down. It doesn’t matter much when you are playing the game in easy or normal mode but in extreme mode, you have to save every microsecond ( I am not kidding). In extreme mode, I would suggest not to visit the gas station.

There are times in the game when the player has to get out of the car and run on foot and these are quick-time events which mean you have to tap some buttons really fast to run, dodge an attack or fight an enemy, failing to which causes failure of the mission .

THIS IS MY FAVORITE CAR IN THE GAME BUT UNFORTUNATELY, IT IS AVAILABLE ONLY ON CHALLENGE SERIES.

There is a wide variety of cars including muscle cars, street racing cars, supercars, and exotic cars. There are some cars in the game which were released in 2012 but were exclusively designed for the game. Those cars were the Porsche 911 Carrera S and the Pagani Huayra.

The damage system of this game is similar to other games of Need for Speed. If your car crashes with oncoming traffic at high speed, it gets wrecked. You get a rewind if your vehicles get wrecked or if you get off track. You get only a limited amount of rewind, in easy mode, you get 10 rewinds, in normal mode you get 5 rewinds, in hard mode, you get 3 rewinds, and in extreme mode, you get 1 rewind only. This system is kind of annoying. I say so because in the game if you want to take a shortcut which is not actually a shortcut then the game gets reset, this also happens when you try to get a bit off-road to overtake your opponents. Since there are a limited number of rewinds, in a race when you reach a checkpoint and you need to start from that checkpoint then your rewind will be used and if the rewinds are finished then you have no choice but to restart the event, and restarting an event means staring that particular race from the beginning. In other games of NFS, when we go to another track not available on the map or when we go towards the opposite direction, our car gets automatically respawned on the right track but in NFS we get a reset to the last saved checkpoint. I personally didn’t like this feature of the game and it is completely useless.

RACING IN LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO.

The game gives you Experience points called XP which you can get after completing a race or event. This point system allows you to unlock cars, profile pictures, profile covers, etc, etc. Profile pictures and profile covers??? Really??? Why do they have to put so many useless things in the game? And trust me all the designs in the profile pictures and profile covers weren’t at all attractive.

EXTREME MODE IN NFS: THE RUN

The Extreme mode in NFS The Run is actually extreme. To be honest I completed the game in Extreme mode with great difficulties. The thing is you only get 1 rewind and you cannot afford to crash anywhere. Crashing not only uses your 1 and only rewind, but it also slows you down. In extreme mode, you can’t even afford to hit walls or any other vehicle even slightly, it slows you down and you will lose the race eventually. Milliseconds are important in extreme mode. I lost many races with just a difference of 0.01 second (not kidding).

CHALLENGE MODE IN NFS: THE RUN

TOOK ME A VERY LONG TIME AND A LOT OF HARD WORK TO ACHIEVE PLATINUM MEDALS IN ALL THE RACES OF CHALLENGE SERIES.

The challenge mode in NFS The Run is very challenging. There are multiple sets of races in the challenge mode sorted by the venues in the game. This section of the game has the same maps as the campaign mode. You have to select a car before every race and you get to choose form only a limited number of cars. Each race gives you medals if you complete the race in the given time period. There is a bronze medal, silver medal, gold medal, and platinum medal. I tried to bring a platinum medal in all the races. It wasn’t easy. I was successful to get platinum medals in all the races except one. That particular race is very hard. I looked upon the internet to get a solution or a trick but there are more people like me and there is hardly any solution or trick.

CHEAT CODE OPTION IN NFS: THE RUN

NFS: THE RUN START MENU.

There is a cheat code option in the start menu of the game. I never used it as I never felt any necessity to use it. I think it unlocks certain perks or enhancements for the cars. This was the most unexpected thing I found in this game. Cheat codes? Really? Why?

K&N DISCOUNT.

K&N DISCOUNT.

This is another weird thing in the game. When you complete a certain race in the challenger series, K&N Discount unlocks. I don’t know what is this. It says it is something for our real-world car. Maybe K&N Company sponsored NFS: THE RUN or maybe they used NFS: THE RUN to advertise their products.

SONG TRACKS IN NFS: THE RUN

The soundtracks of the game is pretty awesome. there are vintage songs that never get old. Also, the songs are very suitable for racing, it builds up confidence in the player while driving. My personal favorite tracks were Get Some – by Lylle Li and Beat the Devils Tattoo by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

PROBLEMS I FACED:

NFS: THE RUN KEEP SHUTTING DOWN BY ITSELF.

When I was playing the game in extreme, the game automatically shuts down by itself. I looked up for a solution but I didn’t find any. There are other people too who experienced this.

GAME RESETS ITS CONTROLS AFTER RESTARTING THE GAME.

Another problem I faced playing this game was that the controls reset itself every time I run the game. I prefer using the keys W A S D as my controls in the game but the default keys were the arrowheads. Whenever I opened the game, the controls get switched to the defaults I don’t know why. This bug was very irritating as I always had to change the controls whenever I started the game.

 

 CONCLUSION 

I will suggest you play this game only if you are interested in NFS Series. For Racing Game enthusiasts there are many other options available better than NFS: THE RUN. Although the game is great with respect to its date of release. This game was good back then.

GOODGAMER7 RATING  -  6/10

GOODGAMER7 - RECOMMENDED.