The Need for Speed franchise has evolved and re-invented itself over the past two decades of it’s existence. What started out as a simple arcade-style game, soon branched out to develop storylines, customisation, open world roaming- and even a brief venture into the world of proper on-track motorsports in the form of the Shift/Shift 2 games.
At some point in the life of the franchise, there would have been a game that appeals to somebody- be it the cops-and-robbers type gameplay of Hot Pursuit, or the embodiment of nocturnal car culture in Underground. This time, the series undergoes yet another reboot- with the name of this iteration simply being Need for Speed.
It runs on the fantastic looking Ghost game engine, which makes for extremely pretty rain-slicked night scenery, as well as hyper-realistic details and cutscenes. Everything in these videos is shot in-game, and this is merely the pre-alpha footage; expect EA to tweak it even more over the coming months before it’s projected November 3rd release date.
What can we expect from the game? Fans analysed the previous teaser-trailer under a microscope and picked out a surprising number of details. But these two videos help put the pieces together and form a better picture. What is confirmed is that the game will be set at night, will be open world, and will feature heavy customisation of cars. There will also be police pursuits, although it doesn’t seem as though the game will put you in control of the boys in blue.
We may look back at the Underground series of Need for Speed games and laugh at their incredulity, but those two games helped to inspire people and provide a glimpse at the world of modification. Some of the features like neon lights and nitrous purging was a little ridiculous, but it did provide the groundwork for this coming Need for Speed game.
The team at Speedhunters was largely responsible for ensuring the authenticity of the game, in terms of the cars featured, the tuning elements, and perhaps most importantly of all: the culture. Car culture is something that gets largely misrepresented in video games and the media in general, and this game will hopefully set the record straight.
Known-name brands like RocketBunny and Rauh-Welt Begriff are all set to make an appearance, and cars like the original Datsun Skyline 2000GT, Nissan 180SX, Porsche 930, and Toyota GT86 are at the very least confirmed for the game. Does it excite me? Absolutely. Need for Speed Underground 2 was one of my favourite video games, before which I lacked any real interest in cars. It may not have been as realistic as the Gran Turismo franchise, but it was a lot of fun. And when it comes to videogames, fun is the bottom line.
