Let me begin by saying that I am a HUGE NFS fan. It is my all time favorite game franchise and I thought I knew what I could expect from Rivals. My favorite NFS game is Most Wanted(2005) and I thought Rivals would build on that type of open world free roam map. Unfortunately, Rivals is pretty much dedicated strictly to over the top races that incorporate features such as EMPs, spike strips and road blocks into pretty much every race. Now, this sounds fine if it's just the cops that can deploy those tactics, but it isn't. Any racer can, at any time, put out one of those features to ruin your racing. For me, Need for Speed was always about how well you can drive and race. Rivals takes ALL of that away and turns itself into an unrealistic Mario type game, albeit with amazing graphics.
From the opening cut-scene, to the menus and map layout, to the overused "help" cut-scenes, everything about the game says "You don't know what Need for Speed is all about". It took away almost everything I love about NFS games and replaced it with what seems like filler. All of those high tech features seem so out of place in a NFS game because they aren't necessary. Need for speed is a racing game, it always has been. Why Change that?
There are two things that appealed to me with Rivals, though. The graphics are AMAZING. Also, I think the map is the biggest yet, right above Most Wanted's huge open world map. Unfortunately, even these two pluses can't save the game from what it is: A major let down.
