Need for Speed: World

My orange Mazda crawls along the road, that's not right, it shoots across the asphalt and the landscape turns to a blur. A hairpin later, and I see a patrol car in the corner of my eye, I have grown tired of just cruising around by myself, so I speed past this enforcers, and he quickly calls for back up.

Need for Speed: World is the latest game in the long lasting racing series, and this time it's exclusive to PC with focus firmly on multiplayer. One of the big differences between Need for Speed: World and previous titles are the micro transactions, something that we have grown accustomed to over the last few years.

The micro transactions in Need for Speed: World let's you earn money or fame faster, and you'll rise in rank faster, there is also the opportunity for car rentals of super cars, long before you have an opportunity to add them permanently to your garage.

The lure of these micro transactions becomes bigger as you only have access to a few rather weak cars as you begin your racing career. And it's tempting to spend a bit of real world money to get to that Lamborghini quicker.

In addition to this you can spend money to give yourself an advantage when racing in the shape of performance enhancing parts. As expected you can buy yourself a little extra boost, that will you to close a gap or extend it.

You can give yourself a different kind of boost with the traffic magnet, as this item will send all the drone cars your opponents way, making it near impossible for him to avoid a crash. You can also win these items at the end of races and police chases, but you won't win as many of them as you are going to want to use.

What it's really about is to speed through wide open stretches of road, take a corner in high speed, and overtake your opponent in a perfect move. And it would seem that in a game where you see countless cars droning around the streets, you would end up racing more than two or three cars, which is most often the case. A bit disappointing.

When it all comes together, there is a great sense of speed even if the courses are a bit short, so it's not always possible to send your opponent off to road or on a collision course with a van.

The most fun you can have in the game, a game that is designed from the ground as a multiplayer experience, is oddly enough not possible to play with other people. It should be noted that I absolutely adored the nosebleed inducing car chases from Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Not a realistic simulation, but adrenaline pumping action at its best.

In Need for Speed: World they make a return, on a smaller scale. Road blocks, blown tires and collisions that would send a real car on a one way trip to the scrap heap. It's still there. To start the cat and mouse chase, you have to twist the arm of the law a bit. If you speed past a cop car, you will hear a message on the police radio, and the chase is on.

In a game like Need for Speed: World where you share the world with massive amounts of other cars, it's impossible not to run into drivers whose cars looks exactly like yours. The odds of you managing to create something unique are almost non-existing. Perhaps I've been spoiled by the incredible customisation tools available in games these days, but I was extremely disappointed in the options available in Need for Speed: World.

When it comes to visuals Need for Speed: World is something of a mixed bag. The cars are as beautifully rendered as one would expect and look just like their real world counterparts. Always polished and shining, even after an unauthorised visit to the golf course. This stands in sharp contrast to the boring, and bland surroundings you will drive through. The building feel like cheap scenery, and when you enter the industrial parts you will be forgiven for thinking that the textures have been taken straight from a library in a game for the original Playstation.

Need for Speed: World is likely an experiment from EA. There are better and visually more striking games in the series, but the low entry price and the accessible races sets Need for Speed: World apart from its predecessors.

I fyou can see yourself having a good time long enough to upgrade to the better rides, and perhaps put a but of money into bonus items and weapons along the way, then this might be something to take a closer look at. But if you're after the next big racing experience, keep your eyes on the horizon for a bit longer.