The three main player-controlled characters are the worst offenders, ranging from irksome to infuriating. TheyвЂ™re not even actually likeable, to be honest. Unfortunately, theyвЂ™re not cool, or funny. ItвЂ™d be almost funny if the script was equipped with a single ounce of self-awareness, but Payback treats its cast of hip young millennials and soda commercial cast-offs like theyвЂ™re the coolest thing since the other side of the pillow. вЂњThe events themselves are all tied to defeating themed race crews spread over the map, each of whom introduces themselves like theyвЂ™re the Most Important People on Earth. TheyвЂ™re supernaturally fast (as usual, standard issue Crown Vics are able to go doorhandle-to-doorhandle with seven-figure supercars) but player-controlled cars are incredibly powerful battering rams, tearing through cop cars like a bad curry through a colon. The cop AI seems robust enough, and theyвЂ™ll work on boxing you in when they have the numbers, but I didnвЂ™t find them too dangerous. Payback changes things up slightly in the penultimate race event, where it adds cops in the middle of an actual race, but otherwise police pursuits are basically now just time trials where the AI is trying to stop you. There arenвЂ™t any cops around during free-roam, either theyвЂ™re only present in story missions or at certain triggers spread around the map that will initiate another linear, pre-set chase.

No more darting down random side-streets at the last second to shake the fuzz, or parking in a dimly-lit area with the engine off, like Need for Speed 2015. Taking down cop cars in these events has a welcome enough Burnout 3 flavour to it вЂ“ muscling your pursuers into spectacular slow-motion collisions with poles and parked cars is fun вЂ“ but I donвЂ™t think it was worth losing proper pursuits for. вЂњThe cop chases feel largely neutered too escaping police is now a totally linear exercise, where we have to follow a set path via checkpoints within a time limit instead of improvising and doing something unpredictable to throw them off. TheyвЂ™re really just built to service PaybackвЂ™s paper-thin story, which starts with a confounding succession of betrayals and ends without ever really going anywhere interesting. Fast and frantic, but shallow and not worth replaying. TheyвЂ™re well-executed, particularly how they seamlessly swap you between characters and vehicles (like the opening moments of Forza Horizon 3), but theyвЂ™re completely scripted. WeвЂ™re just driving from cutscene to cutscene. They may look exciting on the surface, but they arenвЂ™t really that demanding unlike, say, the Stuntman games, Payback doesnвЂ™t require us to do any of the trickier stuff ourselves вЂ“ the game takes over all the cool bits. The reality is that racing still pads out the bulk of the driving in Payback and the new вЂњaction drivingвЂќ stuff is limited to a small handful of movie-inspired sequences and PaybackвЂ™s new police pursuit system. You may have heard that Payback has dialled back on the pure street racing focus in favour of a self-described вЂњaction drivingвЂќ experience. But elsewhere? Well, unfortunately, Payback has gambled and lost. Plus, the world is filled with extra activities and events, drag racing is included from the get-go, and yes, you can pause it. ThereвЂ™s a much longer experience here вЂ“ it took me around 17 hours to complete the story alone. Of course, it was very short, the world was largely empty, there initially wasnвЂ™t any drag racing, and you couldnвЂ™t even pause the game in single-player. Between all the hokey live-action, first-person fist-bumping it also revolved around encounters with real-world automotive icons. You see, Need for Speed 2015 brought with it a resurrection of the spirit of 20вЂ™s successful Underground games and saw the return of meaningful performance and visual customisation. While Payback does fix a host of the 2015 Need for Speed rebootвЂ™s missteps, it also brushes away a lot of the stuff developer Ghost Games got right at that time. Need for Speed Payback is one step forwards and two steps back for EAвЂ™s 23-year-old racing series.

Payback 2 ps4