The game's premise is far from the most troubling thing about the game as the game's amount of car manufacturers is enough to make your head spin. Personally, I'm not really a big fan of customisation in games, unless it's absolute pandemonium  (and yes I will touch on that soon with Saints Row the Third). The game's cars range in different tiers, colours and perks, which all amount to nothing when you have Nitrous and can drift.  That being said the game does have a nice levelling system which will help you along the way.

The levelling system in the game eventually allows for both of these and thank goodness the levelling system is swift when you start off because you haven't a porcupine's chance in a furniture store of getting comfy when you're dropped into a race. The game really relies on you knowing the tracks as a few shortcuts here and there will save your tail from coming last. If you're skilled enough or a real fan of the series, you won't have a Mario Kart kind of loss where you'll spin out or lose an objective and just rage quit...what objectives?

Well, the game awards you profile icons and a few perks with objectives complete, but what would have been nicer is the ability to customise your own. Some of them are cute and amusing but could have been knocked up by a graphic design student in an hour. The game does have a nice layout, but often the menu setup (especially in multiplayer) is a bit problemattic and confusing and may take a few minutes to get used to.

A few graphical glitches and pop-in effects abound in some of the levels, especially on multipleyer. During a desert race, a player crashed and seemed to disappear, re-appear in mid-air and then disappear again before pushing me into their position and giving me a significant boost into a power pole. Using the FrostBite 2 Engine, it really shows how good the game is, I mean, good looking, but good graphics doth not maketh a good game...or something ridiculous sounding like that.

I do have to say one thing about the game that was good is the long drives and the beautiful landscape. Also the music by Australian Music Designer Mick Gordon really stands out among the usual copyright loving affair of other EA racing games...or I've simply been listening too much of Childish Gambino and Soulwax to know what modern music even sounds like anymore. Anyway, the music is fast-paced, atmospheric and keeps you on your toes when you really need that extra boost. It all really blends together when you're coming first in a race and you've got nothing but the road and the sky ahead of you.

The levels do look like they've been handled with care but there are a lot of little things, which I'll no doubt scatter through the rest of this review. The multiplayer does lack in some areas where the game will glitch out or have problems with EA's Autolog and the unlocking system for the different modes is a bit of a pain. For example, I fell out of the series when the Underground spinoffs came through and you will have to do at least one level of it in multiplayer to get to the next mode. I feel like I'm being forced to play something I don't want and that's not what gaming is about.

I will say the servers are always full of players but EA's Autolog is a bit hit and miss at times.  Then again I was playing on and off while PSN was reciving maintenance so it could have easily been their fault. To put it simply, the multiplayer is satisfying and enjoyable and will last you hours. 

I'm really used to the Burnout style of gameplay because of the years I've found it satisfies any in-game rage that I'd have towards the game and I've never really looked back since. NFS: The Run doesn't really provide anything along the lines of the Burnout formula or modern racing where it seems crashes or distractions might be key. It really focuses on having fun rather than a direct track and winning the race. To be honest racing games are boring and crashes are frustrating, which is why the Burnout series is so key as it takes both of those problems and makes them fun.

The problem is a few racing games have been building or trying to rebuild this model of gaming but simply haven't been able to do so. Split Second and Driver San Francisco are the only two games that have come close to changing racing games and NFS hasn't done much since 2003 (See: Underground). Driver takes it in a whole new direction by bringing in a whole new gameplay as did Split Second, but Need for Speed The Run tries to expand on the universe and it does so. It's a good NFS game, but it's not a great racing game.

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