Played the game for close to an hour and a half yesterday and I am utterly disappointed! I hate to say this but this iteration seems to be yet another forgettable one. Coming from the same devs. who gave us plot-based titles such as Most Wanted and Carbon, it is very unfortunate to see that The Run does not live up to the expectations of the previous titles which garnered good reception overall. Truth to be told, Hot Pursuit developed by Criterion Games (the England based developer behind the critically acclaimed Burnout series) which released last year around the same time, was a much better title although it may have lacked a definite plot. The game went on to become one of the best arcade based racing titles ever. The Run, however has left me with disappointed on several accounts and probably proves that an awesome game engine is perhaps just not the right ingredient to make a perfect game. Read on to find out some of the quick impressions on the game.
First up, the premise of the single player career mode. The essence of the plot is pretty simple. The protagonist of the game, Jackson Rourke a.k.a. Jack (voiced by Sean Farris) owes some random crime organisation called 'The Mob' a large sum of money and was forced to flee. He comes across Sam Harper who informs him that participation in an illegal street racing event to be held in the country and an eventual win will guarantee him a prize money of $25M, sufficient to repay the debts and secure his life from the threats. Titled 'The Run', the event is a 3000 mile cross-country race from San Francisco, CA the west end of the continent to the New York, the extreme opposite end and Jack has to beat 200 rival racers in the course of the event. The cops are in pursuit of the guy as much as the organisation. Our friendly companion Google Maps, claims that this feat can be done in under 2 days not taking into account any pit stops en route. The Run does it in under 3 hours of gameplay!!
Next up, the visuals. It is quite obvious when you have a title developed on a next gen. engine such as Frostbite 2, the visuals are bound to look magnificent. Make no mistake here, The Run is perhaps the best racing title to brace the PC and consoles alike, in terms of visuals. I think GT 5 (developed exclusively for the PS3) and Forza 4 (developed for the X360) comes at a distant second! When I mean visuals, the level designs, crisp vehicle detailing, character detailing and animation, environment textures, shadows visible on the vehicles, lens flare from direct sunlight, environmental destruction such as broken boulders and avalanches occurring in real time, reflection of the vehicle from the water on the road etc. among others. The 3000 mile road spans across a vast range of landscapes and terrain such as the ice-capped mountains, deserts with sandstorms, coastal regions, grasslands to dense tropical rainforests, cityscapes with brightly lit towers and skyscrapers. This is perhaps the first thing that catches the notice of the player during the course of the gameplay. Transitions from cutscenes to gameplay were nicely done. But here's the drill - the frame rate is capped at
30fps! A clear indication of the fact that this game is a consolized port. And unfortunately there is no workaround as yet. I was able to max out all the video settings alright but a frame lock at 30fps is demeaning considering the smoothness of the gameplay is affected albeit not severe but defintiely noticeable.
Then we have the soundtracks which is another sore point. At one point of time, the franchise was renown for some of the best and enjoyable soundtracks from various popular genres such as alternative/punk rock, hip-hop, trance, hip-hop etc. in the game. Previous titles from the franchise - Underground, Underground 2, Most Wanted, Even Hot Pursuit (2010) had some very memorable tracks. Not any more unfortunately. The tracks in this game are best forgotten.
Coming to the gameplay, the career mode spans 10 stages with each stage comprising of 5~6 different races. Races broadly consist of 3 types - Sprint (finish the event beating all the opponents to the finish line), Make Up Time (a time trial race with several checkpoints; the remaining time at each checkpoint is automatically added to the countdown timer) and Battle Race (more like a boss battle wherein the player must overtake the opponents and hold the position for a specific period of time to defeat the rival car). Pursuits may happen at any point in the race and the player must outrun the cops to the finish line. Cops may utilise sedans to SUVs in a pursuit and can hammer the player's car or perform a roadblock. Cop vehicles have health bars
a la Ho Pursuit and may be totaled if the player manages to ram the cops' vehicles several times. Busting roadblocks and totaling cop vehicles earn experience points XP. XP may also be earned for overtaking opponents, close shaves with opponent cars etc. XP helps the player level up during the course of the race and unlocks several abilities. Nitrous is unlocked when the player crosses the first level and autofills itself when driving through the opposite lanes, through shortcuts, drifting around corners or performing near-miss sequences with other cars. Vehicle customisation also returns and enables the player to use body kits and change colors from a selected list.
The game also brings a host of new features albeit some of them are useless! One of them is the ability to do a reset during the course of the game if the player manages to crash the car or fall from a valley down below. Doing a reset, resets the car's position to a previous well-known state at the same speed the car was at, when it passed through that region. Car damage is present and the car may be wrecked in the event of a head-on collision. Another new feature not present in any previous iterations of the franchise, is the ability to swap the car midway through a race. To do so, the player must pass through a gas station but doing so results in time penalty and any opponent overtaken previously may catch up with the player. Cars are unlocked as the game progresses and need to be chosen based on the type of tracks and the familiar variety re-appears - muscle, tuners and exotics. QTE makes its first appearance in a racing title and the first ever NFS game to feature one wherein the player does some
on foot chase sequences evading the cops. Such sequences barely last a couple of minutes and fails to pump enough adrenaline into the blood! A change in the type of gameplay is welcome but not definitely in a way that it fails to impress the audience.
The in-game social networking feature Autolog returns which monitors the progress of the player's career along with the other human opponents. I haven't delved into the multiplayer aspect of the game so cannot comment much on that front.
Lastly, the game is ridiculously short! Trust me when I say this, I am done with 50% of the game within the first 90 minutes and have reached Stage 6 (4 more remain!) with a Position number 85. The run time is displayed as 1 hour and 9 minutes, probably owing the remaining duration to the restarts and cutscenes in the game. So is this worth shelling out Rs. 1500 for the PC version? Definitely NOT! I would rather advise spending that amount on a better title such as TES V: Skyrim or Arkham City. EA please do yourself a favor and pass the development rights of this never ending franchise to Criterion Games, thank you!
--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
Done with the title. A short game indeed. Must have clocked < 4 hours although the in-game stats say ~2 hours. The final race was lengthy, challenging and a bit interesting. Took me a couple of tries to get it right. Conclusion sucked and also indicated that the story may continue further. :|