Need for Speed

Need for Speed, released in 2015 by Ghost Games, brought a reboot of the series to PC with a strong emphasis on cinematic storytelling and the theme of the underground street scene in the fictional city of Ventura Bay. The game blends nighttime driving sequences with live-action cinematic footage, in which the player's character meets a group of five charismatic characters representing different disciplines — drift, drag, circuit racing, police chases, and street-style driving. The player gradually builds a reputation with all five and thereby unlocks access to their specific challenges, sponsors, and rewards in the form of parts for tuning the vehicle fleet, as well as new bodies and accessories for individual cars.

On PC, the game ran exclusively at night, an unusual choice at the time that supported the atmosphere of damp, neon-lit streets full of reflections on painted bodywork and wet asphalt after rain. The tuning system built on the series' classic entries and allowed for extensive visual and performance modifications to cars, including visible transformations of the bodywork matching the individual player's chosen driving style and their favorite discipline out of the five on offer. A musical accompaniment made up mostly of electronic music, and collaborations with real figures from the tuning scene, reinforced the impression of a return to the underground roots of the series from the early 2000s and its first major entry from 2003.

Reception was mixed — players appreciated the return to the tuning identity and the attractive nighttime atmosphere, but the technical shortcomings of the PC version at launch and the requirement for a constant online connection, even outside multiplayer races against real opponents from around the world, were criticized. Today, this reboot is seen as a transitional but important step toward later entries such as Payback and Heat, which further built on its foundations and developed its ideas and game mechanics further in the following years.

Why play it: Due to its technical shortcomings at launch and the requirement for a constant connection, it's worth attention more as a transitional step toward the later entries Payback and Heat than as a standalone highlight of the series.