Need for Speed Rivals

Need for Speed Rivals was among the titles that accompanied the launch of the Xbox One, and with it the series returned to the theme that made it famous back in the nineties – battles between police and street racers. The player chooses whether to drive on the side of the law as a police officer or on the side of the street as a racer, and both careers take place in the same open world of the fictional Redview County, where the paths of both sides constantly cross and chases can break out at any moment during free driving.

The game was built on the AllDrive system, which connected individual players into a shared world without a classic lobby – anyone could join someone else's game at any time as an ally or an opponent, without the player having to leave their own campaign. The vehicle roster consisted of a mix of hypercars such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, or Koenigsegg, while police cars received special equipment such as EMP devices, spike strips, or called-in helicopters. Progression was based on risk and reward: the longer a racer collected points without banking them safely, the more they could lose in a crash or an arrest, which turned chases into a constant decision between caution and greed. The audio side relied on roaring engines and a dynamic musical backdrop that escalated with the intensity of the pursuit.

On Xbox One the game ran smoothly and looked visually striking, at the time counting among the showcases of the new generation's graphical capabilities, even though it was a cross-platform title shared with the older console generation. Reviews of the era mainly praised the tension of the chases and the feel of the driving, while criticism concerned the somewhat repetitive mission structure and a rather thin story framework. In the context of the series, it was the last installment developed by Ghost Games in the open-world style before the shift toward more story-driven reboots, and it is still remembered today as one of the series' better attempts to balance arcade fun with a simulation-like sense of speed.

Why play it: For lovers of tense chases and a balance between arcade fun and a sense of speed, Rivals offers a visually striking ride, even though the missions lack greater variety.