Now, I'll start by saying I've grown up with Need for Speed 2, 90's hot pursuit, Underground 1 and 2, Carbon, Shift and Undercover. I started to drop off when the games just didn't feel like you were working to anything anymore, the nonsensical-ness dropped off for more grit/no story/or anything to write home about, and the biggest offender, the MTX/DLC/lootboxes i heard are in more of the recent games. Now when i heard EA was coming back to Steam with Origin sticking on it like a tumor, i stayed away, as i was still hurt from their decisions of nickel and diming everything EA produced, Battlefront 2 2017 instantly springs to mind. But then I was told years later this game only had MTX in the form of a "deluxe edition" and $5 to drive my dream car, the McLaren F1. So during Steam Racing Fest i decided to pick this up along with 2010's hot pursuit remastered, along with the McLaren F1 DLC, and decided to see if it can live up to the hype.


Now only until recently, I've played racing games with a keyboard, always have since Need for Speed 2, but i did get the Forza Horizon 5 Xbox controller (spoilers what has been grabbing my attention more then NFS these days) and have awoken to the truth that is analog triggers. Now, mechanics wise, its quite fun to take corners with the double tap acceleration mode with both controller and keyboard. The driving itself is sound, and the circuit races of the day, along with those and sprints in the night do give it the most variety, but with how the map is designed, you can't exactly have drag races. There are drift and dirt racing in the day, but what you are 100% spending your time in, is at night, which brings me to the cops in the game. Escaping the cops don't give you a "3 strikes and your out" kind of deal on the lighter side of 90's Hot Pursuit and the "Wolfs DB9 is now gone forever" like in Carbon, it just ends the night with your base rep and $30k out of your pocket. Cops themselves are also widely different, with them in the daytime more serious and using code, while the night cops are more loose in how they call things, but are still just as deadly regardless of time. Escaping anything in Heat Level 3 is akin to blunt force trauma to the head, without the mall in the center of the map exploit where you just jump on its roof and just hide, the cops CAN and WILL nail you, especially if you are out of your 3 nightly repairs at the gas station and you just entered Heat 5 for that night. As for story.... They tried a Undercover story but it was just... no. I guess this is another "anything to write home about" part where it can be ignored, the good guys (us) win.

Now that is it for the review of the main game itself, but you are probably wondering, did I ever get to drive that McLaren F1? Yes, but it took 12 in game hours to even see the bloody thing, and while you get it for free after all that time with nice upgrades, all the cosmetic things are unlocked by these challenges, something people might see as a "character specific battlepass" in other games. The challenges itself for to unlock them are quite creative: "avoid 2 charging rhino police cars while going over 130 MPH" and "place top 3 in this race without hitting any barriers or objects". And now, i see why it took 12 hours to unlock the car, there is no real reason to get to 50 rank and unlock everything unless you really love the mechanics up to that point And really, just getting the car after 12 hours was enough for me to just "finish" the game and not pick it up again, which is why im writing this review now.


If this is EA when they don't put in a MTX option outside of outright buying cars, when I have seen them do put MTX in things i love from them, I will gladly take the former. As for the person reading this thinking about buying the game, If you REALLLLY love the Mclaren F1 and want to give the hood cross eyed lights, then prepare to grind for 12 hours to get that car and then another 20 minutes of challenges to unlock it. Otherwise, get it on sale no matter what or just play another racing game, like Horizon 4 and 5

[h1]==How I Got Here==[/h1] Now, I'll start by saying I've grown up with Need for Speed 2, 90's hot pursuit, Underground 1 and 2, Carbon, Shift and Undercover. I started to drop off when the games just didn't feel like you were working to anything anymore, the nonsensical-ness dropped off for more grit/no story/or anything to write home about, and the biggest offender, the MTX/DLC/lootboxes i heard are in more of the recent games. Now when i heard EA was coming back to Steam with Origin sticking on it like a tumor, i stayed away, as i was still hurt from their decisions of nickel and diming everything EA produced, Battlefront 2 2017 instantly springs to mind. But then I was told years later this game only had MTX in the form of a "deluxe edition" and $5 to drive my dream car, the McLaren F1. So during Steam Racing Fest i decided to pick this up along with 2010's hot pursuit remastered, along with the McLaren F1 DLC, and decided to see if it can live up to the hype. [h1]==The Game Itself==[/h1] Now only until recently, I've played racing games with a keyboard, always have since Need for Speed 2, but i did get the Forza Horizon 5 Xbox controller (spoilers what has been grabbing my attention more then NFS these days) and have awoken to the truth that is analog triggers. Now, mechanics wise, its quite fun to take corners with the double tap acceleration mode with both controller and keyboard. The driving itself is sound, and the circuit races of the day, along with those and sprints in the night do give it the most variety, but with how the map is designed, you can't exactly have drag races. There are drift and dirt racing in the day, but what you are 100% spending your time in, is at night, which brings me to the cops in the game. Escaping the cops don't give you a "3 strikes and your out" kind of deal on the lighter side of 90's Hot Pursuit and the "Wolfs DB9 is now gone forever" like in Carbon, it just ends the night with your base rep and $30k out of your pocket. Cops themselves are also widely different, with them in the daytime more serious and using code, while the night cops are more loose in how they call things, but are still just as deadly regardless of time. Escaping anything in Heat Level 3 is akin to blunt force trauma to the head, without the mall in the center of the map exploit where you just jump on its roof and just hide, the cops CAN and WILL nail you, especially if you are out of your 3 nightly repairs at the gas station and you just entered Heat 5 for that night. As for story.... They tried a Undercover story but it was just... no. I guess this is another "anything to write home about" part where it can be ignored, the good guys (us) win. Now that is it for the review of the main game itself, but you are probably wondering, did I ever get to drive that McLaren F1? Yes, but it took 12 in game hours to even see the bloody thing, and while you get it for free after all that time with nice upgrades, all the cosmetic things are unlocked by these challenges, something people might see as a "character specific battlepass" in other games. The challenges itself for to unlock them are quite creative: "avoid 2 charging rhino police cars while going over 130 MPH" and "place top 3 in this race without hitting any barriers or objects". And now, i see why it took 12 hours to unlock the car, there is no real reason to get to 50 rank and unlock everything unless you really love the mechanics up to that point And really, just getting the car after 12 hours was enough for me to just "finish" the game and not pick it up again, which is why im writing this review now. [h1]==In Conclusion==[/h1] If this is EA when they don't put in a MTX option outside of outright buying cars, when I have seen them do put MTX in things i love from them, I will gladly take the former. As for the person reading this thinking about buying the game, If you REALLLLY love the Mclaren F1 and want to give the hood cross eyed lights, then prepare to grind for 12 hours to get that car and then another 20 minutes of challenges to unlock it. Otherwise, get it on sale no matter what or just play another racing game, like Horizon 4 and 5