Does anyone else get suspicious when Electronic Arts releases something for free?
I have nothing really against EA, they have many creative and successful studios who have released literally several exceptional games over the years. EA are really the torque behind the game development business - they're consistently capable of driving creativity forward much like a wave battering against a beach. Every now and again they spit out a whale that needs to be removed with explosives after it starts to decay, but at least as a circling seagull you know exactly what you're getting.
But EA is a corporate. They're in the business of making money, as all corporates are. They could have chosen magazines, novels, country music or thousands of classified military reports, however it just so happens they chose to publish games. Publishing games generally involves some kind of monetary transaction - so considering Need for Speed World is free, alarm bells are ringing.
Having just been released as an open beta, World is a lofty attempt to squeeze the NFS franchise into an MMO model. Providing the crowbar and lard is the initial lobby, which doubles as a persistent open world liberally sprinkled with race challenges, and littered with the ghosts of racing enthusiasts participating in their own instanced race sessions with like-minded individuals.
Having already selected your vehicle in the opening setup screen, you can use this lobby to tear around and perfect your street-racing skills, or heckle some cops (re. smash into them) to instigate a pursuit challenge. These challenges are clearly reminiscent of Need for Speed Most Wanted - there's high-speed cornering, AI PIT manoeuvres and excellent in-car banter from the police radio that makes you want to grow a moustache, buy a Camaro, and emigrate to the 70's.
Indeed, the entire game is designed to replicate both Most Wanted and Need for Speed Carbon, with the combined cities of Rockport and Palmont almost exactly reproduced. Once you've finished antagonising the law you can participate in a number of singleplayer or multiplayer challenges, which will give you more of an idea as to the scale and focus of the city area.
At the time of writing, there's no shortage of players online. Using the overhead map menu, you can select from a number of locations providing either sprint races, or circuits featuring multiple laps. You can instantly teleport to the race start, and request access to a lobby where other players will congregate prior to the race proper. Once everyone has set their profile to ready, or the countdown timer runs out, the race will start.
The racing itself doesn't feature anything radical. We've seen a veritable smorgasbord of excellent racing titles over the past few years that have taken the arcade concept of power-ups and bonuses to a new plateau - NFS World prefers to keep it at base camp. You won't find any flying missiles, or aircraft landing in front of you, rather, you'll have power-ups with varying effectiveness based on your character level. Nitro Boost (forever the potato salad of the racing buffet) makes an appearance, as does Slingshot, Juggernaut, Shield, and a Traffic Magnet affliction that causes the race winner to have all nearby traffic irresistibly sucked towards them.
One aspect that has clearly had attention lavished upon it is the handling. My first car, a rather modest 240SX (S13) was capable of the most insane high-speed cornering and pinpoint accuracy whilst weaving through traffic. It could also illegally split lanes better than an Auckland motorcyclist on the Harbour Bridge during rush-hour. Even the weight of the vehicle is superb - it scuttles over bumps and lands with uniform regularity, much like a cockroach scattering for the skirting board.
The environment too, is wonderfully rendered. Perhaps not to the detail of, say, Race Driver: GRID, but it's certainly a compelling place to be, despite notable lag causing various competitors to pop in and out of view with alarming regularity. Being beta code, we'll forgive the visual foibles, along with a couple of lock-ups when entering race lobbies.
Naturally, as you progress through the ranks and unlock faster cars, the challenges become more complex, and the associated rewards increase. As it is, even winning basic matches in singleplayer as well as multiplayer modes provides you with a random reward - such as a free Nitro power-up for your next race, or a cash bonus that in many cases is more than the prize for winning the race in the first place. If you're a capable driver and prepared to sink a few hours into World, you'll see the hint of an environment gleaming with potential, just waiting for the developers to mess it up in their own unique fashion.
But as it stands, World is great fun. There's something supremely satisfying about activating your Juggernaut power-up, and reaching the crest of a hill whilst simultaneously smashing through oncoming traffic hollering "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!". Even the police pursuits - an aspect easy to render utterly broken by sloppy design work - are exciting and challenging, providing an enormous sense of achievement after a particularly long cross-county chase that ends in successful evasion.
So perhaps we're wrong to naturally be suspicious of Electronic Arts for providing a free title? Perhaps the shoe is on the other foot, and our desire to "stick it to the man" by complaining incessantly about corporate greed in the gaming sector is finally, and irrevocably without merit? Electronic Arts - the bastion of artistic integrity, leading us forward to a brave new world filled with the harmonious outpouring of creative excellence - who would have thought it possible?
Oh wait no, it has an online transaction portal for additional levels and cars. Forget I said anything.
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You can download NFS: World from the official site.
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