Need for Speed: The Run was a bit of an ambitious project. Even back in 2011 the Need for Speed franchise had gotten long in the tooth, releasing 17 games in as many years. The Run itself was the second of two NFS games to be released in 2011, with Shift 2 hitting shelves in March of that year. The franchise was in need of a shakeup, and that’s what the Run sought to do. Instead of being set in a single city, the Run’s campaign takes players on a massive Cannonball Run-style transcontinental race and tries to offer a more “cinematic” experience it, styling itself as a playable big-budget Hollywood action movie. Unfortunately, it’s not a good one.
The Run’s driving is honestly a blast, the sense of speed here is genuinely incredible and the cars handle well. The problem here is how the game’s attempts to be “cinematic” interfere with the actual racing. Sometimes it works well, you’ll get great setpieces like racing down a snowy mountain during an avalanche, jacking a police cruiser and outrunning mobsters, and zooming down a subway tunnel while avoiding getting flattened by trains. Other times though, you’ll be pulled out of the race and your vehicle and made to do some of the lamest quick time events I’ve ever seen in a video game. Even without that though, the races are oddly rigid. Attempt to cut a corner, you’ll be placed back on the road, as if the game is demanding you play it the “right” way.
The actual story? In this game’s efforts to imitate Hollywood action films, it forgot to copy any actual good ones. One-note characters, bland dialogue. The player character Jack Rourke has a friend guiding him throughout the entire race except not really, because during the two rarely interact with each other during a race, just tons of dead air where there could be banter, bonding moments, something. There’s also these Rivals, whose bios are shown on the loading screen before you race them, but I’d hardly consider them part of the game’s cast. Sure they have names and faces, but they’re not voiced and beyond racing you have no interactions with them. It makes me why they’re even here in the first place.
I was pulled to The Run because of its unique concept and I really, really wanted to like it, but it’s just fine at best. I had fun but I can’t really recommend it.
The Run’s driving is honestly a blast, the sense of speed here is genuinely incredible and the cars handle well. The problem here is how the game’s attempts to be “cinematic” interfere with the actual racing. Sometimes it works well, you’ll get great setpieces like racing down a snowy mountain during an avalanche, jacking a police cruiser and outrunning mobsters, and zooming down a subway tunnel while avoiding getting flattened by trains. Other times though, you’ll be pulled out of the race and your vehicle and made to do some of the lamest quick time events I’ve ever seen in a video game. Even without that though, the races are oddly rigid. Attempt to cut a corner, you’ll be placed back on the road, as if the game is demanding you play it the “right” way.
The actual story? In this game’s efforts to imitate Hollywood action films, it forgot to copy any actual good ones. One-note characters, bland dialogue. The player character Jack Rourke has a friend guiding him throughout the entire race except not really, because during the two rarely interact with each other during a race, just tons of dead air where there could be banter, bonding moments, something. There’s also these Rivals, whose bios are shown on the loading screen before you race them, but I’d hardly consider them part of the game’s cast. Sure they have names and faces, but they’re not voiced and beyond racing you have no interactions with them. It makes me why they’re even here in the first place.
I was pulled to The Run because of its unique concept and I really, really wanted to like it, but it’s just fine at best. I had fun but I can’t really recommend it.