Need for Speed Rivals makes a terrible first impression, with some of the worst dialogue ever put into a game right from the starting cutscene, always online DRM that makes you unable to even PAUSE THE FUCKING GAME, a useless navigation system that will have you looking at your minimap at all times, horrible visual clarity in shortcuts, instantly recovering all health and used items on gas stations eliminating any resource management or risk of dying, a good risk-reward currency system wasted on a store so bare bones that it might as well not even be there, spawning facing the wrong way after crashes in races, having to lose the cops if you ever want to restart an event they showed up in (something Most Wanted had the foresight of avoiding EIGHT years before) and the perfectly functional balance of Hot Pursuit's combat being tipped in favor of the police for reasons I can't comprehend.
This is enough to understand why this game is so divisive, but "Hot Pursuit but open world" and a diverse selection of challenges are enough to make this game fun. Even if the map is pretty tiny. And if most of the roads are claustrophobically thin. And even if having to lose the cops every five minumtes as a racer is the most annoying shit ever.
Okay yes this game has way too many problems but it also manages to not make me want to gouge my eyes out like the previous game so it's worth a play if you've already played every other good need for speed.