Being addressed only by my racing number constantly is giving Agent 47 lmao

This is genuinely the most fun I've had with a racing game in a while. The bar for progression and story in the racing genre is admittedly pretty low, but here they were the highlights of the experience for me. The career mode story was entertaining, the mix of live-action and CGI cutscenes was innovative, and the office style mockumentary had me chuckling throughout.

The simcade handling model is one of the best among EA's racing games. I hope NFS moves in this direction instead of doubling down on the drift-heavy gameplay. Docking half a star because multiplayer is a mess and you can't create custom races without opening an online lobby for some reason.

Regardless, this is a massively underrated series, and I enjoyed it FAR more than Forza Motorsport.

Comparing to the first entry, the sudden unexplained shift in tone towards horror in Kona 2 was a bit jarring, which unfortunately failed to engage me in its plot. The intentional obscurity in both lore and gameplay aimed for an eerie ambiance but resulted in a confusing mess. The addition of more action oriented combat felt unnecessary and out of place, disrupting the original game's immersive exploration-focused experience. I found myself missing the more methodical pace of its predecessor, where the emphasis on exploration and atmosphere was far more effective. While I appreciate the devs attempting to innovate, it felt like a misstep in the game's overall direction.