Need for Speed

Need for Speed looks the part, sounds the part, and is surprisingly reverent to real-world car culture. I like the direction Ghost has taken here, and I think it's the right one, but beneath its flashy exterior it's not quite firing on all cylinders.

Need For Speed borrows from the series' past to create an excellent street racer with a handful of obnoxious but ultimately forgivable problems.

Need for Speed's recent purple patch ends in the mixed influences of this flat and awkward reboot.

Need for Speed takes driving into a gorgeous world with a modern edge, but its pesky attitude and strict online-only requirement make you yearn for the good old days.

Blazing through the night provides some fun racing moments, but NFS doesn't support or assemble its constituent parts to any cumulative positive

Just how many fist-bumps you're willing to sit through may determine your longevity with its achingly desperate attempts to be millennial and street (the loading tips are a confusion of Twitter and WhatsApp or whatever it is the kidz are into these days), but perfecting your drift by practise and tweaking is an extremely rewarding – if ridiculously arcadey – fun time.

When you factor in Need for Speed's forgettable story, you're left with a slightly above average racing game that's not as enjoyable as past series entries. From a pure gameplay perspective, it works, but it never manages to elevate itself. If you're in the mood for a new cinematic racer though, you could do a whole lot worse.

Need for Speed's got many of the parts required of a great racer, but it's lacking a mechanic to assemble them and apply a lick of paint. The cutscenes, as obnoxious as they may be, are the real stars here, which may just be an indictment of the game as a whole. Sure, the handling's good, but the events are insipid – and the visuals may sparkle, but Ventura Bay is as vanilla as open worlds come. For as pumped-up as its excitable cast of characters are, this reboot quite simply lacks energy. Now, has anybody got any Monster?

It all looks pretty nice and tries very, very desperately to be cool, but the actual game behind the graphics isn't close to being polished enough for a recommendation. The always-online requirement which is apparently only there because you have to be online to be able to share snapshots (seriously, that's the claim) is an absolute abomination but you'll be able to live with it, at least until EA kill the servers in a year or two and you won't be able to play the game anymore. Need for Speed isn't unplayable by any means, but there's a laundry list of things that can – and often do – stop that playing time from being very enjoyable.

If you're a long-time fan of the series, you'll find something to enjoy here, but if this is your first time behind the wheel, you're going to want sit this one out and check out some of previously-released Need for Speed titles.